ESL has announced the first ten teams that will receive a direct invitation to IEM Dallas. This $250,000 tournament is scheduled to run from May 30 through June 5. The list includes the top teams in the world ranking, including FaZe, Natus Vincere and G2.
Other participants include organizations that regularly play at major events, including Gambit (under the name Players), NIP and Heroic, as well as ENCE, which recently reached the ESL Pro League grand finals. FURIA, Vitality and Astralis round out the list. On the other hand, Liquid and Outsiders were not among the invited teams, as they both lacked a small number of points.
In addition, ESL also revealed the teams that will receive invitations to the closed qualifiers, which will be held on a regional basis. Participants from Europe and North America will be able to claim two spots in the tournament for each region, while South America and Oceania have one spot each.
The European teams that made it to this stage include – Movistar Riders, fnatic, as well as Russia's Entropiq and Virtus.pro (under the tag Outsiders). In the selection for the North American region, three invitations went to top teams from the United States and one – to Brazil's GODSENT. Two other Brazilian teams represent South America. Finally, Looking for Org and Orders received invitations from Oceania. Interestingly, the Australian Renegades didn't make the list despite winning all their home events.