IEM Chicago 2018 viewer's guide

5/11/2018 - 22:00

With only one day to go before action gets under way in Chicago, we've collected all the information you'll need to enjoy the $250,000 event.

Set to take place from November 6-11 in the Midwestern city's 10,000-seater Wintrust Arena, IEM Chicago will be one of this season's most stacked events with top teams such as Astralis, Natus Vincere, FaZe and the North American hopes Liquid battling for the number one spot.

The group stage will feature a double-elimination format, with best-of-one opening matches followed by best-of-three series in the remaining stages. The group winners will automatically progress to the semi-finals, while the runners-up and the teams coming out of the lower bracket will face off in the quarter-finals for the chance to compete on the main stage of the event, with the victors being decided in a best-of-five clash.

Chicago will host the next three North American IEM events

For Chicago, ESL has come up with a new seeding method called "Player-Selected Seeding", where the teams are asked to create their own ranking of the opposing teams, with the submitted scores submitted being added up to determine the full seeding.

The teams have been split into the following two groups based on the seeding:

Group A

Group B

You can find the full schedule for the event below:

Tuesday, November 6
19:00 Astralis vs. MVP PK | BO1
19:00 North vs. NRG | BO1
20:15 MIBR vs. Renegades | BO1
20:15 LDLC vs. FaZe | BO1
21:30 Natus Vincere vs. eUnited | BO1
21:30 fnatic vs. BIG | BO1
22:45 MOUZ vs. AVANGAR | BO1
22:45 Luminosity vs. Liquid | BO1
00:00 Group A upper-bracket semi #1 | BO3
00:00 Group A lower-bracket #1 | BO3
03:35 Group A upper-bracket semi #2 | BO3
03:35 Group A lower-bracket #2 | BO3

Wednesday, November 7
19:00 Group B lower-bracket #1 | BO3
19:00 Group B lower-bracket #2 | BO3
22:35 Group B upper-bracket semi #1 | BO3
22:35 Group A lower-bracket semi #1 | BO3
02:10 Group B upper-bracket semi #2 | BO3
02:10 Group A lower-bracket semi #2 | BO3

Thursday, November 8
19:00 Group B lower-bracket semi #1 | BO3
19:00 Group B lower-bracket semi #2 | BO3
22:35 Group A upper-bracket final | BO3
22:35 Group A lower-bracket final | BO3
02:10 Group B upper-bracket final | BO3
02:10 Group B lower-bracket final | BO3

Friday, November 9
19:00 Quarter-final #1 | BO3
22:35 Quarter-final #2 | BO3

Saturday, November 10
20:00 Semi-final #1 | BO3
23:50 Semi-final #2 | BO3

Sunday, November 11
21:00 Grand final | BO5

O.J. Borg will direct the action on stage in Chicago

Guiding viewers through the six days of action will be a slew of well-known names from the talent pool. As it was in Oakland in 2017, O.J Borg will act as Stage Host, while Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson will control things on the analysts' desk, where is joined by the three former pros—Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche, Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill and Tomi "⁠lurppis⁠" Kovanen.

Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume and Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole will be one of the caster duos at the event, with the other one being Henry "⁠HenryG⁠" Greer and Matthew "⁠Sadokist⁠" Trivett.

Below is the full talent list:

O.J. Borg - Stage Host
Alex "Machine" Richardson - Desk Host

Tres "stunna" Saranthus - Reporter

Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill - Analyst
Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen - Analyst
Jacob "Pimp" Winneche - Analyst

Henry "HenryG" Greer - Commentator
Matt "Sadokist" Trivett - Commentator
Jason "moses" O'Toole - Commentator
Anders Blume - Commentator

Finally, here is how the $250,000 prize pool will be broken down among the participating teams:

1. $100,000
2. $42,000
3-4. $20,00
5-6. $10,000
7-8. $6,000
9-12. $5,000
13-16. $5,000

This is gonna be good!

