IEM Winter 2021: Teams, format, prize pool and more

The Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI is the 2nd premier International CS:GO event after the PGL Stockholm Major. The event will see participation by sevel strong teams including the likes of Astrails, Heroic, Gambit, FaZe and more. Here’s all you need to know about the event.

There are sixteen teams participating in IEM Winter 2021. This list includes eleven invited teams and five that qualified for this event. 

Astralis, FaZe, Gambit are favorites to have a deep run at the tournament. But with many changes to Team Liquid, it might also stand a good chance. BIG’s performance has bene consistently good and with a player like TabseN consistently leading them, the German squad also has a lot of potential.

Ofcourse the team with Dev1ce is always a contender. NiP players would hope to reclaim their standing on the international stage with a win at this tournament.

The sixteen participating teams form two groups of eight teams each. Each group uses a double-elimination format. 

Opening matches are best-of-one series while the rest of the matches are all Bo3. 

The top three teams advance to the playoffs.

The playoff uses a single-elimination bracket with all matches being best-of-three series. Interestingly, the Grand finals is a best-of-five affair, so the two finalists need to work on their map pool to win this tournament.

IEM Winter has a total prize pool of $250,000. The winning team gets $100,000. Here is the complete prize pool distribution for this tournament.

IEM Winter matches will be broadcast live on Twitch. But if you miss the live stream, you can also catch up on the VODs as ESL will be uploading them on YouTube daily. 

Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS:GO news and updates.