IEM Winter viewer's guide

1-12-2021 22:29

HLTV.org brings you a viewer's guide for one of the final events of the year.

IEM Winter kicks off tomorrow, running from December 2-12, taking place in a studio environment in Stockholm. 16 teams arrive in Sweden to battle it out for a cut of the $250,000 prize pool, as well as for precious ESL Pro Tour points that contribute to qualification for IEM Katowice 2022.

The event begins with the teams split into two double elimination groups, with the opening matches being best-of-one and the rest best-of-three. Then will come a single elimination, best-of-three playoff bracket, where the winners of each group are seeded directly to the semi-finals, whilst second and third in each group proceed to the quarter-finals. The grand final will be best-of-five.

Vitality will be a favourite after their top-two finish at BLAST Fall Final

The groups for IEM Winter are:

Group A

Group B

A stacked field features eight of the top 10 teams in the HLTV rankings, and 14 of the top 20. Notably, Natus Vincere are absent from the team list, meaning there is no clear favourite to take home this title, and everything to play for. The top four teams at the event, Vitality, G2, Gambit and HEROIC will all fancy their chances, however there are some compelling dark horses such as the new-look Astralis fresh off a third-place finish at BLAST Fall Final.

The schedule for the event is as follows:

Thursday, December 2

Group A
12:00 - Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. Astralis | Bo1
12:00 - MOUZ vs. Vitality | Bo1
13:10 - G2 vs. TYLOO | Bo1
13:10 - OG vs. Liquid | Bo1

16:40 - Upper semi-final | Bo3
16:40 - Lower round 1 | Bo3
20:10 - Upper semi-final | Bo3
20:10 - Lower round 1 | Bo3

Group B
14:20 - Gambit vs. fnatic | Bo1
14:20 - ENCE vs. Virtus.pro | Bo1
15:30 - FaZe vs. BIG | Bo1
15:30 - GODSENT vs. HEROIC | Bo1

Friday, December 3

Group A
16:45 - Lower semi-final | Bo3
20:00 - Lower semi-final | Bo3

Group B
13:30 - Lower round 1 | Bo3
13:30 – Lower round 1 | Bo3
16:45 – Upper semi-final | Bo3
20:00 – Upper semi-final | Bo3

Saturday, December 4

Group A
16:45 – Upper final | Bo3
16:45 – Lower final | Bo3

Group B
13:30 – Lower semi-final | Bo3
13:30 – Lower semi-final | Bo3
20:00 – Upper final | Bo3
20:00 – Upper final | Bo3

Sunday, December 5
16:00 – Quarter-final | Bo3
19:15 – Quarter-final | Bo3

Saturday, December 11
16:00 – Semi-final | Bo3
19:15 – Semi-final | Bo3

Sunday, December 12
16:00 – Grand final | Bo5

Some of the best in the business will be bringing the action to live from Stockholm, including duo Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson and Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill fresh from casting the recent PGL Stockholm Major final.

The full talent roster is:

Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus – Host

Pala "⁠Pala⁠" Gilroy Sen - Sideline reporter

Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović - Analyst
Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović - Analyst
Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole - Analyst

Harry "JustHarry" Russell - Commentator
Hugo Byron - Commentator
Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson - Commentator
Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill - Commentator

Finally, the prize distribution for the event is:

1. $100,000 + 1000 EPT points
2. $42,000 + 750 EPT points
3-4. $20,000 + 525 EPT points
5-6. $10,000 + 350 EPT points
7-8. $6,000 + 200 EPT points
9-12. $5,000 + 100 EPT points
13-16. $4,000

Ez for GOAT ZYWOO!

2021-12-01 22:30

3 replies

2021-12-01 22:36

2021-12-02 08:38

god but not goat

2021-12-02 11:45

Lez go! gl hf

Gambit win cuz no Navi

2021-12-01 22:31

4 replies

2021-12-01 22:58

It's LAN bruh.

2021-12-02 03:34

1 reply

-1

2021-12-02 08:51

No navi = boring

7 replies

the opposite if navi is there navi wins 9/10 times

2021-12-01 23:13

Most boring and is when Navi wins and p1mple gets another MVP while being carried by his team.

2021-12-02 06:07

i thought that b1t deserved major mvp but everyone knew it was going to be s1mple

2021-12-02 07:33

Name flair and flag

2021-12-02 08:52

Clown

2021-12-02 09:59

No navi = best tournament ever

2021-12-02 07:25

no navi is what makes it intresting, we don t know who will win.

2021-12-02 07:54

why are quarter finals separated from the other part of playoffs? Any explanations?

2021-12-01 22:32

ye wtf max

2021-12-01 22:35

now or never...

2021-12-01 22:33

GL men <333

2021-12-01 22:34

yay

No one cares

Mantrousse :O WB bro, btw. pls -harry -byron +sado +moses

Fnatic <333

TL Win?

