IEM Cologne invites deadline set

ESL is set to return to the Cathedral of Counter-Strike later this summer with the Play-in stage kicking off on July 25th. Before we make it back to Cologne though, we have to figure out which teams will be competing for the prestigious trophy according to the ESL World Ranking. We now know that teams which are on the brink of qualifying will have until June 12th to try and push themselves further up the leaderboard.

As of now, there are currently three teams that have been directly invited to the main portion of IEM Cologne, with G2, Vitality, and FaZe locking in their spots as a result of their wins at IEM Katowice 2023, IEM Rio 2023 and ESL Pro League Season 17 respectively. These three teams will be joined by the winners of the BLAST.tv Paris Major and IEM Dallas, as well as the three highest-ranked teams in the ESL Rankings. Eight teams will also progress to the main competition from the Play-in.

As for the Play-in itself, Europe will net three invites, North America will have two teams invited, and South America, Asia, and Oceania will all have one team each in attendance as well as the winner of ESL Meisterschaft. The final seven spots will be decided by the ESL World Rankings.

As things stand, the two highest-ranked NA teams, FURIA and Liquid are currently on course to take the two NA invites to the Play-in stage. Imperial currently tops the South American leaderboard which will give them the SA invite if they can hold onto the top spot. IEM Dallas is the sole IEM event to take place before the deadline but as we have seen in the past, the glorious cash cups could play a role in the qualification process.