CS:GO teams invited to the closed qualifiers and the main event of IEM World Championship Katowice

Intel® Extreme Masters

Here are the teams who received direct invites to the closed qualifiers, as well as the teams who received and accepted invites to the main event.

Sixteen teams, a US$500,000 prize pool, and a legendary arena with a legendary crowd – Intel® Extreme Masters World Championship Katowice 2018 in CS:GO is upon us. Today, we are excited to announce which teams received invitations to the closed qualifiers of each region, as well as teams who got invited directly to the main event.

Main event team invites

  • Virtus.pro, Polish legends and home crowd favorites
  • Astralis, reigning IEM World Championship champions
  • SK Gaming, reigning champions of IEM Sydney, ESL One Cologne, ESL Pro League
  • G2 Esports, reigning champions of DreamHack Masters Malmo
  • Ninjas in Pyjamas, reigning champions of IEM Oakland
  • FaZe Clan, reigning champions of ESL One New York
  • Cloud9, third team in the ESL World Ranking
  • Winner of the UCC Tournament

Closed qualifier team invites

European closed qualifier

  • Gambit Esports
  • FNATIC
  • North
  • mousesports
  • BIG
  • HellRaisers
  • Natus Vincere
  • Team ENVYUS

North American closed qualifier

  • Renegades
  • OpTic Gaming
  • Team Liquid
  • 100 Thieves
  • NRG
  • Luminosity
  • Misfits

Oceania closed qualifier

  • Chiefs
  • Kings Gaming Club
  • Tainted Minds
  • Grayhound Gaming

Asia closed qualifier

  • B.O.O.T.
  • Flash Gaming
  • The MongolZ
  • Tyloo

You can find all of the dates of the closed, as well as the remaining open qualifiers here.

 Prize pool distribution
  • 1st place: US$250,000
  • 2nd place: US$100,000
  • 3rd place: US$40,000
  • 4th place: US$15,000
  • 5th place: US$7,000
  • 6th place: US$4,000
  • 7th place: US$2,500

Good luck and see you in Katowice!

Best of luck to all of teams competing in the qualifiers! We have tons of exciting matches ahead of us, so be sure to follow IEM on Twitter and Facebook for all updates, live coverage, and more.

If you’re finding yourself in need of a ticket to the event – the third wave goes on sale January 30th at 16:00 CET!