IEM Season XII World Championship: Direct Invites and Regional Qualifiers

ESL, the organizers of the upcoming IEM World Championship Season XII World Championship, have revealed the list of teams that received direct invites to the main event as well as announced the teams that will participate in the regional qualifiers.

The main event of the tournament will take place on February 27 – March 4 at Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland, and will feature a $500,000 prize pool. The list of participants will consist of 16 teams: 7 of them were directly invited to the main event by the organizers of the tournament, 8 teams will have to make it through the regional qualifiers in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania, while the last spot at the tournament will be given to the champion of the online tournament Farmskins Championship.

List of Invited Teams:

• Astralis
• Cloud9
• FaZe Clan
• G2 Esports
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• SK Gaming
• Virtus.pro

European Qualifier

The European qualifiers will feature 12 teams: 8 of them were invited, the other 4 will have to make it through the open qualifiers. The closed qualifiers will be held on February 3-4 – the teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket with best-of-three series. Best 4 teams will make it to the main event.

Participants:

• BIG
• Team EnVyUs
• Fnatic
• Gambit Esports
• HellRaisers
• mousesports
• Natus Vincere
• North
• Open Qualifier #1
• Open Qualifier #1
• Open Qualifier #2
• Open Qualifier #2

North American Qualifier

The closed qualifier for North America will be held on January 30th. Nine teams will compete for two spots at the World Championship in a single-elimination bracket with best-of-three series.

Participants:

• 100 Thieves
• Team Liquid
• Luminosity Gaming
• Misfits
• NRG Esports
• OpTic Gaming
• Renegades
• Open Qualifier #1
• Open Qualifier #2

Asian Qualifier

The Asian Qualifier will take place on January 19-22 and feature 6 invited teams, which will fight for a single ticket to the final stage of the tournament. The regular series will be best-of-three, the grand finals will be played in a best-of-five format with 1 map advantage for the team from the Winners Bracket.

Participants:

• TyLoo
• The MongolZ
• B.O.O.T-dream[S]cape
• Flash Gaming
• MVP PK
• Signature Gaming

Oceania Qualifier

Six invited teams will compete for a single spot at the finals on January 20-25. The teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket with best-of-three matches and best-of-five finals with 1 map advantage for Winners Bracket team.

Participants:

• Grayhound Gaming
• Chiefs eSports Club
• Tainted Minds
• ORDER
• Athletico Esports
• Corvidae

Farmskins Championship #2

Farmskins Championship #2 is an online tournament with 20 participating teams, the winner of which will qualify for the IEM World Championship. The tournament is divided into two stages. In the group stage there will be four groups of four teams with GSL format and best-of-three series. Top two teams from each group will advance to the playoffs, where they will face another 4 teams that were directly invited into this stage. These 8 teams will compete in a single-elimination bracket with best-of-three matches. The competition has started on January 16 and will continue until February 11.

Main Event

The main event will consist of the group stage and the playoffs. The group stage will take place at February 27 – March 1. The teams will be seeded into two GSL groups based on ESL World Rankings. The initial matches will be best-of-one, the other matches will be best-of-three. The winner of each group will make it to the semifinals, the teams placed second and third will advance to the quarterfinals. The playoffs stage will feature a single-elimination bracket with best-of-three quarterfinals and semifinals, the grand finals will be best-of-five.

Prize Pool Distribution:

Place	$ USD
1st	$250,000
2nd	$100,000
3rd-4th	$40,000
5th-6th	$15,000
7th-8th	$7,000
9th-12th	$4,000
13th-16th	$2,500