IEM Oakland viewer's guide

15/11/2016 - 15:00

The last IEM event of the year is set to start tomorrow, on November 16th. To help guide the viewers through this 12-team event we bring you a detailed guide with information about the groups, schedule and talent that will be present in Oakland.

Intel Extreme Masters Oakland was set to feature the top four teams from IEM New York - Natus Vincere, Liquid, SK and Virtus.pro—but the Polish team decided not to attend the event in the end—with Heroic coming in as their replacement.

Four invitations were sent out to Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2, Astralis and MOUZ, with the last four spots left for teams to qualify through the iBUYPOWER Masters 2016 event that was held last week.

In the end, Immortals, Cloud9, FaZe and TYLOO clinched the remaining spots in Costa Mesa, finalizing the team list for IEM Oakland.

The playoffs of IEM Oakland will be played at the Oracle Arena

The 12 teams have been split into the following two groups:

Group A	Group B
Liquid	Heroic
Natus Vincere	SK
G2	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Astralis	MOUZ
Immortals	Cloud9
TYLOO	FaZe

The tournament will feature the now-standard IEM format composed of a round-robin best-of-one group stage leading into round-of-six playoffs, with the best team from each group advancing directly to the semi-finals.

The first day of the tournament will be reserved for group A, the second for group B, followed by an off-day before the action moves to the Oracle Arena for the playoff action on November 19-20.

Two matches will be played at the same time in the group stage, with one being shown on the main stream (first match in the schedule table), and the second being shown on the second stream.

IEM Oakland will have the following schedule:

Wednesday, November 16th - Group A
19:30	Natus Vincere	vs. Liquid	BO1
19:30	Immortals	vs. TYLOO	BO1
20:45	Astralis	vs. G2	BO1
20:45	Natus Vincere	vs. TYLOO	BO1
22:00	Immortals	vs. G2	BO1
22:00	Astralis	vs. Liquid	BO1
23:15	Natus Vincere	vs. Astralis	BO1
23:15	TYLOO	vs. G2	BO1
00:30	Immortals	vs. Liquid	BO1
00:30	Natus Vincere	vs. G2	BO1
01:45	TYLOO	vs. Liquid	BO1
01:45	Immortals	vs. Astralis	BO1
03:00	Natus Vincere	vs. Immortals	BO1
03:00	Astralis	vs. TYLOO	BO1
03:00	Liquid	vs. G2	BO1
04:10	Possible tiebreaker matches		BO1
04:10	Possible tiebreaker matches		BO1
Thursday, November 17th - Group B
19:30	Heroic	vs. SK	BO1
19:30	Cloud9	vs. FaZe	BO1
20:45	MOUZ	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas	BO1
20:45	Heroic	vs. FaZe	BO1
22:00	Cloud9	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas	BO1
22:00	MOUZ	vs. SK	BO1
23:15	FaZe	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas	BO1
23:15	Heroic	vs. MOUZ	BO1
00:30	Cloud9	vs. SK	BO1
00:30	Heroic	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas	BO1
01:45	Cloud9	vs. MOUZ	BO1
01:45	FaZe	vs. SK	BO1
03:00	SK	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas	BO1
03:00	MOUZ	vs. FaZe	BO1
03:00	Heroic	vs. Cloud9	BO1
04:10	Possible tiebreaker matches		BO1
04:10	Possible tiebreaker matches		BO1
Saturday, November 19th
19:45	Quarter-final #1		BO3
23:35	Quarter-final #2		BO3
03:20	CLG Red	vs. Secret fe	BO3
Sunday, November 20th
19:00	Semi-final #1		BO3
22:30	Semi-final #2		BO3
03:00	Grand finals		BO3

ESL has put together a talent lineup featuring some of the most notable hosts, analysts and commentatos in CS:GO at the moment—featuring the likes of Alex "Machine" Richardson, Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett and Anders Blume—but IEM Oakland will also be the first event on which we will see Sam "⁠DaZeD⁠" Marine in an analyst role.

