Thunderpick Bitcoin Series set to start

FORZE, Dignitas, and DBL PONEY headline the invited teams for the online tournament.

Betting website Thunderpick has announced the Thunderpick Bitcoin Series, an online CS:GO tournament taking place between January 17 and March 7. The event will have a prize pool of 1.2 Bitcoin, but due to the volatility of the crypto-currency, the organizers have guaranteed a minimum of $75,000 for the top eight placed teams.

The tournament has been organized in cooperation with UCC, an established Russian event organizer. The format will see the nearly two months long event split between three distinct stages.

SINNERS will also participate in the event

The first stage of the event, the closed qualifier, will see four invited teams battle it out in a double-elimination bracket between January 17-19. Only one out of eSuba, OFFSET, Into the Breach, and BIG Academy will advance to the next round of the competition. All six games in this phase will be played in a best-of-three format.

The main stage will take place from January 25-February 15 and will see the qualified team join 15 other invited squads in a Swiss format. This phase of the competition will be played in BO3 matches, with the top eight squads advancing to the third and final stage of the tournament. Some of the teams invited include SINNERS, DBL PONEY, FORZE, and Dignitas.

At the end of the journey, the eight best teams from the Swiss stage will battle each other in a single-elimination BO3 bracket. The winners of the round of eight will advance into the quarter-finals where four additional invited teams will be joining them. The last stage of the Thunderpick Bitcoin Series will start on February 28 and finish on March 7 with a BO3 grand final.

Closed qualifier invites

OFFSET
eSuba

Into the Breach
BIG Academy

Main stage invites

Finest
SKADE
FORZE
Sprout
Savage
SINNERS
Enterprise
Dignitas

SAW
GamerLegion
DBL PONEY
BLINK
BLUEJAYS
TBA
TBA
Closed Qualifier

Quarter-final invites

TBA
TBA

TBA
TBA