CCT circuit studio finals moved online

The Champion of Champions Tour converts its 10 remaining $100,000 studio finals into five $200,000 online events.

GRID and its foundational partners have announced sweeping changes to its Champion of Champions Tour. The most notable change is that the remaining 10 Studio Final events will be replaced by five Online Finals and their prizemoney increased to $200,000 apiece in order to retain the total $1,000,000 up for grabs.

The organizers have stated the changes have been made in reaction to "teams' busy traveling and event schedules, allowing more teams to participate in the high stakes events."

A consequence of the changes is that the upcoming CCT South America Studio Finals, which was scheduled to be held in the first quarter of 2023, has instead been consolidated into the next upcoming Online Final.

The first and only CCT Studio Final was held in Malta back in February. The eight-team event, which sported a $100,000 prize pool, ultimately went the way of Eternal Fire, who took down Bad News Eagles in a three-map grand final.

The Turkish troupe suffered from a packed schedule during their time in Malta, however, and had to compete in both the CCT Central Europe Finals and the BLAST.tv Paris Major Europe RMR closed qualifiers.

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Eternal Fire edge past Bad News Eagles to win CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1

GRID also announced changes to the makeup of the now 16-team Online Finals. Two regions will be able to qualify for the $200,000 competitions, with each sending the three teams who secured podium finishes in the respective online cups. These rosters will accompany a further 10 squads, whose berths will be purely based on invites.

The date of the first of the five Online Finals has also been revealed. The inaugural $200,000 online tournament will run from May 23-30, while the remaining four events' dates will be announced at a later time.