StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019
| 2019 | |
 The StarLadder Major 2019 logo | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Sport | Counter-Strike: Global Offensive |
| Location | Berlin, Germany |
| Dates | August 20–September 8, 2019 |
| Administrator | Valve Corporation StarLadder ImbaTV |
Tournament format(s) | Two 16 team swiss-system group stages
8 team single-elimination playoff |
| Venue | Verti Music Hall Mercedes-Benz Arena |
| Teams | 24 teams |
| Purse | $1,000,000 USD |
The StarLadder & i-League Berlin Major 2019, also known as StarLadder Major 2019 or Berlin 2019, will be the fifteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. It will be held in Berlin, Germany from August 20 to September 8, 2019.[1][2] Fourteen teams will qualify for this Major based on their top fourteen placements from the last Major, the Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – World Championship Major, while another ten teams would qualify from their respective regional qualifiers.[3] It features a $1,000,000 USD prize pool and twenty-four professional teams from around the world as with previous Majors. It is also the first time the Ukrainian-based organization StarLadder will be hosting a Major along with its long-term Chinese partner ImbaTV. The Berlin Major will be the eighth consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000 since Valve announced the prize pool increase from $250,000 at MLG Columbus 2016.[4]
Background
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve Corporation. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. In competitive play, the game pits two teams against each other: the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorists. Both sides are tasked with eliminating the other while also completing separate objectives. The Terrorists must either plant a bomb or kill the entire Counter-Terrorist team, while the Counter-Terrorists must either prevent the bomb from being planted by killing the entire Terrorist team or defusing the bomb. Once the bomb is planted, counter-terrorists have forty seconds to defuse the bomb; under normal circumstances, it takes ten seconds to defuse the bomb, but purchasing a defuse kit reduces the defuse time to five seconds. At the end of each round, players are rewarded based on their individual performance with in-game currency to spend on more powerful weapons in subsequent rounds. Winning rounds results in more money than losing, and completing objectives such as killing enemy players gives cash bonuses. However, the more consecutive rounds a team loses, the more money the losing team earns, with the loss bonus capping after five rounds; once that team wins a round, the loss round bonus resets to the minimum amount each player could earn after a round.
The current defending champions are Astralis, after winning their third major championship at the IEM Katowice Major 2019. Both Astralis and Fnatic have the most Major titles with 3.
Format
There are four regional qualifiers – Americas, Asia, CIS, and Europe. Two teams from each qualifier will move on to the New Challengers stage. Each Minor will feature eight teams. In addition, the teams that placed third in their respective Minors will have another shot at the Major as since Valve Corporation reduced the number of direct invites from sixteen to fourteen, the last two spots will be decided through a third place qualifier, in which the teams that placed third at each Minor will play until two teams remain.
Map Pool
The map pool was changed for this Major. Cache was taken out of the map pool as Valve announced it would be undergoing renovations. Rather than debuting a new Cobblestone, which is normally in the map pool, Valve introduced Vertigo for the first time as part of its competitive map pool.[5]
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Minors
Each regional qualifier, called "Minors", featured eight teams. Each Minor also had a US$50,000 prize pool, with first place receiving US$30,000, second place taking in US$15,000, and third place raking in the last US$5,000. Like past recent Minors, no teams was directly invited to the Minors.[6] There is no prize pool for the third place play in. The Europe and Americas Minors will start on July 17th and last until July 21st. The CIS and Asia Minors will start on July 24th and last until July 28th; the third place play in will take place on July 29th.
Each Minor will feature two groups of four teams in a standard, GSL format group stage. The highest and lowest seed of the group and then other two teams will play in a best of one. The winners will play in a best of three and then the losers will play in a best of three. The winner of the winner's match will qualify for the bracket stage while the loser of the loser's match will be eliminated. The last two teams in the group will play in a best of three; the winner will move on to the bracket stage and the loser will be eliminated. The bracket stage will be a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket. The top two teams will qualify for the New Champions stage of the Major, the third place team will have another shot in the third place play-in, while the fourth place team will be eliminated.
