• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 12:34
CEST 18:34
KST 01:34
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt2: Take-Off7[ASL20] Ro24 Preview Pt1: Runway13
Community News
SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia7Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues26LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3Weekly Cups (August 25-31): Clem's Last Straw?39Weekly Cups (Aug 18-24): herO dethrones MaxPax6
StarCraft 2
General
Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues #1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon What happened to Singapore/Brazil servers?
Tourneys
Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around Mutation # 487 Think Fast
Brood War
General
Pros React To: SoulKey's 5-Peat Challenge ASL20 General Discussion BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group B [ASL20] Ro16 Group A [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL $1,500 Open Bracket LAN
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Borderlands 3 Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Big Programming Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1548 users

IEM Katowice 2024 - Qualifier Preview (Dec 5-10)

Forum Index > SC2 General
10 CommentsPost a Reply

IEM Katowice 2024 - Qualifier Preview (Dec 5-10)

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
December 4th, 2023 23:28 GMT
Asia & Korea

Europe

Americas

Schedule and standings on Liquipedia

IEM Katowice 2024 - Online Qualifiers

by Wax

The IEM Katowice 2024 main event is still two months away, but you'll have to tune in this week to catch all of the high-stakes competition related to the tournament.

In a major format change, the round-of-36 play-in stage has been replaced with a weeklong online qualifier, which is set to be played from December 5-10. Only five players have secured main event seeds through winning championships during the season, so this qualifier will determine the nineteen other players who will win the right to play at Katowice (the 24-player main event format and total prize pool are unchanged from 2023).

Given the prestige of IEM Katowice—not to mention $500,000 in prize money—you can bet that the players will be going all-out in these matches. A key factor is that the three server qualifiers are not region-locked, meaning players can sign up for all three servers. This means that the American server qualifier—which takes place after the Asia/Korea and Europe qualifiers are finished—could be especially intense, with players from every region competing for the final tickets to Katowice.

Schedule & Format

Note: The qualifiers are not region-locked.

IEM Katowice seeded players: Astrea, Maru, Oliveira, Serral, Solar

Asia and Korea (Dec 5-6):
  • Open Qualifier: Tuesday, Dec 05 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
    • Top 8 advance to closed qualifier
    • Single-elimination
    • Best-of-3 until final round
    • Final round is best-of-5
  • Closed Qualifier: Wednesday, Dec 06 10:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
    • 16-player double-elimination (8 seeds + 8 open qualifier players)
    • Top 8 qualify for IEM Katowice
    • Seeded players: Bunny, ByuN, Classic, Creator, Cure, Dark, GuMiho, herO
    • Best-of-3 until qualification rounds
    • Qualification rounds are best-of-5

Europe (Dec 7-8):
  • Open Qualifier: Thursday, Dec 07 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
    • Top 8 advance to closed qualifier
    • Single-elimination
    • Best-of-3 until final round
    • Final round is best-of-5
  • Closed Qualifier: Friday, Dec 08 6:00pm GMT (GMT+00:00)
    • 16-player double-elimination (8 seeds + 8 open qualifier players)
    • Top 7 qualify for IEM Katowice
    • Seeded players: Clem, HeroMarine, Lambo, Reynor, ShoWTimE, SKillous, Spirit, Elazer*
      • *While an official decision has yet to be made, Elazer is the next highest ranking player should MaxPax forfeit as presumed.
    • Best-of-3 until qualification rounds
    • Qualification rounds are best-of-5

Americas (Dec 9-10):
  • Open Qualifier: Sunday, Dec 10 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
    • Top 4 advance to closed qualifier
    • Single-elimination
    • Best-of-3 until final round
    • Final round is best-of-5
  • Closed Qualifier: Monday, Dec 11 12:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
    • 16-player double-elimination (8 seeds + 8 open qualifier players)
    • Top 4 qualify for IEM Katowice
    • Seeded players: Kelazhur, Scarlett, SpeCial, trigger
    • Best-of-3 until qualification rounds
    • Qualification rounds are best-of-5


Asia & Korea Qualifier Preview - 8 Players Qualify

Seeds: Dark, ByuN, Cure, herO, GuMiho, Classic, Creator, Bunny
Notable unseeded players (home region): SHIN, DRG, Stats, NightMare, Ryung, soO, TY, sOs, Firefly, Nice, Cyan
Notable unseeded players (other regions): ShoWTimE, MaNa, Gerald, Trigger (these players are currently signed up but not confirmed to play)

The Asia-Korea qualifier has eight Katowice spots up for grabs, but four of them should be spoken for. Dark, ByuN, herO, and Cure have proven themselves to be dominant players in this kind of online-cup environment, where they regularly make short work of the other players on the qualifier sign-up list.

However, I do have some minor concerns about herO and ByuN considering the heightened stakes of this event. herO has been an absolutely confounding player since IEM Katowice, looking like the world's best Protoss in lower-stakes online events while he slumps hard in major tournaments. As for ByuN, we're all too familiar with his bouts of wrist pain in high-leverage situations. Considering that the pressure level of this qualifier will be close to that of a major event, I'm not 100% confident that these two will be able to keep their composure.

