ESL has published the list of teams that will take part in the IEM Summer 2021 closed qualifier at the end of April. The names of the teams that received direct invitations to the main part of the competition, which will take place in June, also became known. Among the teams that will fight to get out of the qualifying group – two teams in the top 10 (G2 and FURIA), as well as OG, FunPlus Phoenix and FaZe. Meanwhile, six teams that are ESL partners received direct invitations. These included fnatic and Evil Geniuses. Several more teams, such as Gambit and Heroic, immediately qualified for the main part of the tournament due to their positions in the world rankings.
The IEM Summer closed qualifying round will take place from April 26 to 28. It will consist of two stages: first, four pairs of teams occupying a lower place in the tournament stack will fight each other. The losers will leave the tournament, and the winners will advance to the second stage, where they will play against four more teams occupying higher positions. As a result, three teams will be selected that will be able to take part in the final stage.
ESL Summer prize pool is $250,000. By now, 12 of the 16 participants in the tournament are already known. Among the teams from the CIS, Gambit, Spirit and Virtus.pro will appear on it.
