The second Global Challenge is to take place in Montreal, Canada this weekend, seeing twelve teams competing for a total prize purse of 50.000$.

The Global Challenge has reached the city of Montreal. Montreal or Montréal in French is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec and the second-largest in Canada. The official language of Montreal is French and is among the five largest French-speaking cities in the world, while being the largest French-speaking city in North America. The population of Montreal Census Metropolitan Area is around 1,620,693 people. Montreal was ranked as the 10th cleanest city in the world in 2007 by Forbes Magazine.

The tournament structure is once again starting out in a group phase with four groups of three teams each. Top 2 from each group will move on to the playoffs, being played double elimination best of one map. The total prize purse is once again 50.000$ with 25.000$ to the winning team, the top 2 placing teams will also be securing Extreme Masters III Global Finals spots for their continent.

The field of teams is narrowed down a bit, from what we saw in Los Angeles. Only two European teams have found their way to Montreal. The winners from Los Angeles, SK Gaming, is back on track, but for how long? The best ranked team in the world for the time being, fnatic, saw an early exit in Los Angeles, with a loss to GamePlay and a crushing blow by Evil Geniuses sent the Swedes out of the tournament. Team leader Patrik "cArn" Sättermon stated in an interview shortly after their exit, that the team had the motivation, but the team lacked the individual momentum. Made in Brazil saw a devastating defeat to SK Gaming, in the final at the Global Challenge in Los Angeles, when the Swedes came from the lowerbracket and finished off the Brazilian team. The team has been in Sweden for a short matter of time to going through things. The team participated in the IOL finals on a wildcard, which lead to many seeing a rematch when the Brazilians hopefully should face SK Gaming in the final. This did not happen as the Finnish AndThenSome beat them to it. Is it a sign of weakness or was the team simply saving their A game until Montreal?

The American hope lies in the hands of Evil Geniuses and Gravitas Gaming (former x3o). Evil Geniuses shocked many by eliminating fnatic with 16:1 on de_train and furthermore eliminated MYM further on in the tournament. SK Gaming stopped the Americans this time, but is it time for the Americans once again to win on home-soil?

Prize distribution

1. $25.000 + Continent spot at Global Finals
2. $10.000 + Continent spot at Global Finals
3. $6.000
4. $4.000
5. $2.500
6. $2.500

Schedule

Group stage - Friday
Playoffs - Saturday & Sunday

Time zone

Copenhagen/Berlin/Amsterdam/Stockholm - GMT +1 hour
Montreal - GMT -4 hours
(6 hours difference)

First matches start at 18:00 local time - 00:00 CET

The Global Challenge in Montreal will start Saturday 18th October at 00:00 CET and you can follow all of action right here on HLTV.org. We will be your home for HLTV IP’s, results, standings, demos, scorebots and news throughout the entire tournament. Make sure to drop by the coverage section during this weekend.

XLBet is once again ready with bets and will be following the Global Challenge in Montreal closely. XLBet has already now opened for the bets on the group stage matches.

As a finishing word, I recommend people to give their personal winner of the event, unfortunately with any prizes to win