G2, Vitality, FaZe Clan, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis, Team Liquid, Gambit, Heroic, Virtus Pro, OG, and BIG have joined the IEM Winter CS:GO team list, ESL announced today. The first six squads received invites because they’re partnered with the tournament organizer and the other five were picked based on ESL’s world rankings.
There will be 16 teams in total participating in the $250,000 LAN tournament scheduled to run from Dec. 2 to 12 in Europe. GODSENT and TYLOO have already secured their spots via the North American and Asian qualifier, respectively, and three European teams will complete the list once the region’s qualifier concludes on Oct. 19.
In addition to today’s announcement, ESL revealed that mousesports, ENCE, Complexity, and Team Spirit have been invited to compete for a slot at the IEM Winter European closed qualifier. They’ll be joined by four other teams that will qualify from the open qualifiers, scheduled for Oct. 9 to 15.
IEM Fall will be the last ESL Pro Tour major-level tournament of the year and will award the winner with one Intel Grand Slam season four point. A team is awarded the Intel Grand Slam trophy and $1 million if they win four major-level tournaments organized by ESL during a window of 10 consecutive events. Astralis won season one, Liquid won season two, and Natus Vincere won season three recently.
