IEM Katowice will be held in Ukraine as per plans, despite current situation

ESL announces that they will be conducting IEM Katowice in Ukraine- As one of the largest esports tournament organizers, ESL is known to host many popular ones, especially for the Counter-Strike:Global Offensive and Starcraft II. Although they had planned to host IEM Katowice in Ukraine previously, the aggression of Russia towards the country created many doubts regarding the continuation of the competition. Ukraine, Russia, War, World War 3, WWIII

However, the tournament organizers have finally released an official statement regarding the situation in Ukraine.

We are closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine. Our current priority is to support the players, the talent and the staff who may be affected by it.
The SC2 & CSGO tournaments will continue as planned.

— Intel® Extreme Masters (@IEM) February 24, 2022

IEM Katowice will be held in Ukraine as per plans, despite the international tension

The team at Intel Extreme Masters, who are currently a part of the organizing team, have expressed their concern over this situation and have tweeted that they are “closely monitoring” the situation in Ukraine. Their tweet also went on to say“our current priority is to support the players, the talent, and the staff who may be affected by it,” which can also be considered as the official ESL statement on this issue. The CS:GO and StarCraft II playoffs will be played in the Spodek Arena and according to previous plans, a huge live audience will follow the action starting on Friday and ending on Sunday. Ukraine, Russia, War, World War 3, WWIII

Players and teams belonging to the countries in question

As the situation between Ukraine and Russia has grown so large as to gain international fame, there are many players from both of these regions in Counter-Strike:Global Offensive. Here are some of them being mentioned below, who have also qualified to attend the grand IEM Katowice.

Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is from Ukraine and plays in NAVI
Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi is from Ukraine and plays in NAVI
Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi (coach) is from Ukraine and plays in NAVI
Denis “electronic” Sharipov is from Russia and plays in NAVI
Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov is from Russia and plays in NAVI
Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy is from Russia and plays in NAVI
Dzhami “Jame” Ali is from Russia and plays in VP
Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev is from Russia and plays in VP
Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov is from Russia and plays in Gambit
Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov is from Russia and plays in Gambit
Timofey “interz” Yakushin is from Russia and plays in Gambit
Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov is from Russia and plays in Gambit
Konstantin “groove” Pikiner (coach) is from Russia and plays in Gambit
Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov is from Russia and plays in G2

Many famous esports celebrities like s1mple from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have taken to social media to show their concerns regarding the shelling at cities by Russian troops. Many also believe that the situation should be prevented from escalating any further and the diplomats of the two countries should talk this through. The IEM Katowice CS: GO playoffs will begin today on 25th Feb, while the StarCraft II playoffs will begin on Saturday, 26th Feb.