Tournament organizer StarLadder has published the list of teams that will receive an invitation to the next regional ranking tournament for CIS countries. Spirit, Natus Vincere, Gambit, Virtus.pro and Akuma are among the participants who will go straight into the main stage, while four more teams will start their journey to the top with a closed qualifying round. The invites were distributed based on the teams' current position in the rankings following the conclusion of the EPIC League – first regional ranking tournament of 2021. Four more participants will be selected based on the results of open qualifying games - Two of them are already known – these are ex-Marlian and EC Kyiv, and the remaining two will be determined on June 13-14.
In addition, StarLadder representatives told about the changes that will be made to the tournament organization after the open letter sent to Valve by EPIC League CIS participants. In particular, both the broadcast of matches via GO TV and the transmission of video streams to other sources will be delayed by several tens of seconds to prevent players from using this information. All player conversations will be recorded, and their actions and everything that happens on their screens will be captured via webcam. All StarLadder matches will be played using the FACEIT anti-chit system.