From March 2-5 in Katowice, Poland, the final Intel Extreme Masters stopover of the season will include a $250,000+ CS:GO tournament with 12 teams in attendance. There are two groups with six teams each and the tournament kicks off with a best-of-one round-robin group stage that will take place during the first two days and be inaccessible to the public. The group winners will automatically advance to the semifinals whereas the second and third place finishers in each group will play quarter-finals to determine the final two teams to make the top four of the event.  CS:GO returns to the Spodek Arena from the quarter-finals onwards
Every match from the quarter-finals onward will take place inside the Spodek Arena proper. The quarter and semifinals will be best-of-three games whereas the grand final will be a best-of-five. The official groups for IEM Katowice 2016 are once again: Group A | Group B | fnatic | Envy | Natus Vincere | Astralis | Luminosity | Virtus.pro | MOUZ | FaZe | Ninjas in Pyjamas | E-frag.net | The MongolZ | Tempo Storm |
The schedule for the event is: Wednesday, March 2 | 12:20 | fnatic | vs. | Natus Vincere | 12:20 | MOUZ | vs. | Ninjas in Pyjamas | 13:40 | Luminosity | vs. | Natus Vincere | 13:40 | MOUZ | vs. | The MongolZ | 15:00 | fnatic | vs. | Luminosity | 15:00 | Ninjas in Pyjamas | vs. | The MongolZ | 16:20 | fnatic | vs. | Ninjas in Pyjamas | 16:20 | MOUZ | vs. | Natus Vincere | 17:40 | Luminosity | vs. | The MongolZ | 17:40 | Ninjas in Pyjamas | vs. | Natus Vincere | 19:00 | MOUZ | vs. | Luminosity | 19:00 | fnatic | vs. | The MongolZ | 20:20 | Natus Vincere | vs. | The MongolZ | 20:20 | Luminosity | vs. | Ninjas in Pyjamas | 20:20 | fnatic | vs. | MOUZ | Thursday, March 3 | 12:20 | Envy | vs. | Astralis | 12:20 | E-frag.net | vs. | FaZe | 13:40 | Virtus.pro | vs. | Astralis | 13:40 | E-frag.net | vs. | Tempo Storm | 15:00 | Envy | vs. | Virtus.pro | 15:00 | FaZe | vs. | Tempo Storm | 16:20 | Envy | vs. | FaZe | 16:20 | E-frag.net | vs. | Astralis | 17:40 | Virtus.pro | vs. | Tempo Storm | 17:40 | FaZe | vs. | Astralis | 19:00 | E-frag.net | vs. | Virtus.pro | 19:00 | Envy | vs. | Tempo Storm | 20:20 | Astralis | vs. | Tempo Storm | 20:20 | Virtus.pro | vs. | FaZe | 20:20 | Envy | vs. | E-frag.net | Friday, March 4 | 12:30 | Quarter-final #1 (bo3) | | | 15:50 | Quarter-final #2 (bo3) | | | 19:10 | Semi-final #1 (bo3) | | | 22:30 | Semi-final #2 (bo3) | | | Saturday, March 5 | 18:00 | Grand final (bo5) | |
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The talent list for IEM Katowice draws on most of the most renowned corners of the current CS:GO scene and is as follows: Will "Chobra" Cho - Host
O. J. Borg - Sideline reporter
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett - Analyst desk host
Janko "YNk" Paunović - Analyst
Lauren "Pansy" Scott - Commentator
Alex "Machine" Richardson - Commentator
Anders Blume - Commentator
Auguste "Semmler" Massonat - Commentator
Henry "HenryG" Greer - Commentator
Jason "moses" O'Toole - Commentator
Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo - Observer
Alex Rush - Observer
You will be able to catch the action over at ESL's CS:GO channel as always and the games go live when fnatic will take on Na`Vi in a best-of-one at 12:20 stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter  E-frag.net #17  Kamen 'bubble' Kostadinov Emiliyan 'spyleadeR' Dimitrov Nikolay 'nkl' Krastev Viktor 'v1c7oR' Dyankov Nikolay 'pNshr' Paunin  FaZe #8  Ricardo 'fox' Pacheco Mikail 'Maikelele' Bill Philip 'aizy' Aistrup Håvard 'rain' Nygaard Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad  Tempo Storm #28  Henrique 'HEN1' Teles Lucas 'LUCAS1' Teles Ricardo 'boltz' Prass João 'felps' Vasconcellos Gustavo 'SHOOWTiME' Gonçalves  Ninjas in Pyjamas #11  Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund Richard 'Xizt' Landström Adam 'friberg' Friberg Jacob 'pyth' Mourujärvi  E-frag.net #17  Kamen 'bubble' Kostadinov Emiliyan 'spyleadeR' Dimitrov Nikolay 'nkl' Krastev Viktor 'v1c7oR' Dyankov Simeon 'dream3r' Ganev   The MongolZ #24   Temuulen 'Zilkenberg' Battulga Tsog 'Tsogoo' Mashbat Enkhtaivan 'Machinegun' Lkhagva Otgonjargal 'Menace' Ganzorig Bold 'ncl' Batsuh  Astralis #4  Finn 'karrigan' Andersen René 'cajunb' Borg Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen Nicolai 'device' Reedtz  MOUZ #10  Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Johannes 'nex' Maget Timo 'Spiidi' Richter Denis 'denis' Howell Janko 'YNk' Paunović Age: 23 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 96 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.71  Natus Vincere #2  Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács Denis 'seized' Kostin Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev Jason 'moses' O'Toole Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 13 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68 Henry 'HenryG' Greer Age: 27 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.68 Maps played: 1 KPR: 0.48 DPR: 0.78 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone  Luminosity #5  Lincoln 'fnx' Lau Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga Marcelo 'coldzera' David Epitacio 'TACO' de Melo  fnatic #1  Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer Dennis 'dennis' Edman Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist Jesper 'JW' Wecksell Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson   Envy #3   Fabien 'kioShiMa' Fiey Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer  Virtus.pro #6  Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas Filip 'NEO' Kubski Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski Paweł 'byali' Bieliński |