The following talent will be covering the action in Oakland:

OJ Borg - Stage Host

John "Blu" Mullen - Reporter
Alex "Machine" Richardson - Desk host
Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović - Analyst
Sam "⁠DaZeD⁠" Marine - Analyst

Henry "⁠HenryG⁠" Greer - Commentator
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett - Commentator
Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume - Commentator
Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat - Commentator
Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole - Commentator
Lauren "Pansy" Scott - Commentator

Heather "⁠sapphiRe⁠" Garozzo - Observer
DJ "Prius" Kuntz - Observer

ESL will reward each win in the group stage with $1,000, with the rest of the $300,000 prize pool being distributed in the following way:

1. - $125,000
2. - $50,000
3-4. - $25,000
3-4. - $25,000
5-6. - $12,000
5-6. - $12,000
7-8. - $5,000
7-8. - $5,000
9-10. - $3,500
9-10. - $3,500
11-12. - $2,000
11-12. - $2,000

For a detailed look at all the teams attending the event and what we can expect in terms of results, stay tuned for a preview by HLTV.org's Lucas "LucasAM" Aznar Miles later today.

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.

nice go tyloo

2016-11-15 15:00

28 replies

grand final 2am UK time.. :(

2016-11-15 15:07

15 replies

4am Finnish time

2016-11-15 15:15

9 replies

i thought finland people arent sleepink))

2016-11-15 15:49

6 replies

Finals at 3AM because, you know, fuck viewership.

2016-11-15 17:21

5 replies

wtf r u want? large portion of viewers for CS = americans and brazilians. someone has to miss out on the action. if i wanted to catch all the action for the majors, i'd have to get up at 3am. there will always be a group who cant watch everything because of the timing

2016-11-16 13:00

4 replies

Absolutely, some group has to sit out. That's just how timezones work. I'm just pointing out that with CS:GO EU prime time would get a much higher viewership than NA prime time any day of the week, it's simply a scientifically proven fact.

2016-11-16 15:51

3 replies

Are you dumb? It is in NA; not going to cave to EU times, when a large portion of CS viewers are NA anyways.

2016-11-16 20:37

2 replies

Are you dumb? The point is, again, that the game's viewership is located in the EU. If they cared about viewers count, they would have done things... 'Differently'.

2016-11-16 21:01

1 reply

The real point is, who gives a fuck. The tournament is in NA so it will be played in NA times. Stop whining and either deal with it or don't watch it.

2016-11-17 03:39

Bo5 + delays u can watch when wake up

2016-11-15 16:47

Wtf are these playtime Ending in the middle of the night in germany Fuck this

2016-11-15 23:00

Its ok i can tell you the score, tyloo won it :)

2016-11-15 15:25

2016-11-15 15:43

10am on Monday, fuck it

2016-11-15 16:23

Delays. Wake up at noon

2016-11-15 18:23

Final at 12 pm Vladivostok Russia time) nice) I like events in NA and SA)

2016-11-16 01:07

Karrigan is in Astralis lineup? Whut

2016-11-15 15:53

In Faze lineup as well lul

2016-11-15 16:29

Lol sick karrigan working 2 jobs. He must be rich now kappa

2016-11-15 17:45

He's actually still a coowner of the astralis org so does kinda work for both

2016-11-15 20:29

is he? Thought he'd give up the shares, or sell them

2016-11-16 12:17

Naw, Cajun B still is too

2016-11-16 13:24

Every time I click a news article now I become sad that Fastest_Guy_on_HLTV isn't here :(( come back man

2016-11-15 21:19

If TyLoo win more than one match, I'll be very surprised.

2016-11-16 08:15

Why? Nice fake flag there bruh. Only like 1% really FOLLOWS the asian scene, even looking at local lans etc etc. Tyloo will reach semi 100%

2016-11-16 16:28

xD.TyLoo lost ALL maps.

2016-11-29 11:54

:( As fancy said an if you have eyes, you saw they have huge communication issues... Wait for Major qual, they will surprise you all :)

2016-11-29 15:48

Hopefully.

