IEM Season XVI – Fall: Format, Prize pool and more

The IEM Fall tournament is the next stop in what has been a solid period for CS: GO. Natus Vincere will be looking to keep their momentum going after a successful victory at the ESL Pro League and winning the Intel Grand Slam. Here is everything you need to know about IEM Fall, including tournament formats, prize pool and much more.

With places at the PGL Stockholm on the line, teams will have to put their best performances forward. It was announced in August that IEM Fall will be the final RMR before the upcoming major.

Unfortunately for fans, IEM Fall will not host a LAN event. Instead, the tournament will be online with multiple regional tournaments. Here is the list of regions that will have their own tournament:

While the formats across the regions remain similar, there is some adjustments made for the tournaments that fields a smaller amount of teams. Here is the format for each IEM Fall region:

Europe is the largest tournament of the six and thus has a bigger format to run through. 24 Teams will compete across two stages, the Group Stage and the Playoffs. The teams will be divided into four six-team groups. The group stage is a single round-robin. All matches will be played through a best-of-one. The top two teams in each group will automatically be seeded into the playoffs. The third place sides will be placed in the 9th-12th Place Tiebreakers.

In the playoffs, teams will compete in a single-elimination bracket with all matches excluding the final being a best-of-three. The grand-final will be a best-of-five. Tiebreaker matches will occur for tournament placement.

The CIS tournament will host twelve teams at this Intel Extreme Masters event with two round-robin formatted groups of six. Each team will play each other once with every game being a best-of-one. Simialrly to EU's tournament the top two teams will qualify for the playoffs. Third place will proceed to the fifth place tiebreaker.

The playoffs will also be an elimination bracket. Every series minus the grand-final will be a best-of-three with the final being a best-of-five.

The North American IEM Fall tournament will run the exact same format as the CIS for both the Group Stage and the Playoffs.

The South American IEM Fall will be the first of three regions that will be hosting a four-team tournament. Since there is such a short amount of teams, the tournament will start with a double-elimination bracket. All matches excluding the final will be a best-of-three with the final being a best-of-five.

Oceania is the second of three regions to host a four-team tournament. This tournament runs the exact same format as South America.

Finally, the Asian Intel Extreme Masters tournament will also run with four-teams. As with OCE and South America, fans can expect the exact same format.

IEM Fall has several regional events and each event is crucial. Its not just prize money up for grabs, but valuable RMR points. RMR points contribute to a team's chances of qualifying to the PGL Stockholm Major. As there is multiple regions, here is the complete breakdown for each of the tournaments and their prize pools:

Europe, CIS and South America and Oceania start on September 29 while North American and Asian matches kick off on October 5. Here is the exact start dates for each of these Intel Extreme Masters tournaments:

Viewers of every region will be able to watch IEM Fall tournament on Twitch.

IEM Fall is the final opportunity for most teams to qualify to the PGL Stockholm Major. The PGL Stockholm Major is the only CS: GO Major of the year and features a $2 million prize pool. The tournament was almost shifted out of Sweden, but after much deliberations and some changes to rules, PGL announced it will host the event in Stockholm with a live audience.

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