The third place play-in will be a four team, double elimination bracket. The initial and winner's match will be a best of one while the elimination matches will be a best of three. The top two teams move on to the Major.
Americas Minor
The Americas Minor will feature six teams from North America and two teams from South America. The North American closed qualifier featured sixteen teams, with eight teams being invited and another eight teams coming from four open qualifiers. Like the Europe Minor closed qualifier, the North America qualifier was a sixteen team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Notable teams such as Luminosity Gaming, Team Envy, and Boston 2018 champions Cloud9 failed to make it to the Minor. The South America qualifier initially had eight invited teams, but DETONA Gaming's Vinicius "v$m" Moreira had a VAC ban, forcing the team to withdraw from the qualifier. The last spot was filled in by a last chance qualifier.[7]
- Teams
eUnited (NA Closed #1-4)
FURIA Esports (NA Closed #1-4)- NRG Esports (NA Closed #1-4)
- Team One (NA Closed #5-6)
- Team Singularity (NA Closed #5-6)
- Luminosity Gaming (NA Closed #7-8)[Note 1][8]
- Sharks Esports (SA Closed #1)
- INTZ eSports (SA Closed #2)
- Notes
- ^ Lazarus Gaming decide to withdraw from the Minor due to roster issues involving Braxton "swag" Pierce, who was permanently banned by Valve Corporation due to his involvement in the iBUYPOWER and NetcodeGuides.com match fixing scandal. StarLadder decided to replace the team with the two teams that placed 7th in the closed qualifier: Team Envy and Luminosity Gaming. However, Envy decided not to have a chance to attend the Major and attend Intel Extreme Masters Season XIV - Chicago, giving the spot to Luminosity.
| First round | Semifinals | StarLadder Berlin 2019 | ||||||||||||
| B1 |  INTZ eSports
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2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Sharks Esports
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| B1 | INTZ eSports
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| A1 |  NRG Esports'
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2 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | NRG Esports
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2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | FURIA Esports
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| A1 | NRG Esports
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Q | ||||||||||||
| B2 | FURIA Esports
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Q | ||||||||||||
| A2 | Sharks Esports
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0 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | FURIA Esports
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2 | ||||||||||||
| B1 | INTZ eSports
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1 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | FURIA Esports
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2 | ||||||||||||
NRG Esports started off the Berlin Minors with an easy win over Team One. Sharks Esports was able to take advantage of Team Singularity's inexperience and had a relatively easy time closing out the game. INTZ eSports kicked off group B with an upset over the red hot FURIA Esports in a close game, as INTZ's team effort, with all the players getting at least 20 kills, proved to be the difference. eUnited vs Luminosity Gaming was a battle between inexperience versus inconsistency, but Luminosity's new acquisition of João "felps" Vasconcellos was the impact factor, as felps had 33 kills. NRG was barely able to take a 2-0 win over Sharks as Jhonatan "jnt" Silva's 46 kills gave NRG a scare. INTZ booked a spot in the bracket by taking a very close three game set over Luminosity. Team One was the first team to be eliminated after a fairly close three game series with Singularity. The two favorites of group B met in the loser's match, and FURIA came out on top over eUnited. Sharks looked to continue the streak of underdog Brazilian teams making an impact and it did so as Sharks eliminated Singularity 2-1 behind Raphael "exit" Lacerda's 55 kills. FURIA took a close one over Luminosity and then had an easy second half on the second map, allowing just two rounds and FURIA stayed alive and eliminated Luminosity.
INTZ was able to edge out Sharks in a close two game set as Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe had a massive 60 kills to carry his team. NRG easily took care of FURIA in the first map, but had to fight hard in a double overtime affair over the up-and-coming Brazilians. NRG then took down INTZ in the winner's finals as Cvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov was dominant in the run and NRG qualified for its second Major. FURIA was able to take down Sharks as the Argentinians were close to making its first Major. FURIA got revenge over INTZ as Yuri "yuurih" Santos's 66 kills outclassed everyone on the server, and FURIA booked another flight to Berlin.
