Counter Strike 2: ESL officially announce that the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Atlanta will be held in May 2026..

ESL announced on its official website on Thursday that North America's annual grand Counter Strike 2 tournament, the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), will be held in May 2026.

According to ESL's official statement, the 2026 IEM will move from Dallas to Atlanta, taking place from May 15th to 17th at the Georgia World Congress Center.

This will be the second time ESL has hosted a tournament in Atlanta, following their recent hosting of the DremHack Knockout.

The rising new American team M80 recently won in that tournament's finals.

This victory also secured their qualification for the ESL Pro League (EPL).

ESL has a tradition of hosting IEM in Dallas in recent years; however, the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is currently undergoing renovations and is not expected to be completed until 2029, thus necessitating a change of venue.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Atlanta should replace Dallas as the traditional host city for this Counter Strike 2 tournament for the next few years.

However, it's worth noting that the 2026 IEM Atlanta will actually present some challenges for the teams.

Because the tournament's timing overlaps with the 2026 PGL Astana, which boasts a $1.6 million prize pool, teams may face the difficult decision of choosing between the two events.

According to ESL's previous announcement, the IEM Atlanta prize pool is $1 million, and the tournament will use the ESL regular season format: two groups of eight teams each, with the top teams advancing to a six-team knockout stage.

The team selection process is as follows:

11 teams will receive invitations based on the global VRS rankings released on February 2nd;

1 team is from North America;

1 team is from South America;

3 teams will be selected through qualifiers (including two global qualifier slots and one Americas qualifier slot).