The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international
esports
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional sports, professional players, individually or as ...
tournaments held in countries around the world. These
Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...
, currently host events in ''
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' and ''
StarCraft II''. Other game titles were hosted in the past.
The body that owns the league is
Turtle Entertainment
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
. The League has operated 16 seasons . The season finals, with the largest prize pool, takes place in
Katowice
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...
, Poland.
Mid-season events are held in numerous cities around the globe, including
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
,
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
and
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...
.
History
The Intel Extreme Masters are a product of the ESL. In 2006, when the Intel sponsored European tournament saw room for expansion outside of Europe, especially in North American markets, Intel provided funds for a worldwide tournament, billing it as the Intel Extreme Masters.
In 2007, when established, the IEM established a format of many smaller qualifying events, leading up to a large final event that is held at
CeBIT
CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
. All of the Grand Finals have been held at CeBIT. Starting in 2008, the Tournament was billed as being worldwide, boasting participants from Europe, North America, and Asia.
Although Counterstrike 1.6 was the only game offered in the first season, the variety of games has increased greatly, to the four that were offered during Season 5. World of Warcraft was offered during Season 4, but was dropped for Season 5. The Season 5 Finals will be held at CeBIT and will included a prize pool.
Games offered in Intel Extreme Masters: Counter-Strike (Seasons 1–6), Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne (Seasons 1–2, 3: Asian Championship Finals — CS1.6 and Asian Championship Finals — WoW, 4: Global Challenge Chengdu, 5: Global Challenge Shanghai), World of Warcraft (Seasons 2: Global Challenge Dreamhack, 3–4), Quake Live (Seasons 4–5), StarCraft II (Seasons 5–6), League of Legends (LoL) (Seasons 5: World Championship (LoL Invitational), 6)
IEM seasons
Season I
(Finals: 15–18 March 2007 at
CeBIT
CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
2007)
*Counter-Strike: Poland's Team Pentagram
*Warcraft III: France's
Yoan "ToD" Merlo
Season II
(Finals: 6–9 March 2008 at
CeBIT
CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
2008)
*Global Challenge Los Angeles:
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
FnaticRC
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
**Warcraft III: Korea's
June "Lyn" Park
Park "Lyn" June () is a professional '' Starcraft II'' Terran player and former '' Warcraft III'' Orc player from South Korea. Lyn was a successful ''Warcraft III'' player before transitioning to ''Starcraft II''. He is the only player to have w ...
*World Championship:
**Counter-Strike: Germany's
Mousesports
Mouz (stylized as MOUZ), formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its '' CS:GO'' team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. ...
**Warcraft III: Korea's
June "Lyn" Park
Park "Lyn" June () is a professional '' Starcraft II'' Terran player and former '' Warcraft III'' Orc player from South Korea. Lyn was a successful ''Warcraft III'' player before transitioning to ''Starcraft II''. He is the only player to have w ...
Season III
(World Championship(Finals): 3–8 March 2009 at
CeBIT
CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
2009)
*Global Challenge Games Convention:
**World of Warcraft: Germany's Nihilum Plasma
*Global Challenge Los Angeles:
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
SK Gaming
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in '' Counter-Strike'' (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian ''CS'' team wo ...
**World of Warcraft: Spain's x6tence
*Global Challenge
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
:
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
Fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
**World of Warcraft: the UK's
SK Gaming
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in '' Counter-Strike'' (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian ''CS'' team wo ...
*Global Challenge
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...
:
**Counter-Strike: Germany's
Mousesports
Mouz (stylized as MOUZ), formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its '' CS:GO'' team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. ...
*Asian Championshiphttp: — WoW:
**Counter-Strike: Korea's e-STRO
**World of Warcraft: Korea's H O N
**WarCraft III: the Netherlands's
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen
Manuel Schenkhuizen (), better known as Grubby, is a Dutch real-time strategy gamer and former professional esports player. He competed in the RTS games ''Warcraft III'' (WC3), '' Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne'' and '' Starcraft II''. Grubby ...
*European Championship:
**Counter-Strike: Denmark's mTw
**World of Warcraft: Bulgaria's iNNERFiRE
*American Championship:
**Counter-Strike: Brazil's Made in Brazil
**World of Warcraft: the United States's Trade Chat
*Asian Championship: CS1.6:
**Counter-Strike: China's
wNv Teamwork
**WarCraft III: China's
Li "Sky" Xiaofeng
*World Championship:
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
**World of Warcraft: Korea's
H O N
H, or h, is the eighth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''aitch'' (pronounced , plural ''aitches''), or regio ...
