IEM Atlanta Missing A Ton Of Big Names – Vitality Will Compete
Event organiser ELS has announced the list of teams that have accepted invites to take part in IEM Atlanta. The list does include some big names, such as Team Vitality and NAVI, but FURIA, Team Spirit, Team Falcons, and MOUZ are among the names missing.
Although teams haven’t spoken out about their decision, they are likely opting to compete at the PGL Astana event, which will run at the same time – not only does its increased prize pool dwarf that of IEM’s, but US visa problems are likely keeping some of the big names away.
The IEM Atlanta Tournament
IEM Atlanta’s main event is part of this year’s DreamHack Atlanta and will run from May 15 – 17. 16 teams will compete in the main event, including two from the global closed qualifier and one from the Americas closed qualifier. The remaining 13 teams have been named and came through VRS invites. The qualifiers are already underway.
The 13 teams that have accepted invites are:
- NRG
- Legacy
- Team Vitality
- Natus Vincere
- Faze Clan
- Team Liquid
- B8
- Astralis
- Gamerlegion
- FUT Esports
- Pain Gaming
- M80
- BC Game Esports
Notably, the list of invite refusals contains more top-10 teams than the list of acceptances.
Although NRG accepted the North America invite, Furia declined the South America invite, which Legacy eventually accepted.
In global invites, Paravision declined before G2 Esports, and 3DMAX followed suit. 15th-placed Astralis eventually accepted.
Falcons, Spirit, MOUZ, Aurora, and The Mongolz also all declined.
PGL Astana Preference
Teams haven’t been confirmed for PGL Astana, but it will likely attract a lot of the main names. The reasons for this are two-fold. Teams have struggled to get U.S. visas, especially those with Russian players in their ranks. In contrast, PGL Astana is being hosted in Kazakhstan, which won’t have the same issues.
Furthermore, Astana is offering a $1.6m prize pool, which is not only $350,000 more than other PGL events, but also $600,000 more than at IEM.
Team Liquid will see this as an opportunity to wrap up the ESL Grand Slam VI and take home the $1m prize. Having won IEM Krakow, they need one more Major victory from the next five events, which includes Atlanta. PGL events do not make up part of the Grand Slam.
Similarly, the lack of big names will also give some of the smaller teams hope of picking up vital VRS ranking points that will stand them in good stead for the rest of the season.
