IEM Katowice viewer's guide
The countdown to the IEM World Championship's Counter-Strike tournament has begun, so we have prepared a viewer's guide with everything you need to know about the tournament, including the schedule and the casters' lineup.
The 11th edition of the IEM World Championship will come to a close with the Counter-Strike tournament, featuring 12 top teams and a $250,000 prize pool.
The participating sides have been drawn into two groups of six teams, who will face off in best-of-one matches. The group winners will automatically progress to the semi-finals, while the second and the third-placed finishers will play a match to determine the final two teams reaching the last-four stage.
fnatic won the 2016 IEM World Championship
The first round to kick off the event will see the current Major champions Astralis take on OpTiC, and fnatic go up against Ninjas in Pyjamas in an exciting Swedish derby. During the group stage, there will be at least two matches being played simultaneously.
Below you can find the group draw and the schedule in full:
Group A | Group B |
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Wednesday, March 1 11:00 OpTic
vs. Astralis
BO1 11:00 Ninjas in Pyjamas
vs. fnatic
BO1 12:15 Ninjas in Pyjamas
vs. Astralis
BO1 12:15 FaZe
vs. Immortals
BO1 13:30 OpTic
vs. Immortals
BO1 13:30 FaZe
vs. fnatic
BO1 14:45 Astralis
vs. Immortals
BO1 14:45 OpTic
vs. fnatic
BO1 16:00 Ninjas in Pyjamas
vs. FaZe
BO1 16:00 Astralis
vs. fnatic
BO1 17:15 Ninjas in Pyjamas
vs. Immortals
BO1 17:15 OpTic
vs. FaZe
BO1 18:30 Immortals
vs. fnatic
BO1 18:30 FaZe
vs. Astralis
BO1 18:30 OpTic
vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
BO1 Thursday, March 2nd 11:00 Natus Vincere
vs. Virtus.pro
BO1 11:00 Cloud9
vs. SK
BO1 12:15 Natus Vincere
vs. SK
BO1 12:15 North
vs. Heroic
BO1 13:30 North
vs. Virtus.pro
BO1 13:30 Cloud9
vs. Heroic
BO1 14:45 SK
vs. Heroic
BO1 14:45 Cloud9
vs. Virtus.pro
BO1 16:00 Natus Vincere
vs. North
BO1 16:00 SK
vs. Virtus.pro
BO1 17:15 Cloud9
vs. North
BO1 17:15 Natus Vincere
vs. Heroic
BO1 18:30 Heroic
vs. Virtus.pro
BO1 18:30 North
vs. SK
BO1 18:30 Cloud9
vs. Natus Vincere
BO1 Friday, March 3rd 12:45 Quarter-final #1 BO3 16:35 Quarter-final #2 BO3 Saturday, March 4th 12:30 Semi-final #1 BO3 16:20 Semi-final #2 BO3 Sunday, March 5th 18:15 Grand final BO5
The prize distribution for the tournament has yet to be revealed by ESL. The following broadcast crew will be doing play-by-play commentary and will be breaking down the action live from Katowice:
O. J. Borg - Stage Host
Alex "Machine" Richardson - Desk Host
Joona "natu" Leppänen - Analyst
Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill - Analyst
Janko "YNk" Paunović - Analyst
Henry "HenryG" Greer - Commentator
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett - Commentator
Lauren "Pansy" Scott - Commentator
Jason "moses" O'Toole - Commentator
Mitch "Uber" Leslie - Reporter
Pala "Mantrousse" Gilroy Sen - Facebook Live