At the start of the ESL Championship in "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive", Sprout won the first victories directly - despite unusual circumstances.

The defending champion had signed two Danish players during the summer break, which means that the organization no longer meets the requirement of a lineup that comes mostly from the German-speaking world. For the ESL Championship matches, two Canadian substitutes will therefore step in.

"We'll see how it works. We have our core players, the other two positions can play without knowing too much," said Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich in an interview before the game. "Then we try to win a virtually free muzzle with our skill." With success: Sprout won two straight clear victories (16:7; 16:8) against Cowana around his former teammate Denis "denis" Howell.

In the second game, Morekats sat down in the duel of the rising stars with 2:0 (22:18; 16:5) against entropy. BIG Academy's opening game against Sissi State Punks was postponed due to a scheduling conflict.