ESL has revealed that the second CS:GO Intel Extreme Masters tournament of 2020 will be held in Melbourne, Australia in August.
Intel Extreme Masters returns down under
ESL are keeping the tradition of holding an IEM CS:GO tournament on the Australian continent. The German esports company organized three such events in Sidney from 2017 to 2019 but have now decided to make the move to the other metropolitan city in Australia – Melbourne.
The LAN finals are going to be played on August 22-23 as part of the biggest esports festival in Australia – Melbourne Esports Open. The prize pool will remain the same as in previous years - $250,000, and so will the number of teams - 16. Tickets for the event go into sale this Friday, February 14. Good way to surprise your valentine with the most romantic gift ever – watching people shoot each other on dusty virtual surfaces.
There’s a high possibility that IEM Melbourne will be one of the two tournaments Valve choose as part of their new Major qualification cycle. Valve’s idea is for two more big international LANs to decide on the participants in the second Major of the year, instead of only relying on the results from the previous Major. The developer set a very limited timeline of July-September for these two LANs to take place, which automatically turns IEM Melbourne into a prime candidate to become part of Major qualification.
The first Intel Extreme Masters of the year is getting closer by the day, with IEM Katowice set to commence on February 24. It holds double the amount of prize money Melbourne has to offer and it will be played throughout an entire week, the final game set for the first day of March.
You don’t want to miss any of that action!
