NEA Beijing Esports Open with $100k

In early March, indications of a build-up in the Chinese scene in terms of tournament organisation and hosting got under way with the $100,000 CSL/China Cup.

Soon afterwards, announcements of upcoming tournaments began to rain in: the $200,000 WCA finals, the StarSeries i-League Season 2 finals in China, two seasons of IGL with $200,000 for grabs, and finally a purported $1.5 million tournament courtesy of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

As if keeping track of this past spate of tournaments weren't enough, another tournament has now been announced: the NEA Beijing Electronic Sports Open, which will host tournaments for CS:GO, Hearthstone, DOTA 2, and FIFA Online all inside of the "Bird's Nest," as the Beijing National Stadium (the same arena used for the 2008 Summer Olympics) is commonly known in China.

The "Bird's Nest" will host the NEA 2016 finals

For CS:GO in particular, the event organisers are promising a total of 640,000 CNY (~$100,000) for four finalists who will qualify for the offline finals in the Bird's Nest.

The event will kick off with an online stage, lasting from May 19 to June 23 and in a best-of-three single elimination format, from which four finalists will then advance to the finals inside the arena from July 1-3. 

The prize distribution for the event will be:

1. - RMB 400,000元 (~$61,575)
2. - RMB 120,000元 (~$18,475)
3. - RMB 70,000元 (~$10,775)
4. - RMB 50,000元 (~$7,700)

It is currently unclear whether there will also be invites accorded to foreign teams, however teams interested in registering for the online stage (i.e. teams in China and perhaps the rest of East Asia) can do so via the official page here (at the online registration tab).

More information about the NEA 2016 Electronic Sports Open will be released as it arises.

stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter