Team Spirit, Gambit and Virtus.pro invited IEM Katowice 2021

IEM Katowice 2021 organizers have published the full list of participants for the Play-In stage, which will take place before the start of the main tournament. BIG, mousesports, Virtus.pro, Cloud9, Gambit, and Team Spirit received the last six invites based on ESL rankings.

With the #IEM Global Challenge complete, and the ESL World Ranking now updated, here are the remaining invites for the #IEM Katowice 2021 play-in stage ?@BIGClangg@mousesports@virtuspro@GambitEsports@Cloud9@Team__Spirit
The final team will be locked in January! pic.twitter.com/DJ0ynmQwZT

— Intel®ExtremeMasters (@IEM) December 21, 2020

The Play-In will also feature ten teams who won slots based on tournament results from the ESL Pro Tour calendar: Complexity, fnatic, OG, Liquid, Chaos, TYLOO, BOOM, Renegades, and Illuminar. The final Play-In invitational will go to the ESL European Championship Winter 2020 champion.

The matches of the Play-In stage will take place on February 16-17. Based on their results, eight out of sixteen teams will qualify for the main part of IEM Katowice 2021, where they will compete for playoffs against Astralis, Vitality, NAVI, Heroic, FURIA, G2, FaZe, and Evil Geniuses.

The main part of IEM Katowice 2021 with a prize fund of $1 million will be held from February 18 to 28.