We’re sorry, ESL, but the move to Krakow might’ve killed the magic. Or at least lost it, in the real Hall of Heroes, some 80km away.

It might not be a feeling we get in the years to come, but this being the first year of the move to Krakow for “IEM Winter” really hurt the prestige feel of this event. Where Katowice used to feel like one of the high points of the CS calendar, Krakow felt like a regular IEM that just had better team attendance and an opening stage, and no iconic trophy could prevent that.

The fact is, the history of this event - even if it began in Hannover - lies in Katowice. Kato, Cologne, Majors. It’s a simple tier list of importance, and one that will take a while to be shaken up so that we now say “Krakow” instead. Especially with everyone constantly referring to the previous host city.

But maybe there’s a way to stop that. Maybe there’s a way to make Krakowice (and Cologne by extension) feel like the most special tournaments on your calendar for a reason greater than the history that lies in the locations they’re held.

And yes, we’re talking about eight-team playoffs.

The IEM format is good, we’re not saying it isn’t, but it will always suffer from those sh-t seeding matches and the fact that the playoffs feature just six teams. And there’s an easy fix for that.

You could follow PGL and do four games on the Friday, or charge even more money and just add on an extra day. We know the financials of having that extra day in the arena may hurt to look at initially, but it’s worth it for the long-term prestige gain that you’ve now sacrificed by changing cities.

You could even switch to Swiss for groups, too, just to set it even further apart from the other IEMs.

This isn’t to say that Krakow wasn’t still enjoyable, we had a blast watching it, but in a calendar that is now filled with tournaments every week, we feel like you can do something to make your premium events bigger and better than ever before.

Just think about it.