IEM Chicago North American qualifier revised; to feature one spot

The North American qualifier for IEM Chicago has been revised, as it will only feature one spot instead of two, the organizers have announced.

Initially, the North American qualifier had two spots at the $250,000 tournament on offer, but an internal error on the organizers' part sees the qualifier reduced to just one spot.

The second spot will instead go to a separate qualifier, which should be announced by ESL "soon", according to the release.

ESL have reduced the North American qualifier for the next IEM stop to one spot

The North American qualifier's format has thus been modified and will follow the same format featured in the South America and Asia regions — a best-of-three, double-elimination bracket —, with the grand final having been added to determine the single team who will secure a berth at IEM Chicago.

The dates of the eight-team closed tournament remain unchanged, as it will take place on August 23-25. Sign-ups for the open stage of the qualifier, which starts on August 20, are still open.

The slot distribution of IEM Chicago, which will take place at the Wintrust Arena on November 6-11, is the following:

Astralis
Liquid
MIBR
Renegades
Invite
EU qualifier
NA qualifier
SA qualifier FaZe
MOUZ
NRG
BIG
Invite
EU qualifier
Asia qualifier
TBA BIG #6 Fatih 'gob b' DayikJohannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschJohannes 'nex' MagetOwen 'smooya' Butterfield MIBR #8 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoTarik 'tarik' CelikFernando 'fer' AlvarengaJake 'Stewie2K' YipMarcelo 'coldzera' David Liquid #3 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken Renegades #17 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis MOUZ #5 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiRobin 'ropz' Kool FaZe #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenOlof 'olofmeister' KajbjerLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif NRG #7 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov