Another leading tournament organizer is launching a major tournament for Counter-Strike, following a year of explosive growth for the game.
DreamHack announced today it will host a $250,000 prize pool tournament in April this year. The event, taking place in Malmö, Sweden, is the first of two quarter-million dollar “Masters” that will take place in 2016, on top of an already busy DreamHack schedule.
The Masters tournaments are Dreamhack’s “new Esports Championship dedicated for stadium and large-scale arena events”.
The first event in Sweden will take place in the Malmö arena in Sweden. The venue—the second largest indoor arena in Sweden—is home to the Malmö Redhawks Ice Hockey team, and seats just under 16,000 spectators.
The DreamHack Masters events are the latest in a series of big changes to the Counter-Strike calendar, as tournament organizers look to capitalize on the game’s rapid growth. Last year saw the launch of the ESL ESEA Pro League, a 15-week league featuring the best teams in North America and Europe. This year, Major League Gaming will host its first Counter-Strike major in Columbus, Ohio, and American media giant Turner will run its own league that will broadcast on TBS.
The Malmo tournament will host 16 of the world’s premiere Counter-Strike teams. Eight are invited and another eight will enter via online qualifiers. The teams will play out the group stages of the event at DreamHack’s studio in Stockholm before heading out to Malmö for the playoffs.
Tickets for the event will go on sale starting Jan. 14 and will offer regular and premium access, along with the option to purchase a private skybox for the two day event.
DreamHack has promised to pay out $1 million in prize money in Counter-Strike events in 2016. Half of that will come from the Masters, two of which will be hosted throughout the year. The rest will come from their usual DreamHack Open events, with the next one coming up on Jan. 22, in Leipzig, Germany.
Photo via DreamHack
