The world will be watching as the world’s top StarCraft® II players descend on PyeongChang, South Korea for the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) PyeongChang tournament, hosted by Intel in the lead in to the Winter Olympic Games 2018. Players representing regions from around the world will compete in Blizzard Entertainment’s iconic real-time strategy game for a $150,000 prize pool from Feb. 5-7 in a first-of-its-kind tournament ahead of PyeongChang 2018.
Players from around the world battled in online qualifiers throughout December 2017, and the 18 competitors below emerged from the qualifiers to claim their seat at the IEM PyeongChang finals:
| PLAYER HANDLE | NAME | COUNTRY OF ORIGIN | QUALIFYING REGION |
| Bly | Aleksandr Svusuyk | Ukraine | East Europe |
| Cham | Pablo Cham Blanco | Mexico | North America |
| Demi | Varun Immanuel | India | West Asia |
| DnS | Adrian Bouet | France | West Europe |
| eGGz | Sebastian Lattore | Colombia | South America |
| Elazer | Mikolaj Ogonowski | Poland | Central Europe |
| HeRoMaRinE | Gabriel Segat | Germany/Italy | South Europe |
| Kelazhur | Diego Schwimmer | Brazil | South America |
| Nice | Huang Yushang | Taiwan | East Asia |
| PandaBearMe | Isaac Fox | United States | North America |
| Probe | Sean Kempen | Australia | Oceania |
| Scarlett | Sasha Hostyn | Canada | North America |
| Serral | Joona Sotala | Finland | North Europe |
| sOs | Yoo Jin Kim | South Korea | South Korea |
| SpeCial | Juan Carlos Tena Lopez | Mexico | North America |
| Stephano | Ilyes Satouri | Tunisia and France | Africa |
| TIME | Le Peinan | China | China |
| Zest | Sung Wook Joo | South Korea | South Korea |
Tune in Feb. 5-7, 2018
Fans can follow the action and watch the competition unfold on the Olympic Channel digital platform and on Twitch.
The Road to Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang
As an extension of Intel’s Worldwide TOP Partnership and with support from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Intel will host Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang in the lead up to the Winter Olympic Games 2018, featuring Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft® II. All competitions will be played on gaming PCs powered by Intel® Core™ i7 processors to give fans the show they deserve.
IEM PyeongChang is an extension of the Intel Extreme Masters brand produced in partnership with ESL. Qualifiers for the finals took place in December 2017, as well as a live audience qualifier event in Beijing, to determine the 18 qualifiers who will head to PyeongChang, South Korea, for a chance to compete among the world’s best athletes on a global stage.