Katowice plans to keep supporting IEM up to 2023

Katowice’s council has voted on an act that will see the Polish city co-organize and promote the Intel Extreme Master (IEM) series up to 2023.

In an effort to retrain the tournament in its city, the council has allocated 12.5 million PLN (around $3.5 million) to promote IEM in the city for the next five years. Currently, Katowice’s council hasn’t detailed how they plan to promote the event. Around two million PLN ($640,000) from the total will go towards next year’s event alone.

The City of Katowice’s current deal with ESL, which brings IEM to the city, was set to end after the event in March 2019. IEM will now continue to be held in the city for next five years following the Council’s decision.

Next year represents a big deal for IEM Katowice as it is set to become the 14th Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major. It will be ESL’s first Major since ESL One Cologne in 2016.

Majors are the most important tournaments of the year in the CS:GO calendar. These events have been given to multiple tournament organizers over the years including FACEIT and ELEAGUE.

Each stage of the Katowice Major will be hosted in different venues throughout the city, which is different from how the event has been run in the past. Usually, all matches at IEM are hosted in a singular venue, but that is now changing. The venue locations for the 2019 version have currently not been announced.

H/T EsportsObserver