ESL has announced the invites for IEM Katowice 2020. Seven teams were invited and join fnatic, Astralis, and mousesports to make up 10 of the sixteen teams set to attend.

Astralis, mousesports, and fnatic managed to earn their place at the prestigious event by picking up victories at IEM Beijing, ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, and DreamHack Masters Malmö respectively.

The $500,000 event will kick off on February 25 in Katowice, Poland with the best teams in the world battling it out for the lion’s share of the prize pool.

The team list includes the current top five teams in the world with FaZe Clan being the only team missing from the top 10. FaZe will need to earn their spot via one of the three EU Qualifier spots should they wish to attend. At this point, the open qualifiers have been completed and the closed qualifiers are set to kick off and end in the coming two weeks.

  • Astralis
  • Liquid
  • fnatic
  • mousesports
  • Vitality
  • Evil Geniuses
  • Natus Vincere
  • 100 Thieves
  • Ninjas in Pyjamas
  • Virtus.pro
  • EU Qualifier
  • EU Qualifier
  • EU Qualifier
  • EU Qualifier
  • NA Qualifier
  • Asia Qualifier
  • Oceania Qualifier

IEM Katowice will be the first $500,000 event in ESL’s new Pro Tour circuit which was announced back in September 2019. ESL One Cologne and IEM Katowice serve as the 2020 circuits two grand championships.

© Steven Cropley