The 2018 ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier: What You Need to Know
The highly anticipated 2018 ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier is set to kick off this weekend, bringing the excitement of Counter-Strike back to North America.
With a $1 million prize pool, this year’s event in Atlanta, Georgia will feature eight teams battling it out for glory. However, there are a couple of notable differences from last year’s tournament. The group stage will not last for four weeks, and there won’t be 16 teams in attendance.
Related: FaZe Clan triumphs over Astralis to claim victory in the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier
The group stage will take place from July 21 to 25, followed by the playoffs from July 28 to 29. During the first four days, the event will follow a standard GSL-style format with double elimination in groups of four teams. The top four teams from the opening stage will advance to the single-elimination playoffs over the weekend.
Here is the schedule for the initial matches, winners’ matches, elimination matches, and decider matches for each group, as well as the playoff schedule. All matches will be decided in a best-of-three map format.
Group A
- Astralis vs. Cloud9 (July 21, 1pm CT)
- Team Liquid vs. MIBR (July 21, 4pm CT)
- Winners’ Match (July 23, 1pm CT)
- Elimination Match (July 24, 1pm CT)
- Decider Match (July 25, 1pm CT)
Group B
- Natus Vincere vs. Fnatic (July 22, 1pm CT)
- FaZe Clan vs. Mousesports (July 22, 4pm CT)
- Winners’ Match (July 23, 4pm CT)
- Elimination Match (July 24, 4pm CT)
- Decider Match (July 25, 4pm CT)
Playoffs
- Semifinal One (July 28, 1pm CT)
- Semifinal Two (July 28, 4pm CT)
- Grand Final (July 29, 1pm CT)
Astralis, FaZe Clan, and Na’Vi are the top contenders to win the Premier this time around. However, don’t count out Mouz, Fnatic, Liquid, and MIBR, who have the potential to make an impact, especially considering recent team changes. Keep an eye on Cloud9 as well, as they have put together a last-minute team. Na’Vi, the recently crowned ESL One Cologne champion, could claim their second consecutive tournament win if they defeat Astralis and FaZe with the same finesse they showed in Germany earlier this month.
You can catch all the action of the ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier on ELEAGUE’s Twitch channel or experience the Live Game Command on ELEAGUE’s website, where you can customize your spectating experience.
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