ESL announces IEM Oakland qualifiers

As HLTV.org reported last month, three spots at IEM Oakland will be filled through qualifiers after ESL decided to open up a ninth invite slot for the tournament.

Europe, North America and Southeast Asia are the three regions that will be hosting qualifiers for the IEM event. In the first two regions, the qualifying process will consist of an open and a closed stage, while in Southeast Asia, there will be just one stage, open to any team.

Three spots at IEM Oakland will be decided by regional qualifiers

The top two teams from the open qualifiers in Europe and North America will book spots in the closed qualifiers, joining six teams invited by ESL in a single-elimination, best-of-three bracket. In the end, the winners of the regional qualifiers will earn spots at IEM Oakland, a $300,000 competition that will be held from November 16-19 at the Oracle Arena.

Below you can find the schedule for the regional qualifiers:

Europe:

Open Qualifier: September 19-20 - Register
Closed Qualifier: October 2 

North America:

Open Qualifier: September 19-20 - Register
Closed Qualifier: October 2 

Southeast Asia:

Open Qualifier: September 23-24 - Register

Teams can sign up for the European and North American qualifiers by submitting an open ticket on ESEA's website with "IEM Oakland EU" or "IEM Oakland NA" as the ticket subject and "Events" as the ticket type.

Gambit, SK and Astralis are among the seven teams confirmed so far for the event, with the names of the final two invitees expected to be revealed by ESL in the coming weeks.