ESL to continue its Katowice event in 2026

The iconic Spodek Arena which hosted coveted IEM Katowice events for a long time, will host another ESL event starting in 2026 as per a post from ESL's X handle. Earlier this year, ESL announced that its IEM event would move to Krakow, leaving behind countless memories at Katowice's Spodek Arena. IEM Katowice was one of ESL's most prestigious event in a year alongside IEM Cologne.

ESL's post on X doesn't specify the tournament that the Spodek Arena would host. "Counter-Strike is returning to Katowice & the Spodek Arena in 2026." says ESL on X. So far, ESL has announced venues for a number IEM events with the host countries being Brazil, USA, Krakow and China.

ESL Pro League remains as the only major ESL event without any venue information and ESL went on record previously expressing their intent to bring ESL Pro League into a live audience setting, exceeding a studio scale. ESL Pro League Season 23 is supposedly taking place in Europe in front of a live audience as per ESL's previous statement.

All this points towards a scaled up setting for the ESL Pro League at Katowice's Spodek Arena.