ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 schedule, teams and talent revealed
Get the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 schedule, list of invited teams, full roster of broadcast talent, and how you can watch ELEAGUE this summer.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive returns to Turner and IMG’s ELEAGUE this July, and FanSided has all the details you need to know about the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018.
The ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 takes place at the ELEAGUE Arena in Atlanta from July 21-29, 2018. It will feature eight of the best Counter-Strike teams, all of them ranked within the Top 9 in the world, and all playing for the lion’s share of a million-dollar prize pool.
World No. 1 team Astralis leads the roster, followed by Natus Vincere (Na’vi) and ESL One Belo Horizonte champions FaZe Clan.
ESL One Belo Horizonte runners-up Mousesports are currently ranked No. 4, with Team Liquid, SK Gaming and Fnatic coming in fifth through seventh.
The CSGO Premier lineup is rounded out by ELEAGUE Major Boston winners Cloud9, who have since dropped to No. 9 in the rankings following roster moves that saw fan favorite Stewie2K exit for a spot on the SK Gaming roster.
What is the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier schedule? The Group Stage takes place from July 21-23, with two groups of four teams apiece (draw to be announced later).
Each team will play best-of-three (BO3), double-elimination matches within their group. Only two of the four teams in each group move on to the Playoffs, which take place July 28-29.
Two single-elimination semifinals on July 29 set up the Grand Final on July 29. Tickets to see the Playoff rounds in person at ELEAGUE Arena are now available through the website.
Below is the broadcast talent lineup for the CSGO Premier, and you might notice that it looks a little different:
Alex “Machine” Richardson makes his ELEAGUE debut at the Premier. The Counter-Strike fan favorite has worked for ESL, ECS and DreamHack among others, most recently hosting ESL One Belo Horizonte. He succeeds Richard Lewis, who departed the brand earlier this year.
While Lewis will be missed after all he did to help craft the ELEAGUE brand, Richardson is the best possible person to take over the big chair. He’s ridiculously talented and one of the smartest, most engaging hosts in any esport — and a huge addition to ELEAGUE.
The roster also brings back Janko “YNk” Paunovic, who’s proved himself to be a huge plus since coming aboard with last year’s CSGO Premier.
As was the cast last year, the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 will not have separate casters and analysts; rather, the desk will rotate talent. Anders Blume, Jason “Moses” O’Toole, Daniel “DDK” Kapadia and James Bardolph will all do double duty at the tournament.
Rounding out the team is Sue “Smix” Lee, who’s again back to do reporting during the Playoff rounds. Maybe we’ll get a follow-up to some of the brand’s hilarious tournament videos, too.
This is a first-rate lineup, both in terms of competitors and broadcast talent, so CSGO fans won’t want to miss a moment of the action in July. Yet the broadcast schedule is different this year as well.
Like last year’s Premier and ELEAGUE Major Boston, ELEAGUE CSGO Premier tournament matches will not be televised in full on TBS. Instead, the cable network will summarize the event with a nine-part feature series starting Aug. 24.
If you want to watch gameplay, you’ll have to stream it online. Tune into Twitch, ELEAGUE Game Command or B/R Live starting July 21 at 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT. You’ll be able to see all of the matches on any of those platforms for free.
While it remains a bummer that we won’t get to see another ELEAGUE Counter-Strike tourney on TBS as it happens, Turner and IMG have certainly lined up plenty of streaming options so there are ways to keep up with the Premier. And make sure you do, because this could be one of the most impressive CSGO events of 2018.
Next: What we learned from ELEAGUE Major Boston
ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 runs from July 21-29, 2018. For more ELEAGUE and Counter-Strike coverage, follow the Gaming category at FanSided.