The fourth iteration of Red Bull Home Ground is officially here. For the first time, the offseason tournament is headed out of Europe and will be hosted in Tokyo, Japan, at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Arena.
This edition will run from Nov. 2 to 5, hosting three teams from Japan. Of the other five slots, one belongs to DRX DRX Korea Rank #7 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) and the other two are equally assigned to rosters from North America and EMEA. FENNEL FENNEL Japan Rank #1 GON Kento Hara Aace Souta Itou Hals neth Yusuke Matsuda MrTenzouEz and FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban received their slot after winning the Japan and EMEA qualifiers, respectively.
Format
Red Bull is steering clear of the round-robin format it used in the last two years. This year, Home Ground will opt for a modified swiss stage, which will only host two rounds of Bo1 matches. The first round of matches was seeded by placing the first seed against the eighth, the second against the seventh, and so on. In the second round, teams will be matched by opposite seeds and first round results.
The top six teams at the end of these two rounds will move to the playoffs.
The eight group stage teams were seeded according to their current roster and 2023 achievements. The Home Ground 4 seeds are:
- FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder
- DRX DRX Korea Rank #7 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민)
- Cloud9 Cloud9 North America Rank #10 Xeppaa Erick Bach Rossy Daniel Abedrabbo v1c Victor Truong moose Kaleb Jayne OXY Francis Hoang
- FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban
- 100 Thieves 100 Thieves North America Rank #7 zander Alexander Dituri Cryocells Matthew Panganiban eeiu Daniel Vucenovic Boostio Kelden Pupello Asuna Peter Mazuryk
- ZETA DIVISION ZETA DIVISION Japan Rank #2 Dep Yuma Hashimoto SugarZ3ro Shota Watanabe CLZ Hikaru Mizutani SyouTa Shota Aoki Xdll Yuto Mizomori
- SCARZ SCARZ Japan Rank #9 Yoshiii John Yoshiharu Kawakami
- FENNEL FENNEL Japan Rank #1 GON Kento Hara Aace Souta Itou Hals neth Yusuke Matsuda MrTenzouEz
The top two teams from the group stage will be placed into the semifinals, while the remaining four will battle amongst themselves in the quarterfinals. The first two rounds of the playoffs will be Bo3, while the grand final will be a Bo5.
Prize Pool
Red Bull has not disclosed the prize pool for Home Ground 4.
Schedule
Friday, November 3
- 09:00 PM PDT | 05:00 AM CET | 01:00 PM JST - Round 1: Cloud 9 vs. ZETA DIVISION
- 10:00 PM PDT | 06:00 AM CET | 02:00 PM JST - Round 1: FUT Esports vs. 100 Thieves
- 11:00 PM PDT | 07:00 AM CET | 03:00 PM JST - Round 1: DRX vs. SCARZ
- 12:00 AM PDT | 08:00 AM CET | 04:00 PM JST - Round 1: FNATIC vs. FENNEL
- 01:00 AM PDT | 09:00 AM CET | 05:00 PM JST - Round 2 Match 1
- 02:00 AM PDT | 10:00 AM CET | 06:00 PM JST - Round 2 Match 2
- 03:00 AM PDT | 11:00 AM CET | 07:00 PM JST - Round 2 Match 3
- 04:00 AM PDT | 12:00 AM CET | 08:00 PM JST - Round 2 Match 4
Saturday, November 4
- 08:00 PM PDT | 04:00 AM CET | 12:00 PM JST - Quarterfinal #1
- 11:30 PM PDT | 07:30 AM CET | 03:30 PM JST - Quarterfinal #2
- 03:00 AM PDT | 11:00 AM CET | 07:00 PM JST - Semifinal #1
Sunday, November 5
- 08:30 PM PDT | 04:30 AM CET | 12:30 PM JST - Semifinal #2
- 12:00 AM PDT | 08:00 AM CET | 04:00 PM JST - Grand Final
PDT times prior to midnight refer to the previous day.
Broadcast
English Broadcast Talent
- Iain Chambers (Host)
- Tom “Tombizz” Bissmire (Commentator)
- Mitch “MitchMan” McBride (Commentator)
- Seth “Achillios” King (Commentator)
- Clinton “Paperthin” Bader (Commentator)
Streams
- twitch.tv/redbull
- twitch.tv/redbulljp
Coverage
VLR.gg is covering all of Red Bull Home Ground 4 in our event hub, which includes our live match ticker and stats to comb over. The event also features pick'ems, which close as soon as the first match kicks off.