Intel Extreme Masters Beijing 2026 runs from November 2 to 8 at the Bloomage Biotech Biohyalux ECM Arena, ESL's first Counter-Strike event in the Chinese capital since 2019. Sixteen teams play for $1,250,000 and a title that counts towards the ESL Grand Slam, without Team Vitality and Team Spirit, who both turned down their invitations.
Key facts
| Organiser | ESL |
| Tier | ESL Pro Tour Masters, part of ESL Grand Slam VII |
| Dates | November 2 to 8, 2026 |
| Venue | Bloomage Biotech Biohyalux ECM Arena, Beijing |
| Teams | 16: 13 invited from the Valve Regional Standings (VRS), 3 from closed qualifiers |
| Prize pool | $1,250,000, of which $360,000 goes to the winner |
| Format | Two eight-team double-elimination groups, then a six-team single-elimination playoff |
| Map pool | Ancient, Anubis, Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke |
| Grand final | November 8, best of five |
Format and schedule
Each group is a double-elimination bracket, and every group match is a best of three, played until one team has won two maps. A team that loses a series in the upper bracket drops to the lower bracket, where one more loss ends its tournament. The upper-bracket final is the exception: both teams in it have already qualified, and the match decides first and second place. The lower bracket produces the third qualifier.
Group winners go straight to the semi-finals, and second- and third-placed teams play the quarter-finals. From there it is single elimination. Quarter-finals and semi-finals are best of three, the beaten semi-finalists play a best-of-three third-place decider, and the grand final is a best of five.
| Stage | Dates | Start times (Beijing, UTC+8) |
|---|---|---|
| Groups | November 2 to 4 | 10:00, 12:30, 15:00, 17:30 |
| Quarter-finals | November 6 | 14:30, 17:45 |
| Semi-finals | November 7 | 14:30, 17:45 |
| Third place, grand final | November 8 | 12:00, 15:30 |
There are no matches on November 5, and the grand final starts at 07:30 UTC. ESL splits each place's money into prize money and a club reward: the winner gets $125,000 plus $235,000, second place $210,000 in total, third $160,000 and fourth $120,000. Teams placed 13th to 16th get $4,000 each.
Teams
The 16 teams by group, with each team's place in Valve's latest VRS list, published on October 5:
| Group A | VRS | Group B | VRS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legacy | 2 | MOUZ | 4 |
| Team Falcons | 6 | G2 Esports | 5 |
| FURIA | 7 | Aurora Gaming | 9 |
| B8 | 13 | BetBoom Team | 11 |
| HEROIC | 15 | 9z Team | 17 |
| FaZe Clan | 26 | Team Liquid | 19 |
| Natus Vincere | 34 | PARIVISION | 36 |
| The MongolZ | 49 | TYLOO | 44 |
The first round pairs Legacy and MongolZ, HEROIC and B8, FURIA and FaZe, and NAVI and Falcons in Group A, and MOUZ and TYLOO, 9z and BB, Aurora and Liquid, and PV and G2 in Group B.
ESL sent its invitations from the VRS list of August 3: ten from the global ranking, plus Liquid for North America, 9z for South America and MongolZ for Asia. Vitality and Spirit were the only global invitees to decline, which let in PV and FaZe. B8 and HEROIC won the two places in the global closed qualifier from September 2 to 4. The VRS explainer covers how the ranking behind the invitations is worked out.
TYLOO took the Asian place without playing their last two series: after beating Kaleido and DEPO, they went through when Rare Atom forfeited the upper-bracket final over a scheduling conflict, and FlyQuest had to forfeit the grand final because a damaged link between Australia and Singapore left them with a ping above 200 milliseconds.
Four teams have made changes since they earned their places. Legacy benched Vinicius "n1ssim" Pereira on October 28, for reasons HLTV says are unclear, and Italo "ksloks" Meinberg, 21, stands in for the team's last three events of the year, which include the PGL Major Singapore.
MongolZ benched Zolbayar "tikuak" Chimedtseren and Dugarsuren "DarkMeister" Ireedui in September, then signed Yesuntumur "nin9" Gantulga from The Huns and brought back Anarbileg "cobrazera" Uuganbayar on October 5. PV swapped Vyacheslav "slaxejezzz" Vinokurov for Abay "HObbit" Khassenov on September 17, and HEROIC made Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, one of the club's founding players, head coach on October 1.
What to watch
There is no defending champion in the usual sense. The last IEM in Beijing, in 2019, was won by Astralis, who beat 100 Thieves in the final. HLTV calls IEM Chengdu 2025 this event's predecessor, and FURIA won it, beating Vitality 3-0 for their first IEM title.
The three IEM events before this one went to Vitality in Rio, NAVI in Atlanta and Falcons at the Cologne Major. The ESL Grand Slam pays $1,000,000 to the first team to win three ESL Pro Tour Masters events and one Championship (Kraków, Cologne or an ESL-run Major) within ten consecutive events.
The seventh race began in Atlanta. NAVI, Falcons and Vitality, who won ESL Pro League Season 24, have one title each, and Beijing is the race's fourth event. With Vitality absent, the other two leaders meet in the opening round; Falcons won their Pro League meeting 2-1 on October 6.
Legacy, second on Valve's list, are the highest-ranked team in the field and have won three events in China: the CS Asia Championships in 2025 and 2026 and FISSURE Playground 3 in Suzhou in September, where they swept G2 3-0. Since then, HLTV notes, they have gone out in the group stage three times in a row, and Andrei "arT" Piovezan missed Pro League with meningitis. ksloks's first opponents are MongolZ, who beat Legacy 2-0 in Bucharest on October 27.
MOUZ, the highest-ranked team in Group B, lost the Pro League Season 24 final 3-0 to Vitality on October 11. FURIA, beaten by Falcons in the Cologne Major final, won an event in Malta on October 18, beating BB 3-2 in the final. Both then reached the semi-finals of PGL Masters Bucharest.
TYLOO are the only Chinese team in the field. They open against MOUZ after a 1-3 record in Bucharest, where their one win came against 9z. Dongkai "Jee" Ji was diagnosed with chickenpox during the event and missed that series and the next, with coach Weijie "zhokiNg" Zhong playing in his place. Liquipedia still lists Jee in TYLOO's roster for Beijing.
Eleven of the 16 teams played PGL Masters Bucharest, which ends on October 31, two days before Beijing begins. Only Falcons, B8, HEROIC, FaZe and PV did not.
Where to follow
Follow the groups and bracket on the IEM Beijing 2026 event page. ESL's English broadcast is on its ESLCS channels on Twitch and YouTube.
Fans are in the arena, around a 360-degree stage, on all six match days. All commentary there is in Chinese, and during the group stage the crowd sees only the match ESL puts on the main stage in each slot. CS2 and CS:GO in China covers the background, from Perfect World's licence to the Shanghai Majors.
Sources
- IEM Beijing 2026: schedule, format, teams and prize split — ESL Pro Tour
- Intel Extreme Masters Beijing 2026 — Liquipedia
- ESL announces IEM Beijing 2026 — HLTV.org
- IEM Beijing invites announced — HLTV.org
- Global standings as of October 5, 2026 — Valve on GitHub
- ESL Grand Slam: rules and state of the race — ESL
- Legacy bench n1ssim, ksloks to stand in for the rest of 2026 — HLTV.org
- PGL Masters Bucharest 2026 — Liquipedia
