LEGENDS COLLIDE

We are thrilled to announce that the most recent Major Champions, SK Gaming, and the runnerup Team Liquid have accepted their invitations and will travel to the Bay Area to face off once again at Intel Extreme Masters Oakland. Are you ready for an epic rematch of the ESL One Cologne finals?

The roster of SK Gaming has proven to be the very best in the world, having won ESL One Cologne 2016, their second Major Championship in a row. The players have earned the love and support of thousands of fans from around the world with their fantastic plays and passion for the game. We cannot wait to see what they will bring to the Oracle Arena.



Team Liquid had an amazing run at ESL One Cologne, becoming the first North American team to ever reach the grand finals of a Major. Although they fell to SK 0-2 in the grand finals, their performance left a great impression on the viewers. The team will compete without their star player s1mple, who returned to Europe and has been replaced by Pimp. It will be interesting to see Liquid perform with their new roster in front of a home crowd.

We are looking forward to a rematch of the ESL One Cologne grand finals! Will Team Liquid manage to come out on top this time?

FORMAT



The IEM Oakland CS:GO tournament will follow the same format as the IEM World Championship in Katowice. The competition will consist of 12 teams divided into two groups. The top three teams from each group will move on to the quarterfinals, with group winners receiving a bye in their first match. All of the playoffs games will be played inside the Oracle Arena. The group stage matches will be round robin best of one while the playoff matches will be best of three.



More details about the format and invited teams will be coming soon, so make sure to stay tuned. Tickets to IEM Oakland are available no w so be sure to join us if you want to see the two best teams from ESL One Cologne live in action in the Oracle Arena.

Remember to follow IEM on Twitter and Facebook for all updates about the event.