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The final draw and schedule for Starseries I-League Season 8 has been revealed, meaning everything is set for the second Starseries event of the year to kick off on Monday, October 21 at Belek, Turkey.
The tournament follows on from Starseries I-League Season 7, which took place in Shanghai, China, from late March to early April.
Looking back at the Chinese event, it was Natus Vincere who claimed their second Starseries title with a fantastic performance against Fnatic in the grand finals (3-0).
With two titles and two runner-up finishes to their name, NaVi will enter season 8 as the most successful team in Starseries I-League history and will look to claim their third title to cement themselves as the alpha dogs.
Starseries I-League Season 8 will mark the 10th event in the history of the series and it will, just like season 7 feature 16 teams, who will battle it out for the lion’s share of $500,000 and the title of the champions.
Out of 16 participating teams, 12 received direct invites to the tournament, whereas the remaining four had to fight through their respective regional qualifiers.
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The teams who got invited to the event by the organizers are AVANGAR, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, FURIA, G2, MIBR, mousesports, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, North, Renegades and Team Vitality.
On the other side, Belek will welcome Heroic, 5PowerGaming, Invictus and Imperial e-Esports as four teams who fought their way into the tournament via qualifiers.
Heroic qualified for Starseries I-League via European qualifiers, 5Power Gaming and Invictus Gaming came through Asian qualifiers, whereas Imperial e-Sports won the CBCS Season one tournament to qualify for the event.
On Thursday, October 17, the organisers announced the final details about the tournament, when they revealed the seeding of the 16 teams into two groups of eight, which was based on their HLTV ratings.
Group A: Fnatic, Imperial e-Sports, Renegades, MIBR, Team Vitality, mousesports, North.
Group B: Evil Geniuses, 5Power Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas, FURIA, AVANGAR, Heroic, Natus Vincere, G2 Esports.
The group stage will use a double-elimination format, with all fixtures played in best-of-three (Bo3) series. Top four teams from each group will advance into the playoffs, with the group stage winners receiving a direct invite into the upper bracket, whereas the group stage runners-up advance into the playoffs’ lower bracket.
The playoffs, which will kick off on Friday, October 25, will continue using the same double-elimination format, with all fixtures, including the grand finals, played in best-of-three (Bo3) series.
On top of the seeding and format, StarLadder also revealed the schedule of the day one and day two fixtures in Group A and Group B.
Group A
Monday, October 21
mousesports vs North – 10:00 TRT
Vitality vs Invictus Gaming – 10:00 TRT
Renegades vs MIBR – 13:30 TRT
Fnatic vs Imperial – 13:30 TRT
Upper bracket first semifinals – 17:00 TRT
Upper bracket second semifinals – 20:30 TRT
Group B
Tuesday, October 22
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs FURIA – 10:00 TRT
Evil Geniuses v 5Power – 10:00 TRT
Natus Vincere vs G2 – 13:30 TRT
AVANGAR vs Heroic – 13:30 TRT
Upper bracket first semifinals – 17:00 TRT
Upper bracket second semifinals – 20:30 TRT
Evil Geniuses will enter the tournament as heavy favourites, but they will have a lot to prove against the likes of Fnatic, Vitality and NaVi, who are all serious contenders to take home the largest slice of the $500,000 prize pool and the title of champions.
