Battle in Columbus

The $75,000 CEVO Season 7 Playoffs will be underway this weekend at the MLG.tv Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Thanks to the partnership between MLG and CEVO, this will be the first iteration of the CEVO Playoffs to witness European squads pitted against domestic teams.

The tournament features five North American teams and three European lineups. Fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Team EnVyUs elected to withdraw from the event despite receiving invitations and qualifying. In their place we will find Counter Logic Gaming, Tempo Storm and Natus Vincere joining Liquid, Cloud9, Luminosity Gaming, Virtus.pro and mousesports.

Liquid clinched the third seed during the regular season with an 8-1-3 (W-T-L) record, good for 17 points and only 1 point behind the second-seeded Luminosity Gaming. Our boys find themselves in Group A alongside Cloud9, CLG and mousesports and are in a favorable position to advance to the bracket stage as the top two teams will progress.

After two international LAN appearances this month, the team will be prepared for anything that comes their way. Although they dropped their set against CLG in the regular season, the boys have historically performed well against their domestic rivals and will look to best them once more. Cloud9 will prove to be a difficult—but not impossible—opponent, but the biggest question mark is Europe's third seed, mousesports. The two organizations have yet to meet in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and the German squad has not participated in many LANs with their current roster. Nevertheless, the GSL best-of-three format will give the boys a great chance to make it to the semifinals.

The tournament will run from Friday, July 24 until Sunday, July 26. Cheer on our guys over at MLG.tv/playCEVO!