IEM Sydney with $250,000 prize pool announced

30-1-2018 23:05

ESL has announced their second Intel Extreme Masters event of 2018, with the $310,000 AUD ($250,000) tournament returning to Sydney, Australia from May 1-6.

After tasting the waters down under last year, the largest esports event in Australia to date returns in May, which witnessed over 7,000 attendees each day at the Qudos Bank Arena. The 2017 edition's grand final showcased SK (with João "⁠felps⁠" Vasconcellos at the time) defeating FaZe (powered by Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli and Fabien "⁠kioShiMa⁠" Fiey back then) 3-1 in a best-of-five series.

It has not been confirmed if IEM Sydney will use the new format introduced recently, which will kick off its debut at the upcoming IEM Katowice's $500,000 World Championship. The 2018 edition for IEM Sydney will see an increase of $50,000 USD added to the prize pool after $200,000 was offered last year and a total of 16 teams (up from 8) taking part in the Australian event.

IEM Sydney returns and will count towards the $1 million Intel Grand Slam

The Sydney event will count towards the Intel Grand Slam, a $1 million bonus prize rewarded to the first team that wins four of the last ten CS:GO tournaments in the ESL/DreamHack Masters circuit. Four teams have at least one win under their belt, including G2, FaZe, and Ninjas in Pyjamas on one win each, as SK leads the charge with two wins.

HLTV.org has learned the group stage will take place from May 1-3, while the playoffs will be showcased to the live audience at the Qudos Bank Arena from May 4-6, an extra day for the public to enjoy the matches, compared to last year's two-day experience in the arena.

WE'RE COMING BACK TO AUSTRALIA!
Announcing #IEM Sydney 2018 🇦🇺
➡️https://t.co/KrD8frsOwm pic.twitter.com/sJUCa8CKft
— Intel®ExtremeMasters (@IEM) January 30, 2018

hype

2018-01-30 23:04

28 replies

Co ol

2018-01-30 23:05

20 replies

Yup

19 replies

yey

2018-01-30 23:25

18 replies

EZ for SK Gaming, back to back, 2017 - 2018 IEM Sydney CHAMPIONS!!!!! Australianos are cool and all of them are SK fans, Australia is the land of BR CS domination!

2018-01-30 23:33

17 replies

Mate. Don’t be telling us who we’re fans of.

2018-01-31 00:37

6 replies

Mate. You all cheered for SK like Justin Bieber fangirls last time, it was so beautiful I cried a little! Repsect for Australianos!

2018-01-31 00:49

5 replies

Haha, I love your enthusiasm. SK isn’t my favourite team, but I do like them, and they do have Gabriel ‘Two Faced’ Toledo, my favourite player. Should be a great event again this year!

2018-01-31 03:00

3 replies

Yes, very nice event! IEMs are always good, this time will be even better because will not be only 8 teams like 2017! #MiBRCARALHO

2018-01-31 06:09

2 replies

australianos xD - note i said australia without a capital a because they are irrelevant

2018-01-31 06:33

1 reply

nt nz never seen a big tournament in ur country note I said nz without caps cuz yous are irrelevant af

2018-01-31 10:05

I was in IEM the crowd was louder for Faze then SK we just cheer for both cause we are friendly, we are loyal, we are aussie.

2018-02-01 15:45

lmao i hate faze and sk baha

2018-01-31 05:40

8 replies

You're weak! I hope a fucking tarantula gets into ur shoe at night so when you will drink beer from it you eat a tarantula!

2018-01-31 06:07

7 replies

ahh no pls

2018-01-31 08:25

Listen peasant, We don't even have tarantula's here, all about the huntsmen spiders. Regardless, get ready for the shoeys!

2018-01-31 12:07

daddy long legs are scary man

2018-02-01 12:37

Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk im ready

2018-02-01 16:09

wtf? Oo

2018-01-31 15:33

Yeah Body of 20 and mind of 9, any australian person can like of any team without being SK, i am brasilian but my favorite player is Dupreeh ._. And my favorite team is C9

2018-01-31 18:02

Australianos!

2018-02-04 13:42

2018-01-31 06:13

Nice

2 bo1 playing at the same time. Rip.

2018-01-30 23:06

plz invite Renegades

2018-01-30 23:24

4 replies

Surely they will

2018-01-30 23:28

They did last year

2018-01-30 23:36

Order #1 au upset like chiefs did plz

2018-01-31 01:09

Chiefs IS the number 1 au team

2018-01-31 11:43

ez4VP

nice

Nice. SK again

Ayyay

Nice, looking forward to the crowd.

