StarLadder and Parimatch introduce $100,000 CS:GO league
Parimatch and StarLadder have joined forces to introduce the Parimatch League, which will be an online CS:GO league, featuring teams from Europe and CIS region, who will duke it out for the US $100,000 prize pool.
The event will mark StarLadder's return to the CS:GO scene for the first time since StarSeries i-League Season 8, which took place back in October 2019. Despite StarLadder's five-month hiatus from the CS:GO scene, the Ukrainian professional esports organiser is a prominent name in the esports scene, having hosted a plethora of top-tier events across several titles.
Those include StarLadder ImbaTV Dota2 tournaments, StarSeries & i-League CS:GO tournaments and perhaps the most memorable event in recent history, the StarLadder Berlin Major, which saw Astralis win their fourth CS:GO Major Championship title and third in a row. Joining StarLadder in their journey will be Parimatch, an international sports betting company, which already sponsors the Parimatch League, which is a CS:GO league for CIS teams.
The announced Parimatch League will be played online, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has spread to almost all parts of the world and has already over 650,000 confirmed cases globally.
The action will kick off with open qualifiers for both Europe and CIS on Saturday, April 4, with two teams from each qualifier securing a spot at the main event. All 16 teams in attendance (eight from EU and eight from CIS) will be divided into two groups separately, with only two European and two CIS teams advancing into the final stage, in which the best teams from both regions will meet.
Full schedule for Parimatch League CS:GO:
Open qualifiers: April 4-5
Group stage: April 13-26
Final stage: May 1-3
Both EU and CIS open qualifiers will feature 512 teams. Ths signup links can be found below:
CIS Open Qualifiers, European Open Qualifiers.
“Now is the time to focus our resources on online events. We have been looking for the opportunity to cooperate with StarLadder in the CS:GO discipline, where our partners have the strongest expertise and an impeccable reputation. After the good results of our Dota2 League, which was reflected in the interest of the audience and the viewing rates, the organization of the CS:GO league under own brand was a matter of time. Since we are partners of the leading eSports clubs from CIS, it is natural that they were the first to receive direct invites. I am glad that they found an opportunity to participate. Also, I want to highlight the fact that in a tournament with a solid prize pool of $100,000 there is an opportunity for ambitious newcomers to prove themselves against top teams, of course, if they manage to qualify. Good luck to the participants. I’m sure that spectators who are forced to stay home and thus help to positively resolve the situation in the world will be satisfied with our tournament," said Stepan Shulga, Head of Esports at Parimatch.
“After StarLadder Major Berlin, the most prestigious tournament of the discipline, we were looking for an opportunity to realize our idea with regional leagues. Thanks to our partners, Parimatch, we have prepared a rich and convenient match schedule for spectators and fans of teams from the CIS and Europe. And an impressive prize pool for an online league allowed us to attract the best teams,” added Yegor Kolomiyets, Sports Director of StarLadder.
At the time of writing, only three teams have been confirmed to compete in the league: Virtus.pro, Team Spirit and forZe. More teams should be announced on the official StarLadder website in the coming days.
