Valve revamps Major stage names to include qualifier; all 24 teams to have stickers

Valve has announced an overhaul of the Major stage names to include the qualifying phase.

ELEAGUE Major: Boston will kick off on January 12 with "The New Challengers" stage, previously known as the Major Qualifier, which will feature the eight teams determined by the Minors and the bottom eight finishers from PGL Major Krakow.

The top eight teams from this stage will progress to "The New Legends stage", previously known as the group stage, in which they will join the top eight finishers from the Krakow Major.

Both the New Challengers and the New Legends stages will be held at the ELEAGUE Arena, in Atlanta. The Major will culminate with "The New Champions" stage, formerly called the playoffs, at the Agganis Arena, in Boston, featuring the top eight teams from the previous stage, who will earn Legends status.

ELEAGUE Major Boston will feature 24 teams

Under this new system, the Major is expanded from 16 to 24 teams as the qualifiers and the Major itself are no longer independent from one another. According to a tweet from ELEAGUE General Manager and Vice President Christina Alejandre, all 24 teams attending the event will have team stickers and player signatures featured in-game.

The tournament format for the Major remains unannounced. For PGL Major Krakow, both the qualifier and the group stage featured a best-of-one Swiss stage, with the playoffs consisting of a best-of-three, single-elimination bracket.

Below you can find the schedule for ELEAGUE Major: Boston:

• The New Challengers stage - January 12-15
• The New Legends stage - January 19-22
• The New Champions stage - January 26-28

The following 24 teams will compete at the Major:

Minor Champions and Runners-up
Renegades	TYLOO
Space Soldiers	Envy
AVANGAR	Quantum Bellator Fire
Liquid	Misfits
Current Challengers
Cloud9	FlipSid3
MOUZ	Sprout
G2	FaZe
Natus Vincere	Vega Squadron
Current Legends
Gambit	100 Thieves
North	BIG
Astralis	Virtus.pro
SK	fnatic

TBS to air Major Feature Series

Meanwhile, ELEAGUE has announced that it will create a five-part docuseries about the Major, premiering February 9. The series, which will air on Fridays on TBS, will allow viewers to "get to know superstar players and relative unknowns from the bootcamp preparation through the grand final."

Tickets to ELEAGUE Major Boston are available at eleague.com/major. For the first time in the history of the Majors, attendees will be eligible to receive ingame drops by linking their Steam accounts with the RFID badges provided with tickets.

*UPDATE* ELEAGUE General Manager and Vice President Christina Alejandre has since confirmed that all 24 teams attending the Major will have stickers and player signatures featured in the game.

Stickers will include all 24 teams, provided they got all their info in, etc. on time.

— christina alejandre (@burbunny) December 13, 2017

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