TYLOO Withdraw From IEM Katowice

Chinese Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, TYLOO, will not attend IEM Katowice, ESL has revealed on Friday, February 4. As revealed, TYLOO will not be able to compete in the tournament due to COVID-19 restrictions.

TYLOO, who were supposed to appear in the IEM Katowice Play-In stage, will not be traveling to Poland later this month. The Chinese CS:GO esports team had to withdraw from the tournament due to the COVID-19-related restrictions that prevented them from traveling to Europe.

ESL had to fill in the vacant spot with the Chinese team out of the competition. As reported, the tournament organizers initially sent invitations to forZe and Team Spirit as the next-best teams in the ESL world rankings.

However, neither team could provide a visa in time. As a result, ESL invited a German CS:GO team, Sprout, who are eligible to travel to Katowice and will serve as a replacement team for TYLOO.

“TYLOO have withdrawn from IEM Katowice 2022 due to restrictions around COVID19,” read the announcement.

“Invites were extended to both Team Spirit and forZe who were unable to provide a proof of visa to participate at the time of the invite, meaning that Sprout were the next eligible team in line based on the ESL World Rankings.”

The news comes as a huge blow to TYLOO, who were hoping to make a splash in the ESL’s upcoming tournament. The Chinese esports organization has recently re-signed an Indonesian CS:GO superstar Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand but will now be unable to showcase their new-look roster.

The Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2022 is slated to run on February 15-27 at Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland. It will mark the first IEM event since the IEM XVI Winter in December and the culminating tournament of the IEM Season XVI.

The tournament will welcome 24 CS:GO esports teams from all over the world and feature a $1,000,000 prize pool. Of the 24 teams, only eight have directly qualified for the group stage, while the rest 16 still need to fight through the Play-In stage.

The Play-In stage will feature seven teams based on their placement in the “Road To Katowice” Those include Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis, FaZe Clan, GODSENT, Complexity, MiBR, and Renegades.

Joining them are seven teams based on their ESL World Rating, including BIG, Entropiq, OG, CPH Flames, Fnatic, and ENCE. Lastly, the final two spots have been filled in by Mistrzostwa Polski champions Wisla Krakow and Sprout as a replacement team.

The IEM Katowice 2022 will kick off with the Play-In stage on February 15-16. The 16 teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket for the eight tickets leading into the Group Stage.

All IEM Katowice Play-In opening matches will use a best-of-one (BO1) format. The rest will be best-of-three (BO3).

The top-eight teams will then advance into the IEM Katowice Group Stage, slated for February 17-20. The group stage will feature 16 teams, who will compete in two double-elimination (GSL) groups, with all matches played as BO3.

The top three teams will advance into the IEM Katowice Playoffs, with the group stage winners receiving a direct bye into the semi-finals. The runners-up will move into the quarter-finals as a Higher Seed, while the third-placed teams will progress into the quarter-finals as Lower Seed.

IEM Katowice Playoffs will run on February 25-27 and use a single-elimination bracket. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be BO3, while the grand finals will be BO5.

The $1,000,000 prize pool will be divided between all participating teams, with a $400,000 winners’ share and a guaranteed $2,500 for the bottom-placed teams.

Besides the prize pool, the teams will also be awarded Pro Tour and BLAST Premier Points, with the champions pocketing 1800 Pro Tour points and 3200 BLAST Premier points.