Europe Minor
The Europe Minor closed qualifier featured sixteen teams. No teams were invited to the Minor, but eight teams were invited to the closed qualifier while another eight teams came from four open qualifiers. The closed qualifier was a sixteen team, double elimination, best of three bracket. Notable teams such as Virtus.pro, OpTic Gaming, Heroic, and Windigo Gaming did not qualify for the Minor.[9]
- Teams
CR4ZY (Closed #1-4)
Fnatic (Closed #1-4)
mousesports (Closed #1-4)
North (Closed #1-4)
BIG (Closed #5-8)- NoChance (Closed #5-8)
- Sprout Esports (Closed #5-8)
- Team Ancient (Closed #5-8)
| First round | Semifinals | StarLadder Berlin 2019 | ||||||||||||
| B1 |  Fnatic
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| A2 |  mousesports
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2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | mousesports
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2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 |  North
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| A1 | CR4ZY
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| B2 | North
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2 | ||||||||||||
| A2 | mousesports
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| A1 | CR4ZY
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Q | ||||||||||||
| B1 | Fnatic
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0 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | CR4ZY
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2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 | North
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0 | ||||||||||||
| A1 |  CR4ZY
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2 | ||||||||||||
NoChance kicked off the Europe Minor with an upset over mousesports, barely edging out the Germany-based team; four of the five NoChance players had at least 20 kills each. CR4ZY, formerly called Valiance & Co, was able to hold off Sprout Esports, which won six unanswered rounds to start off the second half. Nemanja "huNter" Kovač was able to outduel Nils "k1to" Gruhne in the win. In group B, North had almost no trouble taking down BIG while Fnatic were able to take a 13-2 halftime lead over Team Ancient and did not look back. In the group A winner's match, CR4ZY was able to take down NoChance without too much trouble as Nestor "LETN1" Tanić had 46 kills in the two game sweep. Fnatic dismantled North in the first map of group B's winner's matchup and then limited the Danish offense in the second half of the second map as Jesper "JW" Wecksell put on a vintage performance with 25 kills. After making a comeback in the first map and taking a 12-3 lead in the second map, Sprout looked to close things out. However, Finn "karrigan" Andersen rallied his team and completely overran the Sprout defense in the second half. Sprout took a small lead into the third map halftime, but, once again, mousesports rallied back and only allowed one round and Sprout was eliminated. Group B's loser's match had Ancient and BIG splitting the first two maps and the third map went to overtime. Lead by Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz, BIG was able to squeeze out the win 19-17 over Ancient. mousesports took revenge on NoChance after taking the three game series with Özgür "woxic" Eker leading the server. BIG tried to take revenge on North, but North was able to hold the Germans off with Philip "aizy" Aistrup's 48 kills and Nicklas "gade" Gade's 46 leading the way.
mousesports took down Fnatic in a two game sweep to move on while North was able to handle CR4ZY with relative ease. mousesports clinched a spot at the Major with the young David "frozen" Čerňanský leading with way. CR4ZY upset Fnatic in two close games, marking the first time in Fnatic's history that it would not be at a CSGO Major. CR4ZY continued its winning ways with a dominant two game sweep over North to book a spot at the Major.
CIS Minor
The CIS Minor will feature eight teams. The CIS closed qualifier featured the same format as the other Minor qualifiers. Notable teams such as Vega Squadron, pro100, and Winstrike Team failed to make it to the Minor.[10]
- Teams
forZe (Closed #1-4)
Nemiga Gaming (Closed #1-4)
Syman Gaming (Closed #1-4)- Team Spirit (Closed #1-4)
- DreamEaters (Closed #5-8)
- Gambit Youngsters (Closed #5-8)
- Unique Team (Closed #5-8)
- Warthox Esport (Closed #5-8)
| First round | Semifinals | StarLadder Berlin 2019 | ||||||||||||
| A1 |  forZe
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| B2 | Team Spirit
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| A1 | forZe
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| A2 |  Syman Gaming
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| B1 | DreamEaters
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| A2 | Syman Gaming
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| Q | ||||||||||||||
| Q | ||||||||||||||
| B2 | Team Spirit
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| B1 | DreamEaters
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| B1 | DreamEaters
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forZe lead things off with a win over Syman Gaming, with Almaz "almazer" Assadulin leading forZe. Gambit Youngsters easily took down Unique Team in a dominant 16-4 win. DreamEaters upset Spirit in dominant fashion with a 16-3 win while Warthox Esport's Dmitriy "ProbLeM" Martinov helped his team upset Nemiga Gaming. forZe had an easy time over the inexperienced Gambit team and took a spot in the bracket phase. DreamEaters survived Warthox in a two game sweep that featured a 16-13 and 16-14 scorelines. Syman eliminated Unique in two very close games, including one that went to overtime. In the battle of group B favorites in the loser's set, Spirit edged out Nemiga to eliminate the Belarusians. After suffering had big loss to Gambit Youngters in the first map, Syman dominated the next two to stay alive. Spirit bounced back and was able to eliminated Warthox as Victor "somedieyoung" Orudzhev's 44 kills lead the way.
