IEM Shanghai viewer's guide

With IEM Shanghai 2018 set to start on Wednesday, we bring you a viewer's guide with all the information you need to know regarding the event.

The last tournament of the season will run from August 1-6 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, where eight teams will duke it out for the lion's share of a $250,000 prize pool.

The event will kick off with a double-elimination group stage, where only the opening matches will be played in a best-of-one format. The top two teams from both groups will then advance to the single-elimination, best-of-three playoffs.

NRG are one of the favourites for the event

HellRaisers and BOOT-d[S] will both field stand-ins as Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker and Alikhan "⁠w1nt3r⁠" Kopzhanov could not travel to Shanghai due to unforeseen circumstances. Kristjan "⁠fejtZ⁠" Allsaar, who is no stranger to HellRaisers, will be playing alongside Kirill "⁠ANGE1⁠" Karasiow's men, while Leslie "⁠Bobosaur⁠" Soen will be helping his countrymen from BOOT-d[S].

The eight competition teams have been drawn into two groups of four as you can see below:

Group A
5POWER
HellRaisers
NRG
Virtus.pro Group B
BOOT-d[S]
Gambit
Grayhound
TYLOO

Below you can find the full schedule:

Wednesday, August 1
06:00 - NRG vs. 5POWER| BO1
07:10 - HellRaisers vs. Virtus.pro | BO1
08:20 - Gambit vs. BOOT-d[S] | BO1
09:30 - Grayhound vs. TYLOO | BO1
10:40 - Group A winners' match | BO3
14:15 - Group B winners' match | BO3

Thursday, August 2
06:00 - Group A elimination match | BO3
09:35 - Group B elimination match | BO3
13:10 - Group A decider | BO3

Friday, August 3
06:00 - Group B decider | BO3

Saturday, August 4
06:00 - Semi-final #1 | BO3

Sunday, August 5
06:00 - Semi-final #2 | BO3

Monday, August 6
05:00 - Grand final | BO3

The on-air team for the event features several familiar faces, including desk host Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus and analysts Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche and Halvor "⁠vENdetta⁠" Gulestøl. Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill will be making the switch from analysis to commentary, being joined by Matthew "⁠Sadokist⁠" Trivett, Harry Russell and Alex "Snodz" Byfield.

The full broadcast team can be found below:

Yu "DXMASTER" Hao - Stage Host
Matt Andrews - Content Host
Tres "Stunna" Saranthus - Desk Host

Halvor "Vendetta" Gulestol - Analyst
Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam - Analyst
Jacob "Pimp" Winneche - Analyst

Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill - Caster
Harry Russell - Caster
Alex "Snodz" Byfield - Caster
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett - Caster

Finally, here is how the $250,000 prize pool will be distributed among the eight participants:

1. $125,000
2. $50,000
3-4. $22,000
5-6. $10,000
7-8. $5,500

Grayhound #39 Christopher 'dexter' NongSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiErdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaLiam 'malta' SchembriOllie 'DickStacy' Tierney Gambit #20 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovAbay 'HObbit' KhassenovNikolay 'mir' Bityukov Kristjan 'fejtZ' Allsaar Age: 20 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 496 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.67 BOOT-d[S] #53 Nevin 'splashske' AwBenedict 'Benkai' TanAnthony 'ImpressioN' LimKumaresan 'Tommy' RamaniLeslie 'Bobosaur' Soen Virtus.pro #21 Filip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiPaweł 'byali' BielińskiMichał 'MICHU' MüllerPiotr 'morelz' Taterka 5POWER #90 Gan-Erdene 'dobu' BatboldBat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarZhiHai 'QKA' FuPeng 'xiaosaGe' SongWei 'shuadapai' Wang Matthew 'Sadokist' Trivett Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.00 Maps played: 0 KPR: 0.00 DPR: 0.00 Jacob 'Pimp' Winneche Age: 23 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 974 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.64 Kirill 'ANGE1' Karasiow Age: 28 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1424 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.71 HellRaisers #17 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukKristjan 'fejtZ' AllsaarBence 'DeadFox' BöröczIssa 'ISSAA' Murad Chad 'SPUNJ' Burchill Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.87 Maps played: 151 KPR: 0.62 DPR: 0.73 Tres 'stunna' Saranthus Age: 28 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.64 Maps played: 4 KPR: 0.30 DPR: 0.54 Alikhan 'w1nt3r' Kopzhanov Age: 20 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 86 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.65 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone NRG #9 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Leslie 'Bobosaur' Soen Age: 22 Team: BOOT-d[S] Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 38 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.71 Halvor 'vENdetta' Gulestøl Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.86 Maps played: 8 KPR: 0.58 DPR: 0.68 Özgür 'woxic' Eker Age: 19 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 497 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.62 TYLOO #12 Ke 'captainMo' LiuHui 'DD' WuHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandHaoWen 'somebody' XuKevin 'xccurate' Susanto