MLG have just released additional details on the qualification process for the next major tournament which will be held on March 29th - April 3rd.?

The first ever major tournament to be held outside European soil will be hosted by MLG in Columbus on March 29th - April 3rd. This major will be also the first major of next year and it will have a unique qualification method, which hasn't been used until now. That means that the newly formed minor tournaments will be used as starting stages for the whole qualification process.

Each minor tournament will see one team going to the LAN qualifiers for the next major. The American minor tournament will be hosted on January 15th-17th and will see eight teams fighting for a $50,000 prize purse and a spot at the LAN qualifiers. The format is set to group stage into single elimination bracket, with two teams being directly invited, while the four teams will come from North American online qualifier and two teams from South American online qualifier.

The Asian minor tournament will yield two representatives at the LAN qualifiers, CIS will send one team, while Europe will also have only the winner at the LAN qualifier. Moreover, MLG will offer a last chance to all teams who participated or were ineligible to participate at the region's minor tournaments to fight their way through and earn LAN qualifier spots at the Last Chance Qualifier. This tournament will be invite-only and will feature a single elimination bracket with the winner moving to the LAN qualifier.

The CIS and European last chance tournament will be held on February 2nd-7th and will feature a single elimination bracket. The rules remain the same as for the American Last Chance tournament and all teams which were ineligible to participate at minor tournaments will be able to play at this one.

The Major LAN qualifier will be played on February 26th-28th and will feature sixteen teams. Eight teams are already known, as those teams were 8th-16th finishers at the last major at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca. They will be joined by another eight teams coming from the aforementioned qualification process. The format is set to group play.

Finally, the next Major will be played on March 29th - April 3rd and will feature sixteen teams, including top eight finishers from DreamHack Cluj-Napoca and top eight teams from LAN qualifier. The prize pool will be same as for all previous Majors, $250,000, and the venue is set to the MLG Arena and Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

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