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[SamuraiX-]

Streams: ESL TV (StarCraft II)​

The Intel Extreme Masters is ESL's flagship competition sponsored by Intel. IEM is an extensive tournament spanning many months and individual competitions across the globe culminating in an annual World Championship.

The IEM Season VIII StarCraft II World Championship in Katowice will be a $100,000 Winner-Takes-All Tournament!​

The StarCraft II online qualifiers for IEM Cologne took place in two stages: the first stage was an open sign up and the second stage seeded players based on their previous results. There were three qualifiers in total that awarded tournament spots to four players from Europe, two players from North and South America and two players from Asia and Oceania. The eight qualified players received a fully paid trip to Cologne. Regional qualifiers ensure that there is a diverse spectrum of talent from all over the globe.

The main event will take place over three stages. The first stage will spotlight the local StarCraft II talent with two brackets of eight participants each competing for four spots in the second stage. The top four players of the first stage will join the eight players from the online qualifiers as well as four other wildcard players. These 16 players will then play in a group stage, battling fiercely to advance to the 8-man playoffs.

Format

• Stage 1
  - Two double-elimination brackets consisting of eight players each.
  - Top 2 players from each bracket advance to Stage 2.
• Stage 2
  - Four groups consisting of four players each (4 Stage 1 winners, 8 qualified players and 4 wildcard invites) compete in a dual tournament format.
  - Top 2 players from each group advance to Stage 3.
• Stage 3
  - Single-elimination bracket consisting of eight players.
  - Quarterfinals and Semifinals are Best of 5.
  - Grand Final is Best of 7.

Prize Pool

$25,000 and 4,000 WCS Points will be distributed among players as follows:

• 
  1st Place - $10,000 + 750 WCS Points
• 
  2nd Place - $4,000 + 500 WCS Points
• 
  3rd/4th Place - $2,000 + 375 WCS Points
• 5th - 8th Place - $1,000 + 250 WCS Points
• 9th - 12th Place - $400 + 125 WCS Points
• 13th - 16th Place - $350 + 125 WCS Points

Casters and Hosts

Participants

Note: The player in Group A is the HerO of Team Liquid, not the herO of CJ Entus.

Results

• Stage 1
  - Dual Tournament #1
  - Dual Tournament #2
• Stage 2
  - Group Stage
• Stage 3
  - Bracket

Schedule

• Full StarCraft II Schedule

Streams

• 
  ESL TV (StarCraft II)
• 
  TaKeTV
• 
  ESL PL
• 
  EmpireTV
• 
  ESL Spain
• 
  IESN
• 
  AFKTV

 

[Aaron]

So few protoss. Total fraud event.

 

[Daante]

Hope for Jadeong, MC, Grubby and Innovation!

 

[DerZuhälter]

Mhh Cologne you say. I might actually go there in person. If I'd find someone interested enough :\

 

[Majine]

Mhh Cologne you say. I might actually go there in person. If I'd find someone interested enough :\

I can come to Germany, but only if I can sleep at your place.

 

[SamuraiX-]

HasuObs playing pretty well. Probably my favorite European Protoss. He actually prefers playing a safe macro game over abusing bull shit all-ins.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Lets go Revenge!

 

[SamuraiX-]

Lets go Revenge!

MC beat him 2-0 in the winners bracket and then he lost to San 1-2 in the losers bracket.

He's gone. :-/

 

[Panthers]

No Taeja in this? Oh well I will root for Terrans all day! (and Jaedong)

 

[Aaron]

Revenge's inexperience in the booth showed. With some more experience, he'll be a killer terran.

 

[SamuraiX-]

Round of 16 Groups:

Fucking Patience. Hope he gets curb stomped by jjakji and qxc.

Happy to see HyuN sneak in there over Leenock. Too bad for viOLet and Grubby. Korea too stronk.

Group A stacked as fuck.

I'll be rooting for ForGG, Polt and INnoVation since jjakji already qualified for Katowice. Also for Jaedong because he's fucking Jaedong. Would love to see Rain go far as well. :3

 

[DerZuhälter]

I can come to Germany, but only if I can sleep at your place.

Sorry, overbooked right now
If I sort my "living arangements" out I'll invite you! Promise!

 

[Majine]

Sorry, overbooked right now
If I sort my "living arangements" out I'll invite you! Promise!

Aight

 

[Aaron]

Rain is murdering Hyun. It's practically a war crime.

 

[survivor]

Were the Rain games good? Just saw that he swept everyone 4-0

 

[SamuraiX-]

Glad Rain is through... tune in to see ForGG being cheesed to death by HerO. ;_;

 

[Paches]

Hey look, more Protoss winning....zzz

 

[Won]

This is going to be a pretty depressing top 8, isn't it?

