Electronic Sports League’s (ESL) Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) will feature a number of changes in season seven that is scheduled to get underway at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, from August 15-19.
The changes range from the number of official games for the latest season to the removal of a game that had been a part of IEM ever since its inception seven year ago, Counter-Strike 1.6.
The absence of Counter-Strike 1.6 from this year’s IEM comes off as one of the biggest surprise. The first-person shooter, a mod of Valve’s original Half-life title, was arguably the most popular multiplayer game during the previous decade. The game managed to outshine the likes of Quake 3, Unreal Tournament and Medal of Honour Spearhead.
Counter-Strike 1.6 had been part of IEM since the start of the series. However, it was dropped from this season’s game list two weeks ago, pretty much bringing an era to an end.
With Counter-Strike 1.6 absent, StarCraft 2 and League of Legends have been announced as the two official games for this season.
ESL appears to have shifted its focus to real-time strategy games completely while doing away with the first-person shooters. While both StarCraft II and League of Legends are two of the biggest competitive PC titles at the moment and their return to IEM for another season hardly comes off as a surprise, the complete removal of Counter-Strike 1.6 from the game list sure has left a number of gamers startled.
Another significant change introduced for season seven of IEM is that the overall number of games for the entire competitive season has been brought down to two.
Talking to GameSpot, the ESL director of pro gaming Michal “Carmac” Blicharz explained that the decision to reduce the number of games is based on their commitment to raise the quality of the tournament and lay down the foundation for the next season.
“We’re not really married to any particular number of games in the Intel Extreme Masters,” stated Blicharz. “This season our main goal is to really up the quality of what we do, and we needed focus for that. Focus is something that will allow us to create an epic experience for the SC2 and LOL communities. It’s a foundation that we are building for the next season.”
Aside from the removal of Counter-Strike 1.6 and bringing the number of games to two, ESL has also modified its tournament mode. The latest season of IEM will feature 24 players in every StarCraft II tournament, with 16 of these players coming through the online qualification while the remaining eight players earning their place through the 32-player open bracket tournament that will be played on the opening day of Gamescom.
It was indeed a bold move by ECL to introduce a handful of changes for the latest season of IEM, especially removing Counter-Strike 1.6 from the list of games. It would be interesting to see if the decision to completely shift the focus towards the real-time strategy games community brings the results and response that the league is hoping for.
Konami admits mistake, concedes Castlevania: Lords of Shadow DLC was not planned 
Best Buy, GameStop launch $99 Xbox 360 console 
Sony executives take massive pay cuts after record losses
Sleeping Dogs to feature voices of Emma Stone and Lucy Liu
Dishonored developer voices concern over lack of variety in industry
PlayStation Vita getting Gran Turismo?
Zynga’s Bubble Safari runs at 60-fps on Facebook