2016-12-04 06:31

naviez

2016-11-15 15:01

sorry for reply, but where is VP? saving strats to major? oh nvm.. now i read the topic haha..

2016-11-15 18:17

[ ] funny [x] not funny oh and i forgot [ ] rich [x] favela

2016-11-15 20:28

Ez for CLG Red. Kappa

2016-11-15 23:02

nice

no steel, no fun :(

2016-11-15 15:36

1 is the loneliest number

okeh

crazy

HYPE

Cool, maybe G2 will win something for once now. NA time though FailFish

2016-11-15 15:02

Ur retarded if u think g2 can or will win this

2016-11-15 19:58

Neither will burgers lul

2016-11-16 20:54

not first

thx

nice thx

ahhh fuck those Na times ..

the best thing is that on friday night where in theory u could watch all night for some fucking retarded reason they have a day off again. n1 esl. fucc bois.

2016-11-15 17:05

Yes lol wha not start thursday and play friday and split group matches equally Thursday/Friday

2016-11-15 17:26

I live near chicago and I don't even want to watch it since its 10 pm on a sunday

2016-11-15 22:19

EZ FOR NAVI

BO5 final I aren't think that

2016-11-15 18:31

BO3, not BO5

2016-11-15 21:20

the schedule.. NotLikeThis

HLTV not dead

DJ "Prius" Kuntz best name na LUL

so many matches, lets go! hype sadly fnatic arent there :/

2016-11-15 15:03

Please no more NA tournaments, EU is best time.

2016-11-15 15:05

please no more off days during tournaments, especially not fucking fridays when a lot of people actually have more time to watch.

2016-11-15 17:06

yeah... nip-sk 3:00, school 7:00... +delays... when shal I sleep?

2016-11-15 18:11

NaVi x Liquid = Navi Immortals x Tyloo = Immortals Astralis x G2 = Astralis NaVi x Tyloo = NaVi Immortals x G2 = G2 Astralis x Liquid = Astralis NaVi x Astralis = Astralis Tyloo x G2 = G2 Immortals x Liquid = Immortals NaVi x G2 = NaVi Tyloo x Liquid = Tyloo Immortals x Astralis = Immortals NaVi x Immortals = NaVi Astralis x Tyloo = Astralis Liquid x G2 = G2 Have fun.

2016-11-15 15:06

2016-11-15 15:50

My ass for free if G2 wins against Immortals and Astralis over Na'Vi, cya

2016-11-15 18:59

Pay up ;]

2016-11-17 04:16

shit, i thought nobody would see this ;(

2016-11-17 05:04

Astralis over Na'vi? What are you smoking?

2016-11-15 19:18

ez for dj kuntz

2016-11-15 15:08

ESL invited banned player? No more major for them! XD #VALVEGIVECISMAJOR

Lol, it's not Valve sponsored event, so it doesn't matter.

2016-11-15 16:31

CLG Red vs Secret fe on Inferno ResidentSleeper

2016-11-15 15:09

on 4:20

2016-11-15 15:51

even more ResidentSleeper

2016-11-15 16:02

fkin muricans ruined csgo times!!!!!! i cant sit up all night too see these games wtf, some ppl have "lifes" and "waifu humpingz" times

Warriors blew 3-1 lead

RIP EU. Grand Finals at 4.00 AM

2016-11-15 15:12

tyloo will 16-0'd in their first game, then they will star to win everything and in the finals will lose 2-1 #RunTyloo

HLTV.CN incoming

2016-11-15 17:56

Hmm... Where have I seen this before...

2016-11-15 20:55

Sleep is overrated. Early morning matches are my favorite

2016-11-15 15:13

RIP time zones. Probably will miss all matches.

final bo5 hype

2016-11-15 15:16

bo5 PogChamp rip navi

2016-11-15 15:17

another ESL tier2 tournament

CLG RED VS SECRET FE >>> THE REST

fucking garbage na times. thats why they dont deserve tournaments over there, bad viewing experience like always

Its fucking midnight for my place. I like eu time because it usually starts around 5 pm and ends at 2 am for my place.

