All 24 teams for the IEM Katowice 2019 Major have been determined following the end of the Minors and of the Play-in qualification tournament.
ViCi booked the final spot at IEM Katowice after defeating North 2-0 in the Minor-Play tournament, joining Winstrike and the top two sides of the four Minor regional championships in qualifying for the first Major of 2019.
These ten sides plus the teams who finished 9th through to 14th at the FACEIT Major will be squaring off in the Challengers Stage, the first of two Swiss stages to feature a best-of-three format in all progression (2-0 and 2-1 pools) and elimination matches.
Twenty-four teams will compete at the first Major of 2019
Prior to the start of the tournament, the 16 teams involved in the Challengers Stage will be asked to create their own ranking of the opposing sides. After all these player-selected rankings are in, the scores will be added up to create the final seeding, which will determine the first-round match-ups.
The complete team list for the Challengers Stage looks as follows:
Cloud9 Ninjas in Pyjamas Vega Squadron AVANGAR Spirit Renegades NRG Winstrike G2 TYLOO fnatic ENCE Vitality Grayhound FURIA ViCi
The top eight sides of this initial stage will progress to the Legends stage, joining the leading sides of the previous Major, including defending champions Astralis. This lot features the following teams:
Astralis BIG FaZe HellRaisers Liquid MIBR Natus Vincere Complexity
Below you can find the schedule for the three different stages of the Major:
Challengers Stage(ESL Studio) - February 13-17 Legends Stage(ICC Katowice) - February 20-24 Champions Stage(Spodek Arena) - February 28 - March 3