ESL UK has announced first details of its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Spring 2018 Premiership.
The number of participating teams has increased from eight to ten, competing across two groups of five.
The prize pool has also increased from £10,500 to £12,000. Once again, the winners of the Prem will claim a spot in the Mountain Dew League via ESL’s Path to Pro programme.
Playoffs have also been added to the tournament, with the third and fourth placed teams playing across groups, before facing off against a second place team for a spot in the LAN finals.
It’s the seventh season of the CSGO Premiership, which ESL says makes it the longest-running CSGO tournament in UK history.
“By increasing the prize pool and including more teams at the group stage, we are working hard to provide more opportunities for UK esports players to compete at the highest level.”
James Dean, ESL UK
It all kicks off later this month, on Monday February 19th, and is backed by big-name sponsors Intel and Gaming from Currys PC World.
The group stage will run for a five-week period, with matches broadcast on Monday and Wednesday evenings each week. A full schedule will be issued next week with the live finals to be played in late April.
“We are super excited to bring back the CSGO ESL Premiership powered by Intel and Gaming from Currys PC World for another season,” commented James Dean, UK managing director at ESL.
“By increasing the prize pool and including more teams at the group stage, we are working hard to provide more opportunities for UK esports players to compete at the highest level and solidify the ESL Premiership as the UK’s premium national esports league.”
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