2016-11-15 16:19

Haha and when the tournament is in EU its always gr8 Times for na:D

2016-11-15 21:12

dont even think its NA times just terrible choice of times in general, I dont really want to watch a grand final at 10 pm on a sunday

2016-11-15 22:23

GL Astralis

Sick

2016-11-15 15:18

Oj borg is back

2016-11-15 15:19

Oj is the best

2016-11-15 17:11

The talent group is pretty cool but I would have liked to see Blu and DaZeD cast together :(

2016-11-15 15:21

Dazed-alright, would love to see him casting there BLU-fag that shouldnt cast at pro level

2016-11-15 15:27

IMO the dynamic that BLU had with DaZeD was pretty good. Would be nice to see them casting a bigger match.

2016-11-15 16:32

Talking fast is a dynamic?

2016-11-15 18:25

Unfortunately I agree, he's a terrible caster. Seems like an nice enough guy, but I can't bear to listen to him for too long. It's a mixture of his voice, his super fast talking and his severe lack of knowledge/insight into high level level CS, let alone pro level.

2016-11-15 20:57

enjoy 20k viewers in the grand final , idiots

2016-11-15 15:22

2016-11-15 17:14

2016-11-15 18:12

tyloo must win againts immortals

2016-11-15 15:23

The finals are BO3 not BO5

no VP, no Dignitas... GG

2016-11-15 15:24

No spunj :(

so many tournaments in NA on weekdays, completely dismissing the largest fanbases.. Game starts at 19:30 its says, but will likely be delayed for 45 minutes, and then something will go wrong and then there are more delays and then its past midnight wuddenly.. fuck that

2016-11-15 15:26

All I want is tyloo to make the playoffs

2016-11-15 15:28

Grand Final at 3am European Time XD

2016-11-15 15:29

henryg and sadokist to cast the final, thank you

FaZe vs NIP, c9, SK LUL RIPPERINO IN PEPPERINO.

Like always, stupid groups. Out of the 4 best teams that attend, 3 are in group B. SK, NIP, NAVI and C9 obvious top teams

2016-11-15 15:30

ez for sk

2016-11-15 15:35

hope we won't have another grand final ruined by semmler's presence

2016-11-15 15:37

its okay , there will be a douzen of stupid americans with this timezone

2016-11-15 15:54

SK - NiP 03:00 CET Everyone in EU will definitely watch this one!

2016-11-15 15:41

EZ 4 NaVi

ez 4 GoDaZed

2016-11-15 15:44

gl tyloo

8 hours behind lisbon...

2016-11-15 15:46

DJ Kuntz lmao

2016-11-15 15:48

Possibly an epic BO5 final and I will miss it. Fuck you ESL.

gg with the times lul

i have to miss half of the games , lol

Group A: 1. Na'vi 2. Astralis 3. G2/Immortals Group B: 1. SK 2. cloud9 3. NiP

2016-11-15 15:56

04:00 Grand finals NICE ONE ESL

2016-11-15 15:57

srsly ? they fucked it up so i need to go to school on monday and i cant even enjoy the finals well done

2016-11-15 15:59

its esl what do you expect ?

2016-11-15 16:00

yeah! fuck having tournaments anywhere other than where you live!

2016-11-15 19:17

ez for NiP

nip navi final eu needs to stop crying about the times

2016-11-15 16:01

stfu bitch , why make tournaments in usa if in two years , isis will bomb the shit out of you , go trump go

finals start at 9pm for me, praise mr trump for he is a generous lord

2016-11-15 16:08

well at least twitch chat wont be as cancerous with only a couple dozen viewers

2016-11-15 17:52

NaVi x Liquid = Navi Immortals x Tyloo = Immortals Astralis x G2 = Astralis NaVi x Tyloo = NaVi Immortals x G2 = G2 Astralis x Liquid = Astralis NaVi x Astralis = Navi Tyloo x G2 = G2 Immortals x Liquid = Immortals NaVi x G2 = NaVi Tyloo x Liquid = Tyloo Immortals x Astralis = Astralis NaVi x Immortals = NaVi Astralis x Tyloo = Astralis Liquid x G2 = G2

C9, NiP! And a minimum bet on Tyloo!

