New Season of Intel Grand Slam Announced

ESL’s Vice President Michal Blicharz has announced the start of the new season of Intel Grand Slam. In his Twitter profile he explained that previous victories of the teams have been nullified – this means that Gambit have lost two wins, while Heroic and Astralis lost one each.

Besides that, the series will likely undergo a small format change. The team is going to cancel a “long IGS” rule, which allowed teams to win an Intel Grand Slam by emerging victorious at six ESL Pro Tour Masters. From now one the only way to win an IGS is to become champions of four EPT Masters events including an EPL Championship. For reference – the Masters Tournaments category includes ESL Pro League, Intel Extreme Masters and DreamHack Masters, while the Masters Champions category consists of the Cologne and Katowice events.

The third season of Intel Grand Slam concluded with the end of ESL Pro League Season 14, where Natus Vincere emerged victorious after defeating Team Vitality (3:2) in the grand finals. NAVI have become the third team in history to win an IGS, with Astralis and Liquid being the first ones. Each season of the series gives out $1,000,000 to its winner.