Major CS:GO Events for 2018
Esports events have become a staple of the gaming community. There is so much talk that we all have an idea of what it means: championships and competitions based on video games that gather hundreds of thousands of people that want to see their favorite player. Now we must take advantage of the fact that we have just started the summer, and we need to be prepared because with the summer comes some of the most hectic moments for the competitive scene of Counter-Strike. We have several majors and qualifiers on the way that we are sure you will love.
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive circuit is based on a wide variety of tournaments where teams from all over the world compete and where it is more common to see surprises. It is therefore difficult to identify which are particularly important. However, there is a category of tournaments called Majors that are characterized by the support of Valve, the game’s developer, and award large sums of money in prizes. ESL One and DreamHack are common in this tournament category.
ESL One Cologne 2018
The ESL One Cologne comes with plenty of anticipation in 2018. From July 3rd to the 8th, 16 teams from all over the world will be in Germany to try to win the title of one of the most prestigious tournaments on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene.
One of the main novelties of this Cologne event will be that this tournament will be part of the Intel Grand Slam, a circuit created to reward with a million dollars the team that is capable of winning four of the premium events organized by ESL and Dreamhack. Another important highlight of this ESL One Cologne will be the increase in the prize pool. The tournament goes from $250,000 to $300,000. In this tournament, we will find top-level teams like Cloud9, FaZe, and SK, and we are sure it will be a great fight to take home the prize and honor.
FACEIT Major London 2018 – Qualifiers
FACEIT’s London major promises a lot, as all events are filled with excitement, effort, and great moves by game legends. However, what we don’t always see is the path that teams have to travel to reach one of the biggest stages of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competitive scene.
The FACEIT Minors will allow us to see great matches full of intensity between teams looking to make a name for themselves in the competitive world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. That may not sound very interesting, but seeing some of the teams that will take part in these minors, I’m sure that it will be a high-level competition, as it will have the presence of teams such as compLexity, Dignitas, Ninjas In Pyjamas, and Renegades, all looking to make a place in the first Major made by FACEIT in history.
ELEAGUE Premier 2018
The ELEAGUE has revealed through its social networks the 8 teams invited for its Premier phase, which will be held from July 21 to 29 and will have a total prize pool of 1 million dollars to distribute.
And we couldn’t expect anything less from an event like this, with a lineup full of stars. Astralis, Cloud9, FaZe Clan, Liquid, Na’Vi, SK, Fnatic, and mousesports are the ones chosen to fight for the trophy.
Let’s remember that FaZe Clan won the event in 2017 and is coming off recent victories at both IEM Sydney and ESL Belo Horizonte, where they weren’t even fielding their full starting roster. But it’s Astralis who will be the favorite heading into this year’s ELEAGUE event. As the current number-one team in the world, Astralis has boasted major victories at both the Pro League Finals and ECS Championships and will look to raise the trophy again in Atlanta. On the other hand, mousesports will try to seek their revenge against FaZe Clan after losing the final of the ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018.
Following the announcement of the teams invited and the format, the organizer also revealed the talents who will bring the broadcasts of this competition to life.
DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018
The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive calendar has a spectacular competitive appointment starting August 29th in the beautiful city of Stockholm with the celebration of the Dreamhack Masters Stockholm 2018. Between August 29th and September 2nd, the world’s sixteen best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams will gather at the Ericsson Globe to fight for a $250,000 prize bag and have the honor of lifting the championship trophy on Swedish soil.
Although only 7 teams (Astralis, FaZe Clan, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Na’Vi, SK, Fnatic, and mousesports) have been confirmed so far, we are sure that it will be a tournament full of great plays and the best atmosphere.
ESL One New York 2018
Again this year, one of the most spectacular tournaments of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive warms up its engines. New York’s ESL One returns to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center from September 26-30 with a $250,000 prize pool.
Of the eight teams that will compete in the dream, six have been invited, and two have arrived through the North American and European qualifiers. The event is sure to be frenetic, with lots of games, because what everyone wants is to reach the final.
We already know all the teams that will be part of this beautiful event, as the guests FaZe Clan, G2, Na’Vi, Fnatic, mousesports, and Team Liquid (who arrived to replace Cloud9) are all ready for the tournament. Also, on June 26th, we got to know the qualified teams through the qualifiers – Gambit through Europe and NRG Esports through North America – where both showed that they have what it takes to be part of the elite of Counter-Strike and become legends of the game.
FACEIT Major London 2018
If we have recommended you to see the qualifiers, it is because this major is brought as the main event of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that we have left in the year. FACEIT will again organize one of its prestigious tournaments of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in London, but this time, it is a Major with a bag of prizes of one million dollars.
The second and final Major of 2018 will culminate with a live event from September 20th to 23rd at the SSE Arena in Wembley, London. This is the same place where the finals of the first and third ECS seasons were held.
This will be the first Major organized by FACEIT, which has become the sixth company to hold an event of this magnitude with Valve. The other companies that have had this privilege are ESL, DreamHack, MLG, ELEAGUE, and PGL. It will also be the first Major to be held in the United Kingdom, after multiple stops in the United States, Sweden, Poland, Germany, and Romania.
Following the guidelines established by Valve in December 2017, 24 teams will participate in the main FACEIT Major event. 16 of them have already been determined, while the last 8 will come from the various Minors to be held around the world.
BLAST Pro Series Istanbul 2018
The BLAST Pro Series, despite its youth, has entered the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene with strength thanks to its excellent organization and staging. The event created by the sports agency RFRSH will hold a new tournament in Istanbul from June 22nd to 23rd at the Ulker Sports Arena, a basketball arena with a capacity of 13,000 people.
Cloud9, Astralis, FaZe, SK Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Space Soldiers are the six teams invited to the tournament. The level of the participants ensures an elite-level event where the local team, Space Soldiers, will be in charge of coloring and cheering on the ever-raised Turkish fans.
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