2016-11-15 16:09

Add delays and final will be at 6 am XD

lol,even heroic replace VP,Group B still much stronger than Group A, Navi tier1,Ass,G2 tier2 Liquid,Immortal,Tyloo tier 3 team Nip,SK,C9 tier 1,Faze,mou tier 2,Heroic tier 3 FUCK LOGIC

2016-11-15 16:11

navi is tier 2

2016-11-15 21:03

What the fuck are these times? Why dont they just start at 14-16 o clock and end at like 23 o clock and make more days out of it etc

2016-11-15 16:14

juliano Kreygasm

2016-11-15 16:16

Natus Vincere!!!

2016-11-15 16:21

ez for C9

Recent events have had so less viewership because of NA timings...the trend continues....NO VP , means even more reason for me to get some sleep rather than watch cs from 12 am to 8 am.

2016-11-15 16:25

NA time

2016-11-15 16:28

DAZED PogChamp

2016-11-15 16:30

You say the groups are unfair, but Immortals just beat C9 and astralis beat SK. The one thing I'd love is to see OpTic instead of Heroic here.

2016-11-15 16:35

Cloud9 got a hard group

2016-11-15 16:41

DaZeD :DDD

2016-11-15 16:44

grand finale at 03:00 fuck u esl

Seems like a good event but the grind final at 03.00 at a sunday... cmon

Cloud9 again having almost same opponents and similar schedule. FaZe is very annoying tho

2016-11-15 16:53

i love how c9 is always put in the hardest groups

2016-11-15 16:55

GO IMT AND SK GAMING <3

2016-11-15 16:56

no godsent wtf

2016-11-15 17:03

China number one

fuck NA TOURNAMENTS :D i will watch 0 matches

2016-11-15 17:10

Championship without fnatic, godsent, vp and dignitas what can you expect?

2016-11-15 17:22

Fnatic isn't even top 10 they haven't proved shit, godsent isn't top 10 they havent proved shit. dig are top 6 vp are top 1.

2016-11-15 17:27

2016-11-15 17:32

So many games in so little time. 12 matches per day...yeah and AGAIN THAT BULLSHIT grand finals after semis.....Remember ESL NEW YORK?

2016-11-15 17:28

No VP, no Dignitas, no Fnatic. Should be an easy one for SK.

2016-11-15 17:29

Finally OJ Borg is back <3

2016-11-15 17:31

Nip without maikelele is a waste of time :(

2016-11-15 17:38

why are shitty female teams playing at Oakland?? edit: BO5 finals but why the actual fuck are they on the same day as the semi-finals... absolutely terrible for the players. if the BO5 finals were a day after the semis I'd love this format

2016-11-15 17:47

tournaments on NA timezone <3

2016-11-15 17:49

WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT BRAZIL

2016-11-15 19:56

NA = north america, dumb

2016-11-15 20:37

aaay karrigan playing for Astralis and FaZe :D

2016-11-15 17:50

no vp - no party

2016-11-15 18:09

Ez Pz CLG Red

2016-11-15 18:15

Finally a ez group for G2. Thanks to NA timezone.

2016-11-15 18:27

bo5 final is nice but not in the middle of the night on a monday (for EU). They need to start playing the semis on the saturday or something, this way they will only lose viewers. It sucks bad for the players as well, especially the ones that just had a 3 hour semi rally...

2016-11-15 18:29

Curious for how much cringe Dazed will deliver. Too bad Thorin isn't there to help xD

2016-11-15 18:32

why never start day earlier or something.. some of us have a job, would be awesome if finals were on saturdays

2016-11-15 18:36

EZ for OJ borg

2016-11-15 18:37

why is liquid even on this lan

2016-11-15 18:39

shitty event the hours are fucked with delays of course

2016-11-15 19:00

Semi bo3 and finals bo5 in the same day? lol

2016-11-15 19:09

Where are thorins?

