Nouns, Complexity invited to IEM Sydney Closed Qualifier

North America has another chance to see their teams at a big event again, this time with Complexity and Nouns getting direct invites to the IEM Sydney Closed Qualifier which will take place from August 24th through August 25th.

North America will be host to two open qualifiers, the first of which begins today and ends tomorrow, while the second qualifier starts August 11th and ends August 12th.

The winner of each open qualifier will be able to meet Nouns and Complexity in the Closed Qualifier. Both teams were invited to skip the open qualifier due to their placing in the ESL World Ranking as the top two ranked North American-based teams.

FURIA and paiN were also ranked higher than Nouns but it is possible they decided to declined to participate in the event or are unable to attend due to other obligations. FURIA is currently in Europe while paiN are re-tooling their Brazilian roster. FURIA has entered the European qualifier for IEM Sydney.

Some notable teams registered in the first open qualifier include Wildcard, Party Astronauts, Forsaken, Evil Geniuses, and Bad News Bears.

The last time Sydney hosted an IEM event, the North American Liquid roster swept the event with Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken earning MVP honors.

IEM Sydney will be hosted by SXSW Sydney and will be running alongside the Tech & Innovation Expo, with the playoffs being set to be played in the Aware Super Theatre, a venue with a capacity to hold 9,000 people.

IEM Sydney is one of the events that the ESL Pro Tour changes will affect, as the grand finals of the event will not be a BO5, but a BO3 instead. The competition will have a prize pool of $250,000.