ESL One Katowice viewer's guide

ESL One Katowice 2015 is the fifth community-funded, Valve-sponsored major to take place in CS:GO, with a total of $250,000 on the line for sixteen competing teams. The tournament will run from March 12-15.

The day for ESL One Katowice to kick off is almost nigh 

The teams are split into four groups which will work in the GSL system; the top two teams from each group then advance to the single elimination best-of-three playoffs.

The prize breakdown for the sixteen teams is:

1. - $100,000
2. - $50,000
3-4. - $22,000
5-8. - $10,000
9-16. - $2,000

The official map pool is the same as the previous two majors and can be found below:

de_dust2
de_nuke
de_inferno
de_cache
de_overpass
de_mirage
de_cbble

The groupstage will take place entirely on Thursday, March 12th, and it will utilise the double-elimination GSL format. Three quarterfinals will run on Friday March 13th, with the last quarterfinal and the semifinals occuring Saturday. The grand final will be the sole match on Sunday, March 15th—the last day of the tournament.

The Spodek Arena will feature CS:GO action again

The map veto format in both the groupstage and the playoffs will work with a similar procedure.

In the best-of-one groupstage, teams will veto two maps each, and the deciding map will be randomly chosen from the remaining three maps. In the playoffs, teams will veto one map a piece, pick a map each and the third map will be randomly chosen again from among three maps.

Finally, with some new faces to be seen and some old faces returning, here you can find the casting line-up for the event:

Host:

Sean Charles - Host

Commentators:

Leigh "Deman" Smith
Lauren "Pansy" Scott
Anders Blume
 Stuart "TosspoT" Saw

The Desk:

Alex "machine" Richardson
 Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin
 Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller 

Observers:

Halvor "⁠vENdetta⁠" Gulestøl
Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović

Hiko will return to the majors in a different role than as player

The complete schedule of the event is now included below:

Thursday, March 12
13:00	EnVyUs	vs.	Titan	A1
13:00	LGB	vs.	PENTA Sports	A2
14:10	Winner A1	vs.	Winner A2	A4
14:10	Loser A1	vs.	Loser A2	A3
14:10	Vox Eminor	vs.	fnatic	B1
14:10	Na`Vi	vs.	FlipSid3 Tactics	B2
15:20	Winner B1	vs.	Winner B2	B4
15:20	Loser A4	vs.	Winner A3
15:20	Loser B1	vs.	Loser B2	B3
16:20	NiP	vs.	Keyd Stars	C1
16:20	CLG	vs.	Null element HellRaisers	C2
16:30	Loser B4	vs.	Winner B3
17:40	Winner C1	vs.	Winner C2	C4
17:40	Loser C1	vs.	Loser C2	C3
18:30	Virtus.pro	vs.	3DMAX	D1
18:30	Cloud9	vs.	Team SoloMid	D2
18:50	Loser C4	vs.	Winner C3
19:40	Loser D1	vs.	Loser D2	D3
20:00	Winner D1	vs.	Winner D2	D4
21:10	Loser D4	vs.	Winner D3
Friday, March 13
13:00	Quarter-final #1
16:00	Quarter-final #2
19:00	Quarter-final #3
Saturday, March 14
13:00	Quarter-final #4
16:00	Semi-final #1
19:00	Semi-final #2
Sunday, March 15
13:00	Grand final

We here at HLTV.org will have constant video interviews, photos, video footage and Twitter updates (which can also be seen on the front page to the left of the news panel) going all day long, starting from an early hour.

A list of live streams will be available on each match-page but a comprehensive overview can be found here on ESL's site as well.

Be sure to not miss a single moment of what promises to be a momentous weekend.