At the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship, gaming superstars from around the world will compete for a total prize pool of $250,000 in StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and League of Legends. The StarCraft II tournament will be a $100,000 winner-takes-all, single-elimination bracket format. Nine first and second place 2013-2014 IEM event finishers, three players respectively qualifying from America, Europe and Asia regions, two invitees and two players qualifying through the onsite open bracket will make up the 16 players competing for the grand prize. For League of Legends, eight of the world's best teams will clash in two dual tournament style groups that will lead into a four-team single-elimination bracket for a shot at a $60,000 grand prize. The event will also mark the IEM debut of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, with four star players competing onsite for a prize pool of $4,000.
The event will mark the first time that the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship is not held at the CeBIT Tradeshow in Hannover, Germany, where the tournament occupied an entire exhibition hall. In Katowice the event will be held inside Spodek, Polands most famous sports and events venue, which also plays host to world famous musicians and the volleyball World League. Spodek was previously used by the Intel Extreme Masters in January 2013, attracting 50,000 visiting fans and over 5,000,000 unique viewers on ESL TVs online streams, making it the most successful European eSports event in history.
Format
16 world-class players will face off in a single-elimination bracket to decide who will take home $100,000.
- Nine winners and runners-up from the five events in IEM Season VIII:
- IEM Shanghai: Revival and Oz
- IEM New York: Life and NaNiwa
- IEM Singapore: herO and San
- IEM Sao Paulo: MC (herO won both IEM Singapore and Sao Paulo)
- IEM Cologne: HerO and Polt - Three qualified players from regional qualifiers:
- Asia Qualifier: Rogue
- America Qualifier: jjakji
- Europe Qualifier: StarDust - Two invitees:
- TaeJa (2013 Player of the Year) and sOs (2013 WCS Global Finals Winner) - Two qualified players from the onsite open bracket:
- Players selected through open signup and prioritized according to their WCS ranking.
- Double-elimination bracket.
- All matches are Best of 3.
$100,000 and 7,000 WCS Points will be distributed among players as follows:
- 1st Place - $100,000 + 1,500 WCS Points
- 2nd Place - $0 + 800 WCS Points
- 3rd/4th Place - $0 + 550 WCS Points
- 5th - 8th Place - $0 + 400 WCS Points
- 9th - 16th Place - $0 + 250 WCS Points
Participants
Results
Schedule
Streams
Eight teams (four winners from each of the IEM Season VIII events and four invited teams from Europe, North America, South East Asia and South Korea) will compete for a $150,000 prize pool.
Format
- Group Stage
- Two dual-tournament style groups.
- Matches are Best of 1.
- Top 2 teams from each group advance to bracket stage. - Bracket Stage
- Single-elimination bracket.
- Semifinals are Best of 3.
- Grand Final is Best of 5.
$150,000 will be distributed among teams as follows:
- 1st Place - $60,000
- 2nd Place - $30,000
- 3rd/4th Place - $14,000
- 5th - 6th Place - $8,500
- 7th - 8th Place - $7,500
Participating Teams
Results
Schedule
Streams
Hearthstone will join the Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice as an official title. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft will be the second Blizzard Entertainment title at the event, which currently features StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. The digital strategy card game will see four players compete in the onsite competition for a total of $4,000 in the first ever Intel Extreme Masters Hearthstone tournament. European hopefuls will have a chance to qualify for two of the four spots leading up to the tournament, with one of the spots reserved for a Polish representative. Hearthstone celebrities from within the community will be offered the remaining two spots.
Format
- Single-elimination bracket.
- Details about decks not announced.
- "Best of" details not announced.
$4,000 will be distributed among players as follows:
- 1st Place - $2,000
- 2nd Place - $1,000
- 3rd Place - $600
- 4th Place - $400
Schedule
Results
Streams
- TBA
