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IEM Katowice 2019 - CS:GO Major
ESL announced that they will be hosting the first CS:GO Major of 2019. It will be the sixth tournament held by the organisation and the third Major in total to be held in the Polish city
The city of Katowice, Poland, has a legendary status in esports, and this Intel Extreme Masters event will be the sixth consecutive in the city. The CS:GO Major sees 24 teams battling it out for their share of the US$1,000,000 prize pool, as well as the pride of being Major Champions.
February 14-20th 2019 - The event itself starts off with the New Challengers Stage which will last a week, in the ESL Katowice Studio.
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February 21-24th 2019 - The New Legends Stage follows, where the eight legend teams from the previous Major, will join the top eight teams from the New Challengers Stage. This portion of the event will be at the IEM Tradeshow expo itself at the International Congress Centre.
February 28th - March 3rd 2019 - The Champions Stage, the four-day playoffs themselves will be taking place in the out of this world Spodek Arena, where the new champions will be crowned.
Katowice always seems to lend itself well to Swedish teams, with all but one of the previous six finals have included at least one team from the country. Although at a stretch FaZe clan’s coach in 2017 was the former Swedish 1.6 player Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström.
Fnatic wins Katowice
© ESL
Previous premier CS:GO event winners in the city -
IEM XII - World Championship 2018 - Fnatic defeated Faze
IEM XI - World Championship 2017 - Astralis defeated Faze
IEM X - World Championship 2016 - Fnatic defeated Luminosity Gaming
ESL ONE Katowice 2015 (Major) - Fnatic defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas
ESL Major Series One 2014 (Major) - Virtus.pro defeated Ninjas in Pyjamas
ESL Major Series One 2013 - Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Fnatic
Will we see another Swedish team reveal their true form in Poland once again, be that either one of the ‘old guard’ of Fnatic or Ninjas in Pyjamas, or will new blood make a name for themselves?
The crowd in Katowice goes nuts
© ESL
Only time will tell, but before then we have the FACEIT Major, held in London, England to look forward to. Which will decide which eight legends will confirm their place in Katowice next year?
