ESL moves North America’s IEM stop from Dallas to Atlanta in May 2026

ESL moves North America’s IEM stop from Dallas to Atlanta in May 2026

ESL has announced that the Intel® Extreme Masters (IEM) stop in North America will relocate from Dallas to Atlanta next year, with IEM Atlanta 2026 scheduled for May 11–17, 2026. The tournament will be played on Counter-Strike 2, feature 16 teams, and boast a $1,000,000 total prize pool, hosted at the Georgia World Congress Center as part of DreamHack Atlanta 2026.

The dates mean IEM Atlanta will directly overlap with PGL Astana 2026, another top-tier CS2 event in Kazakhstan running May 7–18 with a $1.6M prize pool, potentially forcing teams to choose between the two LANs. 

From Dallas to Atlanta: why the move happened

For the last several years, IEM Dallas has served as the primary North American IEM stop, hosted at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. With that venue undergoing a major renovation tied to preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and not expected to fully reopen until 2029, ESL has been forced to move its US arena event. 

Dust2.us report that IEM Atlanta 2026 will “effectively replace IEM Dallas in the Counter-Strike calendar,” with the Georgia World Congress Center stepping in as the new home for ESL’s arena event in the US. 

Format, prize pool and qualification

IEM Atlanta 2026 follows ESL’s updated IEM structure:

Teams & groups:

16 teams total

Two eight-team double-elimination (GSL-style) groups, all matches best-of-three. 

Playoffs:

Six-team single-elimination bracket

Group winners advance directly to the semi-finals; second- and third-placed teams enter the quarter-finals. 

Best-of-three playoff matches, best-of-five grand final, plus a third-place decider. 

Prize pool & club rewards:

Total $1,000,000, split between player prize money and an organizational “club reward” pool, part of ESL’s new ESL Pro Tour financial model.

ESL’s 2026 IEM events (Brazil, USA, China) all use this split; HLTV’s breakdown shows a structured distribution for both players and clubs.

Invites & qualifiers (VRS system):
IEM Atlanta is covered by ESL’s Valve Regional Standings (VRS)-based invite system for the 2026 IEM stops: 

11 teams invited from the global VRS

1 team from North America via regional VRS

1 team from South America via regional VRS

3 qualifier slots: two global online qualifiers (played on European servers) and one Americas qualifier (using NA servers).

HLTV note that invites for the US IEM stop will be locked based on February 2026 VRS rankings, with seeding updated in April 2026, which lines up with the date window used for the broader 2026 calendar. 

Part of ESL’s 2026 CS2 calendar

IEM Atlanta is one of three arena-level IEM events that ESL FACEIT Group has scheduled for 2026 in Brazil, the USA, and China: 

IEM Brazil 2026 – April 13–19

IEM Atlanta / IEM USA 2026 – May 11–17

IEM China 2026 – November 2–8

All three share the same structure: 16 teams, VRS-based invites, global and regional qualifiers, a $1M total prize pool, and a third-place decider alongside a best-of-five final. 

These IEM stops sit within a larger 2026 ESL Pro Tour schedule of six LAN events, separated by a large summer gap to accommodate the newly confirmed IEM Cologne Major 2026, the first CS2 Major of that year, running June 2–21 in Cologne. 

DreamHack Atlanta festival and Atlanta’s CS legacy

IEM Atlanta 2026 will be embedded inside DreamHack Atlanta 2026, with the festival itself officially set for May 15–17, 2026 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

The event will bundle multiple esports and gaming experiences:

IEM Atlanta CS2 as the Counter-Strike headline

CDL Major III for Call of Duty Black Ops 7

The return of Halo esports to DreamHack in 2026

A full expo, cosplay, indie zone, Creator Hub, and other festival programming. 

DreamHack and ESL emphasize that this will be the first time IEM appears in Atlanta, despite the city’s strong CS history. 

Atlanta has previously hosted multiple ELEAGUE tournaments and the ELEAGUE Major 2017, where Astralis claimed their first of four Major titles, cementing the city as a historically important Counter-Strike venue. 

