Complexity and M80 invited to IEM Katowice 2024
Yesterday, ESL announced the invites for next year's IEM Katowice. The event will take place from January 31st until February 11th and will feature 24 teams, with only two being from North America. Complexity has been invited directly to the group stage, while M80 will have to go through the Play-in stage alongside the other 15 teams.
The only other team traveling from the Americas to Poland will be FURIA, who will be joining M80 in the earlier stage of the event. From the Play-in, eight teams will advance to the group stage that will take place from February 3rd at the Spodek Arena.
After having had six teams playing IEM Katowice 2023, the Americas region will only see half the squads competing in the first big ESL event of 2024. This year, Liquid reached the semifinals, where they would lose to the eventual champion, G2. Next year, the North American hopes will mostly reside on Complexity's shoulders, as M80 will need to surpass a lot of obstacles to even reach the group stage.
It is worthy of note that IEM Katowice 2024 is the first event to feature only one ESL World Ranking NA slot, instead of the usual two slots. With this change, Nouns missed out on an international event, given that they are the #3 team in North America, and Complexity got their invite through their world rank and not regional rank.
IEM Katowice 2024 will commence on the 31st of January with the Play-in stage and will run until February 11th. The event features a $1,000,000 prize pool, with the champions getting $400,000 and a direct pass to IEM Cologne 2024.
