Following the BLAST Premier Fall Finals, it seems the competitive CS:GO community cannot get enough. Although the next major is the BLAST World Finals, there’s some more CS:GO to enjoy. Indeed, read on as we provide all the viewership details for IEM Winter XVI 2021 below!
Event Background
As we’ll remind our readers, the Intel Extreme Masters is a series of events as part of the competitive CS:GO calendar at the highest level.
Such events allow teams to earn qualification points for Majors, while also competing for the Intel Grand Slam. Notably, Natus Vincere have already claimed the Grand Slam this season, and their ommission from the event is expected as they prepare for the BLAST World Finals.
Anyway, taking us to Stockholm in an offline environment, the event looks to bring 16 of the best CS:GO teams in the world to compete for the majority of $250,000 prize pool.
Running from the 2nd December, the event will build up all the way to the 12th December.
Beneath, find the 16 teams heading to the event:
- Astralis – Invited
- BIG – Invited
- FaZe Clan – Invited
- Heroic – Invited
- G2 Esports – Invited
- Gambit Esports – Invited
- Team Liquid – Invited
- Ninjas in Pyjamas – Invited
- OG – Invited
- Virtus.pro – Invited
- Team Vitality – Invited
- Fnatic – European Qualifier
- MOUZ – European Qualifier
- ENCE – European Qualifier
- GODSENT – North American Qualifier
- TYLOO – Asia Qualifier
Read on as we cover the format!
Format
To fill up the ten days of competiiton, a double stage format has been determined.
Kicking things off, we have the Group Stage. Indeed, two groups have been formed with eight teams each. Here, a GSL group double-elimination format will take place, with BO1 opening matches followed by BO3 matches. Here are your two groups:
- Group A: G2 Esports, TYLOO, OG, Team Liquid, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis, MOUZ, Team Vitality
- Group B: Gambit Esports, Fnatic, ENCE, Virtus.pro, FaZe Clan, BIG, GODSENT, Heroic
At this stage, they’ll be playing to make it to the Playoffs. Specifically, the top 3 teams will progress:
- 1st place from group – semifinal seed
- 2nd place – quarterfinal high-seed
- 3rd place – quarterfinal low-seed
Everyone else will be eliminated.
In the Playoffs, we’ll witness a single-elimination bracket. As you can expect, following BO3 Quarterfinals , everything will conclude with a BO5 Grand Final.
Schedule for the IEM Winter XVI 2021
With regards to the schedule, there are a tonne of matches to digest. Accordingly, we highly recommend visiting the event page here.
Watch the IEM Winter XVI 2021 on esportsguide
You can also watch IEM Winter XVI live stream via our very own website. Providing an extensive list of the biggest esports together with streams for each esports match live today or upcoming matches.
Predictions
In terms of predictions, this is a little tough without the current reigning champions of Natus Vincere.
Naturally, in second place we’d likely to recommend Team Vitality following their second place finish at BLAST Premier Fall Finals 2021 at the hands of Na’Vi.
However, they are not as dominant as Na’Vi. Indeed, we still are dubious about G2 Esports. Accordingly, ever since they finished second at the PGL Stockholm 2021 Major, they’ve been a bit rocky as they’ve been forced to play with a stand-in.
The moment they return to form is the moment they rise back to the top.
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