The countdown to the IEM World Championship's Counter-Strike tournament has begun, so we have prepared a viewer's guide with everything you need to know about the tournament, including the schedule and the casters' lineup.

The 11th edition of the IEM World Championship will come to a close with the Counter-Strike tournament, featuring 12 top teams and a $250,000 prize pool.

The participating sides have been drawn into two groups of six teams, who will face off in best-of-one matches. The group winners will automatically progress to the semi-finals, while the second and the third-placed finishers will play a match to determine the final two teams reaching the last-four stage.



fnatic won the 2016 IEM World Championship

The first round to kick off the event will see the current Major champions Astralis take on OpTiC, and fnatic go up against Ninjas in Pyjamas in an exciting Swedish derby. During the group stage, there will be at least two matches being played simultaneously.

Below you can find the group draw and the schedule in full:

The prize distribution for the tournament has yet to be revealed by ESL. The following broadcast crew will be doing play-by-play commentary and will be breaking down the action live from Katowice: