One of the biggest North American Counter-Strike leagues is expanding with the help of a familiar name.
CEVO announced a partnership with Major League Gaming today that will bring its leagues to a new continent, expand its prize pool, and move its live playoff final to a new permanent location.
The partnership will allow CEVO to move from being a domestic league in North America to the European region. Leagues will run from professional at the top all the way down to a free-to-play open league at the very bottom. The professional competition will mirror its North American counterpart, with 12 teams battling it out in a round robin regular season before a playoff phases determines which four qualify for the live final.
That final will now permanently be held at the MLG.tv Arena in Columbus, Ohio, MLG’s new esports studio which debuted last year. The move marks MLG’s continued foray into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive following the company’s successful debut with the game at the X Games Invitational in January.
With this new expansion, CEVO will also see its overall prize pool expanding. The minimum prize pool set for the new season is $135,000, and can rise further through community funding in exchange for perks offered by the league.
That increased pool makes CEVO one of the richest Counter-Strike competitions of the year, and is sure to turn it into a main draw for the best teams in both North American and Europe.
The new league structure aligns closely with that of ESEA and Faceit, both of whom offer round robin season structures for North American and European teams, with the top teams from each region then being invited to compete at a live final. As this becomes the standard for extended league competition in Counter-Strike, international fans may be left wondering how teams from such countries as Brazil, Australia and South Africa can keep up.
The games will be broadcast on MLG’s exclusive streaming platform, MLG.tv, with the finals playing out from July 24-26.
Image via Valve
