The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) heads back to Katowice for its 12th outing between January 31 and February 11. Its long-awaited Counter-Strike 2 tournament will see three days of finals action at Spodek Arena–and will be the first of its size to be hosted in Poland, kicking off the year’s ESL Pro Tour Championship CS2 event calendar.
But there’s more–during the last four days of IEM Katowice 2024, a StarCraft II tournament will also be hosted at the International Congress Center. Here’s everything you need to know about the two biggest esports competitions coming your way in the next few days.
Counter-Strike 2 at IEM Katowice 2024 (January 31 to February 11)
IEM Katowice 2024 pits the world’s 24 best Counter-Strike teams against one another for a share of a $1 million prize pool. The winner will walk away with $400,000, a place at August’s IEM Cologne 2024, and a much-needed win in the hunt for Intel Grand Slam V. The action starts on January 31, whittling the field down to the six best teams who will then compete live at the Spodek Arena from February 9 to 11.
The play-in stage, from January 31 to February 2, sees 16 teams compete in a double-elimination bracket. Opening matches are best-of-one affairs; matches after this are best-of-three. The top eight advance to the group stage, joining eight invited teams.
This group stage (February 3 to 6) pits two groups of eight teams against one another in separate double-elimination brackets, and all matches are best of three. The top three go through to the playoffs: group stage winners are straight into the semi-finals, runners-up are in the quarter-finals as high seeds, and third-placed squads are QF low seeds.
Everything culminates in the playoffs, where the top six fight it out in a single-elimination bracket.
Both QF and SF rounds are best of three, while the grand final is a classic best of five.
CS2 play-in stage teams:
- The Mongolz (qualified via ESL World Ranking [WR]: Asia)
- Cloud9 (ESL WR: Europe)
- HEROIC (ESL WR: Europe)
- Virtus.pro (ESL WR: Europe)
- M80 (ESL WR: North America)
- Rooster (ESL WR: Oceania)
- FURIA Esports (ESL WR: South America)
- Apeks (ESL WR)
- Astralis (ESL WR)
- BIG (ESL WR)
- BB (ESL WR)
- ENCE (ESL WR)
- Eternal Fire (ESL WR)
- GamerLegion (ESL WR)
- Team Spirit (ESL WR)
- Rebels Gaming (ESL National Championship)
CS2 group stage teams:
- G2 Esports (IEM Cologne 2023)
- MOUZ (ESL Pro League Season 18)
- FaZe Clan (IEM Sydney 2023)
- Complexity (ESL WR)
- Natus Vincere (ESL WR)
- Monte (ESL WR)
- Team Falcons (ESL WR)
- Team Vitality (ESL WR)
StarCraft II at IEM Katowice 2024 (February 8 to 11)
CS2 isn’t the only thing capping off IEM Katowice 2024–the last four days (February 8 to 11) will also play host to a standalone StarCraft II tournament, where 24 of the world’s best players will battle for a $500,000 prize pool at the modern International Congress Center, next door to the UFO-like Spodek.
In the first three days, the group stage will see four groups of six players compete in a round-robin format. All match-ups are best of three and, similarly to Counter-Strike 2, the top three players will go through to the playoffs. Group winners go into the playoff quarter-finals, while second and third place will go into a round of 12.
Finally, the playoffs between February 10 and 11 will start with a 12-berth single-elimination bracket, giving way to QFs and SFs, all of which are best of five. The grand final is the best of seven.
How to watch Counter-Strike 2 and StarCraft II at IEM Katowice 2024
Counter-Strike 2
The live ESL Counter-Strike 2 broadcast will be on its Twitch and YouTube channels, while those missing out on the live action can see it on its YouTube streams.
StarCraft II
The IEM Katowice 2024 live StarCraft II will be broadcast on the ESL StarCraft II Twitch channel and the ESL YouTube channel. Those who can’t watch live can catch up for free on ESL’s YouTube archives.