2018-11-05 22:03

19 replies

Mvp are better than luminosity and eunited tf these pros don't know shit it's like thoorin made these rankings

2018-11-05 22:26

16 replies

You're not the one who's played them

2018-11-05 22:55

15 replies

Of course thoorin has or you know what you're right I'm sure asstralis has played luminosity so much they know them front and back

2018-11-06 00:29

14 replies

You're the one suggesting thorin made the rankings. He hasn't played them either. He's watched and analyzed way more games than you though. You do realize there are NA teams here so they'll have actually played luminosity and eunited at least twice in the past couple of weeks. And have you seen the track record of Asian teams at these events? It's not tyloo so why would any of the top teams be even slightly worried.

2018-11-06 01:19

13 replies

reading comprehension... got get it and reread because I know you're American and slow and dumb but that's no excuse not to properly read

2018-11-06 03:46

12 replies

Go read your own post. You clearly think you said something you didn't. "Of course thoorin has" (played them) is literally what you said. You then suggested "asstralis" should know luminosity front and back. That's the entirety of your post. You should stop trying to insult people who clearly have a greater comprehension than you do.

2018-11-06 19:04

11 replies

great youre a bully too, i won this argument a while ago when you started so hold your L and I'll take my win. Keep projecting though its obvious to everyone here that you are, bully troll.

2018-11-07 07:06

10 replies

LMAO. Your a fan of "autist" and you made the personal attack when you decided not to read my message. Then you call me a bully troll when you can't comprehend my next message. Log off kid.

2018-11-07 13:30

9 replies

keep posting its obvious to everyone youre salty. I already won this so hold your L and enjoy the loss while I keep winning. 0/8 troll but maybe if you keep projecting you'll beat someone one day. If you respond its clear youre a salty troll. kid

2018-11-07 17:45

8 replies

Nice troll kid.

2018-11-08 13:35

7 replies

Oh and MVP went out in last btw. Like expected. And unlike eunited and luminosity.

2018-11-08 13:37

6 replies

I already won this so hold your L and enjoy the loss while I keep winning. 0/8 troll but maybe if you keep projecting you'll beat someone one day. If you respond its clear youre a salty troll. kid

2018-11-08 22:03

5 replies

Lmao you think I care what some crackhead Canadian kid on hltv thinks. Everyone else thinks you're stupid.

2018-11-08 23:51

4 replies

if you keep projecting you'll beat someone one day. If you respond its clear youre a salty troll. kid

2018-11-09 05:35

3 replies

You forgot the ' in you're.

2018-11-09 13:31

2 replies

If you respond its clear youre a salty troll. kid

2018-11-09 17:33

1 reply

You forgot it again. I thought they taught basic grammar in third grade.

2018-11-13 03:28

2018-11-05 22:28

Are you yacine brahimi? Because he's fast as hell...

2018-11-06 00:30

yes

2018-11-05 22:04

I'm waiting for who's getting their ass robbed first kek :>

I bet renegades avangar ldlc,North upset

2018-11-05 22:11

Renegades upset? In the next game?

2018-11-05 22:17

I think because no coach

2018-11-06 01:57

Ah, didnt think about that thx. With coach it wouldnt be an upset since rng is better. That’s why I got confused by that comment

2018-11-06 08:28

They did beat mibr in a best of 2 in epl

2018-11-06 07:17

That’s what i meant. If Renegades wins it’s not an upset. imo rng is better than mibr.

2018-11-06 08:27

Kkkkkkkkkkkk

2018-11-06 15:18

Rng top20 material, mibr barely top20 material.

2018-11-06 16:02

kkkkkkkkkk

2018-11-06 18:00

I understand the ignorance. Its hard to be objective when it comes to teams from your own country. Hopefully mibr comes back to contend against some of the top10 teams in the future

2018-11-06 18:06

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

2018-11-06 21:25

2 new guys looking nervous as shit (first big lan ever) choked really hard, still almost won :) Give them to the next tournament and rng isn't just better but much better than Mibr.

