2018 has been something of a banner year for video games and esports, particularly in Australia.
We had the inaugural Melbourne Esports Open, Team Australia made it into the Overwatch World Cup for a third year running (which makes our exclusion from the upcoming season of the Overwatch League particularly painful), and perhaps most notably, the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) came back to Sydney for a second go around.
And boy did IEM Sydney 2018 go off.
Over 7,500 CS:GO fans packed Qudos Bank Arena over three Counter-Strike filled days, several million people were tuned in online, and far too many snacks and fingernails were consumed as we watched FaZe Clan romp their way to victory over Astralis.
Given the bonkers reception to IEM Sydney 2018, Aussie esports fans are probably thinking “with numbers like that, there’s no way IEM isn’t coming back next year”.
And you’d be 100% right because IEM is coming back to Sydney for a third year running in 2019!
From May 3-5, 16 of the world’s top CS:GO teams will be descending upon Qudos Bank Arena to shoot each other in the face for the winner’s share of the AUD$350k prize pool, which equates to a lot of chicken dinners.
Couple that with things like autograph signing sessions with more esports pros than you can shake a stick at, enough tech and gaming showcases to make Ready Player One seem second-rate, and an atmosphere to rival WWE (but without all the scripted-ness), IEM Sydney 2019 is gonna go off.
Winner, winner, poultry dinner.
Since the 2018 event was the Sydney esports version of Queen at Live Aid in 1985 (slight exaggeration but you get the idea), tickets are going on sale super-early on November 16 at Ticketek (right here), which should give y’all more than enough time to sort yourselves out before next May.
They say the third time’s a charm and we have a good feeling that IEM Sydney 2019 is gonna be something special.