It's been a busy year for the ESL Pro Tour's top division events, as already the best teams and players have travelled to Krakow in Poland for the first Intel Extreme Masters event of the season in February, before then heading to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in April, and Atlanta in the United States this May. The next stops on the world tour will take the action back to the Cathedral of Counter-Strike in Cologne, Germany in June, before the final IEM event of the season then follows later in the year.
As for where this is and the firm dates for the tournament, the ESL has now confirmed that the last IEM tournament of the season will in fact see competitive Counter-Strike 2 returning to China for an event in Beijing. It'll be held at the Bloomage Biotech-Biohyalux ECM Arena in the city between November 2-8, where a trophy and $1.25 million in prize money is on the table.
The tournament will see a group stage happening from November 2, where the 16 attending teams will be whittled down to simply six survivors. These qualified squads will then partake in the playoffs between November 6-8, in front of a live audience, where a winner will be determined and the trophy will be handed out.
We don't yet have any firm information in regards to the attending teams and squads, as this will be decided in the months ahead, with teams selected based on their position in the VRS rankings.
