Intel Grand Slam S3 on hold as coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt LAN circuit

12-5-2020 18:58

ESL has announced that the third season of the Intel Grand Slam has been put on hold because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, ESL explained that hosting tournaments with multiple winners across different divisions makes it impossible to determine "with enough clarity" the most dominant team in the world, which is the sole purpose of the Intel Grand Slam.

The global health crisis has forced ESL and DreamHack to move several Intel Grand Slam tournaments to an online setting and split them into regional divisions. Until further notice, tournament victories will not count towards the Intel Grand Slam - starting with the recently-concluded ESL Pro League Season 11 - and older results will not expire.

The Intel Grand Slam is currently on hold

ESL is hopeful of returning to a LAN setting in August for ESL One Cologne. The iconic event has been moved to August 21-30 and will be held as a "broadcasted tournament without a live-audience", although whether German authorities will give the green light for the tournament to take place in a studio location is unclear at this point.

A team can scoop the $1 million Intel Grand Slam cheque by winning four titles inside a span of ten events provided that one of them came from a Masters Championship (for 2020, this tier also includes the ESL One Rio Major and ESL One Cologne). Otherwise, they will need to win six tournaments out of ten to complete the Grand Slam.

Below you can find the teams who have won Intel Grand Slam titles this season and the number of chances they have left:

IEM Chicago - Liquid (4 chances remaining)
ESL One New York - Evil Geniuses (5 chances)
DreamHack Masters Malmö - fnatic (6 chances)
IEM Beijing - Astralis (7 chances)
ESL Pro League S10 Finals - MOUZ (8 chances)
IEM Katowice 2020 * - Natus Vincere (9 chances)

* Represents a Masters Championship Event

Astralis won the first season of the Intel Grand Slam, which ran for 523 days between July 2017 and December 2018. Liquid won the following season, which lasted just 144 days, following a perfect streak that saw them win four events inside 63 days.

Can't wait for LAN CS to come back!

2020-05-12 18:59

22 replies

2020-05-12 19:00

Even no crowd I'd just like LAN back. Online CS just isnt the same since no T1 team plays online anymore

2020-05-12 19:04

15 replies

+1 so many shit teams can upset online which they could never do on LAN. It fucking sucks!

9 replies

i liked that about the old EPL format when teams still got some online matches in between ECS and EPL but now it's just a flip. Liquid looked T3, Fnatic couldnt seem do to shit, ForZe and VP looked even worse than normal, and Heretics looks T1, Spirit make it to another Major somehow, oh and Renegades look like they might lose their spot to ORDER. Shits fucked now

2020-05-12 19:48

5 replies

Fnatic and Liquid also won EPL before RtR Honestly I just want LAN tournaments back because I want to see how fat Boombl4 got during quarantine.

2020-05-12 19:54

4 replies

isnt he always posted on like NaVis instagram basically doing Zeus shit?

2020-05-12 19:55

2 replies

idk man, it's russia, I don't get them

2020-05-12 20:22

1 reply

Nobody does

2020-05-12 22:01

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 it's the best comments ,

2020-05-13 04:10

That shouldn't be a problem for a BIG fan.

2020-05-14 15:26

I love how you kids make excuses about online and lan. CS is an online game and if you can't compete online than you are overrated. I understand the lag issues but you kids with your excuses is pretty annoying. Been playing CS since this damn game was created and onine has always been a major part.

2020-05-19 22:59

what a dumb post, obv teams not gonna have the same motivations, synergy and capabilities online if they were playing online for litro YEARS. -> lag -> being separated from your teammates -> no crowd -> chill home environment -> some teams stuck on bootcamp, some have players in different countries -> and now everybody going quite crazy with this much time on lockdown hopefully lan cs will continue soon, this online shit is irrelevant

2020-05-20 21:10

the worst thing is seeing the same matchups over and over, especially in NA, liquid had to play 3 times in a row against EG in the EPL

2020-05-12 19:06

3 replies

its mainly cuz we have less teams since we have less total spots available. It doesnt help our scene at all :/

2020-05-12 19:45

Yeah and now true online teams are dominating (I mean the ones who are smaller so they practice online as opposed to together at a facility). Furia is not the better team between them and Liquid yet they practice online so they don't have much of a change.

2020-05-13 00:33

Yea it's a pretty bad situation for the scene

2020-05-13 00:59

2020-05-12 19:34

2020-05-12 19:05

2020-05-12 19:13

Good job China

2020-05-12 19:21

thats why navi gave up on esl pro league....hmmmmmm....

2020-05-12 20:17

Wtf??? R u living in hltv???

2020-05-13 20:24

Expected

Expected and sad

leggo

2020-05-12 19:01

Stop.Please stop.I'm tired of closing LANs just because 0,00000001 mm BALL with RNA

Damn a stolen Grand Slam from Liquid :(

TL has been looking so bad so far this year. I'm not trying to hate but TL is on a 6 or 7 losing streak rn against Astralis. The last LAN event they ever won was IEM Chicago which was almost a year ago

2020-05-12 19:25