ESL has released the list of teams that will take part in the IEM Summer 2021 indoor qualification tournament at the end of April. The names of the teams that received direct invitations to the main part of the competition, which will be held in June, have also become known. Among the teams that will fight for the exit from the qualifying group – are two teams that are in the top 10 (G2 and FURIA), as well as OG, FunPlus Phoenix and FaZe. Meanwhile, six ESL partner teams have received direct invitations. They included fnatic and Evil Geniuses. A few more teams, such as Gambit and Heroic, got straight into the main part of the tournament due to their positions in the world ranking.
The IEM Summer Closed Qualifier will take place from April 26-28. It will consist of two stages: first, four pairs of teams ranked lower in the tournament stack will face each other. The losers will leave the tournament, while the winners will advance to the second round where they will play against four more higher ranked teams. As a result, three teams will be selected to participate in the final stage.
The prize fund of ESL Summer is $250,000. By now, 12 of the 16 participants in the tournament are already known. Among the CIS teams, Gambit, Spirit and Virtus.pro will appear on it.