forZe survived Spirit in a very close two game set, as Evgeny "FL1T" Lebedev's 52 kills helped forZe stay in the upper bracket. Syman defeated DreamEaters in a thrilling set that went all three games, with the last two going into overtime. DreamEaters was able to eliminate Spirit in an upset.
Asia Minor
The Asia Minor will feature eight teams. Unlike the other Minors, the Asia Minor featured teams from six geographical regions. All qualifiers featured four invited teams with four more coming from two open qualifiers, except for the Greater China qualifier – which had sixteen teams, eight of which were invited – and the African qualifier – which had no invited teams. All qualifiers were a double elimination, best of three bracket.[11]
- Teams
Grayhound Gaming (Oceania #1)- Avant Gaming (Oceania #2)
TyLoo (Greater China #1)- 5Power Gaming (Greater China #2)
MVP PK (East Asia)
ALPHA Red (Southeast Asia)
FFAmix (Middle East)
Energy Esports (Africa)
| First round | Semifinals | StarLadder Berlin 2019 | ||||||||||||
| A1 |  Grayhound G.
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2 | ||||||||||||
| B2 |  MVP PK
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0 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Grayhound G.
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2 | ||||||||||||
| B1 |  TyLoo
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| B1 | TyLoo
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| A2 | Avant Gaming
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0 | ||||||||||||
| A1 | Grayhound G.
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| Q | ||||||||||||||
| B2 | MVP PK
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| A2 | Avant Gaming
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| B1 | TyLoo
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| B2 | MVP PK
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Grayhound Gaming started strong by taking down Energy Esports with relatively easy fashion, as Simon "Sico" Williams's 22 kills lead the way. Avant Gaming upset 5Power Gaming after Avant took a massive 14-1 lead at the half and the 5Power comeback started far too late. ALPHA Red pulled off a massive upset over MVP PK as Itthirit "foxz" Ngamsaard had a dominant game to stunt the Koreans. TyLoo had no problem handling FFAmix on Mirage. Grayhound and Avant had a close first game that went in favor of the higher seeded Australians, but Grayhound posted a 16-0 on the second map to advance. ALPHA Red took down TyLoo on the first map, but Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand and his team turned things on and was able to defeat the Thai team. 5Power had no trouble at all handling the South Africans of Energy. MVP PK struggled somewhat in its win over FFAmix, but Hyun-pyo "XigN" Lee was able to help his team over the finish line. Avant proved its win over 5Power was not a fluke as a very close three game series went in favor of the Australians. ALPHA Red looked like it could take down MVP PK again after taking the first map, but the Korean side won the next two maps with relative ease to eliminate the Thai team.
Grayhound had some trouble with MVP PK on the first map, but a dominant second map guaranteed the Australians that it would not be eliminated at the Minors. TyLoo easily took down Avant with a 16-2 win on the first map; the second map was much closer, but the Chinese team put away the game with YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng's massive 32 kills. MVP PK was able to handle Avant as dominant second halves on both maps allowed the Koreans to at least guarantee a spot on the Minor play-in. With Renegades already at the Major, TyLoo found a new Australian team to have contentious sets with, and Grayhound came out on top, with the third map going into double overtime.
