WePlay! Esports has revealed details surrounding the second season of its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league, Forge of Masters.
Taking place in autumn, there will be a total prize purse of $100,000 (£81,570) and a LAN final in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Expanding beyond the format seen in the inaugural season, the league will now include European teams – having previously only accommodated sides from the CIS region. 12 European teams and 12 CIS rosters will qualify for the upcoming season.
Dmitry Karpenko, Business Development Director at WePlay! Esports told Esports Insider: “The goal of this league is to find, train and temper the new masters of the CS:GO professional scene. For teams, we create conditions identical to the game in Tier 1 echelon, and for viewers – a spectacular show and a format that reveals the abilities of players. Nurturing grassroots and bringing young-blood to the stage – this is where the excitement, drama and great show comes in, creating opportunities for native brand integrations.”
Open qualifiers will kick off on September 14th, with the first phase spanning over October 1st-13th, the second phase taking place on October 18-19th, and the third place happening on November 1st-3rd. The offline LAN for Forge of Masters will be hosted in WePlay!’s esports arena on November 15-17th.
Eugene Shepelev, Community Manager CS:GO at WePlay! Esports said the following to Esports Insider: “Unlike Season 1 that we only had teams from the CIS region, we are going to spice things up for Season 2 by opening the gates of our tournament to European teams as well as the CIS ones. We have heard the community and this time we are going to start with open qualifiers.”
“The two regions won’t clash yet in the first stage of the online phase. By the end of the first stage, three teams from each region qualify for the LAN finals in Kyiv. The second and third stage are the two final chances that teams have to get to the main event. There the 12 remaining EU and CIS teams will battle it out for the last two spots in Forge of Masters Season 2 main event.”
Esports Insider says: It’s cool to see WePlay! accommodating for up-and-coming teams from an additional region this time round, especially with a healthy prize pool on the line.
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