IEM Katowice is one of the most recognized events on the CS2 pro calendar. In this guide, we will explain what the event is, which teams are participating in the 2024 tournament, the route to the final and who the favorites might be.
What is IEM Katowice?
IEM Katowice is one of the most prestigious Counter-Strike 2 tournaments of the year. The tournament has become a staple event on the Counter-Strike calendar over the years, mainly due to the fact that the Major was held there in 2014 and 2015, and for the third time in 2019. For the 2024 iteration, the play-ins will be happening from January 31 – February 2, and the main event will take place from February 3 - 11. As always, the event will be held in the legendary Spodek Arena (also known as the Hall of Heroes) in Katowice, Poland.
For those that are fan of real-time strategy games, the annual IEM Katowice StarCraft II event will be played at the International Congress Centre next to the Spodek Arena from February 8 - 11.
What is the prize pool for IEM Katowice 2024?
The total prize pool is $1,000,000, with the first-placed team taking home $400,000 in prize money as well as a guaranteed spot at IEM Cologne later this year. Second place will win $180,000.
Winning the event will also count towards Intel Extreme Masters Grand Slam Season 5, with five teams currently in the running: FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, G2 Esports, MOUZ and ENCE. The IEM Grand Slam is a side competition for teams, where they try and win four S-Tier events over 10 consecutive tournaments organized by ESL. The team that achieve this will take home the $1,000,000 prize.
Which teams have won previous IEM Katowice tournaments?
Since the first time the event was held in 2014, the tournament has taken place annually, with it being the Major in 2014, 2015 and 2019. The 2024 edition will be the 11th time Counter-Strike descends upon Katowice. Seven different teams have won this prestigious Counter-Strike 2 tournament up until now, with Fnatic holding the most titles.
- 2014 - Vitrus.Pro (Major)
- 2015 - Fnatic (Major)
- 2016 - Fnatic
- 2017 - Astralis
- 2018 - Fnatic
- 2019 - Astralis (Major)
- 2020 - NAVI
- 2021 - Gambit Esports
- 2022 - FaZe Clan
- 2023 - G2 Esports
Which teams will be at IEM Katowice 2024?
Sixteen teams will start at the play-in stage, with most of them having qualified through global and regional ESL Rankings. There are some strong teams in this stage of the tournament, such as Virtus.pro, Team Spirit and Cloud9, so we can expect some fierce Counter-Strike competition before we even get to the main event.
There are also eight teams that have qualified straight through to the main event. Most of them secured qualification based on their ESL ranking, with others earning their place by winning IEM Sydney 2023 (FaZe Clan), IEM Cologne 2023 (G2 Esports) and ESL Pro League Season 18 (MOUZ). Other teams include NAVI, Complexity Gaming and Team Falcons.
How does the ESL Ranking work?
Naturally, CS2 teams are rated by pundits, content creators, fans and unfortunately, angry Reddit users. However, besides the opinions of individuals, Valve, HLTV and ESL each have their own ranking system. For the majority of non-ESL events, the HLTV World Ranking is used to seed teams, while Majors use the newly updated Valve Regional Standings.
ESL host tournaments in the majority of major esports titles, and have already scheduled 11 big events in the calendar for 2024. These include IEM Katowice, IEM Cologne, IEM China, IEM Dallas, IEM Fall, ESL Pro League and more. With all of that taken into account, it only makes sense that they have their own ranking system, but how does it work?
The Esports World Ranking works similarly to the HLTV World Ranking, mainly due to the fact that it is based on points. There’s a lot that goes into how points are awarded, but these are the basic principles:
- Each player is individually given points based on how their team places at an event. Points are individual to account for roster changes.
- Points are calculated based on the quality of the competition, rated AAA to D, and the amount of participants, rated XXL to S. Offline portions of a tournament will also be accounted for by size.
- Points awarded to players will decay once a week (updated every Monday). After six weeks, a tournament’s points will begin to decay in 5% increments per week. After 25 weeks, they will no longer have any value.
What is the route to the IEM Katowice final?
The tournament starts off with the play-in stage, which will have a double-elimination format. The teams facing each other here start off with best-of-one (Bo1) matches, while the following matches are best-of-three (Bo3). From this stage, the top eight teams will proceed through to the main event, while the bottom eight will be eliminated from the tournament.
In the main event at IEM Katowice, there will a double-elimination format (GSL-style format) group stage. The 16 teams will be divided into two groups of eight and all matches will be Bo3. From each group, the top three will advance to the playoffs – the group winners will go straight to the semifinals, the team in second place will advance to the quarterfinals as the high seeds and the team in third will advance as low seeds to the quarterfinals.
The playoffs will have a single-elimination format and both the quarterfinals and semifinals will be Bo3. This all leads to the final, where a Bo5 (best of five) match is played to determine the winner of IEM Katowice and which team will lift the trophy in the Spodek Arena!
Who will win IEM Katowice 2024?
At the time of writing, the favorites to win IEM Katowice are the current HLTV world number one team, Team Vitality (2.400*), followed by runners-up FaZe Clan (4.180*). Following these two teams are Team Spirit (5.720*) and Virtus.pro (7.150*), but with both teams starting in the play-in stages, they have a long road to the final ahead of them.
Although Vitality are currently the favorites to win IEM Katowice, BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2024 will take place before the play-in stages in Katowice start. With most teams participating at BLAST, it's worth keeping an eye on that tournament as it will show us how each team is currently performing coming out of the player break.
You can read about our latest Counter-Strike 2 predictions to get the most up-to-date insights before placing your bets on IEM Katowice or other tournaments.
* Odds are subject to change
How do you bet on IEM Katowice 2024?
If you are not too familiar with placing bets on Counter-Strike 2, you might need a hand to navigate the various methods available for making a bet. To help, we’ve prepared a handy guide for those looking to place a bet on IEM Katowice.
Pinnacle offers a number of markets for CS2 enthusiasts to bet on during IEM Katowice. The most popular market for esports bettors is the Money Line market, which is a bet on the winner of a particular match. Futures markets are also on offer if bettors want to bet on the team that will win the title.
If you’re an eagle-eyed bettor, be sure to stay up to date with our IEM Katowice odds page. Pinnacle will offer the best Counter-Strike 2 odds and a wide variety of different markets, both pre-match and in-play.
