With the Minor system in full force, we have put together a chronological account of the events leading up to the ELEAGUE Major. This is the first of a two part series, the second of which will be released when all is set and ready for the return to Counter Strike’s biggest stage.

The eight highest placing teams at ESL One Cologne 2016, the second and last Major of 2016, secured their presence at the ELEAGUE Major to take place on January 22 - 29 by making it out of groups in Germany. These are the eight Legends:

The bottom eight teams of the last Major don't have a secured spot at the next one, and with the amount of top teams without Legends status the Main Qualifier is expected to be the most competitive one to date. These eight teams will have a secured spot at the Main Qualifier and will thus not need to take part in the Minor circuit:

With no further ado here is the first part of the two part series of Road to the ELEAGUE Major, where we track the movements of Legends teams as well as the Minor system which will lead up to the ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier where eight teams will earn their tickets to face the Legends in the next million dollar tournament.

No third Major in 2016, the first roster changes of the season, and new rules for coaches.



SK won both Majors in 2016



CIS teams were quick out of the gate with roster changes in the off-season

ELEAGUE gets the first Major of 2017 and the first Minors are announced



Atlanta will once again be a hub for CS:GO

Astralis and karrigan part ways, Gambit revamps their lineup, and Astralis pick-up gla1ve to keep their Legends status for Atlanta



karrigan will have to fight his way back into a Major

The teams for the Asian and European Minors are set after qualifiers

Liquid lose peacemaker and fnatic regain their spot in the Major as KRIMZ and Lekr0 swap back, GODSENT to Minor



KRIMZ was the deciding factor getting fnatic back into the Major after the swap

Renegades and TyLoo make it out of the Asia Minor, Americas Minor qualifiers revealed, CIS Minor teams set, and EU Minor set to start



TyLoo will try to get China into a Major for the first time



DavCost, now with Spirit, will try to make it to another Main Qualifier

On November 2 the CIS Minor closed qualifier—which used a different system than that of the EU Minor with eight teams advancing from an open qualifier to face eight teams invited to a closed qualifier—ended, giving eight teams an invitation to StarLadder’s event in St. Petersburg. The eight qualified teams to the Minor are:



draken broke out at the first Minor in Bucharest with CG, and is back again with Epsilon

The European Minor is set to start tomorrow at 09:00 with the opening match pitting Epsilon and Heroic. Two spots to the Main Qualifier in Atlanta, which will take place on December 15 – 18, are on the line on top of $50,000 in prizes. Check out our preview of the event, here.

As the ELEAGUE Major dates approach, we will release a second part of Road to the ELEAGUE Major to keep everyone informed on everything related to the first Major of 2017.

Teams qualified to the Main Qualifier:

TYLOO Renegades Europe Minor #1 Europe Minor #1 Europe Minor #2 Europe Minor #2 CIS Minor #1 CIS Minor #1 CIS Minor #2 CIS Minor #2 NA Minor #1 NA Minor #1 NA Minor #2 NA Minor #2

Key dates:

November 4 - 6: EU Minor

November 6 - 7: Americas Minor (Open Qualifier #2)

November 8 - 9: Americas Minor (Closed Qualifier)

November 11 - 13: CIS Minor

December 3 - 4: Americas Minor

December 15 - 18: ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier

January 22 - 29: ELEAGUE Major

Lucas Aznar Miles can be found on twitter @LucasHLTV