It has become known that Sprout, which currently includes players from Denmark, Germany and Luxembourg, will perform instead of China's TYLOO at IEM Katowice. The team from China was forced to withdraw from the competition due to current anti-epidemic restrictions that will prevent them from traveling to Poland despite having previously qualified for the Road to Katowice Asia tournament.
Previously, the opportunity to take TYLOO's place had been offered to Spirit and forZe under the IEM Katowice substitution rules, but both teams would not have been able to compete due to visa issues. So in the end, a spot in the tournament went to Sprout, who holds the next position in the ESL Pro Tour rankings.
TYLOO last played in Europe at IEM Winter 2021. The team failed to make any notable progress then and finished the tournament in 13 – 16th place. Since then, its roster has changed with the return of its former captain Hansel «BnTeT» Ferdinand, who has spent the last two years playing in Europe and North America. However, European viewers will not have the opportunity to see how much this will affect TYLOO's play.
Thus, Sprout will join 15 other teams in the play-in stage and will fight for the right to be among the eight participants who will make it to the main stage. The IEM Katowice play-in will begin on February 15 and will feature sixteen teams including Astralis, Fnatic, OG, Entropiq and more.