What’s on this week? – Ooh arr, It’s farming time – February 26th – March 4th

“What’s on this week?” is ESI’s weekly feature letting you know just what’s going on in the wonderful world of esports in the next seven days. Each week, ESI picks a selection of events and provides a brief overview of what’s going down, where it’s taking place and how you can watch it.

This week we see the final week of the Katowice CS:GO Major, we hop back into the CWL Pro League and we don our finest straw hat as we head to Stardew for some farming esports. We are certainly spoiled again this week and we don’t even want to think of the prospect of a week without top-level CS:GO, so we’re all going to enjoy it and hope for another CS:GO classic. Pro League heads into the final week before the league takes a month break and Twitch brings us another esports out of left-field in the form of the popular indie farming sim Stardew Valley.

IEM Katowice Major 2019 – Grand Final 

We’ve been following the Major since it started three weeks ago and although it feels like just yesterday that it started, the Major enters its final week. With only eight teams left battling it out in the ‘New Champions Stage’, we’re sure to see more upsets, more explosive CS:GO and a Grand Final champion before we head back to work next Monday.

Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, Team Liquid, ENCE eSports, MIBR, Renegades, Astralis and Ninjas in Pyjamas are the teams we have left. Starting February 28th we will see the event follow a Single-Elimination Bo3 format (Including the final). We will see the two Quarterfinals split over the 28th of Feb and 1st of March with both Semifinals taking place on March 2nd, before we head into the arena on March 3rd to crown the latest Major champion in CS:GO.

Stream: ESL CS:GO – Location: Katowice, Poland – Date: 28/2 – 1/3  – Sponsors: Intel, Vodafone, Acer Predator, HyperX, Betway, paysafecard, NEEDforSEAT, MTN Dew  – Organiser: ESL – Prize pool: $1m (£770,000)

CWL Pro League 2019 – Week Four 

We head back to Call of Duty this week to check in on the Pro League. As of publishing, we join proceedings on day two of week four. So far in Division B, Heretics, Splyce, eUnited and 100 Thieves are holding onto the top four spots, with Heretics and Splyce have 70% + game win rates, putting them in a commanding position heading into the big break between weeks four and five.

This week features Division B teams – Team Heretics, Splyce, eUnited, 100 Thieves, Excelerate Gaming, Team Envy, Enigma6 Group and Denial Esports (teams listed in current standing order as of writing). The format sees teams play 2 matches against teams in their own division and one against the opposite group, matches are Bo5 with the top four teams advancing to the playoffs and bottom four falling into the play-ins.

Stream: CallofDuty – Location: Columbus, USA – Date: 26/2 – 1/3  – Sponsors: ASUS, Scuf Gaming, ASTRO Gaming, Mtn Dew AMP Game Fuel – Organiser: MLG/Activision/Treyarch  – Prize pool: $710,000 (£550,000)

Twitch Rivals: Stardew Valley Challenge

Back in January this year, Farming Simulator announced plans to launch a €250,000 (£217,833) esports league. Whilst it’s not time for us to get our Farming Sim fix just yet, maybe another popular game in the farming simulator world can give all us budding virtual farmers our esports kick – rise Stardew Valley and Twitch Rivals for the 3-year anniversary of the game’s release.

The format is similar to how most Twitch Rivals events play out, with a group of 10 teams made up of four players’ each having 6 hours on a brand new map to earn the most points. The Stardew Valley twist will see teams’ earning points for: earning the most gold, mine deep diving, catch the five legendary fish, hand in the most bundles to the community centre and finally the best farm. The final vote on the best farm will be handed to Twitch chat, with each team captain giving the stream a tour of their teams finished farm.

Stream: TwitchRivals – Location: Online – Date:  26/2 – Sponsors: Twitch – Organiser: Twitch – Prize pool: $35,000 (£26,700)

That’s a wrap on this week’s picks, be sure to check back next week for another edition of the ESI weekly picks.

We want to feature at least one smaller event each week on the ESI weekly picks. If you want an event included in a future edition, send an email to [email protected].

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