StarSeries i-League S7 in Shanghai with $500,000 on the line

Chinese Counter-Strike scene has never been the leading continent (if we don’t count TyLoo in CS:GO and WeMadeFox in 1.6 who is/was competing against the best) compare to Europe or North America, but we get used to it to big prize pools like in WESG ($1.5M last year). Today, the StarLadder and ImbaTV have announced that Shanghai will host the seventh season of StarSeries i-League, with $500,000 prize pool which is the biggest prize money for the Ukrainian-based company in the history of CS:GO.

The tournament will run from March 30 through April 7 at an as-yet-undisclosed venue in Shanghai, for 16 teams who will be competing at the tournament, with 13 slots being filled through direct invites. Remaining three teams have to go through the regional qualifications, one for Europe, one for North America and last for Asia with more additional information coming later this week.

As you may have noticed from the title, this is not the first event for StarLadder. The 7th season will be played on “old” format with BO3 matches for the Swiss stage (which StarLadder describes as “the most successful and objective system” - I totally agree, the BO3 is much better for players at the beginning than BO1 where anything could happen), where top eight teams will progress to a single-elimination bracket, which will culminated with a BO5 final (Hello ESL events :P).

Last season, was the breaking for Finish team ENCE, while it was their first big trophy since their inception where they beated the Russian Vega Squadron in the grand final. 

Let’s have a look at introducing the video from people behind the StarLadder.