ESL and Intel are thrilled to announce the tenth season of the world’s longest running global esports tournament series. Intel Extreme Masters Season 10 will bring together professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends and StarCraft II players, who will all compete in multiple events across three different continents.
The tenth season of Intel Extreme Masters will also mark the return of Counter Strike, which was a fundamental part of the tournament series up until Season 6.
Michal Blicharz, managing director of pro gaming at ESL, said the following of the game’s return:
“The success and the legacy of the Intel Extreme Masters was built on Counter-Strike, and it’s a great feeling to go into the tenth season of the circuit with CS:GO back in it. Adding a third game makes this IEM season the largest in years!”
This year’s Intel Extreme Masters will also include esports staples StarCraft II and League of Legends. Blizzard’s games have been part of Intel Extreme Masters since its very first season with Warcraft III, and while StarCraft II is returning for its sixth season, Riot Games’ League of Legends is celebrating its fifth years as a part of the tournament series.
The tenth season of Intel Extreme Masters will include the following stops:
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IEM Shenzhen, China (July 16th to 20th) at the Shenzhen Cartoon and Animation Festival
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IEM Cologne, Germany (August 5th to 9th) at gamescom
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IEM San Jose, USA (November 21st to 22nd) at the SAP Center
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IEM Cologne, Germany (December 2015) at the ESL arena
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IEM Asia stop, event details to be announced at a later date
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IEM Katowice World Championship in Poland (March 2016) at Spodek
All of the stops are familiar territory for Intel Extreme Masters. For the third consecutive year, the elite pro gaming tour will begin at the Shenzhen Cartoon and Animation Festival in China. Shenzhen will be followed by Cologne, where Intel Extreme Masters will take place at gamescom, the world’s largest gaming show, for the third time.
Following the most successful Intel Extreme Masters event in North America, Season 10 will return to the SAP Center in San Jose, USA. After that, the event will return to Cologne once more, this time the ESL arena. The last Intel Extreme Masters event before the final will take place at the still to be announced stop in South East Asia.
The final event of Season 10 will be the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Katowice, Poland, where it will be the third Intel Extreme Masters World Championship as well as the fourth event to be held in Katowice overall. Last year’s Katowice finals shattered several viewing records, making it the world’s most-watched esports event of all time on Twitch. However, the Season 10 final is going to be the biggest in ESL history!
Check out our interactive infographic on one decade of IEM!
For more information about Intel Extreme Masters, be sure to visit the official website as well as follow IEM on Twitter and Facebook.