Depending on how you rate herO and ByuN, that leaves four or six more slots for the rest of the players. The race for these slots should be quite competitive, featuring most of the GSL Code S middle class. The ostensible favorites—GuMiho, Classic, Creator, Bunny, DRG, and SHIN—are all high peak players who suffer from inconsistency, and they could easily be upset if they draw an unlucky match-up or are just in bad condition on the day of games. It's not just players like NightMare and Ryung who are nipping at their heels—even a player like Firefly or Nice could cause a mid-bracket surprise with the right match-up.

On that note, my broad prediction is that PvP will cause at least one minor upset in terms of Asian server qualification. Creator and Classic are the players I see as especially vulnerable, and if they fall to the lower bracket, they could get BO3'd out of the tournament by the likes of NightMare, Stats, Firefly, or even ShoWTime if he actually decides to endure the latency and play.

Europe Qualifier Preview - 7 Players Qualify

Seeded players: Clem, Reynor, HeroMarine, ShoWTimE, Lambo, Spirit, SKillous, Elazer (pending decision on MaxPax's forfeited seed)
Notable unseeded players (home region): Harstem, MaNa, Krystianer, uThermal, GunGFuBanDa, Gerald, Bly, Goblin
Notable unseeded players (other regions): Bunny, ByuN, Classic, Gerald, Trigger (these players are currently signed up but not confirmed to play)

I don't think anyone would object to me making Clem and Reynor my two, 100% locks in the European qualifier, which leaves the other players to fight for five remaining slots. Compared to Asia/Korea, I see much less of a challenge coming from the non-seeded players, so there's a good chance this becomes the six of HeroMarine, ShoWTimE, Lambo, SKillous, Spirit, and Elazer fighting for five spots. Really, any of them could become the unlucky odd man out—I'll predict it to be whoever draws the closest start to Clem and Elazer in the bracket. For wildcards, you could put Harstem in the mix, if you believe the Epoch of H is truly upon us (he recently had a solid RO8 showing at HSC 24). Wayne has shown some strong upset potential in online play as well, but it's hard to see him winning a full BO5 against one of the favorites.

The huge wrench in the works would be the Korean contingent showing up to play. We've seen players like Oliveira and Firefly do reasonably well in the ESL Open EU cup through some VPN wizardry, and someone like Bunny or Classic (after failing to qualify through Korea) would have a very reasonable chance of pushing out one of the EU regulars for a qualification spot.

Americas Qualifier - 4 Players Qualify

Seeded players: Scarlett, Kelazhur, SpeCial, Trigger
Notable unseeded players: EVERYONE who hasn't made it through by this point

For me, this is THE highlight of qualifier week. ESL has tried to have "Last Chance" qualifiers for Katowice in the past, only for them to become almost meaningless due to poor calibration of the point system. This American server qualifier projects to be a true last chance qualifier, with all the stragglers from Asia and Europe invading the American server for one final shot.

For the sake of example, I assumed all the players from EU and Asia would qualify in order of their Aligulac.com rating, which gave me this list of players potentially playing in the Americas qualifier: Scarlett, Kelazhur, SpeCial, Trigger, SHIN, DRG, Stats, NightMare, Ryung, soO, TY, sOs, SKillous, Wayne, Strange, Harstem, MaNa, Krystianer, uThermal, GungFuBanDa, Firefly, Cyan, DnS, Bly… it goes on and on.

That would surely end up being one of the most unpredictable tournaments ever. Seriously, who would you even say is the best player from that combined list? Probably SHIN/RagnaroK? But he'd be far, far from a lock—several players would have a good shot to take him down in a BO5.

Due to the expected parity of players, and the sheer desperation everyone will be playing with, I already anticipate that this will be the most entertaining of the three qualifiers.



Writer: Wax
Photos: Adam Lakomy (via ESL)
Statistics and records: Liquipedia and Aligulac.com

Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
TossHeroes
Profile Joined February 2022
281 Posts
December 05 2023 00:29 GMT
#2
Harstem qualifies or we riot
WickedCestus
Profile Joined December 2011
Canada25 Posts
Last Edited: 2023-12-05 02:33:12
December 05 2023 02:30 GMT
#3
So, what is the point of the EPT points people have been earning all year? Did I miss something? Is Gamers8 the official world championships now?

EDIT: Okay, I see now that they are being used to seed the second round of qualifiers. But I am still curious if they will be used for something else in the future.
Balnazza
Profile Joined January 2018
Germany1198 Posts
December 05 2023 02:56 GMT
#4
On December 05 2023 11:30 WickedCestus wrote:
So, what is the point of the EPT points people have been earning all year? Did I miss something? Is Gamers8 the official world championships now?

EDIT: Okay, I see now that they are being used to seed the second round of qualifiers. But I am still curious if they will be used for something else in the future.


There will be a "World Championship"-event which will NOT be IEM Katowice. In fact, there will be a third event (ESL Spring) between the two. Nothing specific is yet to be announced about the mentioned Championship, but considering the timing and ESLs weird secrecy about it (plus teams like C9 and NaVi picking up players) all points towards Gamers 8.

