ESL Intel Extreme Masters
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The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) are a series of e-sports tournaments and represent the world's top division of the Electronic Sports League (ESL). In First staged they were in 2007. Since then, prize money were played in various disciplines over 3 million dollars.
Each season, several tournaments (formerly called Global Challenges ) are played in different cities before the highlight of the season is the World Championship . Until 2013, the highlight of the season took place at the CeBIT fair in Hanover. Katowice, Poland, has hosted the season finale since 2014 . Between the third and fifth seasons there were also continental championships for Asia, Europe and America.
The participating teams and players for the tournaments are determined on the basis of national or continental, mostly online, qualifications. In countries where an ESL Pro Series takes place, this partly serves as a qualification.
Disciplines
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Over time, competitions were held in the following games:
| game | genre | mode | Game developer | Time in the IEM program |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Counter-Strike | First person shooter | Teams (5v5) | Valve | Season 1 to 6 |
| Warcraft 3 | Real time strategy game | singles | Blizzard | Season 1 and 2, as well as Season 4 and 5 (only in China) |
| World of Warcraft | MMORPG | Teams (3v3) | Blizzard | Season 3 and 4 |
| Quake Live | First person shooter | singles | id software | Season 4 and 5 |
| DotA (WarCraft 3 Mod) | MOBA / ARTS | Teams (5v5) | Blizzard | Season 4 and 5 (only in China) |
| StarCraft II | Real time strategy game | singles | Blizzard | since season 5 |
| League of Legends | MOBA / ARTS | Teams (5v5) | Riot Games | Season 6 to 11 (previously an invitational) |
| Hearthstone | Online trading card game | singles | Blizzard | Season 8 and 9 (two Invitationals) |
| Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | First person shooter | Teams (5v5) | Valve | since season 10 |
| Heroes of the Storm | MOBA / ARTS | Teams (5v5) | Blizzard | Season 10 (an invitational) |
| Overwatch | First person shooter | Teams (6v6) | Blizzard | Season 11 (an invitational) |
| CrossFire | First person shooter | Teams (5v5) | SmileGate / NeoWiz | Season 11 (an invitational) |
| PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds | Survival - Shooter | Teams (4, FFA) | Bluehole | Season 12 (an invitational) |
( bold = currently in the program - status: Season XII )