Direct Invites Announced for IEM Katowice 2020

Cover Image Courtesy: Intel Extreme Masters | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: Intel Extreme Masters

ESL has announced all the Direct Invites for IEM World Championship 2020 which is also known as IEM Katowice 2020. The $500,000 tournament is set to take place from 25^th Feb - 1^st March in Katowice, Poland. This will be the first big ESL event for 2020, witnessing participation from a total of 16 teams, 7 of which have been directly invited while the rest make their way through various qualifiers.

Photo Credit: Intel Extreme Masters

The list of directly invited teams includes highly ranked teams like 100Thieves, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, Na’Vi, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro, and Team Vitality. Out of these 7 teams, VP is the only one that falls out of the HLTV top 10 rank list with NiP standing just on the boundary.

Apart from these direct invites, 3 other teams have made it through to Katowice by winning other big tournaments. Fnatic secured themselves a slot by lifting the trophy at DreamHack Masters Malmo 2019, followed by Astralis going undefeated in Beijing to win the IEM Beijing 2019, and finally, mousesports hustling through the lower bracket of the group stage at ESL Pro League Season 10 - Finals.

With 10 teams locked down for the tournament, the remaining six slots will be filled through the various regional qualifiers taking place across EU, NA, Asia, and Oceania.

The $500,000 tournament will be witnessing some high octane action, let’s see which teams make their way through to Katowice from the respective regions.