Picture Credit: Twitter
The Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 is set to take place in July-August in Cologne, Germany with a total of 24 teams participating. Eight teams will be directly playing at the tournament while 16 teams will qualify through the ESL World Ranking. The Play on stage will be held on 25-26 July followed by the Group stage from 27 to 30 July, 2023.
The 24 teams which will be participating were revealed and they will battle for a USD 1 million prize pool at the IEM Cologne. The winner of this tournament will gain a direct qualification to Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2024. The top eight teams out of 16 from the play-in stage will go on to the group stage which will be in two double-elimination format, with eight teams in each group.
The top three from each group will advance to the playoffs with each team gaining a position in playoffs. Group stage winners will further advance to the semifinals while the runners-up will advance to the quarterfinals as the high seeds. Group stage third place teams will advance to the quarterfinals as the low seeds. The playoffs will be played in a single-elimination format from August 4-6.
Based on the ESL World Ranking, which reflects their performance in various esports events within and outside the EPT system, 20 CS:GO teams from different parts of the world would qualify for IEM Cologne next month. Four teams had already gained the qualification because of their past win in IEM tournaments or the most recent one in ESL Pro League.
Here are the teams competing at IEM Cologne, the ESL Pro Tour Championship:
Group Stage
G2 Esports (katowice winner)
FaZe Clan (EPL17 winner)
Team Vitality (IEM Rio winner)
ENCE (IEM Dallas winner)
HEROIC (ESL Global WR)
Cloud9 (ESL Global WR)
Natus Vincere (ESL Global WR)
GamerLegion (ESL Global WR)
Play-in Stage
MOUZ (ESL WR EU)
Apeks (ESL WR EU)
9INE (ESL WR EU)
FURIA Esports (ESL WR NA)
Team Liquid (ESL WR NA)
Imperial Sportsbet (ESL WR BR)
The MongolZ (ESL WR Asia)
GRAYHOUND.Rivalry (ESL WR OCE)
fnatic (ESL Global WR)
paiN Gaming (ESL Global WR)
Monte (ESL Global WR)
Ninjas in Pyjamas (ESL Global WR)
FORZE (ESL Global WR)
Astralis (ESL Global WR)
Into The Breach (ESL Global WR)
BIG Academy (ESL Meisterschaft winner)
