Pinnacle and Relog Media have announced the creation of a new tournament called the Pinnacle Cup, which will run from March 3 through April 4. The total prize pool will be $100,000. Thirty-two teams will compete for it, and the competition itself will be held in three stages, built in such a way that the teams will join the tournament gradually.
First, the sixteen invited teams will be divided into four groups, which will play the GSL system to determine the four leaders. The top-ranked teams in their groups will then be joined by twelve more invited teams in the next stage. It is already known that they will include EXTREMUM, Endpoint and GODSENT. Participants will play a series of matches according to the Swiss system. Finally, the top eight teams from this stage will advance to the playoffs, where they will face off against several other teams that received invites. FunPlus Phoemix and Gambit will appear among them, with two more participants to be named later.
The organizers plan to broadcast the matches in English, Portuguese and Russian. The group stage will take place March 3 – 5, and the playoffs, which will attract the most attention from viewers – from March 21 to April 4. Most of the participants are already known – among them will be teams from CIS countries, Europe, North and South America.