 

[survivor]

ForGG played really bad in game 1. Sure he didn't know that Hero had a hidden third base, but he delayed his Ghosts for so long that he just got destroyed by storms. Game 2 however was just lol

Can't wait for jjakji to reck Dear again.

 

[SamuraiX-]

This is going to be a pretty depressing top 8, isn't it?

Polt, jjakji and INnoVation will save us... ;_;

 

[survivor]

Just noticed there is only one Zerg left and it's Jaedong. So I really want him to at least make it to the finals to guarantee a spot at Katowice. As for the other player, either Innovation or Rain.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

QXC going to get mauled here ;(

 

[SamuraiX-]

C'MON, QXC!!

GET FUCKING REKT, PATIENCE! >:O

 

[Won]

QXC doesn't know how to finish this game. But let's drop manner mules anyway!

 

[Sibylus]

I want to cheer for the underdog, but he sure is making it difficult.

 

[survivor]

These manner mules were bad. Would have been hilarious if he lost.

 

[SamuraiX-]

GET REKT PROTOSS SCUM

Incoming cheese all in.

 

[Sibylus]

QXC you goober.

 

[Aaron]

Were the Rain games good? Just saw that he swept everyone 4-0

Late on this, but saw most of his games, and thought they were good. His pvp series against Hero especially was surprisingly good.

Blizzard, limit photon overcharge to one nexus at a time. Make protoss actually chose something for once.

 

[survivor]

Late on this, but saw most of his games, and thought they were good. His pvp series against Hero especially was surprisingly good.

Blizzard, limit photon overcharge to one nexus at a time. Make protoss actually chose something for once.

Thanks, looks like I gotta check them out later today.

Also jjakji just got protossed hard.

 

[SamuraiX-]

Choke on all of the cocks, Patience.

I'm gonna flip tables if Dear advances over jjakji.

Is the quarterfinals seriously gonna be a bunch of Protoss scum plus Jaedong? Hurry the fuck with the balance update, DK.

 

[Syf]

Hurry the fuck with the balance update, DK.

Test map is already up. Shouldn't be long now. Hopefully. Patience is the worst sort of scum.

 

[Aaron]

Protoss has storm. Guess terran loses again.

 

[Syf]

Awesome game one from jjakji. One more!

 

[Sibylus]

Ghosts pr good unit, apparently.

 

[Aaron]

Sure, if the protoss completely forgets about thermal lance.

Dear is playing like ass and still winning.

 

[Crimsonlink]

Been out all day so I've been catching only some games. QXC played so well but toss...

Anyways wtf Dear lol. Playing terrible but power of Toss is keeping him up.

 

[Paches]

More DT spam.

 

[Syf]

Yes!

 

[Won]

So bad. But thank you jjakji. Thank you non existing thermal lance upgrade.

 

[Sibylus]

H.G. Wells' Martians made the same mistake.

 

[Paches]

It is amazing how bad a person can play and still almost win. Rooting for Inno tomorrow!

 

[survivor]

Really don't know what is up with Dear. His games in 2014 so far don't look like from someone who won a GSL and WCS season finals 5 months ago.

Finished watching Rain's games and he on the other hand looks extremely solid.

 

[SamuraiX-]

Really don't know what is up with Dear. His games in 2014 so far don't look like from someone who won a GSL and WCS season finals 5 months ago.

All you have to do is look at what race he plays and then everything makes sense. He's probably also tired of winning so he most likely hasn't been practicing at all since BlizzCon. Although he did make the finals of ASUS ROG Winter...

Finished watching Rain's games and he on the other hand looks extremely solid.

Rain is the motherfucking truth. When he's practiced he's nearly unstoppable. It's such a damn shame he wastes his talents by playing Protoss.

 

[Aaron]

Polt just annihilated Stardust 2-0 with multi-pronged, marauder heavy attacks. He's going to get terran nerfed. He looked unstoppable.

 

[survivor]

How the fuck did Jaedong lose to Mana? Come on JD, you can't be losing to foreigners.

 

[Syf]

Polt's marauders make me wet.

 

[AdventureRacing]

Man SC2 threads can be painful to read at the moment. Hey i think we get it, protoss is doing pretty well right now and terran is struggling. I'm pretty sure i didn't see nearly this much complaining in WoL when the reverse happened.

 

[Majine]

Jaedong still in this!

 

[demosthenes]

Polt didn't get the memo that Protoss is OP?