EPICENTER: Moscow viewer's guide

16-10-2016 20:36

With the $500,000 contest knocking on the door, we have compiled all the information you need to keep up with the event in our viewer's guide, including the groups, schedule, and talent.

Moscow, Russia will play host to the eight-team, week-long EPICENTER: Moscow which will start on the seventeenth of October and will last until the twenty-third.

The event features four of the five best teams in our ranking—SK, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, Dignitas—and will determine whether the Brazilians will stay as the number one team or the Poles will take over.

Virtus.pro will be in Moscow

The group stage with two groups of four will have a best-of-two, round-robin format which ensures teams will play against each opponent in their group.

The top team from both groups will move on to the playoffs while the second and third-placed teams from different groups will face each other in order to qualify for the playoffs. The groups will be played off-stage and will last for three days.

Here are the groups:

Group A	Group B
G2	Virtus.pro
Ninjas in Pyjamas	SK
Natus Vincere	fnatic
Dignitas	HellRaisers

After a two-day break, 14,000-seater indoor VTB Ice Palace will host the knockout and playoff stages. Saturday will feature the playoff qualification matches while the semi-finals and grand final will be on Sunday.

The schedule for EPICENTER: Moscow can be found below:

Monday, October 17th
12:00	Virtus.pro	vs. SK	BO2
15:00	Natus Vincere	vs. Dignitas	BO2
18:00	fnatic	vs. HellRaisers	BO2
21:00	G2	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas	BO2
Tuesday, October 18th
10:00	Virtus.pro	vs. HellRaisers	BO2
13:00	Ninjas in Pyjamas	vs. Dignitas	BO2
16:00	Natus Vincere	vs. G2	BO2
19:00	SK	vs. fnatic	BO2
Wednesday, October 19th
10:00	G2	vs. Dignitas	BO2
13:00	SK	vs. HellRaisers	BO2
16:00	Natus Vincere	vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas	BO2
19:00	Virtus.pro	vs. fnatic	BO2
Saturday, October 22nd
11:00	Group A #2	vs. Group B #3	BO3
14:00	Group B #2	vs. Group A #3	BO3
Sunday, October 23rd
11:00	Semi-final #1		BO3
14:00	Semi-final #2		BO3
17:00	Grand Final		BO3

Here is the full talent lineup:

Alex "Machine" Richardson - Host

Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović - Analyst
Halvor "⁠vENdetta⁠" Gulestøl - Analyst
Joona "⁠natu⁠" Leppänen - Analyst

Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume – Commentator
Auguste "⁠Semmler⁠" Massonnat – Commentator
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett – Commentator
Henry "⁠HenryG⁠" Greer – Commentator

The cash prize will be distributed among the participants followingly:

1. $250,000
2. $100,000
3-4. $40,000
5-8. $15,000

While you wait for the event to start, you can read our preview and interviews:

EPICENTER: Moscow preview by Milan "Striker" Švejda
Interview with EPICENTER organizer Alexander "Lexx" Zavoloka
STYKO: "Have to man up and deliver"
GeT_RiGhT: "Maikelele has grown a lot"
twist: "I will be calling at next events"

You can visit our event page if you want to find more details about EPICENTER: Moscow.

BenjaCS is a staff writer at HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.

Will be an interesting tournament for sure. Can't wait to see if Natus Vincere will live up to the expectations in Moscow. Also excited to see the form of Virtus Pro.

2016-10-16 20:38

2 replies

no thanks, Pasha

2016-10-16 20:36

1 reply

GO NINJAS

2016-10-16 20:37

I was close :OOOOOO

Please refrain from hunting for first comment and focus instead on reading the news. Irrelevant and offtopic comments will be deleted. This behaviour is not welcome and will be severely moderated.

2016-10-16 20:41