ESL has today announced the first ESL One in South America.
ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018, powered by Intel, will take place in June 15-17th at the Mineirinho Arena in Brazil. This will see eight of world’s best CS:GO teams go to war for a share of a $200,000 (£141,766) prize pool.
The stage of the Mineirinho Arena, a venue which has a capacity of up to 25,000, will showcase the group stages decider matches, semi finals and the grand finals.
Only the four best teams will receive a direct invite to become an active part in the group stages of the event, which will kick off on June 13-14. The other remaining spots will be filled with the winners of the qualifiers. ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018 will form a part of the Intel® Grand Slam, which will award a handsome $1,000,000 (£708,780) bonus prize to the first CS:GO team that wins four out of the last ten DreamHack or ESL events. This includes the event series ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters, CS:GO Pro League and DreamHack Masters.
This is ESL’s second stadium event held in the South American region, the first being the CS:GO Pro League in Sao Paulo in 2016.
Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Product at ESL commented: “It comes as no surprise that we are returning to Brazil after such a successful debut of the CS:GO Pro League Season 4 Finals in the region in 2016.
“The incredible crowd of thousands of fans cheering for their local heros SK Gaming, has proven the country’s great potential to be the heart of CS:GO community in South America. We can not wait to come back as we are expecting a truly legendary event.”
Leo De Biase, CEO of ESL Brazil added: “We are very excited to announce ESL One Belo Horizonte 2018.
“This means a lot to the region as it will definitely foster the growth of the local esports scene and inspire more players to join the ESL grassroots ladders, chasing their dream to also become a legend and following the footsteps of their heroes.”
Esports Insider says: That makes it two big CS:GO tournament announcements in just one day! This is fantastic news for esports in South America as a whole, and whilst we know next to nothing about Belo Horiztone, let’s hope it can ‘do a Katowice’ and become a mainstay on the esports calendar whilst also giving the local economy a solid boost.