It’s finally 2018 and professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is back for the new year with the ELeague Major: Boston. The main event of the tournament gets started next week, but before that we have a new addition to ELeague called The New Challengers Stage.
This new section of the tournament will feature 16 teams, some will be finalists from last year’s minor tournaments while others were the bottom-half finishers from last year’s major tournaments. It’s a nice way of rewarding teams that have succeeded over the last year and giving some teams that don’t often get attention the time in the spotlight they deserve.
The top eight finishers in the New Challengers Stage will advance to the main stage of the tournament where they will play against the so called, “Legend” teams that had already qualified for the major.
The New Challengers Stage of the ELeague Major: Boston will be played in Atlanta at the ELeague Arena. The matches will kick off Friday, Jan. 12 at 10 a.m. ET, and can be seen live on ELeague’s Twitch channel.
Why you should watch
The main stage of this ELeague Major, which the challenger teams are hoping to qualify for, is being called The New Legends, so it should come as no surprise that the best reason to watch this is to get a glimpse of tomorrow’s top talent.
But the tournament isn’t just about up and comers, included in the mix of challengers are some of the top teams in the world that somehow always fall short of tournament glory, like Cloud9 or G2 Esports. The New Challengers Stage even includes one of the top teams in the world, that was working with a completely different roster 12 months ago, in FaZe Clan, the undisputed number two team in the world at the end of 2017.
Rounding out the talent includes untested teams like Mousesports, Team Liquid (with a somewhat reworked roster) and Team EnVy, who will be anxious to show that they will be serious contenders in 2018.
Between some of the top-tier talent in the world, and a strong crop of up-and-coming teams, the New Challengers Stage of the ELeague Major: Boston should be the perfect warmup for the main event next week.
Schedule
- Vega Squadron vs Renegades
- Mousesports vs Avangar
- FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid
- FlipSid3 Tactics vs Misfits
- Sprout vs Space Soldiers
- Natus Vincere vs Quantum Bellator Fire
- G2 Esports vs Flash Gaming
- Cloud9 vs Team EnVy
