ESL announces IEM Melbourne 2025

The ESL Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) will be held for the first time in Melbourne (Australia) in 2025 and will pit 16 of the world’s best CS2 teams against each other for a $1M prize. The event will take place April 21-27, with live matches scheduled.

Participating teams will be decided based on the Valve Regional Rankings to be released in February 2025. Teams will go through a group stage, which will follow a double-elimination format, with the top six competitors advancing to the Rod Laver Arena for the playoffs. Each series will be best-of-three (BO3), except for the Grand Final, which will be best-of-five (BO5).

We are thrilled to have the world’s best players here to showcase their skills in one of the biggest eSports tournaments ever seen on Australian shores. There will be an incredible atmosphere in Melbourne as competitors and fans flock here from all over the world, and it will be a great boost to our economy to have thousands of people filling hotel rooms and visiting our world-class cafes and restaurants.

Steve Dimopoulos, the country’s Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events.

Invitations to IEM Melbourne 2025 will be distributed based on Valve’s global and regional rankings. As a result, the event will offer participation to the top 10 global VRS teams, as well as the top two organizations in the European, American and Asian VRS rankings.

Tickets for the event will go on sale on January 23 at 3 am GMT and fans will be able to follow the action live via FACEIT Watch or ESL Counter-Strike’s Twitch and YouTube channels.

In addition to IEM Melbourne 2025, ESL will host IEM events in Dallas, Cologne, Katowice and Chengdu this year. The first IEM event of 2025 will be IEM Katowice, which will be held on January 29.