SteelSeries, a manufacturer of computer peripherals and accessories, has announced the Nova Invitational – a one-day tournament with a total prize pool of $10,000. The competition will be held on August 13. The semifinal matches will be played in best-of-1 format, and the grand final – will be played as best-of-3.
This small competition will feature some very notable teams, namely OG, SINNERS, Tricked, as well as FaZe, which currently tops the world ranking. For all four, the Nova Invitational will be their first appearance in official matches since the start of the offseason break. In addition, Abdul «degster» Hasanov, who was previously successful as a substitute player at the BLAST Premier Spring Final, will appear on the OG roster as a core member of the team.
The OG was the 2021 SteelSeries winner, but its roster has completely changed since then. The current roster, led by Serbian cyber athlete Nemanja «nexa» Isakovic, had a successful first half of 2022, reaching the semifinals of the BLAST Premier Spring Final, and will now look to build on that success. Nevertheless, FaZe remains the undisputed favorite of the tournament. There is a high probability that FaZe and OG will fight in the final, as the other two teams are noticeably inferior to them in the world ranking.