After the great success in Katowice, which saw the very best CS teams sweat their palms and fingers while competing at the Spodek Arena with over 12,000 live Esports fans cheering on, ESL will be heading to Australia for the very first time to enchant and engage with the Ozzy fans!
IEM Sydney 2017 will be obviously hosted by ESL, bringing all the Counter-strike action at the Qudos Bank Arena in Australia. This prestigious tournament began some 11 years ago, back in 2006, when competitive gaming was still in its infancy and rarely known to the rest of the sporting world. Featuring Blizzard’s games such as Counter Strike:Global Offensive, Starcraft 2 and League of Legends. The event IEM Sydney 2017 is being held thanks to the ESL partners Intel, HyperX, GFuel & Kinguin.
The Intel Extreme Masters event is one of the global gaming tournaments held across various continents. Last March 2017, IEM Katowice has set a record for being the most watched event in esports history, attracting over 45 million unique viewers. IEM CS:GO Tournaments in 2017 will be streamed live across different channels such as Twitch, Hitbox, Yahoo and HuoMaoTV to share the event with the rest of the world.
Qudos Bank Arena – Sydney, Australia. Image Source: www.eslgaming.com
IEM Sydney 2017 ANZ qualifiers will take place in two stages; an open and closed qualifier. Open qualifiers will all take place online between the 19th & 26th March. Only two teams will be allowed to qualify for the closed qualifiers, which will see a total of eight teams, including the two which qualified from the open, will battle it out online on the 1st, 2nd & 9th of April. The qualified teams will them conclude their CS adventure at the live event in Sydney.
Four teams have already been invited to the final faze of the tournament in the land of Down Under, these are, this year’s winners at IEM Katowice, Astralis, Brazilian team SK Gaming, home team Renegades and Optic Gaming, which will be part of eight teams competing for the a prize pool of $260,000AUD.
Eight competing teams will be participating in the event, IEM Sydney, where they will play in the swiss group stage. The best four teams will move on to the Playoffs with a single elimination bracket and moving on to two best of three Semi-Finals on Saturday 6th May and a best of five Grand final where the two CS:GO squads compete for the championship title on Sunday 7th May.
SK Gaming
With the latest addition of felps from Immortals, the CS:GO squad have placed second in the DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017. The latest success the unit have had was at the Major event, CS_Summit where SK beat Gambit Gaming. At the moment SK Gaming is the top fourth best CS:GO team around according to HLTV.org, will they keep up the top ratings at IEM Sydney?
Renegades
Australia’s best esports team were invited to participate at their very first IEM event. The latest addition to the Renegades unit includes Nifty and Nexa to form part of the CS:GO roster. Renegades will have to step up their game against the world’s best CS teams to go through to the Playoffs.
Astralis
At the moment Astralis are the best top CS:GO team that have dominated the esports scene for a couple of months. The squad have kept up their winning streak, placing first at the ELeague Major 2017 and the IEM Masters World Championship. Astralis have come in second place in their most recent, StarLadder i-League.
North
Ranking in fifth place according to HLTV.org, the top CS:GO team has lately added aizy in their new roster. They may have just started their CS:GO journey into esports in the beginning of 2017, will North step up their game against the best teams?
Optic Gaming
The North American CS:GO team, Optic Gaming announced that Stanislaw left the team and the temporary stand in for the coming IEM tournament will be Hazed. Although they have finished second in the iBUYPOWER Invitational 2017 and came in third at the Major CS_Summit, will they survive the Playoffs?
Faze Clan
The second top CS:GO team according to HLTV.org is Faze Clan. The latest surprise for the Faze was winning over Astralis at the Starladder i-league StarSeries Season 3 and finishing second at the iEM Masters XI World Championship. Do they have what it takes to be in the Semi-Finals?
Vici Gaming
The Chinese team qualified for IEM Sydney beating Tyloo with a record of 2:1. Vici Gaming have two new CS:GO teams Vici Gaming and Vici Renascence that have started out in March 2017. IEM will be VG’s very first premier event together as a team. The roster includes advent, zhokiNg, uki, JeXeN and Freeman. Does Vici Gaming have what it takes to be in the Playoffs?
Chiefs eSports Club
The Australian squad have acquired a spot in the IEM Sydney qualifiers beating Tainted Minds with the record 2:0. The squad consists of tucks, INS, Malta, aliStair and Pecks. They may have beaten the best home teams but will they step up their game against best CS:GO teams?
