Christmas will be coming early for League of Legends esports fans with another international event taking place a week before the holidays.

Unlike IEM San Jose, every single spot minus Koreas will be acquired via a poll.  The format for participating teams is as follows:

• 1 team from CN poll
• 2 teams from EU poll
• 2 teams from NA poll
• Winner of the KeSPA cup

While theres no clear indiciation of teams participating in the KeSPA cup, we can assume itll be teams affiliated with the Korean eSports Association, meaning KOO Tigers will likely not be a viable candidate for the tournament.  The remaining teams filling the slots -- consisting of one Chinese team, two European teams, and two North American teams -- will be selected through a currently unavailable poll.

Home to memorable moments such xPekes infamous backdoor Kassadin play and Gambit Gamings domination over the prior two tournaments, IEM Cologne will take place from Friday the 18th to Sunday the 20th of December at the ESL studios in Cologne, Germany. 

Source

Image courtesy of ESL.