IEM Dallas invites announced

IEM have announced both the teams that will be invited to the main event of IEM Dallas, as well as the teams receiving invites to the several closed qualifiers. While the list of invited squads is full of heavy-hitters like FaZe and NAVI, there is a notable lack of a North American team in the main stage, with Liquid and Complexity both instead receiving invites to the NA closed qualifier.

The list of ten teams that are heading straight to the main stage of IEM Dallas is a star-studded one. Aside from the aforementioned heavy-hitters of FaZe and NAVI, other squads in attendance include FURIA, Vitality, G2, Heroic, and ENCE, among others. Something to note in the invite list is that Players have received an invite, the orgless moniker used by the Gambit squad during EPL. This seems to indicate that there is some level of confidence that the CIS side will be able to participate in IEM Dallas, lest the squad be replaced by another should they not be able to attend.

In addition to the main stage invites, IEM also announced the teams receiving invites to each of the four closed qualifiers. The NA closed qualifier and EU closed qualifier each have four invited squads, and each qualifier will provide two spots for the main event. The NA closed qualifier will feature Liquid, Complexity, Evil Geniuses, and GODSENT, as well as four teams from the two open qualifiers. The EU closed qualifier invites include Movistar Riders, fnatic, Entropiq, and Outsiders, the last of whom is in a similar situation to Players. This closed qualifier will also have four more teams join from two open qualifiers.

The last two closed qualifiers, for the SA and ANZ, feature only two invited teams and will only offer up one spot at the main event. Brazilian heavy hitters Imperial and MIBR will be duking it out with two teams from the SA open qualifiers, while LookingForOrg and ORDER will be the teams to beat in the ANZ qualifier. It is worth noting that Oceanic powerhouse Renegades did not receive an invite to the closed qualifier, due to their lack of points on the ESL World Ranking, which is used to dole out the invites.

The list of teams at the main event will be:

And for the NA and SA closed qualifiers:

IEM Dallas will run from May 30th to June 5th, and the first NA Open Qualifier will kick off fairly soon, on April 17th.