Sixteen CS:GO teams will battle for their share of a $500,000 prize pool at StarSeries i-League season eight, which starts on Monday, Oct. 21.
Although Astralis and Team Liquid are skipping this event, there will plenty of strong teams in attendance, such as Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, Vitality, and Natus Vincere.
Aside from the favorites, teams like MIBR, G2, and Ninjas in Pyjamas need to show more in this current CS:GO season.
Here’s everything you need to know about StarSeries i-League season eight.
Stream
StarSeries i-League season eight will be broadcasted on StarLadder’s two Twitch channels since the event will feature simultaneous matches until the playoffs. You won’t want to miss any of the action on the main broadcast or the second channel.
Format
The competition will last seven days, with the grand finals set to be played on Oct. 27. Sixteen teams will fight for their share of the $500,000 prize pool in Belek, Turkey.
Teams were split into two groups and the tournament will feature a double-elimination GSL format. All matches will be played as best-of-three series, including the opening round. The top four teams from each group advance to the playoffs, with the group winners starting in the upper bracket and group runners-up in the lower bracket. The playoffs will also feature the double-elimination format.
The division of the prize pool is yet to be announced by StarLadder.
Teams
Group A
- Fnatic: Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, Robin “flusha” Rönnquist, Maikil “Golden” Selim, and Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
- Vitality: Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, Richard “shox” Papillon, Cédric “RpK” Guipouy, and Alex McMeekin
- mousesports: Finn “karrigan” Andersen, Robin “ropz” Kool, Chris “chrisJ” de Jong, Özgür “woxic” Eker, and David “frozen” Čerňanský
- MIBR: Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, Vito “kNgV-” Giuseppe, Epitácio “TACO” de Melo, and Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles
- Renegades: Justin “jks” Savage, Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad, Aaron “AZR” Ward, Jay “liazz” Tregillgas, and Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai
- North: René “cajunb” Borg, Markus Kjærbye, Nicklas Gade, Philip “aizy” Aistrup, and Jakob “JUGi” Hansen
- Imperial: Denner “KHTEX” Barchfield, Eduardo “dumau” Volkmer, Gustavo “tge” Motta, Victor “iDk” Torraca, and Felipe Delboni
- Invictus Gaming: Heng “EXPRO” Yang, PeiQi “flying” Song, QingHui “equal” Kong, Vadim “V4D1M” Panchuk, Anton “Koshak” Platko
Group B
- Evil Geniuses: Ethan Arnold, Tarik Celik, Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte, Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, and Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz
- Natus Vincere: Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Denis “electronic” Sharipov, Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács, Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov, and Egor “flamie” Vasilyev
- FURIA: Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, Yuri “yuurih” Gomes, Andrei “arT” Piovezan, Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo, and Henrique “HEN1” Teles
- Ninjas in Pyjamas: Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Simon “twist” Eliasson, Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson, and Nicolas “Plopski” Zamora
- G2: Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač , Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, François “AMANEK” Delaunay, Nemanja “nexa” Isaković , and Audric “JaCkZ” Jug
- AVANGAR: Ali “Jame” Djami, Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev, Alexey “qikert” Golubev, Timur “buster” Tulepov, and Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev
- Heroic: Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, Martin “stavn” Lund, Johannes “b0RUP” Borup, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, and Casper “cadiaN” Møller
- 5POWER Gaming: Peng “xiaosaGe” Song, Wei “shuadapai” Wang, LiFan “Viva” Ran, Bin “Savage” Liu, and Lei “bottle” Mao
Schedule
Monday, Oct. 21
- 2am CT: mousesports vs. North
- 2am CT: Vitality vs. Invictus
- 5:30am CT: Renegades vs. MIBR
- 5:30am CT: Fnatic vs. Imperial
- 9am CT: Group A upper-bracket first semifinal
- 12:30pm CT: Group A upper-bracket second semifinal
Tuesday, Oct. 22
- 2am CT: NiP vs. FURIA
- 2am CT: EG vs. 5POWER
- 5:30am CT: Na`Vi vs. G2
- 5:30am CT: AVANGAR vs. Heroic
- 9am CT: Group B upper-bracket first semifinal
- 12:30pm CT: Group B uppper-bracket second semifinal
Wednesday, Oct. 23
- 2am CT: Group A lower-bracket first round of elimination
- 2am CT: Group A lower-bracket second round of elimination
- 5:30am CT: Group B lower-bracket first round of elimination
- 5:30am CT: Group B lower-bracket first round of elimination
- 9am CT: Group A lower-bracket second round of elimination
- 9am CT: Group A lower-bracket second round of elimination
- 12:30pm CT: Group B lower-bracket second round of elimination
- 12:30pm CT: Group B lower-bracket second round of elimination
Thursday, Oct. 24
- 2am CT: Group A upper-bracket final
- 2am CT: Group A lower-bracket semifinal
- 7:30am CT: Group B upper-bracket final
- 7:30am CT: Group B lower-bracket semifinal
- 11am CT: Group A lower-bracket final
- 11am CT: Group B lower-bracket final
Friday, Oct. 25
- 2am CT: First playoff match
- 5:30am CT: Second playoff match
- 9am CT: Third playoff match
- 12:30pm CT: Fourth playoff match
Saturday, Oct. 26
- 2am CT: Fifth playoff match
- 5:30am CT: Sixth playoff match
- 9am CT: Seventh playoff match
- 12:30pm CT: Eighth playoff match
Sunday, Oct. 27
- 7am CT: Ninth playoff match
- 10:30am CT: Grand finals
Key storylines
Without Liquid and Astralis, two of the best CS:GO teams in the world, EG will have a solid chance to win StarSeries i-League season eight and show that their title run at ESL One New York in September wasn’t a fluke.
Fnatic are in the same boat. The Swedes played their first tournament with Golden and flusha at DreamHack Masters Malmö in September and won the event against all odds. But can they replicate that same success in Turkey?
Vitality lost the DreamHack Masters Malmö grand finals to Fnatic, but they were also playing their first tournament with shox. He formed a deadly duo with ZywOo and fans are excited to see more from them.
Na’Vi still have to prove that they’re a top team with GuardiaN. The Russians lost to Vitality in the semifinals of DreamHack Masters Malmö when s1mple underperformed. If s1mple shows up in his best form, Na’Vi will be a tough team to beat at StarSeries i-League season eight.