HTC to host its first Counter-Strike tournament this weekend

Electronics manufacturer HTC will host a North American Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the first time this weekend.

The brand has teamed up alongside six sponsors to present HTC: Reborn, an event focused on highlighting all the recent roster changes in North America—what’s become known as “the NA Shuffle.” FACEIT content producer Daniel “DDK” Kapadia and vice president James “JZFB” Bardolph will cast the event.

Eight teams will battle it out for a slice of the $10,000 prize pool over the weekend: Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, Team Liquid, eLevate, Tempo Storm, affNity, Nihilum, and Keyd Stars.

Most of these squads had roster changes in April and May, with some as recent as last week. Some of the more famous moves include Cloud9’s addition of Tyler “Skadoodle” Latham and Ryan “fREAKAZOiD” Abadir, Spencer “Hiko” Martin, and Kory “Semphis” Friesen joining Nihilum, and Team Liquid’s addition of Kyle “flowsicK” Mendez.

This will be HTC’s first attempt at running a Counter-Strike event, but the organization is not new to running tournaments, or esports in general. The brand initially announced its intent to sponsor Cloud9, Team Liquid, and Team SoloMid on Jan 26. Since then, it’s sponsored a number of events and recently hosted a Hearthstone invitational.