The popular esports betting website Rivalry.gg is currently hosting an invitational Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament for teams from the CIS region.
The “Rivalry CIS Invitational” kicked off on June 5th and features a $5,000 prize pool that eight teams will compete for. First place will take home $3,500 while second place gets $1,500.
The tournament features a Swiss System group stage with all eight teams playing best of three matches. As is always the case in Swiss System groups, the results will determine matchups as teams with the same record will play each other in each stage.
The games have a lot hanging on them as teams need just two wins to advance to the playoffs and two losses to be knocked out of the competition entirely.
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The four teams that advance to the playoffs will play in a single-elimination bracket with the semifinals being best of three. It has not yet been decided whether the Grand Final will be a best of three or best of five.
As for the teams that will be competing, perhaps the best known organization is k1ck eSports Club. The days of K1ck fielding a Portuguese lineup are long gone as former Na’Vi star Sergey ‘starix’ Ischuk joined in May and now heads up a majority Ukrainian roster.
Former Na’Vi player, and coach, starix joined k1ck in May.Rivalry.gg is hosting the event as an opportunity to showcase some of the up-and-coming teams and players from the CIS region:
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“The Rivalry CIS Invitational features eight exciting teams from the CIS region. This event aims to give fans an insight into the exciting potential of some of the players and teams from this region, spotlighting rising talent.”
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The Rivalry CIS Invitational will conclude on June 25th and matches will be broadcast in both English and Russian on Twitch.tv:
English: https://www.twitch.tv/RivalryFTW
Russian: https://www.twitch.tv/jay_tb
The first match of the tournament took place on June 5th and saw the Belarusian team Evolution, which features former FlipSid3 stand-in Roman ‘CyberFocus’ Dergach, defeat the Russians of DreamEaters with a score of 2-0.
The next match, which will take place on June 7th, will see k1ck Esports face 5balls, a team that has a handful of recent wins over other teams in the competition.
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The full list of participants consists of:
- DreamEaters
- 5balls
- Evolution
- HEY
- HOLLYWOOD
- WINside
- GoodJob
- K1ck Esports
