Katowice Plans to Continue Supporting IEM Events Until 2023
By Zac Cameron ·
The city will continue to help promote and organize events for some years to come.
Katowice’s council has voted on an act which would see the Polish city continue to co-organize and promote the Intel Extreme Master (IEM) series until at least 2023. In an effort to keep the tournament coming back, the council has voted to allocate 12.5 million PLN (around $3.5 million) to promote IEM in the city for the next five years. Of that money, around 2 million PLN ($640,000) will go to next year’s event alone.
The current deal between the city and ESL, organizers of the IEM series, was set to finish after IEM Katowice in March of next year. The new deal will see the tournament returning to the city for at least the next five years. IEM Katowice 2019 is set to revitalize the competition, as it becomes the 14th Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major, and the first ESL Major since ESL One Cologne in 2016.
Previously, all of the tournament would be held in a single venue over the weekend, but that is changing with the new deal as well. Future IEM events in Katowice will now be spread out across the city in different venues, although these venue locations have not yet been announced.