For the first time in the game’s history, one of Counter-Strike’s major events will be heading to North America.
For the spring 2016 major, Valve has partnered with Major League Gaming to bring the event to the United States. First reported by Richard Lewis at Breitbart, the event will feature the standard $250,000 prizepool and take place March 29 to April 3.
The competition will begin at MLG’s venue in Columbus, Ohio with spectators able to watch the event at a viewing party nearby. The final two days will take place in the 18,500 capacity Nationwide Arena.
As well as being the first major in North America, the event will be the first major not hosted by MTG-owned properties. In 2015, the majors have been shared between ESL and DreamHack—both of which have been purchased either fully or in part by the MTG group this year.
The timing of the event makes it highly likely that ESL’s IEM Katowice event will lose its major status. ESL have previously said that they are capable of maintaining a $250,000 Counter-Strike event without Valve support, however.
The event will stream on MLG’s proprietary streaming platform MLG.tv, but will also be available on other streaming platforms.
Image via Valve | Remix by Jacob Wolf