IEM Katowice Major New Challengers Stage viewer's guide

With the long-awaited IEM Katowice Major set to start on Wednesday, we have put together a viewer's guide with all you need to know regarding the New Challengers Stage.

The opening stage of the Major will run from February 13-17 at the ESL Arena, in Katowice, where 16 teams will duke it out for the chance to compete in the New Legends Stage.

The initial Swiss match-ups were determined by the "Player-Selected Seeding" introduced by ESL at IEM Chicago. After every Swiss round, ESL will use an ELO rating system to determine the following match-ups, replacing the Buchholz system that was used at the FACEIT Major.

Every elimination and advancement match will be played in a best-of-three format, while the remaining games will be best-of-one clashes.

The Polish city of Katowice will host a Major for the third time

The teams who were ranked 9th through to 14th in the FACEIT Major's New Legends Stage will be joined by the top two sides from the regional Minor championships plus the leading sides of the Minor Play-in tournament, with the complete team list looking as follows:

Cloud9
TYLOO
Vega Squadron
Winstrike
NRG
Grayhound
AVANGAR
Spirit G2
Ninjas in Pyjamas
fnatic
ViCi
FURIA
Renegades
ENCE
Vitality

The full schedule for the event looks as follows:

Wednesday, February 13
13:00 - Renegades vs. AVANGAR | BO1
13:00 - fnatic vs. ViCi | BO1
14:10 - TYLOO vs. Vitality | BO1
14:10 - Cloud9 vs. Grayhound | BO1
15:20 - ENCE vs. Spirit | BO1
15:20 - G2 vs. Vega Squadron | BO1
16:30 - FURIA vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas | BO1
16:30 - Winstrike vs. NRG | BO1
18:05 - Round 2 match #1 | BO1
18:05 - Round 2 match #2 | BO1
19:15 - Round 2 match #3 | BO1
19:15 - Round 2 match #4 | BO1
20:25 - Round 2 match #5 | BO1
20:25 - Round 2 match #6 | BO1
21:35 - Round 2 match #7 | BO1
21:35 - Round 2 match #8 | BO1

Thursday, February 14
13:00 - Round 3 match #3 | BO1
13:00 - Round 3 match #4 | BO1
14:10 - Round 3 match #5 | BO1
14:10 - Round 3 match #6 | BO1
15:20 - Round 3 match #1 | BO3
15:20 - Round 3 match #7 | BO3
18:50 - Round 3 match #2 | BO3
18:50 - Round 3 match #8 | BO3

Friday, February 15
13:00 - Round 4 match #1 | BO3
16:30 - Round 4 match #2 | BO3
20:00 - Round 4 match #3 | BO3

Saturday, February 16
13:00 - Round 4 match #4 | BO3
16:30 - Round 4 match #5 | BO3
20:00 - Round 4 match #6 | BO3

Sunday, February 17
13:00 - Round 5 match #1 | BO3
16:30 - Round 5 match #2 | BO3
20:00 - Round 5 match #3 | BO3

The broadcast team for the New Challengers Stage features O.J. Borg as stage host, Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus and Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson as desk hosts, three analysts at the desk and two casting pairs, with Frankie Ward being the sideline reporter.

The complete on-air crew for the Major look as follows:

O. J. Borg - Stage host

Tres "stunna" Saranthus - Desk host
Alex "Machine" Richardson - Desk host

Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill - Analyst
Jacob "Pimp" Winneche - Analyst
Sean "seang@res" Gares - Analyst

Henry "HenryG" Greer - Commentator
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett - Commentator
Jason "moses" O'Toole - Commentator
Vince Hill - Commentator

Frankie Ward - Reporter

Winstrike #27 Georgi 'WorldEdit' YaskinJan 'wayLander' RahkonenAurimas 'Kvik' KvakšysKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovDavid 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan Spirit #20 Vadim 'DavCost' VasilyevDmitriy 'Dimaoneshot' BandurkaDmitry 'S0tF1k' ForostyankoPavel 'COLDYY1' VeklenkoViktor 'sdy' Orudzhev Cloud9 #7 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistFabien 'kioShiMa' FieyWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTimothy 'autimatic' TaJordan 'Zellsis' Montemurro Alex 'Machine' Richardson Age: 25 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 1 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.58 Vega Squadron #50 Anton 'tonyblack' KolesnikovLeonid 'chopper' VishnyakovDmitriy 'jR' ChervakPavel 'hutji' LashkovIgor 'crush' Shevchenko Renegades #13 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiJay 'Liazz' Tregillgas AVANGAR #22 Bektiyar 'fitch' BahytovTimur 'buster' TulepovAidyn 'KrizzeN' TurlybekovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali FURIA #21 Andrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoRinaldo 'ableJ' Moda Junior Tres 'stunna' Saranthus Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.64 Maps played: 4 KPR: 0.30 DPR: 0.54 ViCi #39 Zhuo 'advent' LiangWeiJie 'zhokiNg' ZhongZhiHong 'aumaN' LiuAndrew 'kaze' KhongWingHei 'Freeman' Cheung Ninjas in Pyjamas #10 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundDennis 'dennis' EdmanJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonFredrik 'REZ' Sterner Grayhound #32 Christopher 'dexter' NongErdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaLiam 'malta' SchembriEuan 'sterling' MooreOllie 'DickStacy' Tierney fnatic #5 Richard 'Xizt' LandströmJesper 'JW' WecksellSimon 'twist' EliassonFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin Vitality #14 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlex 'ALEX' McMeekinMathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut ENCE #12 Aleksi 'allu' JalliJani 'Aerial' JussilaSami 'xseveN' LaasanenAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenJere 'sergej' Salo NRG #6 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov TYLOO #29 YuLun 'Summer' CaiHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandYuanZhang 'Attacker' ShengHaoWen 'somebody' XuKevin 'xccurate' Susanto Time is adjusted to your selected timezone G2 #17 Audric 'JACKZ' JugRichard 'shox' PapillonKenny 'kennyS' SchrubAlexandre 'bodyy' PianaroLucas 'Lucky' Chastang