Season IV
(World Championship(Finals): 2–6 March 2010 at
CeBIT
CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
2010)
*Global Challenge Gamescom:
**Counter-Strike: Germany's
Mousesports
Mouz (stylized as MOUZ), formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its '' CS:GO'' team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. ...
**Quake Live: the United States's Shane "rapha" Hendrixson
**World of Warcraft: the United Arab Emirates's Ensidia
*Global Challenge
Chengdu
Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese provin ...
:
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
SK Gaming
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in '' Counter-Strike'' (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian ''CS'' team wo ...
**DotA: China's For The Dream (ex-LGD)
**Warcraft III: China's
Lu "Fly100%" Weiliang
*Global Challenge
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, wikt:دبي, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates#Major cities, most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 ...
:
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
Fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
**Quake Live: the United States's Shane "rapha" Hendrixson
*European Championship:
**Counter-Strike: Germany's
Mousesports
Mouz (stylized as MOUZ), formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its '' CS:GO'' team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. ...
**Quake Live: Belarus's
Alexey "Cypher" Yanushevsky
Alexey Yanushevsky (Алексе́й Анато́льевич Януше́вский) (born May 17, 1990), who also goes by the pseudonym "Cypher", resides in Minsk, and is a Belarusian professional player of the first person shooter series '' Q ...
**World of Warcraft: Germany's
SK Gaming
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in '' Counter-Strike'' (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian ''CS'' team wo ...
Sansibar
*American Championship:
**Counter Strike: the United States's
compLexity
Complexity characterises the behaviour of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence.
The term is generally used to ch ...
**Quake Live: the United States's
Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty
**World of Warcraft: the United States's
compLexity
Complexity characterises the behaviour of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence.
The term is generally used to ch ...
Black
*Asian Championship:
**Counter Strike: Korea's
WeMade FOX
Wemade Co., Ltd (formerly Wemade Entertainment Co., Ltd) is a South Korean video game developer, based in Seongnam. They are the creators of the Legend of Mir series of MMORPGs, the two most successful being '' The Legend of Mir 2'', and its se ...
**Quake Live: China's
Fan "Jibo" Zhibo
**World of Warcraft: Korea's
Button Bashers
A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole.
In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood ...
*World Championship:
**Counter-Strike: Ukraine's
Natus Vincere
**Quake Live: the United States's
Shane "rapha" Hendrixson
Shane Hendrixson, also known by his pseudonym rapha, is an American professional esports ''Quake Live'', ''Quake III Arena'', ''ShootMania'', ''Overwatch, and Quake Champions'' player for Team Liquid. Since he appeared in 2008, he has won sixtee ...
**World of Warcraft: the United States's
Evil Geniuses
Season V
(World Championship(Finals): 1–5 March 2011 at
CeBIT
CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
2011)
*Global Challenge
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
:
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
**Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne: Korea's June "Lyn" Park
**DotA: China's: EHOME
*Global Challenge
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
:
**StarCraft II: Sweden's Stefan "MorroW" Andersson —
Mousesports
Mouz (stylized as MOUZ), formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its '' CS:GO'' team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. ...
**Quake Live: Germany's k1llsen
*American Championship:
**Counter Strike: Brazil's
compLexity
Complexity characterises the behaviour of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence.
The term is generally used to ch ...
**Quake Live: the United States's
Shane "rapha" Hendrixson
Shane Hendrixson, also known by his pseudonym rapha, is an American professional esports ''Quake Live'', ''Quake III Arena'', ''ShootMania'', ''Overwatch, and Quake Champions'' player for Team Liquid. Since he appeared in 2008, he has won sixtee ...
**StarCraft II: Peru's Jian "Fenix" Morayra Alejo —
fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
*European Championship:
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
**Quake Live: Russia's
Anton "Cooller" Singov
**StarCraft II: Sweden's Jeffrey "SjoW" Brusi —
Team Dignitas
Dignitas, formerly known as Team Dignitas, is a professional esports organization based in Newark, New Jersey, founded by Michael "ODEE" O'Dell on 9 September 2003 as a merger of two top ''Battlefield 1942'' clans. Dignitas was acquired by the P ...
