Heroic to replace VP in Oakland

The Polish squad have decided to skip the event across the bay from San Francisco citing an overcrowded schedule. The $300,000 tournament will instead feature the Danish-Swedish lineup of HEROIC who will stay in North America after their Northern Arena appearance, where they will try to bounce back from a 7-8 place at the European Minor.

Virtus.pro will then not return to the Bay Area, where they went out last year at IEM San Jose after a single match—which they played with Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller as a stand-in—and will instead focus their energy on other tournaments such as ELEAGUE Season 2, the ELEAGUE Major, and WESG.

“It was a hard call to make, but after long and careful consideration we have decided to withdraw from IEM Oakland. It’s been extremely hard as we know how much our fans on West Coast have been looking forward to see some real VP action. We’ve had a very hard period during last couple of months with tournaments and online qualifiers filling almost every single day. Today we feel that to keep on performing on top level and make sure we deliver the right emotions to all our fans worldwide we need to make a small break and concentrate on upcoming events. California, we now have a debt to pay, so see you next year!”, said Roman Dvoryankin, Virtus.pro's General Manager.

If the groups are not redrawn, this is how they stand:

Group A	Group B
Liquid	HEROIC
Natus Vincere	SK
G2	Ninjas in Pyjamas
Astralis	MOUZ
iBP Masters Seed B1	iBP Masters Seed A1
iBP Masters Seed A2	iBP Masters Seed B2

Check out IEM Oakland's event page for everything regarding the tournament.