After the massive success of the 2013 StarCraft II World Championship Series Season 3 World Finals in Toronto, it was only a matter of time before the highest level of competitive SC2 returned to Canada. It won’t ESL bringing WCS Americas to Canada but ESL’s premiere competition series, Intel Extreme Masters, that will be coming to Canada for a stop in August.

The Canadian stop will be from August 28th to 31st and will be the second stop of IEM Season 9. Apart from the format, ESL has announced no other details about the tournament.

Given the timing of IEM Season 9 Canada, it would be almost impossible to see this tournament anywhere but in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre during Fan Expo 2014. It wouldn’t be surprising. ESL held an IEM event at New York Comic Con last year. And, of course ESL would have an IEM the year I can’t make it to Fan Expo. It’s going to absolutely kill me not being able to attend.

Anyway, back to already announced facts. The main part of the tournament will feature four four-team groups from which the top two will advance to a single-elimination bracket. Eight players will qualify straight to the group stage from a series of open qualifiers. Two players will qualify through the European Qualifiers, three from the American Qualifies, two from the Asian qualifies and one from the Canadian Qualifier. Four more will qualify through Wildcard selections from the WCS standings. The final four group stage players will qualify through the on-site Open Bracket tournament.

The European Qualifier tournaments will run from July 12th to the 13th. We’ll try to find coverage of that and make sure it’s featured on our eSports Calendar post. We’ll also be posting more details as they are announced.

As a big fan and a supporter of eSports, I’m looking forward to getting a big eSports event back in Canada. Hopefully the crowd turns out for it and this is a massive success. And hopefully a Canadian wins, too. Failing that, I’d be happy if MC won.

Source: IEM