ESL announce IEM Katowice 2024 invites

18-12-2023 20:14

Eight teams have received direct invites to the main event, whilst a further 16 will battle their way through the Play-In.

ESL have announced the 24 teams that have been invited to IEM Katowice 2024, with eight teams beginning their campaign at the $1,000,000 tournament in the group stage whilst 16 begin their journey in the Play-In.

The majority of the invites were determined by ESL's world ranking, with the rest of the invites being dished out based on winning various ESL tournaments.

IEM Katowice 2024 will begin on January 31 with the Play-In. The Play-In will pit 16 teams against each other in a double-elimination bracket, with two losses eliminating teams whilst two wins qualifies them for the main event.

Eight teams from the Play-In will then proceed to the group stage, which kicks off February 3, and join eight teams who were directly invited.

First up teams will be split across two double-elimination best-of-three groups, with teams who secure first place in their group proceeding to the semi-final, whilst second and third head to the quarter-finals. The grand final will be a best-of-five.

The team list for IEM Katowice 2024 is as follows:

Group Stage

Play-In

ez g2

2023-12-18 20:14

11 replies

how is falcons in ? with 0 games ? esl loves saudi money ?

2023-12-18 20:20

10 replies

Ence core

2023-12-18 20:21

ence core has enough points for the invite

4 replies

couldnt liquid keep 1 of their players and replace him after they got the invite they would have to play with a coach but thats at least something right

2023-12-18 20:22

3 replies

thats just shad and evil tho

2023-12-18 20:45

literally all three of their pickups brought points from different regions. big sad. NA, SA, EU. If they kept oSee and subbed in cadiaN for the event they would likely be invited.

2023-12-18 20:54

roster locks exist. I don't know about their sub rule and make it so cadian or someone else would sub in for someone who "can't make it" but that would be pretty obvious tho.

2023-12-19 02:51

ence core

Isn’t ESL owned by the Saudis?

2023-12-18 23:29

Yes

2023-12-19 04:19

esl is saudi money

2023-12-20 03:12

BIG POG

6 replies

Where Liquid!?!?!?

2023-12-19 02:15

1 reply

New core - no points. Or almkst no points.

2023-12-19 02:20

Falcons invite?? Joke of the year.

2023-12-19 07:02

ence core just say u dont understand the points system

2023-12-19 07:47

2 replies

I don't understand the point system, how can heroic be invite, they don have a core? only tesses and sjuush ?

2023-12-19 09:13

Partner team I assume. Or esl knows the names of the lineup

2023-12-19 11:44

Nice

BIG Pog

Lets go Vita <3 #VforVictory

2023-12-18 20:16

Sad for Mibr. The Esl Ranking is meme. Iem Sydney finished arouns 2-3 months and give more points against Blast WORLD Final. Omegalul Ranking

2023-12-18 20:15

Agreed, the invites are a racket and the points system which varies by region/event is total trash.

2023-12-18 20:27

The fact of complexity get invite to iem katowice with 1 camp say everything.

2023-12-18 22:51

no liquid sadge

pain

2023-12-19 09:04

Do we know Why they arent invited? If its merely bases on ranking, Liquid should have some Kinda points from earlier this Year /even earlier, idk when it resets, but meh! Wanted to see Liquid in action!

2023-12-19 13:08

liquid is cooked. they could probably win an NA competition but CoL is still probably better overall, if we're just looking at North America.

2023-12-20 20:22

Rooster hell yeah

Again No OG Invite

2023-12-18 20:17

good

2023-12-18 21:03

they don't even have a team

2023-12-18 21:26

good news

2023-12-18 23:02

Okay

Happy for Monte

Paloma beat 9ine to get here but 9ine reincarnated as ence still came lol

5 replies

wait how did Ence have enough points but liquid didnt? Must have been really close for liquid

They have 9ine core so enough points

2023-12-18 20:59

They have Dycha who keeps his points.

2023-12-18 22:48

dycha has like 209.1 points himself, thats x2 the amount of liquid points. rest of ence combine to a total of 256.4, So dycha carried ence to kato play-in.

2023-12-19 03:00

lmao thats funny now that you mentioned it

2023-12-19 03:02

LFG Donk time, they barely made it in too over NiP. Still disgusting that PALOMA is still there.

Yup, liquid should be there instead of Faceit lvl 8 pog team "paloma Shit"

TBF I rather watch Spirit than NIP so this is good news!

2023-12-18 21:05

i agree

2023-12-19 07:10

Invite Guild Eagles already ffs

2023-12-18 20:18

Bro is 45th at esl wl and wants an invite 💀

2023-12-18 23:46

wow, fnatic aren't invited

2023-12-18 20:19

Not Even close in the rankings. They have to start from the bottom up again.

2023-12-18 23:27

neither is NIP ahahahahah

2023-12-19 07:15

ez 4 liquid

Seems fair

Inviting PALOMA over Liquid is insane. I would understand if it was the road to Hall of Cheaters, but it is the road to Hall of Heroes, and those bad players can't even get 10 rounds without the use of executable programs that helps you appear better.

2023-12-18 20:23

PALOMA got there by cheating in the Polish qualifier.

2023-12-18 20:25

lmao

2023-12-19 07:18

complexity in groups already what a joke

+1 they wouldn’t make it through the play in

2023-12-18 20:28

No liquid No open/close qualifier Thats fucked up

Imagine inviting coL over VP ahahahaha

ROOSTER?????????

Oceania's finest.

2023-12-18 20:46

I'm glad to see that Complexity are ranked high enough that M80 can make it through the sole NA spot.

paloma ew

2023-12-18 20:30

Ef gonna claim the title

2023-12-18 20:32

Falcons direct spot? okay $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

2023-12-18 20:48

yup disgusting

2023-12-18 21:18

They have ences spot and ence has 9ines spot

2023-12-18 22:16

VP should've taken this spot, without a doubt

2023-12-18 22:18

Those are based on world ranking and ence was higher than vp

2023-12-18 22:22

No Liquid, fnatic, NiP. I know they're new teams but people watch them anyway and they bring more hype compared to some teams on that list.

2023-12-18 20:50

No one wants to watch ass line ups (except liquid)

2023-12-18 21:09

This is just a little taste of what 2025 are going to offer when the partner team era is over. A team like Liquid will probably survive while teams like Fnatic and NIP might miss out on a lot of the top tournaments because they will probably be low on the the rankings without the partner-padding. TLDR: Read #83 lmao

2023-12-18 21:12

No one watches and/or wants to watch NiP and Fnatic anymore

2023-12-19 03:54

No liquid, instead we get to see the brand new up and comers in Gamerlegion :skull:

great invites

2023-12-18 21:04

damn first time since Kato (in its various forms) was created that NIP will not be there. they truly have fallen off

2023-12-18 21:06

Thought the same thing. It's sad

2023-12-18 21:10

It's really sad but they have put themself in this position from the extreme mismanagement of their roster. EVERY new decision they have made has somehow been worse than the last

7 replies

completely agree man. ever since device got depressed its just been completely downhill

2023-12-18 21:23

Yeah, they had a pretty decent run after device left the active roster and hung on to top 10. Then aleksi joined and it went really bad at first but at the time when he was booted they were actually doing fine IMO, they just had a massive choke against Apeks, otherwise they would have made playoffs at the Paris Major. Until that point (getting eliminated from paris) one can argue NIP had bad luck with the roster but everything from there on is just one moronic decision after the other. Good riddance!

2023-12-19 00:02

it didnt go "really bad at first" when he joined please refresh your mind my friend

2023-12-19 07:17

last place at rio major, last place at blast spring groups and last place at kato. only thing they didnt get last in was blast fall final where they won vs OG and a severely slumping NAVI

2023-12-19 17:13

I love aleksi but it's the truth my friend. NIP went from #6 to #22 (lowest ever*) when he joined before working their way back to #10 and then falling to #16 after the Paris major, then aleksi went to Navi. I'm not trashing aleksi at all, they were good with him at the end of his run. *lowest ranking ever at that time, NIP are #26 right now on HLTV but I would really question that. In Valve rankings they are not even mentioned in their current lineup since they are shit.

2023-12-20 01:41

The way I see, things were going wrong with NIP in general at the time they brought in Aleksib. Regardless of who they would have added as IGL NIP wouldn´t have been successful. They made changes like once a month and had REZ as AWP.

2023-12-20 08:45

I just stated that the switch did have a big impact in performance and that they did actually recover and looked good at the end of aleksis run. A key to the drop was IMO the switch to english. As you say one can speculate and be fairly certain that things were going to shit regardless of who they brought in, just look at the state of the team now..

2023-12-20 10:47

Yeah, they have to stoop really low to not be invited to the Katowice play-in. They've been a staple ESL invite for a decade now...

2023-12-18 22:05

apparently they are the first team in ESL ranking to miss out so if a team has visa issues we may still see them but yeah its a real shame to see a legendary name fall so far

2023-12-19 17:14

Rooster era begins Why did GH not play any events??

2023-12-18 21:11

why not fmatic? liquid?

no enough points and didnt won any qualifires.

2023-12-18 23:04

paloma? Honestly never heard about them before? Are they good? Also where Liquid?

2023-12-18 21:16

paloma is a team that is constantly accused of cheating lol its gonna be interesting seeing olimp again

2023-12-18 23:24

NiP can't even get an invite being partner. sad

2023-12-18 21:20

there are more partners than slots in the Kato/Cologne size tournaments so some teams are gonna get left out

2023-12-18 21:24

No Liquid massive L

Liquid?

2023-12-18 21:27

BetBoom wins it all big trust

2023-12-18 21:28

invite big L

2023-12-18 21:29

Niko is like an idiot, falcons in the main event lmaoooo

2023-12-18 21:33

Falcons invite? lol. No other real sport has this fraud invite system. If falcons win just one game on this tournament it suddenly would rank up to top30 or even higher. Hltv ranking system is also a joke, it caters for rich orgs. All teams should grind their way up, like in tennnis since open era was inroduced

2023-12-18 21:38

Don't worry they are already top10 without playing a single match

2023-12-18 21:49

I dont get how when Navi had a new lineup they took the rank away completely??

