IEM prize pools bumped up

In their recent blog post, ESL FACEIT Group have announced a structural overhaul towards the latter end of the their finances with respect to the prize pool process. ESL states that this system aims to benefit both - the club and their players. In this new system, the prize pool will be disbursed under two labels -

• Club prize money

• Player prize money

The prize pools for a number of ESL events lined up for the the upcoming year have increased marginally to accommodate this new payout routine. IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne now hold a $1,250,000 USD prize pool, going up by $250,000 USD. IEM Dallas, Chengdu, Spring and two ESL Pro League events will carry $1,000,000 prize pools.

A new program called the "Annual Club Incentive" now rewards teams for their contributions towards the ESL Pro Tour events in terms of viewership, attendance and promotional activities. Paid out annually in the first quarter, the amount is a product of the total points earned for viewership across EPT events and the total number of EPT events attended by the team.

The calculation towards the Annual Club Incentive takes into consideration the length of the tournament, anticipated travel difficulties and other factors requiring teams to show different levels of commitments. Based on the above, each tournament is weighed differently towards the viewership points.

Clubs have to meet certain eligibility criteria in order to be in contention for the Annual Club Incentive like participating in ESL events to which they're invited, committing to obligational promotions towards tournaments in which they participate, etc.

ESL Pro League's first iteration in 2025 will take place in Stockholm with the overhauled format coming into effect. Featuring 24 teams, the event kicks off with a Swiss bracket and brings back the team selected seeding.

Open qualifiers for IEM Dallas 2025 and ESL Pro League Season 22 will take place in February and July respectively. Asian qualifiers have one slot on the line through these qualifiers.