Ytb

YTB

2018-01-31 04:07

Gooo

Not bad

Australia stronk

NOICE

shitney LUL

Should come to Perth aye ;)

2018-01-31 01:10

we gotta use all these stadium were getting for no reason man

2018-01-31 06:14

YE BOIS

fuuucckkkkkkk another sydney event where matches are all at night/early morning

1 tournament where it's out of your timezone vs every other tournament out of our timezone? plz stop complaining

2018-01-30 23:18

So you think time stops for you....jk

2018-01-31 00:17

you just had a major in NA stop complaining.

2018-01-31 09:33

The hype is real. SK again

Sydney is nice, but where's IEM Sao Paulo?

favelas doesnt deserve tournament

2018-01-30 23:07

The best team in the world is brazilian

2018-01-30 23:08

So ?

So Sao Paulo deserves more than Sydney or Bucarest that hasnt any team in top 10

2018-01-30 23:27

one word, favela

2018-01-31 09:07

But Sydney and Bucharest both have good night life, nice locals, cool stuff to see and are ALOT SAFER for players, talant, ECT also you guys did get proleague, so why not share it around?

2018-01-31 11:47

Ez SK as always

totally unexpected

And the teams participants ??

ez 100t

Yeah boys.

Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!

aussie aussie aussie

2018-01-30 23:09

great event, great crowd... just terrible time...

2018-01-30 23:10

Yep :/

2018-01-30 23:45

its the one event where its not a terrible time for us. let us have our moment please :(

2018-01-31 03:35

Totally agree with you bro, last time i still until 6 AM here in Brazil watching the grandfinal and i am looking forward to do this again! Great event and love the crowd

2018-01-31 03:58

I get more excited for IEM events than majors. Says a lot. Valve needs to step up their game.

Agreedo.

2018-01-30 23:31

2018-01-30 23:35

2018-01-30 23:44

agreed

2018-01-31 06:54

enjoy the facebook stream

2018-01-31 08:36

Will be on Twitch as well

2018-01-31 09:32

IEM is not included in the Facebook deal.

2018-01-31 11:48

2018-01-31 16:04

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIEE!!

2018-01-30 23:11

OI OI OI

2018-01-31 03:46

LETS GO Australia has such a good crowd

2018-01-30 23:13

AUSTRALIAN CROWD ONE OF THE BEST ON THE WORLD AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE !!!!! - Fallen 2k17

2018-01-30 23:16

oi oi oi

2018-01-30 23:19

drunk kangaroos drinking from shoes again

I'll be doing that

2018-01-31 01:18

i will be there to watch seeing i’m not legal drinking age

2018-01-31 05:56

Its an age old tradition, it would be disgraceful if we didn't.

2018-01-31 12:21

Only thing which can make me wake up at 7am on a weekend

Nice! One of the best crowds around

Last year i watched sk vs faze before going to the beach while eating bekfast 8/8

let's go

Nice, the crowd was insane in the first edition!! Im happy for that lululul awesome place, so beautyful

2018-01-30 23:41

HYPE

Change that damn 'trophy' ffs

yeah its really just a plate, seemed a bit ridiculous when sk lifted it

2018-01-31 06:23

It' just fucking ugly and bad to lift/hold/store. Trophies aren't supposed to be a plate... and that's an ugly one. If you want to make a plate, make it golden and chromed as fuck, as reflective as a mirror! Then it's fine.

2018-01-31 23:18

Poor prize pool

Better than in the first edition

2018-01-30 23:43

IEM - so its not gonna be on damn facebook like EPL and Esl one right ?

twitter.com/mbCARMAC/status/958473452112.. Twitch stream aswell!

2018-01-31 06:04

So invites will be the four grand slam winners, plus renegades, C9, North, VP. Noice

2018-01-30 23:39

and the other 8?

2018-01-31 00:08

Qualifiers: 2 Au/Asia, 2 NA and then 4 Eu/CIS.

2018-01-31 00:39

I hope there's no Virtus Premier

2018-01-31 05:44

arent they virtus.openleague now?

2018-01-31 06:18

Could be swapped with Astralis

2018-01-31 15:21

Nice. CS should also be played in savage lands.

I wanted to see Aussies cheering for their team in playoffs! ...wait

2018-01-30 23:42

Awesome!

2018-01-30 23:48

teams?

