IEM Katowice invites unveiled
ESL have released the invite list for the upcoming IEM Katowice. Alongside the seven invited teams, ESL have also distributed invites to fifteen teams for the event's closed qualifier.
The $500,000 event will be ESL's first tournament to debut with their new format, which ESL will be utilizing for all of their IEM, ESL One, and EPL tournaments going forward.
As the hometown heroes, Virtus.pro received an invite despite lackluster performances during the latter portions of 2017. Their form saw resurgence at EPICENTER 2017 in Moscow, but little else has been shown in terms of good form from the squad.
The current top six teams join Virtus.pro on the invite list, with our own Cloud9 squad representing for North America. The eighth invite spot will go to the victor of UCC's second Farmskins Championship, where the Polish side of AGO will look to join their Virtus.pro countrymen in Katowice.
The current invite list for IEM Katowice consists of:
 Cloud9 |
 FaZe |
 Virtus.pro |
 NiP |
 Astralis |
 G2 |
 SK |
UCC Farmskins #2 winner |
The two North American open qualifiers will see teams compete for four spots in the closed qualifier, where they will join the following teams as they vie for two invite spots to IEM Katowice:
| Liquid |
NRG |
 Renegades |
Luminosity |
| OpTic |
Misfits |
| 100 Thieves |
The dates for the qualifiers are also available below:
- Open Qualifier #1 - January 20th-21st
- Open Qualifier #2 - January 25th-26th
- Closed Qualifier - January 30th
