EPICENTER 2018 Chinese Qualifier teams announced

The EPICENTER 2018 China Qualifier will be attended by ten local teams according to an announcement on Weibo.

EPICENTER 2018 China Qualifier

The EPICENTER 2018 event is set to take place in late October but before that can happen, there need to be teams to participate. While certain teams will participate on an invite basis, the others will have to be decided via Qualifier tournaments. The latest tournament of this type is the China Qualifier which is set to begin tomorrow and run for three days straight.

#csgo Due to @tyloogaming schedule at London Major, we made some changes for EPICENTER Chinese Qualifier, Here is the latest direct invite list.
EPICENTER Chinese Qualifier schedule: 9/18 13:00-9/20 22:00 CST
Chinese live stream: https://t.co/kMdFgqKohH@epicentergg pic.twitter.com/a8HoH1hzSi

— Huomao (@huomao_cn) September 17, 2018

In a post on Weibo, the organizers of the event have posted the teams that will compete for a spot in the main EPICENTER event in Moscow. These teams include:

They will be separated into two groups of five where they will play in the Round Robin format, with each team facing off against every other team in the group. All matches will be best-of-one and the top two performing team of each group will advance towards the Playoffs, where the winner of the Qualifier will be determined. The groups are designed as such:

Following the Group Stage, the Playoffs will be based on the single-elimination principle and all matches will be best-of-three.

On a side note, to those surprised not see TYLOO in this listing, the team was, at first, supposed to attend. However, inability to meet schedules forced them to withdraw from the event and Sparta Gaming were invited in their place.

Match schedule for Day One

With the announcement of the teams, the organizers also posted information about the match lineup for the first day of both groups. On 18 September, we will get to see the following matchups:

Group A:
Team MAX vs ViCi Gaming
BigTime Regal vs BTRG.IMBA
Team MAX vs EHOME
ViCi Gaming vs BigTime Regal
BTRG.IMBA vs EHOME

Group B:
NEW4 vs CyberZen
Flash Gaming vs 5Power Gaming
NEW4 vs Sparta Gaming
CyberZen vs Flash Gaming
5Power Gaming vs Sparta Gaming

Streams and Broadcasts

The event will be streamed on Twitch.tv, as per the norm. So far, two official broadcasts have been announced – one in English and one in Russian. Both will be hosted on official EPICENTER accounts and viewers can easily tune in to any stream with ease.