The Intel Extreme Masters tournament shows some prominence in the Counter-Strike Esports community. This year IEM will occur in Oakland, California November 19-20. IEM will also host a League of Legends tournament, but it’s not the main event as the prize pool for LoL is $100,000. To put that into perspective, the World Championship had a prize pool of over $5,000,000.

IEM hasn’t announced every team that will be participating in this tournament, but LoL does have two notable names in Team Solo Mid and Flash Wolves. TSM is the biggest name in LoL history as they have made it to every finals in their region. Flash Wolves is a Taiwanese team that has been known as the “Korean Killers.” Korea stand as the most dominant region in LoL history, but Flash Wolves have had astounding performances against the Korean Kings. Flash Wolves are currently 5-1 against two of the greatest Korean teams in the last two years, SKT T1 and KOO Tigers, later renamed Rox Tigers.

Counter-Strike in its latest iteration, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, has boasted a great roster for this tournament line-up. Again, not every team has been announced, but with the current line-up, this already looks like an exciting tournament. IEM Oakland currently showcases six of the currently top ten ranked teams in the world, according to Esports Historian, Duncan “Thorin” Shields.

SK Gaming is a very prominent name in the CS:GO Esports community. This is a Brazilian team that came from a relatively unimpressive region. They climbed the ranks lead by Gabriel ‘Fallen’ Toledo. Fallen took the role of In-Game Leader for his teams and committed to growing and improving the CS:GO scene in Brazil. Under his leadership, his Luminosity line-up won a major, a world championship type tournament, besting the greatest teams in the world. They have fallen to third in rankings, but their skills are not to be overlooked as they can still make deep runs.

Ninjas in Pajamas is another top ten team that have shown a bit of a resurgence in recent tournaments. This team once stood as the greatest team in the world in the early days of CS:GO, with an 87-0 victory over every offline tournament. This is a feat that no other team has ever accomplished and may never will due to the level of competition that stands today. NiP has fallen from those days of dominance, but with their current form they may show a great performance in this tournament.

Natus Vincere is the third ranked team in this tournament boasting the arguable best player in the world in s1mple. Na’Vi is a historically dangerous team with the legendary player GuardiaN, but with s1mple they have now become a powerhouse in recent history.

S1mple has one of the strongest rifle play while also being a hybrid awper, the strongest sniper in the game. This range of skill puts opponents in the backseat as he can out aim most opponents. GuardiaN is the star awper of the team and with s1mple can devastate enemies with a double awp setup, effectively shutting down almost anyone they face.

This current line-up of teams show great promise for IEM. The tournament still has to announce the rest of the teams participating, but with the current line-up, fans of either game will already gather to watch a great event online or in person.