Update: The teams below will be joined by Australia’s Chiefs Esports and China’s Vici Gaming.
Original story: The ESL has recently detailed the six teams competing at IEM Sydney, the Aussie leg of the longest running pro-gaming tour in the world.
Let’s get to ’em.
Renegades
An Aussie team, through and through, the Renegades CS:GO squad moved to the US to benefit from an organisation owned by NBA player and Boston Celtics owner Jonas Jerebko.
Team member Jks was the first ever player to keep to 9 or less deaths on a 27+ round map at ESL One: Cologne 2016.
Renegades has wracked up CS:GO career earnings of $183,878.
Astralis
Astralis is hot off a major victory at IEM Katowice in February 2017.
The team, primarily Danish, has competed in every major to date, placing first once. With five original members co-owners of the team, Astralis is one of the first player-made organisations in CS:GO.
Astralis has earned $1,421,785.48 from 26 CS:GO tournaments.
Optic Gaming
The Optic Gaming team is relatively new to CS:GO, picking up Canadian team Conquest for the ELEAGUE Road to Vegas finals. It was a good acquisition — the team ended up winning that event.
Optic Gaming’s CS:GO career earnings sit at $844,200.
SK Gaming
One of Esports’ largest and most revered organisations, the current SK Gaming CS:GO squad has competed in seven recent majors, winning two.
Player Mirage is quite famous for a single shot that took out two opponents in competition.
SK Gaming has CS:GO career earnings of $1,172,813.18.
Faze Clan
Calling themselves a mixture of “star rejects”, a number of Faze Clan have competed with other famous top-level teams (though they were subsequently dropped).
Ever the underdog?
Faze Clan boasts CS:GO career earnings of $386,599.22.
North
The Danish Football Club signed North, a team of ex-Dignitas players, to represent in CS:GO.
Forever considered second-best to Astralis, North took out a win at Epicenter, showing they have what it takes to clinch first place.
North’s career CS:GO earnings total $578,000.
The renowned teams will duke it out over Counter-Strike: Global Offensive at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena over 6-7 May. The teams will compete for a prize pool of $260,000 AUD.
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