ESWC 2015 PGW Open info released

ESWC had to cancel grander plans for an $80,000 international CS:GO tournament during Paris Games Week—which would have run from October 28-November 1—due to the announcement of the next major, DreamHack Cluj-Napoca, in the same timeframe.

The organisation decided to postpone the larger international tournament and instead host a $15,000 open tournament that would be open only to French teams. It was apparent that the likes of EnVyUs and Titan would not attend however due to the overlap with the major (the latter perhaps hedging a bet on qualifying via DreamHack Stockholm).

LDLC White are one of the higher profile teams invited to the ESWC PGW Open

ESWC have now come forward with a trove of information about the $15k PGW Open tournament. The tournament will feature 16 teams and run from October 27 to November 1st. All matches in the tournament will be played in a best-of-three format, indicative of a wider desire for such matches over best-of-one groups.

The 16 teams will be split into four groups of four teams each, and play each other in a round robin group stage format. The top two teams from each group advance to a single elimination playoff bracket.

The schedule for the event is as follows:

October 27: Check-in and warmup
October 28: Round Robin groups Day 1
October 29: Round Robin groups Day 2
October 30: Quarter-finals
October 31: Semifinals
November 1: Grand final and 3rd place match

Eight French teams received an invite via an application process, whereas eight more will qualify via online qualifiers; four of these teams will qualify via two CEVO cups and four teams will qualify via two cups hosted by Masters des Jeux Vidéo.

The invited teams are:

LDLC White	melty
WeGotGame	LDLC Blue
unKnights	Red Instinct
Acer fe	melty fe

ESWC have stated that two slots were specifically reserved for female teams to highlight the development of the female esports scene. Information and dates for the four online qualification cups are meanwhile:

CEVO 1st cup: September 19-20
CEVO 2nd cup: September 26-27
Masters de Jeux Vidéo 1st cup: October 4-6
Masters de Jeux Vidéo 2nd cup: October 11-13

Registration pages for the CEVO cups can be found here for Cup 1 and Cup 2. Registration for the Masters cups can be found here for Cup 1 and Cup 2. The tournament is reserved for majority French teams.