FISSURE Playground 1 teams, format, schedule, prizes, talent, fantasy

A soft entry into the new season begins on Tuesday with the $1 million FISSURE Playground 1, taking place in Belgrade, Serbia.

FURIA are the sole top 10 team in attendance

Teams and format

The tournament will feature 16 teams invited from the Global Valve Standings as of May, distributed into two GSL groups of four, from where the top two teams will advance to the single-elimination playoffs.

Most top teams decided to extend their time off in preparation for IEM Cologne, but several around the top 10 accepted the invitation and are expected to fight it out for the trophy.

Group A
FURIA
GamerLegion
Wildcard
SAW

Group B
paiN
3DMAX
Lynn Vision
Rare Atom

Group C
Astralis
Virtus.pro
MIBR
TYLOO

Group D
HEROIC
Complexity
BIG
BetBoom

Atop the list is FURIA, who recently confirmed the addition of Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis after a promising trial stint, who will be joined by three new rosters in Group A: GamerLegion with new AWPer Jeremy "⁠Kursy⁠" Gast, and Wildcard and SAW boasting two fresh signings each.

Group B is headlined by Austin Major semi-finalists paiN, joined by 3DMAX and two Chinese sides, Lynn Vision and Rare Atom.

Two more debuting teams feature in Group C, Virtus.pro with Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy and MIBR with the addition of Nicollas "⁠nicks⁠" Polonio, along with Astralis, who recently announced the permanent addition of Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen, and TYLOO.

The new Swedish-majority HEROIC sit atop Group D, where they'll fight it out with Complexity, BIG and a BetBoom side that just changed AWPers, with Aleksandr "⁠zorte⁠" Zagodyrenko making way for Artem "⁠ArtFr0st⁠" Kharitonov.

Schedule and venue

The tournament will be played from July 15-20, starting with the group stage, which will be played behind closed doors on the first three days.

The competition will move on to the Blue Hall of Belgrade's Sava Centar for the playoffs, played in front of an audience from Friday to Sunday. Tickets ranging from €9 to €270 are still available to purchase here.

Below is the schedule for the opening matches.

Date	Matches
FISSURE Playground 1
15/07/2025	GamerLegion 11:15 Wildcard	Match
15/07/2025	3DMAX 11:20 Lynn Vision	Match
15/07/2025	paiN 14:00 Rare Atom	Match
15/07/2025	SAW 15:10 FURIA	Match
15/07/2025	Complexity 16:25 BetBoom	Match
15/07/2025	Virtus.pro 18:00 TYLOO	Match
15/07/2025	HEROIC 20:35 BIG	Match
15/07/2025	Astralis 21:30 MIBR	Match

For the full schedule, check out the event page.

Prizes

A total of $1 million has been allocated to the prizepool, which will be split between the traditional prizemoney and club share in the following way:

1. $150,000 + $140,000 club share
2. $100,000 + $120,000 club share
3-4. $35,000 + $70,000 club share
5-8. $17,500 + $32,500 club share
9-12. $10,000 + $5,000 club share
13-16. $5,000

Talent

Hosts
Pala "⁠Pala⁠" Gilroy Sen
Anastasija "⁠Heccu⁠" Tolmačeva

Commentators
Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole
Adam "⁠Dinko⁠" Hawthorne
Anders "⁠Anders⁠" Blume
Henry "⁠HenryG⁠" Greer
Freddie "⁠GrimyRannarr⁠" Pritchard
Jack "⁠Zerpherr⁠" Kelly
Vid "CirmaN" Cirman
Aleksa "Ljuba" Šurlan

Fantasy

HLTV organized a game of Fantasy for FISSURE Playground 1.

To play for the allocated skin prizes, join the official HLTV x Skin.Club league:

1. Hydra Gloves | Mangrove (FT)
2. AK-47 | Asiimov (FT)
3. AWP | Neo-Noir (FT)