The world’s top women’s Counter Strike: Global Offensive teams face-off again at this year’s Intel® Extreme Masters Expo to compete for $30,000 in prize money at the Intel® Challenge. Held in tandem with the Intel® Extreme Masters World Championship on March 4-6, 2016, the Intel Challenge remains the premier women’s competition organized by Intel Corporation and ESL on the circuit’s biggest stop.

The Intel® Challenge at Katowice 2016 will feature eight teams from around the world. Five teams will be directly invited from North America, Europe, and Asia. The remaining three slots will be filled by two European and one American team from a series of online qualifiers. Starting on January 17th, the online qualifiers are open to women’s teams in NA and EU, and will be hosted by ESEA. Teams can sign up here:

• Europe: https://play.esea.net/?s=stem&stem_page=stem&view=event&eventid=2641
• North America: https://play.esea.net/?s=stem&stem_page=stem&view=event&eventid=2640

Those who make it to Katowice will battle it out on the Intel® Extreme Masters Expo Stage Sunday, March 6th in a single elimination, best of three tournament format with a third place match. 

The teams will be flown in for the offline group stage with travel and accommodation provided for. The day’s matches will be broadcast on Twitch.tv. For more information about Intel® Extreme Masters World Championship in Katowice, please visit the official website.

Teams who would like to be considered for a direct invitation should fill out this form by January 21st. Applicants for a direct invite must still sign-up for the qualifiers. Any team that does not receive confirmation from ESL by January 23rd that they have received a direct invitation will need to play through the qualifiers to receive their bid for the Intel® Challenge at Katowice 2016.