The first ten participants in the $250,000 tournament have been revealed. ESL have announced the teams that have been directly invited to IEM Dallas, which is set to take place from May 30 – June 5. The list comprises the ten highest-ranked squads based on the ESL World Ranking, which include the likes of FaZe, Natus Vincere, and G2. The rest of the invitees are mainstays at Big Events, such as Players, NIP, Heroic, and recently-concluded ESL Pro League grand finalists, ENCE. Rounding off the list are FURIA, Vitality, and Astralis, while notable exclusions from the group includes Liquid and Outsiders, both of whom fell just short from the No. 10 spot in the rankings.

Apart from those that are directly placed into the group stage of the main event, ESL have also announced the closed qualifier invitees for Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania, with the first two regions being allocated two qualifying spots apiece, and the latter two each granted one. Included among the names invited to the closed qualifiers are the above mentioned ones who only narrowly missed out on receiving direct invites ⁠— Liquid and Outsiders ⁠— as well as the likes of Movistar Riders, fnatic, Complexity, and Imperial. A notable exclusion from the list is Renegades, who despite winning every domestic tournament in Oceania, missed out on an invite to the region’s closed qualifier as they are not ranked on the ESL World Ranking at all, with Looking For Org and ORDER instead taking the two spots.

The teams invited to the closed qualifiers are: Europe- Movistar Riders, fnatic, Outsiders, Entropiq. North America- Liquid, Complexity, GODSENT, Evil Geniuses. South America- MIBR, Imperial. Oceania- Looking For Org, ORDER. And with the invites for the main event announced, the team list for IEM Dallas looks as follows: FaZe, Players, Heroic, NIP, Astralis, Europe Qualifier, NA Qualifier, SA Qualifier, Natus Vincere, G2, ENCE, FURIA, Vitality, Europe Qualifier, NA Qualifier, and OCE Qualifier.