Tournament Overview

The IEM Season XIII – Katowice Starcraft II competition is the 36th ESL-hosted Starcraft 2 event since the first competition in 2010. The first ESL hosted Starcraft II competition was the inaugural Starcraft 2 Intel Extreme Masters, which was held in GamesCon. The Tournament will be held once again at the Spodek Arena, in Katowice, Poland. The main competition will start on February 25 with the qualifiers, and end on March 3, where the Grand Finals will take place at the main stage of the arena.

The IEM Season 13 Katowice SC2 Competition is one of the biggest ESL tournaments of 2019. The top Starcraft players in the world will be competing in the tournament, including the current representation of top tier teams like ENCE, Team Liquid, and Team Reciprocity. But also competing in the tournament is another favorite, Team Fnatic, who won the ESL Katowice crown in 2016 and 2018. Major sponsors for this event include Intel, ESL, Vodafone, Predator, Game Fuel, Hyper X, and Pay Safe Card.

Start Date

The road to IEM Katowice starts with a round of 76 on February 25, 2019. The matches will be broadcasted in studio at ESL Arena Katowice. Players can sign up to compete in the qualifiers during these dates. The top three players that win the round of 76 will advance to the Group Stage. On Wednesday, February 27, players will take the day off, with the group stage matches resuming and being held on February 28 to March 1 at IEM Katowice.

On March 2, those that are at the top of the Group Stage will match up for the top prize of more than $250,000. The semi-finals and the Grand Finals will take place on March 3 on the Spodek Arena main stage. The first part of the day will feature the semi finals, and the winners of these matches will compete at the main stage later that day for the title of IEM Season XIII – Katowice Champion.

Format

Server Qualifiers

Four Server Qualifiers will be held to qualify 11 players for the main events Group Stage. Each of the initial server qualifiers will include an Open and a Final Qualifier.

European Server Qualifier – 3 Players

American Server Qualifier – 3 Players

Korean Server Qualifier – 5 Players

Round of 76

The IEM Katowice competition starts with the Round of 76. During this round, players face each other in four double elimination brackets of 16 players for a total of 64. 12 players will then advance to the next round, where they will face 12 other players from the online qualifiers. The matches in the Round of 64 are best of three matches.

Round of 24

The next stage is the Round of 24. Here players face each other in four groups of six players. There will be a round robin format with three players from each group advancing to the next stage. The matches in the Round of 24 are best of three matches.

Finals Bracket

The next stage is the Round of 12. Here the brackets are only single elimination. Players that finish the round first in their group will advance automatically to the quarterfinals with second and third finishing players that competed in the Round of 12. The matches in the Round of 12 are best of five matches.

Grand finals

The next and final stage is the Grand Finals, which will determine the champion of ESL Katowice. The matches at the Grand Finals are best of seven.

Map Pools

Automaton | Cyber Forest | Kairos Junction | King’s Cove | New Repugnancy | Port Aleksander | Year Zero

Prize Money

The base prize pool for IEM Katowice was announced at $250,000 USD, but there was an additional $150,000 USD added through player purchases of Starcraft 2 War Chest. During the Round of 24 of the tournament, each group stage victor will also be awarded $200 in cash.