IEM returns to China

In their recent blogpost ESL has announced three IEM events set to take place in 2026. Two IEM events in the first half of 2026 are set to take place in Brazil and USA. The second half's IEM event takes us to China. The cities for these events have not been announced yet.

The first two IEMs announced for 2026 will dispatch eleven invites based on the Global VRS, one invite each based on the NA and SA VRS, followed by a couple of global qualifiers. IEMs set to take place in Brazil and USA will host a closed qualifier for the Americas region for the sixteenth slot while the Chinese IEM features an Asian closed qualifier for the final slot.

The Chinese IEM will send out direct invites to the #1 ranked teams in Asia, North America and South America VRS, alongside the top ten teams from the Global VRS. Important dates for these events are as follows:

IEM is set to return to Chengdu this year after it's successful inaugural run in 2024. IEM Chengdu 2024 saw FaZe lift the trophy with broky bagging the tournament MVP.