IEM Sydney group stage bracket announced

ESL has revealed the group stage draw for IEM Sydney, placing the 16 teams into two eight-team GSL groups.

After a successful inaugural Intel Extreme Masters event taking place last year, CS:GO will return to Australia with IEM Sydney 2018 which will take place on May 1-6. The first three days will be reserved for the group stage, while the following three will take place in the Qudos Bank Arena in front of the crowd.

karrigan's team is placed in group A with last year's IEM Sydney winners, SK

The group stage format set to be used is the one recently adopted by ESL, the eight-team GSL. The tournament starts with BO1's in initial matches, but the rest of the tournament is played as BO3, barring the BO5 grand final.

Now, the group stage has been drawn, with the initial matchups revealed. In group A, FaZe, SK and Cloud9 are the favorites to claim the three playoffs spots, while MOUZ, fnatic and Astralis are the biggest names in group B.

You can find all of the initial IEM Sydney matchups below:

Group A
FaZe	vs. ORDER
Space Soldiers	vs. Renegades
Cloud9	vs. Grayhound
SK	vs. TYLOO
Group B
MOUZ	vs. BOOT-d[S]
NRG	vs. Astralis
Natus Vincere	vs. MVP PK
Chiefs	vs. fnatic

Chiefs #89 Mike 'ap0c' AliferisTyler 'tucks' ReillySam 'flickz' JonesMatthew 'Texta' O'RourkeEuan 'sterling' Moore Astralis #5 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Natus Vincere #6 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov MVP PK #27 Keun-Chul 'solo' KangMin-Soo 'glow' KimMin-Seok 'zeff' ParkHyun-Pyo 'XigN' LeeHae-Sung 'HSK' Kim BOOT-d[S] #54 Nevin 'splashske' AwBenedict 'Benkai' TanAnthony 'ImpressioN' LimKumaresan 'Tommy' RamaniAlikhan 'w1nt3r' Kopzhanov TYLOO #25 Ke 'captainMo' LiuHui 'DD' WuHansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandHaoWen 'somebody' XuKevin 'xccurate' Susanto Renegades #15 Justin 'jks' SavageAaron 'AZR' WardJoakim 'jkaem' MyrbostadKarlo 'USTILO' PivacNoah 'Nifty' Francis MOUZ #2 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiMartin 'STYKO' StykRobin 'ropz' Kool ORDER #42 Chris 'emagine' RowlandsSimon 'Sico' WilliamsJay 'Liazz' TregillgasAlistair 'aliStair' JohnstonJordan 'Hatz' Bajic fnatic #3 Robin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonJonas 'Lekr0' OlofssonMaikil 'Golden' Selim NRG #18 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Grayhound #40 Christopher 'dexter' NongSean 'Gratisfaction' KaiwaiErdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaLiam 'malta' SchembriOllie 'DickStacy' Tierney FaZe #1 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenRichard 'Xizt' LandströmLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Space Soldiers #12 Engin 'MAJ3R' KüpeliIsmailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşBuğra 'Calyx' ArkınAhmet 'paz' KarahocaEngin 'ngiN' Kor Cloud9 #4 Pujan 'FNS' MehtaTyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTarik 'tarik' CelikTimothy 'autimatic' Ta SK #8 Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaRicardo 'boltz' PrassJake 'Stewie2K' YipMarcelo 'coldzera' David