The teams filling the ESL World Ranking slots at the IEM Katowice 2021 Play-In have been invited after the German tournament organizer updated its world ranking upon the IEM Global Challenge's completion.

BIG, MOUZ, Virtus.pro, Gambit, Cloud9 and Spirit are the last batch of invited teams to the IEM Katowice Play-In, having earned their spot thanks to their final standings in the ESL World Ranking. They join the teams that made their way through the ESL Pro Tour and its feeder tournaments, namely Complexity, fnatic, OG, Liquid, Chaos, TYLOO, BOOM and Renegades, as well as the ESL Mistrzostwa Polski champions, Illuminar.

BIG are one of the six teams that received an invite

The last spot will go to the ESL European Championship winners, an eight team tournament on January 18-19 featuring ESL's national league champions: Endpoint, LDLC, Movistar Riders, Maestro, Sangal, Elites, KINGZZZ and the Meisterschaft champions, who will be known in January.

The Play-In, which is scheduled for February 16-17, is part of IEM Katowice 2021, the $1 million tournament that ESL recently announced would be hosted in Europe and is planned as an in-person event as long as there is no "major barrier to the safety of our talent, players and staff," albeit with no audience.

The top eight play-in finishers will then be drawn immediately into the tournament's group stage on February 18-21, where Astralis, Vitality, Natus Vincere, HEROIC, FURIA, G2, FaZe and Evil Geniuses are waiting.

The play-in stage teams are:

Complexity
fnatic
OG
Liquid
Chaos
TYLOO
Gambit
Cloud9 BOOM
Renegades
BIG
MOUZ
Virtus.pro
Spirit
Illuminar
EPEC Winter 2020Maestro #117 Mateusz 'matty' KołodziejczykSteven 'Stev0se' RombautRobin 'simix' BynensRichard 'ritchiEE' MestdaghNikita 'HeavyGod' Martynenko Renegades #62 Simon 'Sico' WilliamsChristopher 'dexter' NongJoshua 'INS' PotterJordan 'Hatz' BajicLiam 'malta' Schembri Evil Geniuses #16 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Cloud9 #23 Alex 'ALEX' McMeekinÖzgür 'woxic' EkerPatrick 'es3tag' HansenRicky 'floppy' KemeryWilliam 'mezii' Merriman Virtus.pro #12 Sanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliMareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis Natus Vincere #3 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Vitality #2 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier OG #7 Nathan 'NBK-' SchmittValdemar 'valde' Bjørn VangsåAleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenIssa 'ISSAA' MuradMateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski Movistar Riders #40 Lucas 'steel' LopesSebastian 'larsen' LarsenAlejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoKristjan 'shokz' Jakobson fnatic #14 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonMaikil 'Golden' SelimLudvig 'Brollan' Brolin MOUZ #9 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' KoolAurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras HEROIC #5 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupNikolaj 'niko' KristensenMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' Madsen Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif BOOM #69 Fernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassGustavo 'yel' KnittelMarcelo 'chelo' CespedesBruno 'shz' Martinelli Spirit #19 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovNikolay 'mir' BityukovViktor 'sdy' OrudzhevArtem 'iDISBALANCE' EgorovBoris 'magixx' Vorobiev Sangal #54 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliAhmet 'paz' KarahocaEngin 'ngiN' KorEkrem 'l0gicman' AydinÖmer 'imoRR' Karataş Endpoint #31 Robin 'robiin' SjögrenJoey 'CRUC1AL' SteuselMax 'MiGHTYMAX' HeathKia 'Surreal' ManShahar 'flameZ' Shushan BIG #4 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşNils 'k1to' Gruhne Elites Matteo 'IZKreesh' CastagnaGiancarlo 'jonyzera' Cormio KINGZZZ #205 Aleksandar 'eleKz' TrajkovNikola 'n1kista' StankovicAbiseck 'zed' BaskaranFatih 'reezk' Gorda Illuminar #32 Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'reatz' JańczakMikołaj 'mouz' KarolewskiTomasz 'phr' WójcikArek 'Vegi' Nawojski Liquid #10 Keith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiJake 'Stewie2K' YipMichael 'Grim' Wince Complexity #11 Justin 'jks' SavageWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaKristian 'k0nfig' WieneckeValentin 'poizon' VasilevBenjamin 'blameF' Bremer Gambit #15 Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovTimofey 'interz' YakushinSergey 'Ax1Le' RykhtorovDmitry 'sh1ro' SokolovVladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov FaZe #13 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerHåvard 'rain' NygaardMarkus 'Kjaerbye' KjærbyeMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidHelvijs 'broky' Saukants G2 #8 Nikola 'NiKo' KovačNemanja 'huNter-' KovačKenny 'kennyS' SchrubFrançois 'amanek' DelaunayNemanja 'nexa' Isaković LDLC #63 Christophe 'SIXER' XiaLambert 'Lambert' PrigentAlexandre 'bodyy' PianaroAli 'hAdji' HaïnoussAurélien 'afro' Drapier Chaos #18 Edgar 'MarKE' MaldonadoAnthony 'vanity' MalaspinaJonathan 'Jonji' CareyErick 'Xeppaa' BachNathan 'leaf' Orf FURIA #6 Henrique 'HEN1' TelesAndrei 'arT' PiovezanYuri 'yuurih' SantosVinicius 'VINI' FigueiredoKaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato TYLOO #96 YuLun 'Summer' CaiYuanZhang 'Attacker' ShengHaoWen 'somebody' XuKelun 'SLOWLY' SunZhenghao 'DANK1NG' Lv