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ELEAGUE announces its return to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

By Brittany Frederick

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 29: A view of the trophy during the ELEAGUE: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship finals at Fox Theater on January 29, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 29: A view of the trophy during the ELEAGUE: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship finals at Fox Theater on January 29, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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After taking a break to feature Street Fighter V, Turner and IMG’s ELEAGUE will return to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with a new tournament this fall.

Turner and IMG’s ELEAGUE is going back to the game that built it. The announcement was made during Friday’s broadcast that the next ELEAGUE tournament will be a return to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

The ELEAGUE CSGO Premiere 2017 will debut on Friday, September 1st at 10 p.m. ET and, as always, be broadcast on TBS. No additional details were revealed in the announcement.

But this is very good news for ELEAGUE and CSGO fans alike. It’ll be the second big tournament that the company will host in 2017, following the ELEAGUE Major this January which gave eSports fans one of the best Grand Finals in the history of Counter-Strike.

The organization changed course after that to broaden its franchise, and is currently in the middle of the Street Fighter V Invitational. You can find more information on the current tournament here and tune in next Friday to watch Group D play.

However, when eSports fans think of ELEAGUE, they think of Counter-Strike. The first two tournaments on which Turner and IMG built the brand were CSGO tournaments, with Virtus.pro winning Season 1 and OpTic Gaming winning Season 2.

Going back to that game means CSGO fans once again getting a chance to experience the best in the business. Turner’s production team just received their first Sports Emmy Award nomination, and while no talent has been locked down for the Premier yet, we can hope that Friday’s news means the original band will get back together.

Turner’s eSports talent are the best in the business. Host Richard Lewis has become the cornerstone of the roster, and while the Street Fighter personalities have made their own mark (credit is due to Stephen “Sajam” Lyon for pulling double duty on Friday night), the CSGO talent are the ones who started it all.

It would be impossible to think of Turner doing another Counter-Strike tournament without Jason “Moses” O’Toole, Duncan “Thorin” Shields, Auguste “Semmler” Massonnat, James “Yet To Frag” Bardolph, Daniel “DDK” Kapadia or Rachel “Seltzer” Quirico in the building. We’ll have to see who is able to come back this fall when ELEAGUE returns to its roots and which teams take the challenge of competing in the Premier.

Here’s the tweet from the official ELEAGUE account making the announcement:

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What do you think of ELEAGUE’s decision to return to Counter-Strike? Are you looking forward to another tournament? Leave your thoughts on this news in the comments and follow all the latest gaming news in the Gaming category of FanSided here.