ELEAGUE, the esports tournament operator run by Turner and IMG, is set to place a hefty amount of cash on one CS:GO match. The best-of-three match-up, has been billed: ‘Clash for Cash: The Rematch’,. It puts the current CS:GO Major Champions Astralis up against the runners-up Virtus.pro.
The show-match, scheduled for June 16th, puts on a winner-takes-all match for $250,000 (£193,000). Set to be broadcast on TBS, Twitch, YouTube and their in-house Live Game Command system, there will be many ways to keep an eye on the match. The original final saw Astralis pull off a reverse sweep, as they took Virtus.pro to all three maps to claim the title in an extremely close fashion (12-16, 16-14, 16-14).
The CS:GO Major hosted by ELEAGUE was the most-watched CS:GO tournament in history, with 1.026 million concurrent viewers breaking Twitch records, as well as 3.6 million total reach on TBS. It’s unlikely that this will match the figures but clearly TBS are looking to bridge the gap in CS:GO content.
The announcement comes just weeks after ELEAGUE announced their ‘CS:GO Premier’, the next CS:GO league they’re hosting which gets underway on the 1st September. Information about the Premier is still sparse, with details on prize-pool, invites, format and qualifiers still yet to come.
This will be the first return to CS:GO for Turner since hosting the Major. ELEAGUE is currently playing host to the Street Fighter V Invitational, a $250,000 tournament currently in it’s final group stage before play-offs.
The two CS:GO sides have faced different paths since crossing in January. The Danes, Astralis, have been moving up and up, still widely recognised as the best side in the world. They’ve finished top four in the four tournaments following Atlanta, including winning at IEM. Virtus.pro, on the other hand, haven’t been so successful. After winning DreamHack Las Vegas, they failed to leave groups in their next two tournaments.
Esports Insider says: Interesting moves coming from ELEAGUE, as they bring a big value prize-fight to CS. Being the largest amount of cash on offer for one game in the title’s history, it’s definitely a game worth watching. It’s also notable that the prize on offer for just one game was once the entire pot for a CS:GO Major!
