Tournament organiser ESL has announced a partnership with peripheral brand ZOWIE to provide monitors for the IEM Kraków 2026.
ESL revealed that the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) tournament will feature ZOWIE XL2586X+ 600Hz monitors for players to use.
This is not the first time that ZOWIE has provided peripherals in esports events. In 2025 alone, ZOWIE was a monitor partner for the StarLadder Budapest Major in November and entered a partnership with BLAST for the 2025 Fortnite Global Championship.
ZOWIE’s presence in esports dates back several years. In 2024, ZOWIE provided XL2566K gaming monitors to the PGL CS2 Major in Copenhagen. In 2023, ZOWIE was also the monitor partner for the VALORANT Champions Tour in the Pacific and Americas.
What is IEM Kraków?
IEM Kraków is an upcoming CS2 tournament organised by ESL, originally set to take place in Katowice, Poland. It will be an offline event from January 28th to February 8th, 2026, kicking off the Counter-Strike 2 esports calendar as the first IEM event.
The competition will see 24 teams — comprised of the top organisations from the Valve Regional Standings Global for January 2026 — compete for the lion’s share of a $1m (~£729,62) prize pool and $250,000 (~£182,40) in club rewards.
The tournament will be split into three separate stages. IEM Kraków begins with the Play-In Stage, a double-elimination bracket featuring 16 teams. The top eight will join the remaining eight invited teams to play in the Group Stage, with two double-elimination groups comprised of eight teams.
The top three teams from each group then advance to the Playoffs, and will be seeded in either the Semi-finals or Quarter-finals, depending on performance. The Playoffs will unfold as a single-elimination bracket, where all matches are Bo3 before concluding with a Bo5 Grand Final.