Sadly, that also means we still don't know how many players will qualify. So you are kind of right, at the moment the points are competly useless - but to be fair, they have been all year since the EPT 2023/24 started without this clarification, which still feels really unprofessional for me...
"Wenn die Zauberin runter geht, dann macht sie die Beine breit" - Khaldor, trying to cast WC3 German-only
QOGQOG
Profile Joined July 2019
834 Posts
December 05 2023 03:39 GMT
#5
Not region-locked qualifiers for an offline event? I'm officially excited about this tournament.
Waxangel
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
United States33429 Posts
Last Edited: 2023-12-05 04:12:03
December 05 2023 04:07 GMT
#6
On December 05 2023 11:30 WickedCestus wrote:
So, what is the point of the EPT points people have been earning all year? Did I miss something? Is Gamers8 the official world championships now?

EDIT: Okay, I see now that they are being used to seed the second round of qualifiers. But I am still curious if they will be used for something else in the future.


There's no official confirmation on this, but I think this is what probably happened.

ESL couldn't confirm SC2 would be at Katowice at the start of the season, either related to the enormous financial contraction we've seen in all of SC2 this year, or due to pressure to promote Gamers8 as the new World Championship (or both). When they finally did get the go-ahead for Katowice, it was already November, leaving very little time to prepare. In order to have sufficient time to get visas for players and make all the other preparations, they had to rush to put together a DIRECT online qualifier on early December (perfectly aligns with ESL's new policy of always sending invitation letters two months in advance).

It's also possible they would have held some form of online qualifier regardless of the date, since removing the RO36 play-in stage from Katowice seems to be a clear cost-cutting measure.
AdministratorHey HP can you redo everything youve ever done because i have a small complaint?
oneill12
Profile Joined February 2012
Romania1222 Posts
December 05 2023 07:40 GMT
#7
hypeuuuuuuu
ThunderJunk
Profile Joined December 2015
United States694 Posts
December 05 2023 22:19 GMT
#8
As an american who has gone 2-3 on the broodwar ladder ending with about 1500 MMR - which feels like way more than I deserve for merely being a fan... This qualifier has piqued my interest. The fact that America is going to be a competitive landscape bodes well for the practice of my favorite sc2 protoss, Astrea. If only the latency divide were fair for all races like in Korea, where no one can win past the Korean wall to advance in the GSL. But the broodwar guys... they're the always. Js.
I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
laijasngilp
Profile Joined December 2023
3 Posts
Last Edited: 2023-12-06 09:58:29
December 06 2023 09:57 GMT
#9
--- Nuked ---
AmbroseHarvey
Profile Joined December 2023
1 Post
December 08 2023 09:23 GMT
#10
The shift to online qualifiers adds a new layer of anticipation to the IEM Katowice journey. It's intriguing to see players from different servers compete, and the Americas qualifier looks particularly intense. Ready for the excitement and surprises!
bulldozer06701
Profile Joined July 2019
126 Posts
December 08 2023 09:25 GMT
#11
Bummed that TY didn't make it. I hope he bounces back
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Maestros of the Game
13:00
Playoffs - Round of 8
ShoWTimE vs herOLIVE!
TBD vs Serral
TBD vs Zoun
ComeBackTV 1853
RotterdaM1426
WardiTV492
PiGStarcraft484
IndyStarCraft 391
SteadfastSC269
Rex172
CranKy Ducklings155
EnkiAlexander 81
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 1426
PiGStarcraft484
IndyStarCraft 391
SteadfastSC 269
Rex 172
StarCraft: Brood War
ggaemo 107
Hyun 60
zelot 49
sSak 47
yabsab 19
Shine 18
sas.Sziky 11
Hm[arnc] 10
Noble 7
Dota 2
The International229004
Gorgc19556
Dendi1129
BananaSlamJamma186
PGG 44
Counter-Strike
flusha142
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King71
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor179
Other Games
tarik_tv26228
gofns18971
FrodaN552
Mlord552
Hui .326
mouzStarbuck214
KnowMe190
ToD148
ArmadaUGS75
Trikslyr43
NeuroSwarm38
SortOf34
fpsfer 1
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick599
EGCTV516
BasetradeTV19
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 11
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• Michael_bg 5
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• Ler104
League of Legends
• Jankos2118
Other Games
• Shiphtur208
Upcoming Events
BSL Team Wars
2h 27m
Afreeca Starleague
17h 27m
Snow vs Sharp
Jaedong vs Mini
Wardi Open
18h 27m
OSC
1d 7h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 17h
Afreeca Starleague
1d 17h
Light vs Speed
Larva vs Soma
PiGosaur Monday
2 days
LiuLi Cup
2 days
RSL Revival
3 days
Maru vs Reynor
Cure vs TriGGeR
The PondCast
3 days
[ Show More ]
RSL Revival
4 days
Zoun vs Classic
Korean StarCraft League
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
[BSL 2025] Weekly
6 days
BSL Team Wars
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Online Event
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-09-10
SEL Season 2 Championship
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL Polish World Championship 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
Thunderpick World Champ.
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.