The announcement also comes right after DreamHack Knockout Atlanta 2025, an eight-team CS2 event at the same festival which M80 won over BIG to qualify for ESL Pro League Season 23. 

Clash with PGL Astana 2026

One of the most talked-about details is the schedule overlap with PGL Astana 2026. HLTV’s announcement points out that IEM Atlanta’s May 11–17 dates sit almost entirely on top of PGL’s event in Astana, Kazakhstan, which runs May 7–18 with a $1.6M total purse split evenly between player prize money and club rewards.

PGL Astana 2026 is also a 16-team S-tier LAN, meaning top teams will either need to make a hard choice or attempt a very tight travel schedule between Kazakhstan and the United States. 

In HLTV’s comment section and on social media, fans are already debating whether some rosters might prefer the larger PGL prize pool or opt for IEM Atlanta to maintain their ESL Pro Tour and Intel Grand Slam aspirations, but this remains speculation rather than confirmed team decisions. 

What ESL and talent are saying

ESL rolled out the announcement with the tagline “NA CS HAS A NEW HOME #IEM ATLANTA 2026”, used across X, Instagram, Facebook and video teasers to underline that Atlanta is intended as the new focal point for North American Counter-Strike on the ESL circuit. 

Marc Winther, Director of Esports – Counter-Strike at ESL FACEIT Group, highlighted the regional significance in an interview with Esports News UK, saying:

“Bringing a world-class Counter-Strike tournament like Intel Extreme Masters to Atlanta is a significant moment for esports in the Southeast U.S.” 

He added that ESL knows how passionate Atlanta’s gaming community is and that pairing IEM with the DreamHack festival should create a weekend that mixes elite competition with a full fan-festival experience. 

On the talent side, caster Adam “Dinko” Hawthorne reacted positively on X, writing that Dallas will be missed but he expects it to return, and that Atlanta’s rich CS history should make the new event “bang” just as hard, describing it as “CS in the South.”

ESL’s own social posts, including video snippets titled “NA CS HAS A NEW HOME”, lean heavily into the idea of a long-term home for top-tier Counter-Strike in Atlanta, with ESL staff such as Marc Winther echoing the “Big Peach” branding for the city. 

Player-side voices connected to DreamHack Atlanta

Direct public comments from tier-one CS2 players about IEM Atlanta 2026 are limited so far, but the broader DreamHack Atlanta ecosystem has already been a platform for North American pros to talk about their careers and ambitions.

During DreamHack Knockout Atlanta 2025, Ethan “reck” Serrano of SportsBetExpert reflected on his earlier stint in M80, telling Dust2.us:

“In M80, I didn’t reach my potential. I learned a lot on the team.” 

That quote wasn’t about IEM Atlanta specifically, but it underlines how DreamHack’s Atlanta stop is becoming an important gathering point for NA players and teams as they rebuild and reposition themselves ahead of bigger stages like IEM and future Majors. 

Why this matters for North American CS2

Putting it all together, IEM Atlanta 2026 means:

• North America keeps a premier ESL arena event on home soil despite the loss (at least temporarily) of IEM Dallas.

• The event is tightly integrated into a festival environment alongside CDL Major III and Halo, which could help pull in a broader audience beyond hardcore CS fans

• Atlanta’s existing Counter-Strike heritage through ELEAGUE and the 2017 Major gives the city instant credibility as a high-stakes LAN host. 

• The calendar clash with PGL Astana 2026 adds a layer of tension to the 2026 season, as teams balance prize money, travel, and ESL Pro Tour objectives. 

For now, the key facts are clear and confirmed: IEM Atlanta 2026, May 11–17 at the Georgia World Congress Center, 16 CS2 teams, $1,000,000 at stake, and a new North American home for ESL’s flagship IEM series. Everything else — from which top teams choose Atlanta over Astana to how the local crowd stacks up against Dallas — will play out on the server next spring.