NiP, TeamOne & Wisla Krakow will participate at IEM Katowice 2021

ESL has announced changes to the roster for the next Intel Extreme Masters Series tournament, which will take place in the studio format in Katowice from February 16 to 28. Slots of TYLOO, Chaos and Illuminar have been taken by NiP, TeamOne, and Wisla Krakow respectively.

In a published announcement, it is reported that the Chinese grand was forced to withdraw from IEM Katowice 2021 because of the flight restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. For the same reason, other Asian teams declined the invitation. NiP won a slot as the next in line representative of the ESL Pro Tour rankings for Europe.

Chaos and Illuminar will miss the upcoming championship, as they cannot declare the lineups with which earned the spot at the event. TeamOne received the invitations from the North American region, while the last remaining slot was taken by Polish squad Wisla Krakow, who lost to their compatriots in the grand final of the ESL Mistrzostwa Polski Fall 2020 national championship.

All three new entrants to IEM Katowice 2021 will begin competing for the million-dollar prize pool from the Play-In stage. More details about the format can be found here.

List of IEM Katowice 2021 Play-In participants:

 Complexity
 fnatic
 OG
 Liquid
 MIBR
 Renegades
 BIG
 mousesports
 Virtus.pro
 Gambit
 Cloud9
 Team Spirit
 Movistar Riders
 NiP
 TeamOne
Wisla Krakow