Taking place from the 6th to the 25th of October, IEM New York Online will feature 32 teams competing across three regional divisions in Europe, North America and CIS. All teams will be fighting for their slice of the $250,000 prize pool and have an opportunity to earn ESL Pro Tour Points which contribute to the qualification of IEM Katowice 2021. The champions of the North American division will also be the first team to secure a spot at the Intel® Extreme Masters Global Challenge taking place in December this year - the return to LAN!
Notable European teams such as Former IEM Katowice 2020 Champions Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan look to solidify their standings as they border the Top 6 point standings in order to directly qualify for IEM Katowice 2021. Similarly, the North American based Australians 100 Thieves are just outside of contention and must use IEM New York Online as means of amplifying their position.
The updates today are based on Valve's announcement to reset MIBR's and Hard Legion's Regional Major Ranking points and effectively remove them from the RMR standings. Therefore in accordance with the rules set out for RMR tournament invites the changes below have been applied to IEM New York Online. Additionally, three teams in the North American region have decided to withdraw from the tournament.
North America:
Chaos Esports Club received MIBR’s RMR invite to the tournament as MIBR is no longer eligible as per RMR rules; Chaos was the next team in line in the RMR standings for the RMR direct invite slot.
Swole Patrol, Yeah Gaming and Gen.G have chosen to withdraw from IEM New York Online. All three teams withdrew from the tournament due to roster issues which they have suffered after the communicated roster submission deadline as per RMR rules. For RMR tournaments the Roster Submission deadline is not only to finalize a team’s lineup but invites to either the qualifiers or main event based on the RMR standings are only coming into effect after the Roster Submission deadline and the potential recalculation of points due to penalties based on the submitted lineups.
RBG and Rebirth, the next two eligible teams from the closed qualifiers, will take two of the available slots. The next team to take the third open slot has not been finalized yet and we will provide more updates on that soon.
CIS:
Hard Legion will also be replaced due to their RMR points being reset. On Thursday 24th September at 18:00 CEST iG. International and HellRaisers, who both placed 5th and 6th from the closed qualifier, will go head to head in a tiebreaker match that will fill the final slot in the CIS region, and give the team a chance to earn valuable EPT Points in the road to IEM Katowice.
We’re really excited to bring you world class Counter-Strike from the comfort of your own home during these testing times! With valuable ESL Pro Tour Points up for the taking and the first tournament for North American teams to battle for their chance to compete at the IEM Global Challenge in December, we’re certain that IEM New York Online will be a banger! Be sure to follow our Twitter and keep up to date leading up the tournament here!