ESL (Electronic Sports League) has officially confirmed that the forthcoming IEM Cologne 2021 is going to be a LAN event. It’ll be the first one for CS:GO since the pandemic struck the entire globe in early 2020. This tournament will be competed between 24 teams, who will be playing for the $1 Million prize pool, as well as the Pro Tour and BLAST Premier points.
This announcement was made on ESL’s official twitter handle, confirming that they are planning to start off with their offline events this year. IEM Cologne 2020 was made online as the pandemic was ravaging the world.
Our Q2 update to the #ESLProTour CS:GO includes several updates, the main one being ESL One Cologne 2021 moving to a LAN environment.
Online:
🐣#DHMasters Spring 2021
🌞#IEM Summer 2021Studio:
🏆 ESL One Cologne 2021Read the full update ➡️ https://t.co/rYeLnwHX4o
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) April 22, 2021
Apart from IEM Cologne, Dreamhack Masters Spring and IEM Summer will also be running, though these two events will be completely online. Though another upcoming event IEM Winter is said to be held in Asia this December, the discussion is still in its early stages of planning as ESL still has their eye on the current pandemic situation around their preferred locations.
Various teams have started flying in, as they need to be quarantined first as a part of the strict requirement of entry ordained by the German government.
IEM Cologne will be kicking off from 6th July and will be lasting till 18th July.
