Sixteen of the best CS:GO teams in the world will battle for their share of $250,000 at IEM Winter, starting on Thursday, Dec. 2
This is one of the last S-tier Counter-Strike tournaments before the teams head to the offseason. IEM Winter will run from Dec. 2 to 12 in Stockholm, Sweden. It will be a LAN tournament but without a live audience like past tournaments, such as the PGL Stockholm Major and BLAST Premier Fall Final.
IEM Winter will be a great opportunity for teams like G2, Gambit, Heroic, and Astralis to try to secure a title at the end of the season, given that Natus Vincere, the undisputed No. 1 team will not be participating.
Here’s everything you need to know about IEM Winter 2021.
Stream
IEM Winter will be broadcast on ESL’s two Twitch channels, since the event will feature simultaneous matches during the group stage. You can check if your favorite CS:GO team are playing on the main broadcast or in the secondary stream.
Format
IEM Winter has split the 16 teams in attendance into two double-elimination format GSL groups. All the opening matches will be played as best-of-one series, while the following matches will be all best-of-threes. The winner of each group will go straight to the semifinals, and the runners-up and third-placed will advance to the quarterfinals.
The playoffs will run a single-elimination bracket with the quarterfinals and semifinals being played as best-of-threes. The grand finals, though, will use the best-of-five format like in some previous ESL tournaments.
The winner of IEM Winter will take home $100,000 plus 1,000 ESL Pro Tour points, while the runners-up will grab $42,000 and 750 ESL Pro Tour points.
Teams
Group A
G2
- Nikola “NiKo” Kovač
- Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač
- Kenny “kennyS” Schrub (stand-in)
- Audric “JaCkz” Jug
- François “AmaNEk” Delaunay
- Coach: Jan “Swani” Müller
Vitality
- Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
- Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
- Richard “shox” Papillon
- Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier
- Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van
- Coach: Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam
Astralis
- Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
- Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth
- Philip “Lucky” Ewald
- Benjamin “blameF” Bremer
- Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke
- Coach: Alexander “ave” Holdt
Ninjas in Pyjamas
- Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz
- Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora
- Hampus Poser
- Fredrik “REZ” Sterner
- Patrick “es3tag” Hansen
- Coach: Björn “THREAT” Pers
Team Liquid
- Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
- Keith “NAF” Markovic
- Jake “Stewie2K” Yip
- Michael “Grim” Wince
- Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo
- Coach: Eric “adreN” Hoag
OG
- Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen
- Valdemar “valde” Vangså
- Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski
- Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen
- Shahar “flameZ” Shushan
- Coach: Casper “ruggah” Due
MOUZ
- Robin “ropz” Kool
- David “frozen” Čerňanský
- Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras
- Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand
- Christopher “dexter” Nong
- Coach: Torbjørn “mithR” Nyborg
TYLOO
- Haowen “somebody” Xu
- YuLun “Summer” Cai
- YuanZhang “Attacker” Sheng
- Kelun “SLOWLY” Sun
- ZhengHao “DANK1NG” Lyu
- Coach: LiKan “KingZ” Luo
Group B
Gambit
- Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov
- Abay “Hobbit” Khassenov
- Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov
- Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov
- Timofey “interz” Yakushin
- Coach: Konstantin “groove” Pikiner
Heroic
- Casper “cadiaN” Møller
- Martin “stavn” Lund
- Ismail “refrezh” Ali
- René “TeSeS” Madsen
- Rasmus “sjuush” Beck
Virtus.pro
- Dzhami “Jame” Ali
- Alexey “qikert” Golubev
- Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis
- Timur “buster” Tulepov
- Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev
- Coach: Dastan Akbayev
FaZe Clan
- Håvard “rain” Nygaard
- Helvijs “broky” Saukants
- Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
- Finn “karrigan” Andersen
- Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
- Coach: Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström
ENCE
- Pavle “Maden” Bošković (stand-in)
- Lotan “Spinx” Giladi
- Paweł Dycha
- Olek “hades” Miskiewicz
- Joonas “doto” Forss
- Coach: Eetu “sAw” Saha
BIG
- Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz
- Florian “syrsoN” Rische
- Nils “k1to” Gruhne
- Tizian Feldbusch
- Nicklas Gade
- Coach: Niclas “enkay J” Krumhorn
Fnatic
- Alex McMeekin
- William “mezii” Merriman
- Owen “smooya” Butterfield
- Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson
- Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
- Coach: Jamie “keita” Hall
GODSENT
- Epitácio “TACO” de Melo
- João “felps” Vasconcellos
- Bruno “latto” Rebelatto
- Bruno “b4rtiN” Câmara
- Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer
- Coach: Olavo “cky” Napoleão
Schedule
Thursday, Dec. 2
- 5am CT: Astralis vs. NiP
- 5am CT: Vitality vs. MOUZ
- 6:10am CT: G2 vs. TYLOO
- 6:10am CT: Liquid vs. OG
- 7:20am CT: Gambit vs. Fnatic
- 7:20am CT: VP vs. ENCE
- 8:30am CT: FaZe vs. BIG
- 8:30am CT: Heroic vs. GODSENT
- 9:40am CT: Group A upper bracket round two first match
- 9:40am CT: Group A lower bracket round one first match
- 1:10pm CT: Group A upper bracket round two second match
- 1:10pm CT: Group A lower bracket round one second match
Friday, Dec. 3
- 6:30am CT: Group B lower bracket round one first match
- 6:30am CT: Group B lower bracket round one second match
- 9:45am CT: Group B upper bracket round two first match
- 9:45am CT: Group A lower bracket round two first match
- 1pm CT: Group B upper bracket round two second match
- 1pm CT: VP vs. Group A lower bracket round two second match
Saturday, Dec. 4
- 6:30am CT: Group B lower bracket round two first match
- 6:30am CT: Group B lower bracket round two second match
- 9:45am CT: Group A lower bracket final
- 9:45am CT: Group A upper bracket final
- 1pm CT: Group B lower bracket final
- 1pm CT: Group B upper bracket final
Sunday, Dec. 5
- 9am CT: First quarterfinal
- 12:15pm CT: Second quarterfinal
Saturday, Dec. 11
- 9am CT: First semifinal
- 12:15pm CT: Second semifinal
Sunday, Dec. 12
- 9am CT: Grand finals