German IT trade fair CeBIT focusses its operations on business customers only beginning 2014. Its branch "Life", under which Intel Extreme Masters have hold their world finals for the past seven years, is getting cut. However, Intel and Deutsche Messe are in talks and IEM might still be in Hanover next year.
The Hanover IT trade fair CeBIT narrows its target group for the upcoming years, starting with the next edition happening 10 to 14 March 2014. With a shift in weekdays, now including Monday while cutting down the Saturday and an entry fee increase from €39 to €60, CeBIT from now on wants to be business-only.
This business-only model for the CeBIT also affects eSports events. In the past, the fair had a fourth branch called "Life", next to the branches "Pro", "Gov" and "Lab". While the latter targeted professionals, administration and research, Life was responsible for targeting private consumers. CeBIT Life included consumer topics, music, general gaming and, for eSports very important, the Intel Extreme Masters World Finals in an own exhibition hall.
2013 had IEM with Starcraft 2 an League of Legends finals in hall 23, which had its access regulated on Saturday due to hich demand. In the adjoining hall, TakeTV had its TeamStoryCup promoted with show games at the booth of Acer, also under the label of CeBIT Life.
IEM might not be within, but at CeBIT
Intel and Turtle Entertainment as the organisers of the IEM are aware of the new focus of CeBIT. They are currently in search for a solution, one of which might be IEM happening not within CeBIT, but rather at CeBIT, meaning possibly in an exhibition hall nearby with a seperate entry. CeBIT however will not advertise or promote IEM as part of its exhibition, as it does not belong to one of their eight new clusters.
Directly after CeBIT, ESL officials already mentioned the IEM finals need a bigger hall next time, hall 23 with it's official limitation of 3,000 visitors was too small. IEM's season normally starts and ends in Germany, beginning with the Gaming fair gamescom in Cologne in August and ending with the IT fair CeBIT in Hanover in March. IEM's next season 8 has not yet been announced, details about any events are still missing.
Sources: CeBIT
