Astralis invited to ESL One New York

ESL has announced that Astralis have accepted an invitation to compete at this year's ESL One event in New York.

The Danish giants are the first team confirmed for the North American event, which will be held from September 26-29 at the Barclays Center, with $200,000 on offer.

This will be the third time that Astralis will be in attendance at an ESL One New York event, with the Danes having only missed last year's edition. In 2016, they went out in the Swiss stage with a 1-3 record, while in the following year, they were sent packing in the double-elimination group stage.

Astralis, who will also attend ESL One Cologne next month, are currently second in the race for the $1 million Intel Grand Slam Season 2 prize, with one tournament victory, at the IEM Katowice Major. They are trailing Liquid, who won IEM Sydney and DreamHack Masters Dallas.

Following Astralis' unveiling, there are now just five invites left to announce, with the final two spots in this eight-team tournament being determined by online qualifiers, held in Europe and North America.