2018-01-30 23:51

This should be another great event

2018-01-30 23:53

Hopefully security aren't such fuck heads this time around. If you're reading this. Fucking relax. Blokes are enjoying a beer and an inflatable kangaroo is not an illegal weapon. Calm the fuck down, relax and stop trying to be a hard cunt.

2018-01-30 23:54

Everyone bring inflatable kangaroos. They surely can't kick us all out.

2018-01-30 23:59

They made me throw out my fucking bananas

2018-01-31 00:59

Doesn't surprise me mate. They need to pull their heads in and just do their fucking job which is to provide security not take some poor blokes food or kick someone out for an inflatable marsupial. Not be Gestapos.

2018-01-31 01:03

they made my dad poor out his water bottle

2018-01-31 05:57

Tier 1 tournament with 20k viewers incoming cuz bad times

2018-01-30 23:55

nice nice nice loved the last one, hope this gonna be great aswell

yeah the fucking boys

2018-01-30 23:56

Glad I could go last year can't go this year but I'm glad Australia finally gets a big tourney regularly

2018-01-31 00:18

NICESUUUUU

2018-01-31 00:38

AUSSIE PRIDE

2018-01-31 00:42

- poor prize pool - jewbook stream sad ;c

also twitch fam twitter.com/mbCARMAC/status/958473452112..

2018-01-31 06:17

2018-01-31 01:15

Hey Qudos Bank Arena, if you take my fucking opened water bottle when I arrive at the venue you can get fucked i'm not paying 8 dollars for a bottle of water inside the venue fuckfaces

2018-01-31 01:55

Then take sealed bottles of water? lol

2018-01-31 04:21

To be fair last time I was there it was 35C, I couldn't just keep my water bottle sealed when everyone was burning to death

2018-01-31 04:26

2018-01-31 02:24

250k in 2018 lul

2018-01-31 02:35

they probs spend a lot of money accommodating the teams and flying them down so they down have as much for the prize pool. this tournament is more about the experience IMO.

2018-01-31 04:12

wtf is belarus

still more competitive than majors

2018-01-31 06:56

2018-01-31 03:37

PogChamp. Went last time. Def going again this time xD

2018-01-31 04:14

YTB flights to Sydney booked

2018-01-31 04:28

lucky i live here

2018-01-31 05:58

>lucky >live in Sydney pick one

at least sydney gets events

2018-01-31 07:08

more like >lucky >live in australia pick both

2018-01-31 08:24

2018-01-31 22:44

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!! GIVE US MORE SHOEIS/SHOEYS

2018-01-31 04:35

It is spelled "Shoey" mate <3

2018-01-31 22:45

<3 GIVE IT TO ME KappaPride

2018-02-01 15:43

Thanks god it's aussie time, i can watch the game. Not like in boston major, the game start in 2AM in my country time.

2018-01-31 04:41

well, that's one tournament I won't watch HF aussies

2018-01-31 05:00

yeah this is why I didn't watch the major. gtfo

2018-01-31 05:59

Dont worry mate, YouTube is your friend

2018-01-31 12:30

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!

let's GO! Aussies make such good crowd.

2018-01-31 05:22

Is IEM on facebook or is it only for their pro league?

2018-01-31 05:31

ESL Australia posts all the stuff for it facebook.com/ESLAustralia/

2018-01-31 05:51

twitter.com/mbCARMAC/status/958473452112..

2018-01-31 06:05

noice

2018-01-31 06:58

SHOEEEEEYYYY

2018-01-31 05:54

maddddd

was great last time, im sure it will be even better this year

2018-01-31 06:11

I agree, we have a reputation to keep up, and we know we can do even better

"Dedicated seating area on Club Level of Qudos Bank Arena" Is that up higher than GA?

2018-01-31 06:21

no dabbing please

2018-01-31 08:21

Well done

2018-01-31 08:52

lul

2018-01-31 10:27

ending my school year with IEM Sydney, nice

2018-01-31 11:13

Awesome time zone . Faze got this

2018-01-31 12:24

hype hype hype!!

2018-01-31 13:46

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE Nice event, hyped up for it:D

2018-01-31 14:11

Thig gun b gud

2018-01-31 14:17

Snake and Spiders Yeah

2018-01-31 15:57

good :D

Ez for the country with besterest crowd and hosts in the world. #RUNRENEGADES or Grayhound, or ORDER, maybe Tainted Minds, all these teams are hella nice.

2018-01-31 16:23