The EPICENTER 2018 is a 6-day event with a massive prize pool of $300,000. There will be 8 teams in participation at the event. It is scheduled to be held from October 23rd to the 28th. The tournament will use the Double Elimination GSL format for the Group stage and a single elimination format for the Playoffs.
There will be five direct invites to the tournament with the remaining teams coming from the Wild Card qualifiers. The Wild Card qualifiers themselves features teams coming from the 4 different regional qualifiers. Till now, only ENCE is a confirm participant at the European Qualifier.
Virtus Pro receive a direct invite to the Wild Card qualifier
The Virtus Pro team is one of the most popular teams in the CS: GO community. Despite their recent slump in form, they have a lot of fans especially in Europe and the CIS region. The Epicenter organisers have decided to give Virtus Pro a direct invite to the tournament.
Byali will not be a part of the Virtus Pro roster post the FaceIT London Major. VP are yet to announce his replacement
These qualifiers will be an offline event and Virtus pro will be up against the winners of the CIS, EU, North America and Asian qualifiers. The selection process for the main event is quite different from other traditional tournaments. While the Wild Card qualifiers will send the top two teams to the Main event, there is one more spot on the line. The third and final team to go to the Main event will be chosen based on the teams’ HLTV.org rankings as of October 19th, 2018. This is just a few days before the start of the Main event.
https://t.co/Xq9hWKg1uP receive Wild Card invite to EPICENTER!
Wild Card invite allows @virtuspro to compete in the LAN qualifier, which will take place in Moscow on October 22. VP has already reached two #EPICENTER CS:GO finals and we do remember what it was like! 🔥#epicgg pic.twitter.com/P2zHA4cvZg
— EPICENTER (@epicentergg) September 6, 2018
Virtus Pro is a familiar name at the EPICENTER tournaments. They have been in the finals of two EPICENTER tournaments in 2016 and 2017. Ofcourse the Virtus Pro at that time was quite different from their current form. However, the decision to invite them is based on their ‘past performances, the audience choice as well as other factors’ according to HLTV.
Natus Vincere receive a direct Invite to Epicenter 2018
Electronic is the X-factor for Na’Vi and has helped improve the team’s performance
While Virtus Pro will attend the Wildcard qualifier, Natus Vincere will directly attend the Main tournament. Na’VI is one of the strongest Counter Strike Global Offensive teams at present. They had a three-tournament winning streak before being unable to win at the Eleague CS: GO Premier 2018. The team secured nine top four positions since the addition of Electronic in early 2018.
Natus Vincere get the first EPICENTER CS:GO invite!@natusvincere are one of the strongest teams in the world and one of the biggest favorites among CS:GO fans. Will they get to raise the EPICENTER champions’ trophy? We’ll find out very soon! 😎 #epicgg #epicenter #csgo pic.twitter.com/qH3K94p10e
— EPICENTER (@epicentergg) September 5, 2018
We expect more direct invites to be announced very soon including the likes of Astralis and Faze Clan. The EPICENTER 2018 will take place from October 23rd to 28th at the Park of Legends Ice Palace in Moscow.
