ESL has announced details regarding the IEM Global Challenge, a transatlantic Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) tournament. It will be the first event in the second half of 2020 that will bring North American and European competitors together in a LAN environment, subject to the global health situation.
The wait is over.
It's been 193 days since our last LAN event. The #IEM Global Challenge is set to bring CS:GO and its players back to LAN on 15 – 20th of December live in Cologne.
Find out more here: https://t.co/9U9K2ewqNC pic.twitter.com/xlED8nyG7k
— Intel®ExtremeMasters (@IEM) September 9, 2020
IEM Global Challenge announced
Michal “CARMAC” Blicharz, VP ProGaming at ESL, commented:
It is with great sadness that we needed to cancel this year’s CS:GO Major, but we are doing everything we can to resume running tournaments like we used to as soon as it is possible. The IEM Global Challenge will be our first step towards that. All plans are of course subject to change as we continue to monitor guidance around the COVID-19 situation, and ESL’s top priority is always the health and well-being of teams, coaches, managers and crew.
The Intel Extreme Masters: Global Challenge will replace the previously announced CS:GO Rio Major. The latter was supposed to take place in November, but was canceled due to the ongoing situation involving COVID-19. Nevertheless, a subsequent event will return to the Brazil region when everything is resolved, with purchased tickets valid for the future event.
The Intel Extreme Masters New York event will proceed as planned through an online format in October. IEM Beijing-Haidian will take place next between November 6 – 22, with North American, European, Oceania, and Asian teams competing for a $250,000 prize pool.
The IEM Global Challenge will then be held on December 15 – 20. The tournament will see eight of the best teams from North America and Europe clash in Cologne, Germany for a $500,000 prize pool. Since the event is offline and features teams from different regions, it will also count towards the Intel Grand Slam—a $1 million prize given to the first team that wins 4 S-Tier events hosted by IEM or DreamHack Masters.
