The prominent tournament organiser has announced a brand new Razer Rising Stars league featuring a $64,600 prize pool.
E-frag have announced a seasonal league, aimed at promoting low-tier teams and their ambitions of rising to the top of the food chain. Europe, North America, South America and Southeast Asia regions are eligible, each having their own league.
Mohamed ''Availer'' Zardab had the following to say post announcement of the leagues:
The league is designed to hone and promote new and raw talent. While also our main goal is to help develop the brands and image of tier 2 and lower teams. We also hope to share in our success with the community and with these teams with future seasons having the league members receiving a percentage of the profits of the league so that the success of the league is the success of the teams, and the success of the teams will equal the success of the league. We hope to build up the teams involved and to build up the scenes in the various parts of the world to create a stable grassroots ecosystem for CS:GO.
The community will also have a chance to take part in the leagues with 50% of the slots given to open qualifiers that will be powered and hosted on the incredible Razer Arena platform. Razer Arena also share our vision of developing CS:GO at the ground level and are with us fully at making sure this will be a successful endeavour.
We will also make sure that with the completion of our studios in Belgrade that we will offer the best possible production value and quality in CS:GO regardless of the level of CS that we will be broadcasting. The Razer Rising Stars League will be a league to watch this year, but not only watch, also take part in.”
Below you will find a brief breakdown of each region's league:
Europe - Register links: Qualifiers #1, #2, #3 and #4
Prize pool: $20,000
Dates: March 15th - May 1st
Teams: 16 total, 8 invitees and 8 from 4 online qualifiers (capped at 128 teams, Bo1, single-elimination)
Format: Round-robin, Bo2; 3 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss
Invitees: Lounge Gaming, Team LDLC White, ALTERNATE aTTax, E-frag, Copenhagen Wolves, Orgless and DenDD.
Prize distribution:
- 1st place - $10,000
- 2nd place - $5,000
- 3rd place - $3,000
- 4th place - $2,000
- 5th-16th places - $500, given teams finish all of their matches
North America
Prize pool: $10,000
Dates: April 15th - May 15th
Teams: 12 total, 6 invitees and 6 from 3 online qualifiers (capped at 128 teams, Bo1, single elimination)
Format: Round-robin, Bo2; 3 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss
Prize distribution:
- 1st place - $5,000
- 2nd place - $3,000
- 3rd place - $2,000
- 4th-10th places - $250, given teams finish all of their matches
South America - Register links: Qualifiers #1 and #2
Prize pool: $10,000
Dates: March 15th - April15th
Teams: 8 total, 4 invitees and 4 from 2 online qualifiers (capped at 128 teams, Bo1, single elimination)
Format: Round-robin, Bo2; 3 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss
Invitees: NTN, KeyD Stars, Santos.Dexterity and g3nerationX
Prize distribution:
- 1st place - $5,000
- 2nd place - $3,000
- 3rd place - $2,000
- 4th-10th places - $200, given teams finish all of their matches
Southeast Asia
Prize pool: $10,000
Dates: May 1st - June 1st
Teams: 10 total, 4 invitees and 6 from 3 online qualifiers (capped at 128 teams, Bo1, single elimination)
Format: Round-robin, Bo2; 3 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss
Prize distribution:
- 1st place - $5,000
- 2nd place - $3,000
- 3rd place - $2,000
- 4th-10th places - $200, given teams finish all of their matches
