IEM Sydney 2023 locked in

Hailed as one of the most decorated esports events in the country, Intel Extreme Masters Sydney has been announced with a $250,000 prize pool. However, the game in focus still remains a mystery, after Valve gave a summer release estimate for Counter-Strike 2 but is only in writing and Valve time is a factor.

The tournament will be a week long event running from October 16, 2023 to October 22, 2023, featuring 16 teams which includes 5 teams from regional closed qualifiers. In the previous IEM Sydney in 2019, Team Liquid edged out fnatic 3-2, in a Bo5 grand finals to start their Intel Grand Slam journey, which they completed with a victory in ESL One Cologne 2019.

The playoffs will be played in front of a crowd at the Aware Super Theatre at ICC. The winner takes home a prize of $100,00k and an invite to the next ESL Pro Tour Championship event in 2024. Open qualifiers across different regions will be underway in August, leading to the closed qualifiers at the end of which, 2 European teams, 1 North American team, 1 Asian team and 1 Oceanic team will join the event.