2018-11-06 21:31

sure, keeping telling yourself that, maybe you start believing it

2018-11-06 23:28

ez4mibr

I guess whoever gets the MVP award - s1mple or device will be top 1 according to HLTV

2018-11-05 22:08

S1mple is goat he deserved it

S1mple is the best player. But astralis is the best team.

2018-11-06 08:34

+1 However this is only for 2018 stats i think 2019 might be huge underdog year just like LG , fnatic

2018-11-06 16:41

Trash no C9

2018-11-05 22:24

ez for eUnited

Big Stage for NiKo!! #Fazeup

2018-11-05 22:12

Ez for MvP Jk OMEGALUL

2018-11-05 22:16

ez for astralis

ezzz renegades

2018-11-05 22:19

Astralis vs MVP PK OMEGALUL

2018-11-05 22:22

EZ4MVP

2018-11-05 22:46

Ez disband 4 mibr

2018-11-05 22:25

Solo will strike HARD!

2018-11-05 22:37

Soooo ez for ma boys aka astralis streak breaker

2018-11-05 22:50

ez group for navi? but astralis win this

2018-11-05 23:00

EZ 4 Amanek and Alex

2018-11-05 23:03

The timings for which zone?

2018-11-05 23:05

CET.

If the schedule does not show up according to your selected timezone you may want to select an alternative working one.

2018-11-06 23:58

Interesting

2018-11-05 23:11

Are the times GMT or something else???

2018-11-05 23:24

Schedule is featured in CET.

2018-11-06 03:37

Normally it's tailored to user's location. Why don't u use that feature instead?

2018-11-06 08:55

It already does. If it does not in your case you may want to review your selected timezone.

2018-11-06 23:57

I can see 'Today's Matches' section according to my timezone. I meant the times shown in this news are fixed (CET as you said). I don't see them according to my timezone. If you don't have this feature yet, that would be a nice upgrade :)

2018-11-07 01:42

Actually I was wrong (I remembered a different showing) and time should show according to your timezone, as it does in mine (CET). That is why I mentioned that if in your case it does not you should review your selected timezone and, ultimately, choose an alternative working one.

2018-11-07 01:52

Schedule should show up according to your selected timezone. If it does not, please review it and choose an alternative working one.

2018-11-06 23:59

Another Tournament, that MIBR leaves in groups... I hope the coldzera hype is finaly over after that and people, who blaming real legends like forest, neo, markeloff and gtr realise, that there is more needed, than just having 2 good years to get called a legend

2018-11-05 23:37

Funny you say markeloff when he only started winning in 2010-2012 literally 2 years

2018-11-06 00:04

Stream is on Facebook 0/8

2018-11-05 23:53

This better not be fucking streamed on crappy Facebook...

2018-11-06 00:01

Iem are on twitch

2018-11-06 00:05

Ez for 1.6 legend SOLO

LDLC ez

2018-11-06 01:01

Shit, it starts 3 am my time, every single time a show in NA I can only gather shumbles in the end

2018-11-06 01:47

Where do you live?

2018-11-06 03:56

Northeast China currently

2018-11-06 03:57

Yeah I figured it has to be around mid Asia longitude wise, that's perty cool I have a friend living at around the same time zone in China, not sure if it's exactly the same. E: wrote latitude 1st pl0x

2018-11-06 04:06

I'm on the same line as siberia in russia and koreans, NA events is a nightmare for me but all the rest go smoothly

No Thorin, no fun.

2018-11-06 02:25

Finally, Sadokist again!

2018-11-06 03:27

No ENCE makes me a sad panda :(

2018-11-06 03:47

Very unfortunate if we consider how it went too in their semi final game in GGbet for instance xdddd. Defuser killed like 0.2 before defuse to 2-0 victory --> Overtime, then have have 18-15 lead, just get totally rekt getting no kills-->lose---> lose next map with total collapse from lead, GGWP :D...

2018-11-06 04:09

Hahah yeah, that was rough

2018-11-06 04:22

3-4 place gets 20$, should be enough hahahaha

2018-11-06 08:56

I wish Semmler was invited to this one. :(

2018-11-06 09:45