Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the switch to online play, 2020 has been a bumpy ride for competitive CS:GO. The pandemic dashed all hopes of running international A and S-tier LAN events, and 2020 became the first year without a single CS:GO Major. The challenges hit the North American CS:GO scene the hardest — multiple organisations ended up disbanding their CS:GO rosters or switching over to up-and-coming games like VALORANT. But 2020 was not all that glum, as it became the first year when CS:GO had more than 500,000 online players on average, peaking at over 1,000,000 concurrent players in March. That wasn’t a one-time record either — every single month saw at least 500,000 CS:GO players online simultaneously!
With so many eyes on the competitive scene and the injection of fresh talent into pro teams, the 2021 season is bound to be eventful. Join us as we dive into this year’s CS:GO Intel Extreme Masters — Summer 2021 and see what our favourite CS:GO teams have in store for us.
CS:GO IEM SUMMER 2021
The 2021 CS:GO IEM Summer is set to kick off on 3 June, with 16 best Counter-Strike teams competing for a $250,000 prize pool and 4,300 ESL Pro Tour points. The tournament does not contribute to IEM Cologne 2021 qualification or the Play-in stages, but the abundance of EPT points and an Intel Grand Slam contribution keep the stakes high.
Intel Grand Slam
The Intel Grand Slam Series is a $1,000,000 competition that rewards teams for winning S-tier events organised by ESL and DreamHack. There are two ways to win the massive million-dollar prize pool:
- Win four S-tier events organised inside a span of 10 consecutive events, including championship-level ESL Pro Tour events. Qualifying events include the IEM World Championship, IEM Cologne, IEM Katowice and CS:GO Major Championships by ESL and DreamHack.
- Win six ESL Pro Tour Masters tournaments in a window of 10 consecutive events.
Additionally, there is a spoils bonus of $100,000 to the team that denies another team their final victory towards the Intel Grand Slam.
The Group stage will run until 6 June, and the 16 participating teams have been split into two groups of eight based on their ranking. Group A is spearheaded by heavy hitters Gambit and G2 Esports, while Group B is headlined by the equally formidable Heroic and Virtus.pro.
➤ All teams are seeded into the Upper Bracket and the Group stage is split into three rounds; the losers of Round 1 will be relegated into the Lower Bracket. Upper-bracket winners advance to semi-finals, runners-up advance to quarter-finals as high seeds and third-place teams advance to the quarter-finals as low seeds.
GROUP A
Gambit Esports
Sprout
Team Vitality
Complexity
Astralis
FunPlus Phoenix
Extra Salt
G2 Esports
GROUP B
Heroic
Imperial Esports
Evil Geniuses
Team Spirit
Ninjas in Pyjamas
OG
Fnatic
Virtus.pro
CS:GO IEM SUMMER 2021 FORMAT
Group Stage
- Two groups of eight teams compete in a double-elimination format.
- The opening matches are Bo1, all of the following matches are Bo3.
- The top three teams from each group advance to the play-offs.
Play-offs
- The six remaining teams compete in a single-elimination bracket.
- The quarter and semi-finals are Bo3; the Grand Final is Bo5.
CS:GO IEM SUMMER 2021 SCHEDULE
Group Stage — 3-6 June
Quarter-finals — 11 June
Semi-finals — 12 June
Grand Final — 13 June
CS:GO 2021 IEM SUMMER BETTING
To get started on CS:GO match betting, have a look at the LV BET Sportsbook, where you’ll find comprehensive IEM Summer betting markets at top CS:GO odds. Counter-Strike betting is fairly straightforward — you can wager on markets like Match Winner, Map Winner, Map Handicaps and Total Rounds.
This coming weekend, keep your eyes on the Group A opening matchup between Gambit Esports, who are at 2/7 (1.28) to win and Sprout, at 5/2 (3.50) to outplay the favourites.
In Group B, Heroic are at 4/25 (1.16) to bag an easy win against Imperial Esports, who are at 4/1 (5.00) to pull a heroic deed and surprise the fans with a victory.
Make sure to come back for more! We’ll be covering this year’s biggest CS:GO tournaments, match previews and everything else you need to know about the most competitive esports on the scene.
*Odds subject to change. Odds correct at time of publishing.