This October 23-29, a global Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Epicenter tournament will be staged in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Epicenter series’ fourth tournament will be offering a prize pool of $500,000.
St. Petersburg will be hosting its first ever Epicenter series event of high-profile tournaments. For those who are visiting or living in what is termed as the ‘northern metropolis’, along with millions of esports fans in the CIS, the competition will be among the most significant events of 2017.
The playoffs will take place October 28-29 at the Yubileyny Sports Palace. Audiences will be witnesses to a grand battle between the best eSports teams in the world, with the tournament offering an impressive spectacle, souvenirs, and signing sessions with pro players.
Eight In, Two To Be Named
From September 2-10, we saw two-stage qualifiers take place in China, America, the CIS, and Europe. Following that was a closed qualifier stage from September 11 to October 1. On October 23, we will see the winners of those qualifiers compete for the remaining two places in the group stage.
Ten of the best teams in the world will compete in Epicenter 2017, after the organiser expanded the number of participating teams from eight.
Astralis and SK Gaming were the first teams to be invited to the tournament. Heroic and mousesports were both given closed qualifier invites, in spite of the fact that they lost to Space Soldiers at the tournament’s open qualifiers.
Last Year’s Winners Turning Heads
Less of a surprise was that North – last year’s winners who competed under the name Dignitas – also received an invite. The Danish team, which turned a number of heads by finishing in second place at the recent DreamHack Masters, was named the fifth team on the Epicenter roster.
The Danish team created a lot of expectation when Emil Eeif (now with OpTic) was replaced by Valdemar Bjørn Vangså. The team’s newest member put on an impressive display, proving an important figure in the team’s success in Sweden. The team are hoping to put on a similarly impressive performance at Epicenter.
The Roster
The roster for the tournament stands as follows:
- Astralis
- G2
- North
- Gambit
- SK
- Virtus.pro
- Wildcard #1
- Wildcard #2
Sponsors Named
Nationwide mobile provider Yota is the tournament’s title partner for the second time. The event also named European leader in consumer electronics retail, MediaMarkt, as its official partner.
Yota was one one of the first brands in Russia to become an active supporter of eSports when it joined Epicenter in 2016. It has been involved in three Epicenter: Moscow tournaments, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2. The firm’s products, based around mobile internet with Russia-wide fee-free access, will enable viewers to enjoy the event from anywhere in the country.
Epic Sports Events Back as Organisers
Epic Sports Events are specialists when it comes to organizing global competitions. It previously organized the Epicenter: Moscow Dota 2 tournament in May last year. The first Epicenter: Moscow tournament attracted a global audience of more than 24 million viewers.
At last year’s EuBEA awards, the competition received the prize for Europe’s premier event in the live entertainment industry. A sum of 1,000 applications were received in 21 nominations, with a shortlist of 114 events.
The second Epicenter: Moscow, and the country’s first world-class CS:GO competition, received a decent amount of domestic coverage, in addition to global media. The finals were shown on Russia’s Match TV channel and saw more than 14 million views online.
