ESL has announced the list of participants for the group stage of the IEM Summer tournament, which will take place from June 3 to 13. To date, 15 of the 16 teams that will fight for access to the playoffs are known. The sixteenth team will be determined based on the results of the ESL National Championships Global Playoff. The tournament participants were divided into two groups depending on their place in the world ranking.
Team Gambit, which currently ranks first in the world rankings, will lead Group A. It will also include G2, which has recently improved its position. Also included in this group are several teams that have gone through significant changes in recent months, such as Astralis and Vitality. Now they have to prove that they can achieve success with new lineups.
Among the most notable members of group B – Heroic, who previously became champions of ESL Pro Leagues Season 13 and now intend to repeat this success. Virtus.pro were second in the distribution of teams, despite the difficulties the team has faced recently. Among other participants – Brazilian Imperial, which recently became the champion of DreamHack Open March in South America.
The IEM Summer tournament will be the first major championship in which Train will be replaced by Ancient in the map pool. Teams will fight to get out of the group in a double-elimination format, and in the playoffs they will compete for a prize fund of $250,000.
