The Intel Extreme Masters tournament in Katowice, Poland, drew over 173,000 spectators, making it the largest esports event in history.
The event is organized by ESL, an esports competition business that is sponsored by Intel. The tournament's attendance, internet viewership, and social media reach all rose. The festival was extended this year, and there was a virtual reality demo presentation.
In a statement, Frank Soqui, general manager of Intel's virtual reality and gaming division, stated, "Intel Extreme Masters Katowice exceeded all expectations with record-breaking attendance and viewership." “The gaming community's enthusiasm for esports was evident, and Intel is pleased to continue to provide the greatest gaming experiences to fans around the globe, whether via IEM competitions, driving development in VR content, or enhancing how people play with Intel processors and technology.”
The tournament marked the conclusion of the 11th season and hosted the 2017 World Championship. The world's finest teams competed for a prize fund of $650,000 in three of the major esports titles: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), League of Legends, and StarCraft II on the main stage of the Spodek Arena, featuring champions from IEM Oakland 2016 and IEM Gyeonggi 2016.
In a statement, Michal Blicharz, vice president of Pro Gaming at ESL, stated, "I can't believe the tournament in Katowice is now five years old, and every time it's larger and more spectacular." “Every year, we're pleased and delighted to be able to return to this audience and share this incredible experience with everyone in the Spodek Arena, as well as the rest of the esports world watching.”
Approximately the span of two weekends, over 173,000 people attended the stadium event and the surrounding festival. The event also attracted over 46 million unique viewers, up 35% from the previous year.
With 70 linear and digital partners globally producing and distributing material in 19 languages, the event was the most televised in ESL's history. The World Championship attracted 55 million followers on social media platforms, surpassing last year's reach of roughly 30 million, thanks to living broadcasts, highlight clips, and unique features on both Twitter and Facebook.
The unique virtual esports stadium experience, which offers an immersive 360-degree VR environment with live stats, replays, and scores in real-time, was developed by Intel and ESL in collaboration with Sliver.tv to give fans across the globe a first-person view at the action. When compared to IEM's inaugural virtual reality live stream in Oakland, the VR feed saw a 200 percent increase in peak concurrent viewers, with 340,000 unique users coming in.
At the IEM Expo, four additional competitions took place on stage, including the Intel Challenge Katowice 2017, which pitted the world's best women's CS:GO teams against each other, the Western Clash, which pitted the best Heroes of the Storm teams against each other, and the Crossfire IEM Expo Invitational, which brought together Crossfire teams from all over the world.
The Grand Finals of the Polish Cybersport Cup, which crowned two new champions in the CS:GO and League of Legends tournaments, was broadcast live to Polish esports fans. This was the first-ever Intel Extreme Masters World Championship held over two weekends, from February 25 to February 26 and March 3 to March 5.
Fans were treated to an integrated display on-site at Spodek Arena in Katowice, which showed how Intel technology is driving gaming innovation ahead. Powerful computer gaming on 7th Gen Intel Core processors, a VR Games Festival and VR competition, interactive demonstrations featuring Intel's Project Alloy merged reality headgear, and VR viewing stations from Sliver.tv were among the highlights of the IEM Expo.
The Intel Extreme Masters tournament, which was won by the champions, was the biggest in esports history.
League of Legends: Flash Wolves defeated G2 Esports to win the 2017 IEM World Championship in League of Legends.
Astralis defeated FaZe Clan to win the 2017 Intel Extreme Masters World Championship in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
StarCraft II: Jun “TY” Tae Yang defeated Kim “Stats” Dae Yeob to win the IEM World Championship in StarCraft II.
Intel Challenge Katowice 2017: A partnership between Intel, ESL, and AnyKey to promote esports diversity initiatives. In the end, Team Secret triumphed against Team Dignitas to claim the title.
Team Dignitas smashed their way through a bracket of elite Heroes of the Storm teams to win the title of best in the west at the 2017 Heroes of the Storm Global Championship Western Clash.
Crossfire IEM Expo Invitational: SuperValiant Gaming, a Chinese team, defeated three European teams to win the Crossfire IEM Expo Invitational.
In the Polish Cybersport Cup, Pompa Team was named the new League of Legends champions, while Pride won the CS:GO event.