IEM Katowice with $250,000+ pool

IEM Katowice 2016 will have over $250,000 on offer for Counter-Strike teams, ESL's Vice-president for Pro Gaming Michal Blicharz has revealed.

The tenth Intel Extreme Masters season will come to a close with a big event in Katowice, Poland, in early 2016 that will give away over $450,000 across all tournaments.

A minimum of $250,000 has been guaranteed for the CS:GO competition alone, but the figure will increase even further as ESL will turn to crowdfunding, Blicharz revealed on Twitter.

The #IEM WC I'm Katowice will have over $450,000 in prize money, incl. $250,000 for CS:GO. Prize funding will come on top.

— Michal Blicharz (@mbCARMAC) 11 novembro 2015

This is likely to generate one of the largest prize pools in Counter-Strike history but it also could mean that ESL will host the tournament in Katowice without the support from Valve.

Last month, DreamHack director Tomas Lyckedal revealed that the company hoped to bring a CS:GO major to Stockholm during the first half of 2016 but added that Valve has so far remained silent on its event plans for the year.