2023-12-18 22:07

what are the rules for having a team to take the region spot even tho they have higher ranking than some other teams invited by ranking? Like, COL got invited but didn't take aways the NA spot, but the same didn't happen to Furia, even tho they are ranked over teams like Big, GL, Astralis, BB, EF...

2023-12-18 21:48

It goes top 8 first to determine who skips play ins, then regional rankings then whoever is left is global

2023-12-19 02:25

Paloma, rooster, m80, the mongolz but no liquid or NIP? Really ?!

2023-12-18 21:53

YEP, liquid new roster - no world ranking, nip doing really fkin bad recently. And those 4 teams are top ranking in their region.

2023-12-19 05:07

MongolZ invited, bcs of Asian rank.

2023-12-19 05:52

no nip and no liquid damn oh and fnatic as well

no liquid is a major L but huge huge W for M80

2023-12-18 21:58

ENCE vs. Paloma

ITS COMMING HOME

Fearthecock rooster will decimate eu fraudsters

2023-12-18 22:24

No NiP and Liquid , feelsbadaf.

2023-12-18 22:26

Not even a chance to qualify for the play-in so a few of the new teams/rosters who could make it to the main event are left out. F'n lame. Especially for NiP.

2023-12-18 22:45

nip wont make it anyway xD

2023-12-18 23:15

Poggers, cant wait

lol - why falcons?

2023-12-18 22:59

Last year of clown invites

Why falcons? I don't care about this team is in top 10. That isn't solution for this team

2023-12-18 23:07

why would they invite Liquid when they dont even have a ranking yet lol

2023-12-18 23:10

hopefully s1mple plays (for cloud9)

2023-12-19 00:08

I NEED a M80 vs Astralis game

2023-12-19 00:32

2023-12-19 00:40

ASStralis?????? Why a tier 3 team in kato

2023-12-19 00:45

LIQUID WHERE????

2023-12-19 01:11

not enough points. Their fault for choosing to rebuild.

2023-12-19 01:33

They wouldnt get invite anyways if they didnt rebuild. Their line up was ass

2023-12-19 07:59

9ine core really gamed the system and got in despite losing to the radar boys lmao.

2023-12-19 01:26

No Liquid :(

2023-12-19 01:27

No Liquid meanwhile total bots like Paloma, Rooster and m80 are invited lol

2023-12-19 02:21

Ez 4 Paloma sus

2023-12-19 01:41

I know Liquid made a lot of changes and for this reason they won't be attending but it is a shame that we will have to wait until the RMRs to see them compete which is also very scary for them because they will go into such crucial games without any prior officials played

2023-12-19 01:49

I think its also hard for certain teams to read them with no games played. But i think a decent quite a bit will be known that, cadiaN plays awp, twistzz rotation. Two of other players play anchor

2023-12-19 09:09

Ez navi

2023-12-19 02:16

Very happy to see 3D Max in the list! But Liquid needs to be here too!

2023-12-19 02:33

please read

2023-12-19 03:03

lmao i thought i clicked on the major RMR topic hahaha

2023-12-19 10:56

where?

2023-12-19 08:57

Two strongest team of group are Furia and Cloud9 so ez play-off for Mongolz

2023-12-19 04:51

get out flag kid

2023-12-19 05:38

Bro u had literal mongolian name attached to your account and straight up criticizing mongolian people and teams wtf is wrong with u?. Saw ur prof and full of blaming mongolz. Did they make u lose that much money 🤣

2023-12-20 17:36

sorry king

2023-12-21 14:57

Big brain from ESL. Offer invites to Ence and Heroic when they only have 1-2 players each from original rosters. Meanwhile Not inviting Liquid who has 2 players from original roster adding in 2 top tier players. Ranking makes sense. And yes, I am a liquid fan.

2023-12-19 06:51

It's pretty simple, there is no partner teams consideration at IEM Kato and Cologne, solely ESL Rankings decide. Now look where ENCE and Heroic are and where Liquid is.

2023-12-20 00:41

No, that’s what I am trying to say. Why is liquid ranked so low when the ence and heoric rosters basically disbanded and they are still higher. Rankings are a bit scuffed you think?

2023-12-20 01:36

I'm not the biggest fan of ESL ranking myself. In hltv ranking, when core is lost so are all the remaining points. In ESL, points get transfered over to the other teams. I believe Liquid ranking also got scuffed because points were coming from 3 different regions and it's calculated differently then.

2023-12-22 02:24

3 fromer ence players with got a direct invited .. plus money LOL

2023-12-19 10:22

FALCONS direct invite to group stage? WHAT?!

2023-12-19 17:16

2024-01-04 19:49

anybody remember how was it in 2019 Kato? were there a lot of people cheering? or crowd was dead

2023-12-19 21:44

ITT: people not understanding rankings

2023-12-20 15:18

Eight teams from the Play-In will then proceed to the group stage, which kicks off February 23, and join eight teams who were directly invited. FEBRUARY 23? IEM Katowice 2024 Start date Feb 3rd 2024 End date Feb 11th 2024

2023-12-20 20:14