December 21, 2018

Qualifiers for StarCraft® II at Intel® Extreme Masters Katowice 2019 announced

The road to one of the most coveted prizes in competitive SC2 is now open for all competitors across the globe. This is everything you need to know on the qualifying process for IEM Katowice 2019:

Eleven spots in the Group stages (Ro24) of the competition alongside WCS Global Champion Serral are now up for grabs across three regions: Americas, Europe and Korea. Similar to previous years, each qualifier will be treated as a 'Server Qualifier' meaning that there are no regional restrictions to competitors. Each qualifier will be split into our traditional format of two stages:

Open qualifiers will be available to all players through ESL Play and will consist of a single-elimination bo3 bracket that will culminate in bo5 decider matches to determine the top eight.

Closed qualifiers will consist of the previous round’s top eight plus eight invited players in a single-elimination bo3 bracket that will culminate in bo5 decider matches to determine who qualifies to the Group stages (Ro24) of IEM Katowice 2019.

North America and Europe will each host a single qualifier with three spots up for grabs. Korea, on the other hand, will host two qualifiers, with three and two births respectively on the line.

The Round of 76, one final chance!

For players who missed out on, or did not make it in the server qualifiers - you still have a chance to compete in Katowice! Simply apply for the offline Ro76, the details of which you can find by clicking here. Application deadline is January 31 - don’t miss it!

The Ro76 will be held at the ESL Arena in Katowice, Poland on February 25-26. Sign-up is open for every global competitor (cap is 64 players - players determined via ranking prioritization). In Katowice, these 64 players will be divided into 4 double-elimination brackets. Top 3 players from each bracket advance to main tournament Group stages (Ro24).

Click here to sign up for the Round of 76.

Want to be a broadcaster?

We are looking for streamers across multiple platforms and languages. If you’d like to be an official IEM Katowice SC2 broadcaster, click here to sign up.