Turner Sports and WME|IMG's televised Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league, ELeague, has announced the schedule for its second season, which is set to begin Sept. 7 with the televised portion beginning Oct. 21.
Preliminary rounds for the event, which will not be televised, will begin Sept. 7 in Europe and Sept. 14 in North America. These rounds, which will feature 16 teams from each region, will act as a qualifier for the televised group stages.
From there, the league will seed into four groups (moving away from the first season's six groups), with competition taking place from Oct. 21 to Nov. 19. The group stage will be cut down to two days of the week instead of four, with the televised portion at 10 p.m. ET on Fridays, and the non-televised portion taking place on Saturdays.
Playoffs begin on Nov. 29, with semifinals on Dec. 2 and finals on Dec. 3.
"In our second season, we've enhanced the schedule to make the stakes even higher from a competitive standpoint, while also creating an opportunity for a more open field," Christina Alejandre, ELeague general manager and Turner Sports vice president of esports, said in a news release. "We believe this new format will keep our audience engaged with our content from the opening week through the grand finals and be more accommodating to team and player schedules."
The league has cut down its televised participants and its season after feedback from multiple teams across the league, including champions from the first season, Virtus.Pro. That team was required to stay in Atlanta for almost the entire month of July to compete in the last-chance qualifier, the playoffs and then the semifinals and finals.