They paired up 2 grear clashes and 2 unwatchable ones im group B. Omg

2021-12-01 22:37

fnatic!

2021-12-01 22:38

What excuse will Zypoo fans have if he doesn’t win this tournament without Navi?

2021-12-01 22:41

Batman

2021-12-01 23:19

His team is mostly dead...

2021-12-02 00:02

Umm they are playing with shox and kyojin who are about to leave the team at the end of this year so there is no point for them to prepare much coz there is no future for them in vitality so u can expect a 4v5 at least every game since kyojin is gonna be a dead weight even if shox decides to give his best. Short answer - a dead team is always a reasonable excuse.

2021-12-02 09:41

Another tourists tourney?

No round robin bo1? Wtf ESL

2021-12-01 22:42

LALALALA VITALITY!

2021-12-01 22:51

Ez for Astralis, they’ve had 1 more day to prac with the new team. Should elevate them to No. 1

2021-12-01 22:53

nice guys navi letting someone else get a trophy too!

Another fake lan who cares

2021-12-01 22:54

Hate the overlapping games :(

2021-12-01 23:01

2 replies

It’ll give you another game to watch during Jame’s 90 second saves. POG

2021-12-02 00:03

Lmao +1

2021-12-02 09:42

Astralis - win Vitality - win Liquid - win Tyloo - win Fnatic - win Faze - win Heroic - win Virtus Pro - win

UKCS ERA INCOMING BABY LETS GO RATKING AND KING MESSI

2021-12-01 23:02

LETS GO LIQUID

2021-12-01 23:03

2021-12-01 23:08

Group A a group of death

2021-12-01 23:12

Sunday, December 5 17:00 – Quarter-final | Bo3 20:15 – Quarter-final | Bo3 Saturday, December 11 17:00 – Semi-final | Bo3 20:15 – Semi-final | Bo3 Explain

2021-12-01 23:25

Gay schedule

2021-12-01 23:29

esl needs that sweet weekend viewership for extra $$$$$

2021-12-02 00:35

Shit hours. Too late. Final should be BO5.

2021-12-02 01:39

Great casters, finally I don’t need to listen to scrawny screaming at the mic

2021-12-01 23:43

But you like cringe jokes of Hugo and Harry more?

2021-12-02 02:11

+1 for pala

2021-12-02 00:06

Time for Fnatic to come back to T1!!! Very excited to see us beat Gambit :)

2021-12-02 00:18

Why no NaVi? Go Go Gambit!

2021-12-02 01:38

crazy to think that fnatic can make it to the finals

2021-12-02 01:48

I hope Fnatic does well, they've been looking super good with smooya.

2021-12-02 05:38

If Heroic can keep their mental game strong, they can win this event. BLAST was a choke, in every way. That being said, I hope Astralis wins this....

2021-12-02 03:53

OG/astralis vs fnatic final. Called it. Fnatic win btw.

2021-12-02 04:57

Fnatic / g2? Also possible

2021-12-02 09:49

hugo harry spunj machine POG

2021-12-02 05:29

Damn, wonder if we see some upset victory teams here. Without a crowd to upset the morale of Heroic, they could be prime contenders to win. Even though recently, Vitality players have been in form. So, ZywOo might finally get an MVP. I'd love G2 to win, though. Gambit winning/losing might change the order of HLTV Top20 2021 as well. Interesting event. All the best <3

2021-12-02 05:44

12th December Final 14th December BLAST World Finals start I wonder whether top teams here take this seriously…

2021-12-02 05:45

Gambit vs Fnatic has to be a fun one, right? I wish it wasn't so damn early 😔

2021-12-02 05:49

Fnatic ez

2021-12-02 09:46

G2 wins

2021-12-02 06:16

Group A: Tier 1 Tier 4 Tier 3 Tier 3 Tier 3 Tier 2 Tier 3 Tier 1 Group B: Tier 1 Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 2 Tier 2 Tier 2 Tier 4 Tier 2 Makes sense :) :P

2021-12-02 06:44

now we can see if fnatic can go against tier 1 opponents, best of luck to fnatic! I hope they atleast go to the playoffs

2021-12-02 07:14

Sad only 1 actual analyst that speak English. Poor talent selection. Budget move.

2021-12-02 07:48

6 replies

As smart people say, it's about knowledge not language. Language is just a means to share the said knowledge. It's not Ynk and Kassad's fault that the CS scene is lacking good english native analysts. 🤷🤷

2021-12-02 09:45

So a German speaking analyst you can’t understand is fine because they are smart? I guess dumb people are ok with that. It’s also entertainment. These guys are boring.

2021-12-03 07:50

Idk it's pretty obvious he is understood by the most which is why organizers hired him. it sounds like a you problem to me. Anyway, mostly people who think themselves as smart often turn out to be the dumb ones. Just saying!!🤷

2021-12-03 08:52