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The Intel Extreme Masters is ESL's flagship competition sponsored by Intel. IEM is a huge tournament spanning many months and individual competitions culminating in the Global Championships. While each year the games played changes, for Season IX, League of Legends will be played alongside Starcraft 2 and Hearthstone. Tournaments involved in the IEM range from small online qualifiers with $100 prizes to huge live events giving away upwards of 5 figure cash prizes to the winners of major events.
Events[]
Season IX features four Global Challenges and a World Championship.
Season IX:
- IEM Season IX - Shenzhen (2014-07-16 – 2014-07-20)
- IEM Season IX - San Jose (2014-12-06 – 2014-12-07)
- IEM Season IX - Cologne (2014-12-18 – 2014-12-21)
- IEM Season IX - Taipei (2015-01-28 – 2015-02-01)
Finals / World Championship:
- IEM Season IX - World Championship (2015-03-12 – 2015-03-15)
LoL Prize Pool[]
The total prize pool for Season IX is $ 273,414 USD spread between various events as follows:
| Event | Professional | Amateur |
| Global Challenge Shenzhen | $ 5,000 | None |
| Global Challenge San Jose | $ 50,000 | None |
| Global Challenge Cologne | $ 30,000 | None |
| Global Challenge Taipei | $ 50,000 | None |
| World Championship | $ 138,414 | None |
Tournament Info[]
- One highest ranked team or player from each of the three Intel Extreme Masters regions (the Americas, Europe and Africa, Asia and Oceania) will be invited to the World Championship.
- The top team or players from every Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge will be invited to the World Championship.
- Global Challenges
- The League of Legends tournament in every Global Challenge featured 6 teams (except for Shenzhen, which had 4), while every StarCraft II Global Challenge had 16 participants.
- World Championship
- The Intel Extreme Masters World Championship will feature 8 League of Legends teams and 20 StarCraft II players.