CS:GO will make its return to the down under with IEM Sydney 2018 which will take place on May 1-6 with a $250,000 prize pool. The group stage will be played behind closed doors in the first three days while the playoffs take place at the Qudos Bank Arena on May 4-6. Space Soldiers and Natus Vincere—two teams who were initially among the sixteen teams that would attend the event—couldn't secure visas in time and have been replaced by Legacy OCE and G2, respectively. Astralis will be in Group B
There will be two double-elimination groups, each featuring eight teams. The opening matches will be best-of-ones while all the following games get played as best-of-threes. The winners of the upper-bracket finals will directly advance to the playoff semi-finals and the runners-up will qualify for the quarter-finals. To round out the team list for the single elimination playoffs, the lower-bracket final winners will also advance to the quarter-finals. The opening games and the bracket for each group can be found below: Group A | FaZe | vs. ORDER | Legacy OCE | vs. Renegades | Cloud9 | vs. Grayhound | TYLOO | vs. SK | | | Group B | MOUZ | vs. BOOT-d[S] | NRG | vs. Astralis | G2 | vs. MVP PK | Chiefs | vs. fnatic |
The full schedule is as follows: Tuesday, May 1st | 04:00 | Legacy OCE | vs. Renegades | BO1 | 04:00 | FaZe | vs. ORDER | BO1 | 05:10 | Cloud9 | vs. Grayhound | BO1 | 05:10 | TYLOO | vs. SK | BO1 | 06:20 | NRG | vs. Astralis | BO1 | 06:20 | MOUZ | vs. BOOT-d[S] | BO1 | 07:30 | G2 | vs. MVP PK | BO1 | 07:30 | Chiefs | vs. fnatic | BO1 | 08:40 | Group A upper-bracket semi-final #1 | BO3 | 08:40 | Group A lower-bracket quarter-final #1 | BO3 | 12:10 | Group A upper-bracket semi-final #2 | BO3 | 12:10 | Group A lower-bracket quarter-final #2 | BO3 | | | | Wednesday, May 2nd | 04:00 | Group B lower-bracket quarter-final #1 | BO3 | 04:00 | Group B lower-bracket quarter-final #2 | BO3 | 07:30 | Group B upper-bracket semi-final #1 | BO3 | 07:30 | Group A lower-bracket semi-final #1 | BO3 | 11:00 | Group B upper-bracket semi-final #2 | BO3 | 11:00 | Group A lower-bracket semi-final #2 | BO3 | | | | Thursday, May 3rd | 04:00 | Group B lower-bracket semi-final #1 | BO3 | 04:00 | Group B lower-bracket semi-final #2 | BO3 | 07:30 | Group A lower-bracket final | BO3 | 07:30 | Group A upper-bracket final | BO3 | 11:00 | Group B lower-bracket final | BO3 | 11:00 | Group B upper-bracket final | BO3 | | | | Friday, May 4th | 07:00 | Quarter-final #1 | BO3 | 11:00 | Quarter-final #2 | BO3 | | | | Saturday, May 5th | 07:00 | Semi-final #1 | BO3 | 11:00 | Semi-final #2 | BO3 | | | | Sunday, May 6th | 07:00 | Grand final | BO5 |
Below you can find the complete on-air team for the English broadcast: OJ Borg - Stage Host
Tres "stunna" Saranthus - Reporter
Alex “Machine” Richardson - Desk host
Iain "SnypeR" Turner - Analyst
Janko "YNk" Paunovic - Analyst
Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill - Analyst
Henry "HenryG" Greer - Commentator
Harry "JustHarry" Russell - Commentator
Lauren "Pansy" Scott - Commentator
Jason "moses" O'Toole - Commentator
Jordan "Elfishguy" Mays - Commentator
Tim "Brainstorm" Dunne - Commentator
Kevin "KaRath" Zhu - Commentator
Mitchell "pili" Pilipowski - Commentator
DJ "Prius" Kuntz - Observer
Heather "sapphiRe" Garozzo - Observer
Michael "MC" Campagna - Observer
The prize will be distributed in the following manner: 1. - $100,000 2. - $42,000 3-4. - $20,000 5-6. - $10,000 7-8. - $6,000 9-12. $5,000 13-16. - $4,000
 Chiefs #91  Mike 'ap0c' Aliferis Tyler 'tucks' Reilly Sam 'flickz' Jones Matthew 'Texta' O'Rourke Euan 'sterling' Moore  Astralis #1  Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Emil 'Magisk' Reif Time is adjusted to your selected timezone  Natus Vincere #4  Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko Egor 'flamie' Vasilyev Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov  MVP PK #27  Keun-Chul 'solo' Kang Min-Soo 'glow' Kim Min-Seok 'zeff' Park Hyun-Pyo 'XigN' Lee Hae-Sung 'HSK' Kim ![BOOT-d[S] BOOT-d[S]](https://img-cdn.hltv.org/teamlogo/A4xH0MX3yekEnWtPlXc-jM.png?ixlib=java-2.1.0&w=100&s=ec7508071cdfe241d505373773f81672) BOOT-d[S] #52 ![BOOT-d[S] BOOT-d[S]](https://img-cdn.hltv.org/teamlogo/A4xH0MX3yekEnWtPlXc-jM.png?ixlib=java-2.1.0&w=100&s=ec7508071cdfe241d505373773f81672) Nevin 'splashske' Aw Benedict 'Benkai' Tan Anthony 'ImpressioN' Lim Kumaresan 'Tommy' Ramani Alikhan 'w1nt3r' Kopzhanov  TYLOO #25  Ke 'captainMo' Liu Hui 'DD' Wu Hansel 'BnTeT' Ferdinand HaoWen 'somebody' Xu Kevin 'xccurate' Susanto  Renegades #15  Justin 'jks' Savage Aaron 'AZR' Ward Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad Karlo 'USTILO' Pivac Noah 'Nifty' Francis  MOUZ #5  Tomáš 'oskar' Šťastný Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong Miikka 'suNny' Kemppi Martin 'STYKO' Styk Robin 'ropz' Kool  Legacy OCE #134  Egor 'LONSDALE' Baranov Chris 'yellow' McGillivray Hugh 'HUGH' Anderson Jay 'soju_j' Jeong Peter 'BL1TZ' Athanasatos  ORDER #43  Chris 'emagine' Rowlands Simon 'Sico' Williams Jay 'Liazz' Tregillgas Alistair 'aliStair' Johnston Jordan 'Hatz' Bajic  fnatic #2  Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist Jesper 'JW' Wecksell Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson Jonas 'Lekr0' Olofsson Maikil 'Golden' Selim   NRG #18   Damian 'daps' Steele Jacob 'FugLy' Medina Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte Ethan 'Ethan' Arnold Tsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov  Grayhound #36  Christopher 'dexter' Nong Sean 'Gratisfaction' Kaiwai Erdenetsogt 'erkaSt' Gantulga Liam 'malta' Schembri Ollie 'DickStacy' Tierney  FaZe #3  Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Richard 'Xizt' Landström Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač Håvard 'rain' Nygaard  Space Soldiers #14  Engin 'MAJ3R' Küpeli Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş Buğra 'Calyx' Arkın Ahmet 'paz' Karahoca Engin 'ngiN' Kor   SK #7   Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo Fernando 'fer' Alvarenga Ricardo 'boltz' Prass Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip Marcelo 'coldzera' David  Cloud9 #6  Pujan 'FNS' Mehta Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham William 'RUSH' Wierzba Tarik 'tarik' Celik Timothy 'autimatic' Ta  G2 #11  Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Oscar 'mixwell' Cañellas Alexandre 'bodyy' Pianaro |