ELEAGUE Premier viewer's guide

As we approach the starting time of ELEAGUE Premier 2018, we have put together a viewer's guide with everything you need to know about this tournament, which will have a whopping $1 million prize fund.

The G-FUEL ELEAGUE Arena, located in Atlanta, will stage yet another edition of ELEAGUE Premier in what will be the second Counter-Strike competition hosted by Turner Sports in 2018, after the Boston Major.

The current top six teams in the world plus fnatic (8th) and Cloud9 (14th) will square off over the next nine days, with a best-of-three double-elimination group stage leading up to the single-elimination playoffs.

Astralis will open up the action against C9

Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik's debut for MIBR and Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer's return to FaZe are two of the biggest storylines heading into the event, which will also feature a Cloud9 side in attendance with two stand-ins, Maikil "⁠Golden⁠" Selim and Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk.

Below you can find the group draw in full:

Group A
Astralis
Liquid
MIBR
Cloud9 Group B
Natus Vincere
FaZe
MOUZ
fnatic

The group stage will run until Wednesday, July 25, with the playoffs being held over the second weekend of the event, after a two-day break in the action. The complete tournament schedule looks as follows:

Saturday, July 21
20:00 - Astralis vs. Cloud9| BO3
~23:00 - Liquid vs. MIBR | BO3

Sunday, July 22
20:00 - Natus Vincere vs. fnatic | BO3
~23:00 - FaZe vs. MOUZ | BO3

Monday, July 23
20:00 - Group A winners' match | BO3
~23:00 - Group B winners' match | BO3

Tuesday, July 24
20:00 - Group A elimination match | BO3
~23:00 - Group B elimination match | BO3

Wednesday, July 25
20:00 - Group A decider |BO3
~23:00 - Group B decider | BO3

Saturday, July 28
20:00 - Semi-final #1 | BO3
~23:00 - Semi-final #2 | BO3

Sunday, July 29
20:00 Grand final | BO3

Alex "Machine" Richardson will be hosting the show, while Sue "Smix" Lee will be in charge of conducting interviews in between the matches. Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović will be the main analyst, while two casting duos will be providing live commentary on the action.

The complete English language broadcast team looks as follows:

Alex "Machine" Richardson - Host
Sue "Smix" Lee - Reporter

Janko "YNk" Paunovic - Analyst

James Bardolph - Caster / Analyst
Daniel "ddk" Kapadia - Caster / Analyst
Anders Blume - Caster / Analyst
Jason "moses" O'Toole - Caster / Analyst

Finally, the prize money breakdown for the event is the following:

1. - $500,000
2. - $200,000
3-4. - $80,000
5-6. - $40,000
7-8. - $30,000

MOUZ #5 Tomáš 'oskar' ŠťastnýJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiChris 'chrisJ' de JongMiikka 'suNny' KemppiRobin 'ropz' Kool FaZe #3 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerFinn 'karrigan' AndersenLadislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsNikola 'NiKo' KovačHåvard 'rain' Nygaard Cloud9 #14 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTimothy 'autimatic' Ta Maikil 'Golden' Selim Age: 24 Team: fnaticB Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 377 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.69 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone Astralis #1 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif fnatic #8 Richard 'Xizt' LandströmRobin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonWilliam 'draken' Sundin Tarik 'tarik' Celik Age: 22 Team: MIBR Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 894 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.68 Natus Vincere #2 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' TeslenkoEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' Sharipov Liquid #4 Nick 'nitr0' CannellaKeith 'NAF' MarkovicJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEpitacio 'TACO' de MeloRussel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken MIBR #6 Tarik 'tarik' CelikGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaJake 'Stewie2K' YipMarcelo 'coldzera' David Janko 'YNk' Paunović Age: 26 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 108 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.70 Cloud9 #14 Tyler 'Skadoodle' LathamWilliam 'RUSH' WierzbaTimothy 'autimatic' TaMaikil 'Golden' SelimMartin 'STYKO' Styk Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer Age: 26 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 1077 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 Martin 'STYKO' Styk Age: 22 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 844 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.67