EPICENTER 2019 viewer's guide
As another edition of EPICENTER is ahead of us, we collected the most important information about the $500,000 tournament and present it in the form of a viewer's guide.
EPICENTER 2019 will take place in Moscow, Russia, on December 17-22, with eight teams in competition for the $250,000 first-place prize. The tournament will kick off with two GSL groups, followed by a six-team single-elimination playoff bracket.
Four top-ten teams will participate in the event of which Evil Geniuses is the highest ranked one, but mousesports will be looking to continue their winning streak and add a fourth back-to-back tournament victory before the end of the year. Both Vitality and Natus Vincere being in attendance — and in the same group — opens the door for a Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev vs. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut matchup which is another thing to look forward to in Moscow.
The groups for the tournament are as follows:
The event will take place over a total of six days. The first three will be reserved for the group stage and will be closed off from the public, with a break day following. Then, the top six teams will face off in the playoffs which will take place at the Crocus Expo IEC on December 21-22.
The full schedule for EPICENTER Moscow is as follows:
Tuesday, December 17
11:00Vitality vs.
EHOME | BO3
14:00Natus Vincere vs.
Heroic | BO3
17:00 Group A winners' match| BO3
Wednesday, December 18
11:00forZe vs.
Evil Geniuses | BO3
14:00Virtus.pro vs.
mousesports | BO3
17:00 Group B winners' match| BO3
Thursday, December 19
10:00 Group A elimination match | BO3
13:00 Group B elimination match| BO3
16:00 Group A decider match | BO3
19:00 Group B decider match | BO3
Saturday, December 21
12:00 Quarter-final #1 | BO3
15:00 Quarter-final #2 | BO3
Sunday, December 22
10:00 Semi-final #1 | BO3
13:00 Semi-final #2 | BO3
16:00 Grand final | BO3
To bring the action and break down the matchups, EPICENTER hired the likes of Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett, Daniel "ddk" Kapadia and James "BARDOLPH" Bardolph. Duncan "Thorin" Shields will also be present at the event, taking on the host role this time around, while Halvor "vENdetta" Gulestøl, Christine "potter" Chi, and newcomer Alex "Mauisnake" Ellenberg will be providing analysis on the desk.
Below is the on-air lineup for EPICENTER 2019:
Duncan "Thorin" Shields - Host
Halvor "vENdetta" Gulestøl - Analyst
Christine "potter" Chi - Analyst
Alex "Mauisnake" Ellenberg - Analyst
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett - Caster
Alex "Hawka" Hawkins - Caster
Daniel "ddk" Kapadia - Caster
James "BARDOLPH" Bardolph - Caster
Half of the $500,000 prize pool will be awarded to the winner of the event, with the whole distributed available below:
1. $250,000
2. $120,000
3-4. $40,000
5-6. $15,000
7-8. $10,000
















