CS:GO Asia Championships 2018 viewer's guide

Held at the Yuanshen Gymnasium, in Shanghai, from June 14-18, the CS:GO Asia Championships will feature eight top teams, who will battle it out for their share of the $300,000 prize pool.

The tournament will kick off with a best-of-three double-elimination group stage. The teams that finish in first place will advance directly to the semi-finals, while the second and third placed squads will duke it out in the quarter-finals. The playoffs will consist of a single-elimination, best-of-three bracket.

Na`Vi are the highest ranked team in attendance

Natus Vincere and Ninjas in Pyjamas headline Group A, with VG.Flash and Envy rounding up the group. The French side will be fielding two stand-ins, Alexandre "⁠xms⁠" Forté and Christophe "⁠SIXER⁠" Xia, in lieu of Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer and Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy. 

Group B sees the return of Ruben "⁠RUBINO⁠" Villarroel to Heroic after a period on the sidelines. The Nordic team will be joined by Virtus.pro, TYLOO and the new MVP PK roster, featuring rising talent Seon-Ho "⁠xeta⁠" Son, in Group B.

Below you can find the groups in full:

Group A	Group B
Natus Vincere	Heroic
Ninjas in Pyjamas	MVP PK
Envy	Virtus.pro
VG.Flash	TYLOO

Here is the complete schedule for the event:

Thursday, June 14
04:00	Natus Vincere	vs. Envy	BO3
07:00	Ninjas in Pyjamas	vs. VG.Flash	BO3
10:00	Group A winners' match		BO3
13:00	Group A elimination match		BO3
Friday, June 15
04:00	Heroic	vs. MVP PK	BO3
07:00	TYLOO	vs. Virtus.pro	BO3
10:00	Group B winners' match		BO3
13:00	Group B elimination match
Sunday, June 17
05:00	Quarter-final #1		BO3
08:00	Quarter-final #2		BO3
13:00	Team East	vs. Team West	BO1
Monday, June 18
05:00	Semi-final #1		BO3
08:00	Semi-final #2		BO3
12:00	Grand final		BO3

The on-air broadcast team features some of the most familiar faces in the scene, including Paul "⁠ReDeYe⁠" Chaloner as host, and a renowned trio of analysts in Duncan "⁠Thorin⁠" Shields, Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares and Joona "⁠natu⁠" Leppänen. Two casting pairs and one observer round out the list, which looks as follows:

Paul "Redeye" Chaloner - Host

Duncan "Thorin" Shields - Analyst
Sean "seang@res" Gares - Analyst
Joona "natu" Leppänen - Analyst

Anders Blume - Commentator
Halvor "vENdetta" Gulestøl - Commentator
James Bardolph - Commentator
Daniel "ddk" Kapadia - Commentator

Efren Chuong - Observer

Finally, the $300,000 prize pool will be distributed among the eight teams as follows:

1. $150,000
2. $60,000
3-4. $30,000
5-6. $10,000
7-8. $5,000