2016-11-15 19:11

BO5 seems good on paper to really hammer out which team is better, but it just doesn't work logistically, especially if you're playing a BO3 earlier in the day. You're talking potentially 8 hours of nerve wracking CS. That takes a toll on players.

2016-11-15 19:14

garbage time zone in california. RIP EU viewers except for the first bo1's of the day

2016-11-15 19:16

And ruining it again with the schedule... Why do they have to do this, in EU at least they are starting at 9:00 or 10:00am CET and here you start at 11:00am in your timezone... This is so sad seriously...!

2016-11-15 19:33

quit complaining, Aussies have to stay up til 5am for every ECS or ELEAGUE match lmao

2016-11-15 20:09

nobody cares about ausTRIALia

2016-11-15 20:27

Awesome timezone: From 16:30 to 00:00. More tournaments in 'Murica pls.

2016-11-15 19:40

ez for Brazil. DH Austin all over again. SK vs Immortals in the finals incoming

2016-11-15 19:45

21:00 Grand finals BO3 I thought it was bo5

2016-11-15 19:48

Group B >>>> Group A Group A is full of lost hopes and dreams and teams that are supposed to be good but fail to prove it or have bot Smithzz and B has C9 SK and NIP

2016-11-15 19:52

and also gg no sleep this week

2016-11-15 19:53

ez for FaZe Clan

2016-11-15 19:54

na times are the best :)

2016-11-15 20:02

OK, seems like the BO5 was a typo? That makes more sense now.

2016-11-15 20:10

They should start games at 1AM to cater to EU and NA

2016-11-15 20:26

sick

NICE ESL WTF THINK ABOUT EU VIEWERS???

2016-11-15 20:38

Round Robin is the best format for group stage (with Swiss as well), schedule isn't amazing for EU though.

2016-11-15 20:50

LOL, enjoy your terrible view numbers. 03:00 final, fucking retards. EU viewers can honestly just skip the entire tournament.

2016-11-15 20:52

shame flusha bailed, i would have liked to BART across the bay and punch him in the dick

2016-11-15 21:00

binge-watching great cs with some beer and pizza. god I love this.

SK > IMT > ALL.. Have fun!!! =)

2016-11-15 21:14

That logic of having a day-off on Fridays and timetables that only allows Americans to watch. Then they say "CS viewership is going too low" lol

2016-11-15 21:24

DaZeD :o hoping for a reference to Hiko's sister in first game

2016-11-15 21:25

Cloud9 will beat all but SK.

2016-11-15 21:33

SK SK

2016-11-15 21:37

no ddk :////

2016-11-15 21:43

#200!!

2016-11-15 21:55

Let's go BRAZIL! Immortals and SK! We can do it! We smart, we loyal, we friendly, we are from BRAZIL! <3 Kreygasm

2016-11-15 22:26

ez for lebron

2016-11-15 22:49

final 4am 4Head but gl everyone

2016-11-16 00:12

why no GOTV ip for the event ??

2016-11-16 07:47

gl chingchong

2016-11-16 08:17

friday day off is a mistake

2016-11-16 09:54

go SK!

2016-11-16 14:24

@School watching CS, RIP ME

2016-11-16 14:27

It doesn't mention the fact that metuz and adreN are casting.

2016-11-16 14:59

I don't understand, is this. The team that gets 3 points before anyone else (3-0) get to the semis, the teams that get 3 points but one or 2 losses will play the round of 6, and the team that get 3 losses are out?

2016-11-16 15:04

Grand final won't be bo5 though

2016-11-16 15:45

bo3

sk vs imt - Grand Final sk wins

2016-11-16 16:31

Nip win

2016-11-16 16:45

when does the preshow start? why is this never mentioned -.-

2016-11-16 16:58

no fnatic = no fun

2016-11-17 03:49