IEM Sydney 2023 invited teams announced

With IEM Cologne 2023 in the past and G2 returning to the top by beating ENCE in the Grand Final, the teams are ready to continue with the schedule for the second half of the season. However, the ESL is not resting, and in the last few hours, they revealed the teams invited to IEM Sydney 2023, but some top teams are not included in these invitations.

As we know, the Counter-Strike ecosystem will change enormously in the 2025 season, where the franchise system will be eliminated, and all tournaments will have open and closed qualifiers to define the qualified teams. However, in 2023, everything continues similarly, and tournament organizers continue to invite different teams to Tier 1 tournaments.

ESL announce the teams invited to IEM Sydney 2023

Through a post on its Twitter account, the ESL announced the teams invited to IEM Sydney 2023, which marks the return of Counter-Strike to Australia.

The first round of invites for THE BIG REUNION at #IEM Sydney is confirmed 🦘@TeamVitality@ENCE@FaZeClan@G2Esports@natusvincere@mousesports @C9CSGO @GamerLegion @Monte_Esports@FNATIC@grayhoundgaming

The remaining slots will be filled via qualifier 👊 pic.twitter.com/artOPnUWYo

— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) August 9, 2023

As we see, many TOP teams were invited by ESL for the event to be played again in Australia, and we see teams like G2, Team Vitality, and NaVi. Similarly, in another post, ESL announced those teams invited to the closed qualifiers of the tournament in the respective regions.

These are the invitees for the #IEM Sydney Closed Qualifiers ⚔️

EU:@apeksgg @9INEGG @NIPCS @OGesports

NA:@nounsesports @Complexity

Asia:@MongolzCs

Ex-Rare Atom

Oceania:@VertexESC @RoosterCS

Still time to register for the open qualifiers! https://t.co/SLg6Chl6ft pic.twitter.com/3tCSknnVdi

— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) August 9, 2023

However, in these lists, we can see two notable absences, Astralis and Heroic, two of the best squads currently in the world.

Absent teams

These two Danish squads are in the TOP 10 of the ESL and HLTV World Rankings, which tells us they are among the best in the CS:GO competitive scene.

Heroic leads both rankings, while Astralis is in 6th and 8th position according to HLTV and ESL, respectively. In addition, it is also worth noting that both teams played in the semifinals of IEM Cologne 2023 a few days ago, so many in the community do not understand why these teams were not included in the invitations to the tournament.

However, the fact that these two Danish teams are not participating in the IEM Sydney 2023 is not surprising. On many occasions, big teams turn down invitations to tournaments played outside of Europe, as they have to organize their entire schedule in addition to much more exhaustion and many other things. Likewise, it is not currently known if Heroic and Astralis were invited to the event, but it is very likely that they were and that both squads turned down the invitation.

On the other hand, this does not mean that fans will have no one to support, watch and enjoy, as we will have high-caliber teams such as G2 Esports and Fnatic, who have Australian players in their lineups. In addition, they will also be able to enjoy the best players on the planet.

Finally, we highlight that teams like 9INE and NiP stand out in Europe in the closed qualifiers, while in NA, we have MOUZ and COL. What is also surprising is the non-invitation of FURIA to the tournament or the closed qualifiers. Still, it could also be that they have declined the invitation due to the difficult situation the team is currently going through.

Header: ESL