ESL's Carmac explains move to Kraków from Katowice

Michal "Carmac" Blicharz, ESL FACEIT Group's Vice President of Product Development, revealed in a recent interview with Polish outlet XYZ why IEM Katowice will move to Kraków starting in 2026.

Katowice and the Spodek Arena have housed one of the EFG's flagship events since 2013, but as the years passed, Spodek became "too small" for IEM, according to Carmac.

"Even Spodek is too small for us… Tickets are sold out faster and faster every year – recently it was a dozen or so minutes. That’s why we’re scaling up," Carmac said.

The Tauron Arena in Kraków is approximately twice the size of the Spodek. And, on top of that, the city of Kraków offered a good deal to host the event.

"We wanted to stay in the region. Kraków is close to Katowice, where we have a regional EFG office and our own studio. We also got a good offer from the city."

IEM will be organized in Kraków for the foreseeable future as EFG and Kraków signed a multi-year agreement.

The IEM Kraków 2026 tickets will go on sale this Thursday, July 3rd.