CSGO teams from around the world will have the chance to compete with the likes of Astralis and SK Gaming in next month’s CSGO Premier 2017.
ELEAGUE has announced that an online qualifier to the tournament will be held on August 26th and August 27th, with four places at the major up for grabs.
This online qualifier is open to anyone, and will take place entirely on CEVO game servers. It will be split into two brackets, with a maximum of 512 teams in each one. One bracket will be for European teams, and one will be for American teams. The top two teams from each bracket will advance to join 12 invited teams in the group stage.
ELEAGUE recently revealed which teams have been invited to the tournament, and these teams will be split into four groups for the first stage of the tournament. The invited teams have already been allocated their groups, as follows:
- Group A – Faze Clan, Natus Vincere, G2 Esports
- Group B – Team North, Mousesports, Fnatic
- Group C – Virtus Pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Cloud9
- Group D – SK Gaming, Astralis, Optic Gaming
The four qualifying teams will take the final position in each group. Group D looks like the toughest group at the moment, as SK Gaming and Astralis will both be among the favourites in the CS:GO betting markets. That might change once we know which teams have qualified though.
Two notable absentees from the above list are Gambit and Immortals. These teams both made the final of the recent PGL Major in Krakow, with Gambit taking the victory, but they’re not among the automatic qualifiers for the ELEAGUE Premier. This is because ELEAGUE has invited teams based on their results across the previous two seasons, and neither Gambit or Immortals made the cut.
The CSGO Premier is the first ELEAGUE major to feature CSGO since January, and it’s already causing excitement in the esports community.
An ELEAGUE spokesperson had this to say about the tournament: “Counter-Strike is an important part of ELEAGUE’s DNA, and we’re thrilled to bring it back with a line-up of such elite teams this fall. We’re also looking forward to a number of compelling storylines including those surrounding the open qualifier and a very competitive tournament field.”
The group matches are scheduled to start on September 8th, and will run throughout the month. All matches will be played in Atlanta, at the G-FUEL ELEAGUE Arena.
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