Red Bull Home Ground's fifth annual tournament is set to return in November at the Arena Berlin in Germany. The three-day event will run from November 20 to 23.
Last year's Home Ground event saw FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder claim the trophy in Japan after narrowly defeating Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #11 Xeppaa Erick Bach Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo v1c Victor Truong moose Kaleb Jayne OXY Francis Hoang in a five-map thriller. Red Bull will continue to have teams compete in-person this year as opposed to online.
Three EMEA teams have been invited to the main event. Last year's champions FNATIC will be joined by Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #31 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek and FOKUS FOKUS Europe Rank #21 hoody Aaro Peltokangas YaBoiLewis Lewis Hughes Mistic James Orfila al0rante Felix Brandl xuss Tselmeg Tsolmon on the big stage. Three additional tickets will be rewarded to the winners of the NA, APAC, and EMEA qualifiers, with the last two up for grabs for the first and second place Play-In teams.
FNATIC claimed two trophies in Tokyo last year. (Photo: Jason Halayko / Red Bull Content Pool)
Furthermore, the North American qualifiers will take place in the form of a LAN event in Seattle, Washington beginning September 29. Cloud9 and Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid are among some of the invited teams that will not have to partake in the open qualifiers. The winning team will claim the biggest portion of the $20,000 prize pool as well as an appearance at the World Finals in November.
The Arena Berlin is a 17,000-seat venue located in Berlin, Germany. Last year's venue in Japan could hold up to 11,000 spectators, meaning that this year's crowd could be considerably bigger.
Red Bull will unveil more invited teams for all qualifiers as the tournaments loom closer. Home Ground #5 will serve as a great way for teams to hone their skills and strategies against both regional and international competition.
Preview image courtesy of Suguru Saito / Red Bull Content Pool.