After the excitement of the Season 7 finals in Dallas, where Astralis bested Team Liquid to claim the title, the ESL Pro League CS:GO returns to action for its eighth edition in October. The best teams in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and South America will fight it out to earn a spot in the finals to be held in Odense, Denmark, in December. This is how the online regular season will play out:
Europe & North America:
The EU and NA regionals will consist of 14 and 12 teams respectively playing each other twice across five weeks with three BO2s per day per region and every show day running a second stream. Offline relegation dates are still to be determined
Play Week 1 - October 2, 3, 4, 5
Play Week 2 - October 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21
Play Week 3 - October 30, 31, November 1
Play Week 4 - November 13, 14
Asia-Pacific:
The APAC regionals will see a change in format for the coming season with berths for the Global Finals split across three sub-regions: Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), Southeast Asia (SEA) and China (also open to teams from the Republic of Korea and Japan). Open qualifiers will take place on September 8-9 and September 22-23.
ANZ Region - October 24 - November 1
8 teams (6 invited, 2 qualified) > double elimination BO3 bracket > 1 team advances to Global Finals
SEA Region - October 8-11 & October 16
8 teams (6 invited, 2 qualified) > double elimination BO3 bracket > 1 team advances to ASIA Playoff
China Region - September 25-27 & October 17-18
8 teams (6 invited, 2 qualified) > double elimination BO3 bracket > 1 team advances to ASIA Playoff
ASIA Online Playoff - October 23
2 teams (qualified through SEA and China Regions) > 1 team advances to Global Finals.
South America:
The winner of the LA LEAGUE, which will take place on October 20-28, will advance to the Global Finals.
Global Finals:
The Sparekassen Fyn Arena in Odense, Denmark, will host the Season 8 Global Finals on December 7-9. Sixteen teams (7 EU, 6 NA, 1 SA and 2 APAC) will fight for a $1,000,000 USD prize pool and a win towards the Intel Grand Slam, which grants a further $1,000,000 USD for the first team to reach four wins across a selected number of events.
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