IEM Katowice’s Playoffs have sudden changes

by: Bob Tagulob

The playoffs of IEM Katowice will be played behind closed doors due to the Silesian Governor’s concerns amid the coronavirus outbreak, it has been announced. Even though there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Poland, this decision was made and surprised people as Katowice city and ESL assured that the event will continue according to what has been planned.

As of the moment, ESL is contacting ticket holders to give them a full refund due to the sudden change of this tournament. The original plan to prevent this outbreak is that the would implement mandatory health checks for every ticket holder to potentially refrain ticket holders with high temperatures from entering the venue. 

This is the official statement of ESL regarding this matter:

“At 19:54 CET we were informed by the Silesian Voivodeship that our mass event license for IEM Katowice was revoked. Until that moment we had a legally binding decision allowing us to organize the event, which was reconfirmed multiple times over the last few days. The last time the decision was confirmed was several hours ago. The Governor of Silesian (Silesian Voivode) Jaroslaw Wieczorek issued a decision to remove their approval regarding ESL hosting a mass event in Katowice, Poland. Due to this development, Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020 will not have any audience on-site,” a statement from ESL reads.

“ESL respects this decision from the local authorities and is currently working on reaching out to all ticket holders, guests, and media. Tickets will be fully refunded. The tournament will be conducted and broadcasted as planned, but without any additional visitors on-site. We are deeply sorry for all fans and players.”

The playoffs will start today at 10:00 PM with Fnatic facing 100 Thieves followed by the classic match between Team Liquid and Natus Vincere. Let’s all enjoy good CS:GO action at our own homes.