SL i-League Invitational Shanghai viewer's guide

The Jing'an Sports Center, in Shanghai, will play host to the second StarLadder i-League Invitational, after a debut event in Kiev, last year. Eight teams will be taking part in this four-day competition as they look to claim the grand prize of $75,000.

Five teams were directly invited by Starladder, while the remaining three came from qualifiers held in China, Europe and in the CIS. Due to a schedule conflict, Space Soldiers were replaced by HAVU, while visa issues prevent Gambit from attending the event, with Virtus.pro filling in for the Major champions.

Virtus.pro will try to defend their SL i-League Invitational Kiev title

SL i-League Invitational Shanghai will begin with a double-elimination group stage, featuring best-of-three matches in all stages, followed by the single-elimination playoffs with the top two teams from both groups.

Below you can find the group draw in full:

Group A	Group B
HEROIC	Virtus.pro
TYLOO	Renegades
HellRaisers	HAVU
Spirit	Flash

The complete tournament schedule looks as follows:

Thursday, November 2
03:00	HEROIC	vs. Spirit	BO3
06:00	TYLOO	vs. HellRaisers	BO3
09:00	Renegades	vs. HAVU	BO3
12:00	Virtus.pro	vs. Flash	BO3
Friday, November 3
03:00	Group A elimination match		BO3
06:00	Group B elimination match		BO3
09:00	Group A winners match		BO3
12:00	Group B winners match		BO3
Saturday, November 4
03:00	Group A decider match		BO3
06:00	Group B decider match		BO3
09:00	Semi-final #1		BO3
12:00	Semi-final #2		BO3
Sunday, November 5
07:00	Third-place decider		BO3
11:00	Grand final		BO3

Tres "stunna" Saranthus will be hosting the official English language stream, with three experts, including renowned duo Joona "⁠natu⁠" Leppänen and Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović, breaking down the action. Finally, two casting pairs will provide play-by-play commentary on all the matches.

You can find the English language broadcast team below:

Tres "stunna" Saranthus - Host

Janko "YNk" Paunović - Analyst
Joona "natu" Leppänen - Analyst
Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam - Analyst

Harry "JustHarry" Russell - Commentator 
Tom "Tombizz" Bissmire - Commentator 
Hugo Byron - Commentator 
Niels "rizc" Topp - Commentator 

The prize money breakdown for the event is the following:

1. $75,000
2. $35,000
3. $15,000
4. $10,000
5-6. $4,500
7-8. $3,000