Intel Extreme Masters Season IX was the ninth season of

Intel Extreme Masters The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel, currently host events in '' Counter-Strike: Global ...

competitions organized by

Electronic Sports League The ESL Gaming GmbH, doing business as ESL (formerly known as Electronic Sports League), is a German esports organizer and production company that produces video game competitions worldwide. ESL was the world's largest esports company in 2015, ...

, and took place between July 2014 and March 2015. The season included five stops in different cities around the world acting as qualifiers before culminating in the World Championship in Katowice,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. The featured games were ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by '' Defense of the Ancients'', a custom map for ''Warcraft III'', ...

'' by Riot Games and '' StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm'', as well as one competition of '' Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft'', both by

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three gradu ...

Shenzhen

Intel Extreme Masters Shenzhen was the opening event of Season IX, and took place between July 16–20 at the Shenzhen Cartoon and Animation Festival in

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

, China. The event featured three games: ''

StarCraft II ''StarCraft II'' is a military science fiction video game created by Blizzard Entertainment as a sequel to the successful ''StarCraft'' video game released in 1998. Set in a fictional future, the game centers on a galactic struggle for dominance ...

'', ''

'', and '' Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft'' in its sole Intel Extreme Masters appearance of the season. The prize pools consisted of US$25,000, US$5,000 and US$10,000 respectively, as well as 4,000 ''StarCraft II'' World Championship Series (WCS) points spread among the participants based on their placing.