*World Championship:
**Counter-Strike: Ukraine's
Natus Vincere
**Quake Live: the United States's
Shane "rapha" Hendrixson
Shane Hendrixson, also known by his pseudonym rapha, is an American professional esports ''Quake Live'', ''Quake III Arena'', ''ShootMania'', ''Overwatch, and Quake Champions'' player for Team Liquid. Since he appeared in 2008, he has won sixtee ...
**StarCraft II: Korea's
Jung "AcE" Woo-Seo — Team StarTale
**LoL Invitational: Germany's
myRevenge
Season VI
(World Championship(Finals): 6–10 March 2012 at
CeBIT
CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...
2012)
*Global Challenge
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
:
**LoL: the United States's
Counter Logic Gaming
Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) is an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a '' League of Legends'' team, and has ...
**StarCraft II: Korea's Lee "PuMa" Ho-Joon —
Evil Geniuses
*Global Challenge
Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
:
**LoL: China's
World Elite
**StarCraft II: the United States's
Greg "IdrA" Fields —
Evil Geniuses
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's
fnatic
Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...
*Global Challenge New York City:
**LoL: the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
's fnatic
**StarCraft II: Korea's Park "DongRaeGu" Soo-Ho —
Complexity Gaming & Team MvP
**Counter-Strike: Sweden's SK Gaming
*Global Challenge
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.
Ky ...
:
**LoL: Russia's
Moscow 5
**StarCraft II: Korea's Moon "MMA" Sung-Won — Team SlayerS
**Counter-Strike: Ukraine's
Natus Vincere
*Global Challenge
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaW ...
:
**StarCraft II: Korea's Kim "viOLet" Dong-Hwan —
Team Empire
A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal.
As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...
*World Championship:
**LoL: Russia's
Moscow 5
**StarCraft II: Korea's
Jang "MC" Min-Chul
Jang Min-chul (, born June 17, 1991), better known as MC, is a former Korean professional ''StarCraft II'' player, playing as the Protoss faction. MC has accumulated more than $500,000 in tournament winnings, and won the Global StarCraft II Leag ...
—
SK Gaming
SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in '' Counter-Strike'' (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian ''CS'' team wo ...
**Counter-Strike: Poland's ESC Gaming
Season VII
*Global Challenge Gamescom:
**LoL: Russia's
Moscow Five
Moscow Five is a Russian esports organization founded in 2001. The organization currently has a professional ''League of Legends'' team. On 16 December 2011, Moscow Five created what one could describe as one of the most successful international ...
**StarCraft II: Korea's Jung "Mvp" Jong-Hyun — Incredible Miracle
*Global Challenge
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
(originally in Guangzhou):
**LoL: the European Union's
MeetYourMakers
**StarCraft II: Korea's Ju "Sting" Hoon —
Western Wolves
*Global Challenge
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
:
**LoL: Korea's
SK Telecom T1
*Global Challenge
Katowice
Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...
:
**LoL: Russia's
Gambit Gaming (ex-M5)
**StarCraft II: Korea's Kang "First" Hyun-Woo — Incredible Miracle
*Global Challenge Brazil:
**LoL: Korea's Incredible Miracle
*World Championship:
**LoL: Korea's
CJ Entus Blaze
**StarCraft II: Korea's Choi "YoDa" Byung-Hyun — Incredible Miracle
Season VIII
Season IX
Season X
Season XI
Season XII
Season XIII
Season XIV
Season XV
Season XVI
Season XVII
Format
IEM utilizes a fair number of offline qualifiers. During Season 5, qualifiers were held for North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia regions.
Those who qualify for the finals are placed into two groups of six, of which the top two advance. The first place member of each group goes directly to the semifinals, and the second and third place members go into the quarterfinals.
Organisation
The Intel Extreme Masters are run by the ESL which is owned by
Turtle Entertainment
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
GmbH.
Turtle Entertainment
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
is based in Cologne, Germany.
Gallery
File:Podczas zawodów IEM (8464354933).jpg, Spectators at IEM 2013 Katowice
File:Spectators at IEM Toronto 2014.jpg, Crowd at IEM 2014 Toronto
File:Podczas Intel Extreme Masters (8465490574).jpg, Katowice, Poland 2013
File:Podczas zawodów IEM (8465456436).jpg, Katowice, Poland 2013
File:Goście Intel Extreme Masters (8465481816).jpg, Katowice, Poland 2013
See also
*
ESL Pro League
References
External links
Official website (English)
{{Intel
2006 establishments in Germany
StarCraft II competitions