On Thursday, the second day of gamescom 2009 in Cologne the fourth Intel Extreme Masters season will start. The opening ceremony will have a huge surprise. The competition for the major stars in esports will be opened by a star in sports.

The Mystery VIP's name will not be revealed until the opening ceremony itself at 15:00 CET at the ESL stage in gamescom's Hall 9. If you cannot make it there, then head on over to the live ESL TV stream over here.

gamescom is the host for the first Global Challenge of the next Intel Extreme Masters season consisting of five events, and $500,000 in total prize money. Teams of World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike 1.6 and Quake Live players will battle it out in Cologne, Germany, from August 19th to 23rd, for a total of $21,000!