9 of the top 10 teams confirmed for IEM Winter

6-10-2021 17:24

ESL has revealed the invites for a $250,000 event in December, where Natus Vincere will not be in action.

Gambit, Vitality, G2, and HEROIC are among the teams that have been confirmed for the tournament scheduled for December 2-12 as the organizer unveiled ESL World Ranking and Partner Team invites.

A total of 11 teams have been announced. Alongside the previously mentioned ones, Ninjas in Pyjamas, FaZe, Astralis, Virtus.pro, and OG make the nine top-10 teams in attendence, with BIG and Liquid expanding that to eleven of the current top 12.

With no NAVI, Gambit are looking like the favorites for IEM Winter

The most notable omission from the tournament is Natus Vincere, as the CIS squad has seemingly decided to prioritize the $425,000 BLAST Premier Fall Final and the $1,000,000 BLAST Premier World Final over the $250,000 IEM that happens in between the two. Worth noting is that the current No. 1 team is the only one that has already locked in their spots at both BLAST events, putting them in a unique situation.

For the rest of the top, IEM Winter will be an opportunity to grab some silverware, as well as points for the ESL Pro Tour ranking. It has not yet been revealed whether IEM Winter will take place online or on LAN, but regardless of the setting, doing well at the event will be crucial for likes of BIG and FaZe, who could miss out on a spot at IEM Katowice in 2022 if they don't improve their standing in December.

The team list for IEM Winter is missing just three teams now, which will be decided through an European closed qualifier on October 18-19:

EU Qualifier

Four teams have been invited to the closed qualifier:

Open Qualifier #1

Open Qualifier #2

Lets go Faze.

2021-10-06 17:24

6 replies

2021-10-06 17:26

2 replies

yes

2021-10-06 17:39

1 reply

navi lan dodging ?

2021-10-06 20:39

nice get the cis region outta here

2021-10-06 18:15

Virtus.Pro?

2021-10-07 04:52

2021-10-06 19:26

Same

3rd

2021-10-06 17:25

wtf

5 replies

2021-10-06 17:38

so nice right?

It is Na'Vi's decision and not ESL's.

2021-10-07 06:29

Yeah Ik kinda dissapointing

2021-10-07 11:03

2021-10-07 14:45

nice

complexity aren't even getting invites to t1 tournaments anymore 🙄

3 replies

They are in the closed qual I think

2021-10-06 17:33

at least they are in a closed qual hltv.org/events/6166/iem-winter-2021-eur..

esl to col: youtube.com/watch?v=_QkKOTsW8jk

2021-10-06 17:40

Noice

GO OG

that's online tournament?

Yes

2021-10-06 17:30

Type: Offline Location: Europe TBA

2021-10-06 17:31

thanks god ez4faze then

i guess it makes sense but still youd like to see them

Is this event part of the Intel Grand slam?

Yes, the first event of the fourth season

2021-10-06 17:29

Yes. Season 4 starts with this event.

Nice, Vitality - Gambit could be really interesting

gonna go as it always does, swift win for Vitality :DD

2021-10-06 23:24

Why no mouz?

EU - closed qualifier

They didn't do too well recently...

2021-10-07 05:19

Navi too good for these small prize pool tournaments now.

2021-10-06 17:44

I had actually never seen a tier 1 team skip an international tournament before, that's crazy!

2021-10-06 18:05

4 replies

NAVI skipped IEM Summer this year as well

2021-10-06 18:07

Really? Was it because of the 2nd CIS RMR?

2021-10-06 18:09

The second RMR was about 2 weeks after IEM Summer

2021-10-06 18:12

Skipping tournaments was a common occurance before everything moved online, even skipping quite big ones. With travel it was a very bad idea to go to every tournament.

2021-10-07 01:17

Good guy NaVi skipping an event to give others a chance

2021-10-06 17:34

why did they skip the event ???

2021-10-06 18:14

"The most notable omission from the tournament is Natus Vincere, as the CIS squad has seemingly decided to prioritize the $425,000 BLAST Premier Fall Final and the $1,000,000 BLAST Premier World Final over the $250,000 IEM that happens in between the two. Worth noting is that the current No. 1 team is the only one that has already locked in their spots at both BLAST events, putting them in a unique situation."

Thank you mate

2021-10-06 18:21

go tyloo

2021-10-06 17:36

how the qualifiers work for this tournament?

liquipedia.net/counterstrike/Intel_Extre..

thank you. hope EF can get a spot in the open quals

Everyone (even you or me) can get a spot in open qualifier.

2021-10-07 05:21

easy win for godsent

1st event of incoming grand slam for fropzen

2021-10-06 17:49

cs scene is so week rn tbh apart from navi..

EASY WIN FOR TYLOO

2021-10-06 17:50

still inviting heroic shame on you esl

2021-10-06 17:54

God i would like to see NaVi just say fuck it and play the open qualifier

No NaVi means ez for Gambit

2021-10-06 18:22

Once OG finishes this event without making it to the playoffs, it should be lights out for the most overrated/overpriced IGL (and player, for that matter) in the history of professional CS: Aleksibot.

2021-10-06 18:24

I love to watch tier 1 tournament without NaVi, dont have to get my nerves fucked over CS game

2021-10-06 18:25

LOL, what happened? Are you a Navi fan that gets heart attacks when they play or you get heart attacks because the opponent is Navi?

2021-10-06 18:37

First one. I already lost couple of years life just by being NaVi fan for 4 years already

2021-10-06 18:38

Haha, I can feel you. Especially those close 14-14 scores and Navi just suddenly pulls out a Navi move from nowhere with 10 seconds left on the clock and somehow wins. Or they have 15 and the other team maybe 10-12 and they somehow throw and OT is reached and lose. Or just play like they know what is going on. Then I wonder why i spent 2+ hours just to watch Navi play bad and lose. Then I refuse to watch next matches. Then I forget what happened and start watching Navi's matches again until the cycle repeats again.

2021-10-07 02:22

It was so cancerous to watch Navi play especially as Navi-fan basically every year before this one. Navi had only world beater level or tier 3 level performances and many times Simple was the only one who seemed to know on which hand to hold the mouse. And it was basically flip-of-a-coin which Navi would be on the server. This year has been better, but sometimes we still see glimpses of old Navi.

2021-10-07 01:25