IEM Oakland Rundown

For those that have been out of the loop since Worlds, IEM Oakland is coming up in about a week's time. And in case you haven't heard much, the tournament as far as what's known is going to feature 6 teams instead of the intended 8:

TSM (1st NALCS Summer): Originally opted out from Doublelift stepping down but decided to attend from fortunate tryouts for his replacement FW (1st LMS Summer) UOL (4th EULCS Summer): Attending in place of Splyce with their same summer lineup LZ (8th LCK Summer): Attending in place of Afreeca Freecs as the highest seeded team that was able to meet a bunch of qualifications. INTZ (1st IEM Oakland Qualifier) CHF (2nd IEM Oakland Qualifier)

Honestly I find the present lineup a bit mysterious given every team's most recent level of play. It's unfortunate to see that a few teams were unable to compete due to internal changes or other matters. IMAY and IMT were invited but opted out without replacement. Korea is its own really unique story (Long story short - everyone else above LZ won somewhere and the only other option was the already relegated CJ Entus). But regardless, one of the teams above is moving on to IEM Katowice in the spring.