How the Intel® Extreme Masters Work

In both Warcraft 3 and Counterstrike, 24 participants will play for the biggest prize purse ever in an all European tournament. 285,000 USD are up for grabs. In each discipline, 24 participants will be determined to enter the main group stage. There are two ways to qualify for the Intel® Extreme Masters, depending on your country of origin. Countries with an active ESL Pro Series will determine their participants via the ranking of the last finished season.

Countries without an active ESL Pro Series will get so called National Qualifiers. All national teams can apply for a place in that tournament. Depending on the country's place in the Intel® Extreme Masters Country Ranking a certain amount of teams or players will move on to the international stage.

Teams that qualified nationally, can enter the Intel® Extreme Masters in three different tournament phases, depending on their national rank and their country's rank. The first possibility is a direct entry into the main round. If a team does not qualify directly, it has to go through a two stage international qualifier. 24 teams and players have to play in the first round, another 12 participants are seeded into round 2 of this international qualifier.

In the end, 12 participants succeed from the international qualifier, joining the other 12 for the final lineup of 24 participants in the Intel® Extreme Masters main round, where the teams and players compete to participate at the finals. Additionally two non european teams in Counter-Strike and two non european players in Warcraft 3 can qualify for the Intel® Extreme Masters Finals at the Intel® Extreme Masters Los Angeles - The Global Challenge.