ESL unveiled the teams that will take part in the IEM Summer 2021 closed qualifier, kicking off on April 26, as well as the squads invited for the main event in June.
Only three teams from the qualifier will advance to the tournament, with the competition for those spots fierce. Two top-10 sides, G2 and FURIA, are in competition, as is OG, FunPlus Phoenix, and FaZe.
Meanwhile, six ESL-partnered teams have been handed invites, including fnatic and Evil Geniuses, while the likes of Gambit and HEROIC earned their spots on the basis of their ESL world ranking.

FaZe are back in action after a five-week competitive break
The IEM Summer Closed Qualifier will take place on April 26-28, using a two-stage format. In the first stage, the four qualified teams, including SKADE and Movistar Riders, will face off against four lower-seed invited teams. The losers of those matches will be eliminated, while the winners advance to a second, double-elimination stage featuring four high-seed invites.
The initial matchups for the closed qualifier look as follows:
Stage 1:
ENCE vs.
Movistar Riders
OG vs.
Trident
FunPlus Phoenix vs.
SKADE
MOUZ vs.
K23
Stage 2:
FURIA vs. TBD
FaZe vs. TBD
BIG vs. TBD
G2 vs. TBD
In terms of the final event which boasts a $250,000 prize pool, 12 of the 16 teams are now know. Imperial and Extra Salt were the first confirmed teams, having qualified through regional competition. CIS trio Gambit, Virtus.pro, and Spirit were handed spots at the event based on their ranking, as were ESL Pro League Season 13 winners HEROIC.
Six more slots were filled will ESL's partner teams. The list includes Astralis, Vitality, Complexity, as well as Swedish duo Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic. The final partner spot was reserved for a North American representative, which in this case is Evil Geniuses.
From the slots that haven't been taken, three are reserved for closed qualifier teams, with the final one left to be decided through an "EPT Connection" event, ESL National Championships Global Playoff: Spring 2021.
Team list for IEM Summer 2021:

Astralis

Complexity

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Vitality

fnatic

Evil Geniuses

Closed qualifier

Closed qualifier

Gambit

HEROIC

Virtus.pro

Spirit

Extra Salt

Imperial

Closed qualifier

EPT Connection



Ninjas in Pyjamas #11



Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner

Hampus 'hampus' Poser

Tim 'nawwk' Jonasson

Nicolas 'Plopski' Gonzalez Zamora

Erik 'ztr' Gustafsson


OG #17


Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangså

Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen

Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensen

Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewski

Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan


G2 #8


Audric 'JACKZ' Jug

Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač

Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač

François 'amanek' Delaunay

Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković


ENCE #22


Aleksi 'allu' Jalli

Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer

Joonas 'doto' Forss

Paweł 'dycha' Dycha

Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi


FaZe #16


Finn 'karrigan' Andersen

Håvard 'rain' Nygaard

Marcelo 'coldzera' David

Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken

Helvijs 'broky' Saukants


Astralis #2


Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth

Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen

Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander

Nicolai 'device' Reedtz

Emil 'Magisk' Reif


MOUZ #15


Christopher 'dexter' Nong

David 'frozen' Čerňanský

Frederik 'acoR' Gyldstrand

Robin 'ropz' Kool

Aurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras


Virtus.pro #5


Sanjar 'SANJI' Kuliev

Timur 'buster' Tulepov

Alexey 'Qikert' Golubev

Dzhami 'Jame' Ali

Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis


Extra Salt #23


Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek

Edgar 'MarKE' Maldonado

Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou

Josh 'oSee' Ohm

Justin 'FaNg' Coakley


Imperial #76


Caio 'zqkS' Fonseca

Gustavo 'SHOOWTiME' Gonçalves

Arthur 'f4stzin' Schmitt

Guilherme 'piriajr' Barbosa

Cristopher 'ckzao' Chalus



Evil Geniuses #20



Michał 'MICHU' Müller

Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz

Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte

Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov

Owen 'oBo' Schlatter



Trident #54



Denis 'seized' Kostin

Timur 'clax' Sabirov

Mikhail 'tricky' Krutov

Aleksandr 'glowiing' Matsievich

Evgeny 'Norwi' Ermolin



Spirit #10



Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov

Nikolay 'mir' Bityukov

Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev

Abdul 'degster' Gasanov

Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev



BIG #12



Johannes 'tabseN' Wodarz

Tizian 'tiziaN' Feldbusch

Florian 'syrsoN' Rische

Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş

Nils 'k1to' Gruhne


Vitality #13


Richard 'shox' Papillon

Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire

Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut

Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier

Jayson 'Kyojin' Nguyen Van


FunPlus Phoenix #14


Jesse 'zehN' Linjala

Luka 'emi' Vuković

Martin 'STYKO' Styk

Pavle 'Maden' Bošković

Asger 'Farlig' Jensen



K23 #45



Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev

Rustem 'mou' Telepov

Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov

David 'n0rb3r7' Danielyan

Petr 'fame' Bolyshev



Complexity #9



Justin 'jks' Savage

William 'RUSH' Wierzba

Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke

Valentin 'poizon' Vasilev

Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer



HEROIC #3



Casper 'cadiaN' Møller

Ismail 'refrezh' Ali

Martin 'stavn' Lund

René 'TeSeS' Madsen

Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck


Gambit #1


Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov

Timofey 'interz' Yakushin

Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov

Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov

Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov


FURIA #7


Andrei 'arT' Piovezan

Yuri 'yuurih' Santos

Vinicius 'VINI' Figueiredo

Paytyn 'junior' Johnson

Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato


Movistar Riders #42


Lucas 'steel' Lopes

Alejandro 'alex' Masanet

Alejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo Cano

Owen 'smooya' Butterfield

Kristjan 'shokz' Jakobson


SKADE #24


Georgi 'SHiPZ' Grigorov

Denislav 'dennyslaw' Dimitrov

Viktor 'Duplicate' Mitev

Aleks 'Rainwaker' Petrov

Blagoi 'oxygeN' Dimitrov


fnatic #19


Jesper 'JW' Wecksell

Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson

Maikil 'Golden' Selim

Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin

Jack 'Jackinho' Ström Mattsson