With IEM Shanghai 2018 set to start on Wednesday, we bring you a viewer's guide with all the information you need to know regarding the event. The last tournament of the season will run from August 1-6 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, where eight teams will duke it out for the lion's share of a $250,000 prize pool. The event will kick off with a double-elimination group stage, where only the opening matches will be played in a best-of-one format. The top two teams from both groups will then advance to the single-elimination, best-of-three playoffs.  HellRaisers and BOOT-d[S] will both field stand-ins as Özgür "woxic" Eker and Alikhan "w1nt3r" Kopzhanov could not travel to Shanghai due to unforeseen circumstances. Kristjan "fejtZ" Allsaar, who is no stranger to HellRaisers, will be playing alongside Kirill "ANGE1" Karasiow's men, while Leslie "Bobosaur" Soen will be helping his countrymen from BOOT-d[S]. The eight competition teams have been drawn into two groups of four as you can see below: Group A 5POWER HellRaisers NRG Virtus.pro Group B BOOT-d[S] Gambit GrayhoundTYLOO Below you can find the full schedule:
The on-air team for the event features several familiar faces, including desk host Tres "stunna" Saranthus and analysts Jacob "Pimp" Winneche and Halvor "vENdetta" Gulestøl. Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill will be making the switch from analysis to commentary, being joined by Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett, Harry Russell and Alex "Snodz" Byfield. The full broadcast team can be found below:
Finally, here is how the $250,000 prize pool will be distributed among the eight participants:
 Grayhound #39 Christopher 'dexter' Nong Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai Erdenetsogt 'erkaSt' GantulgaLiam 'malta' SchembriOllie 'DickStacy' Tierney  Gambit #20 Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev Mihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovAbay 'HObbit' KhassenovNikolay 'mir' Bityukov  Kristjan 'fejtZ' Allsaar  Age: 20 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 496 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.67 ![BOOT-d[S]](https://img-cdn.hltv.org/teamlogo/A4xH0MX3yekEnWtPlXc-jM.png?ixlib=java-2.1.0&w=100&s=ec7508071cdfe241d505373773f81672 "BOOT-d[S]") BOOT-d[S] #53 Nevin 'splashske' AwBenedict 'Benkai' TanAnthony 'ImpressioN' LimKumaresan 'Tommy' RamaniLeslie 'Bobosaur' Soen  Virtus.pro #21 Filip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiPaweł 'byali' BielińskiMichał 'MICHU' MüllerPiotr 'morelz' Taterka  5POWER #90 Gan-Erdene 'dobu' BatboldBat-Enkh 'kabal' BatbayarZhiHai 'QKA' FuPeng 'xiaosaGe' SongWei 'shuadapai' Wang  Matthew 'Sadokist' Trivett  Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.00 Maps played: 0 KPR: 0.00 DPR: 0.00  Jacob 'Pimp' Winneche  Age: 23 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 974 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.64   Kirill 'ANGE1' Karasiow  Age: 28 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1424 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.71 HellRaisers #17 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukKristjan 'fejtZ' Allsaar Bence 'DeadFox' Böröcz Issa 'ISSAA' Murad Chad 'SPUNJ' Burchill  Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.87 Maps played: 151 KPR: 0.62 DPR: 0.73 Tres 'stunna' Saranthus  Age: 28 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.64 Maps played: 4 KPR: 0.30 DPR: 0.54 Alikhan 'w1nt3r' Kopzhanov  Age: 20 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 86 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.65 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone   NRG #9 Damian 'daps' SteeleJacob 'FugLy' MedinaVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' Arnold Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov Leslie 'Bobosaur' Soen  Age: 22 Team: BOOT-d[S] Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 38 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.71  Halvor 'vENdetta' Gulestøl  Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.86 Maps played: 8 KPR: 0.58 DPR: 0.68  Özgür 'woxic' Eker  Age: 19 Team: HellRaisers Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 497 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.62  TYLOO #12 Ke 'captainMo' LiuHui 'DD' Wu Hansel 'BnTeT' FerdinandHaoWen 'somebody' XuKevin 'xccurate' Susanto |
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Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam - Analyst