Minor play-in
This qualifier featured the teams that placed third in their respective Minors. This phase was a four team, best of three, double elimination bracket. The opening matches were the Asia Minor representative against the Europe Minor representative and the CIS Minor team versus the Americans Minor team. After Cloud9 forfeited its spot by not fielding the majority of its lineup from the last Major, a third team would qualify from this qualifier.[12]
- Teams
- North (Europe #3)
- INTZ eSports (Americas #3)
- CIS #3
- Asia #3
| First round | Semifinals | StarLadder Berlin 2019 | ||||||||||||
| EU | North
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| AS | ||||||||||||||
| CIS | ||||||||||||||
| AM | INTZ eSports
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| Q | ||||||||||||||
| Q | ||||||||||||||
Teams competing
- Legends
- Katowice 2019 9th-14th
AVANGAR- HellRaisers[Note 2][14]
Team Vitality- compLexity Gaming
- G2 Esports
- Regional Qualifiers
- TBD (CIS Minor #1)
- TBD (CIS Minor #2)
- mousesports (Europe Minor #1)
- CR4ZY (Europe Minor #2)
- Grayhound Gaming (Asia Minor #1)
- TBD (Asia Minor #2)
- NRG Esports (Americas Minor #1)
- FURIA Esports (Americas Minor #2)
- TBD (Play-in #1)
- TBD (Play-in #2)
- TBD (Play-in #3)[Note 3]
- Notes
- ^ Coldzera had asked to be benched after the rosters were locked for the major. Originally, they would not have been allowed to compete due to roster move not being an emergency. However, after a rule change, MIBR will be allowed to use their coach Wilton "zews" Prado as a substitute. Coldzera wanted to play with MIBR at the major, but FalleN and fer were unwilling.
- ^ After HellRaisers placed in the top fourteen of the last Major, the team needed to keep the majority of its lineup to keep its spot for this Major. However, after Özgür "woxic" Eker was picked up by mousesports and HellRaisers released Bence "DeadFox" Böröcz and benched Abay "HObbit" Khasenov, HellRaisers no longer had a majority of its Katowice 2019 lineup, so it could not retain a spot. Deadfox or HObbit will need to play if Hellraisers wishes to keep a spot in the major.
- In June 20, the team has confirmed their spot in the championship, due to a change in the roster rules.
- ^ Like HellRaisers, Cloud9 needed to keep the majority of its lineup to retain a spot for this Major. However, Robin "flusha" Rönnquist stepped down from the team, Jordan "Zellsis" Montemurro's trial period ended, and Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey was released, meaning Cloud9's would have to qualify via qualifiers. This spot was filled in via the Minor play-in.
References
- ^ Lewis, Jarek (February 7, 2019). "Sources: StarLadder to host 15th CS:GO Major in Berlin". Dexerto. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ Popat, Malav (February 18, 2019). "Official: 15th CSGO Major to be organised by StarLadder in Berlin". Talk Esport. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ Tadeu, Luis "MIRAA". "Official: StarLadder to host next Major in Berlin". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
- ^ "StarLadder to host the next CS:GO Major". StarLadder. February 18, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ Villanueva, Jaime (March 28, 2019). "Vertigo replaces Cache in the CS:GO Active Duty map pool". Dot Esports. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
- ^ Kolev, Radoslav (February 18, 2019). "It's official: StarLadder to host next CS:GO Major in Berlin". VPEsports. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
- ^ "Americas Minor - StarLadder Major 2019 overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
- ^ "Luminosity to replace Lazarus at Americas Minor". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2019-07-08.
- ^ "Europe Minor - StarLadder Major 2019 overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
- ^ "CIS Minor - StarLadder Major 2019 overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
- ^ "Asia Minor - StarLadder Major 2019 overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
- ^ "StarLadder Major 2019 Minor Playoff overview". HLTV.org. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ Mira, Luis "MIRAA". "STARLADDER ADJUSTS ROSTER RULES AHEAD OF BERLIN MAJOR *". HLTV. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
- ^ "HellRaisers confirm StarLadder Major line-up". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2019-07-20.