The fourth season of the ESL UK Premiership has arrived back to the UK CS:GO scene. This news season comes £12,000 in prizes, making it the largest season ever. First off, outside of the general tournament structure is that ESL UK have picked up a new sponsor. This would be Alienware, adding to the roster that continues on from the previous season.

The new season comes with a huge shake-up of the way the league works. First off being the most controversial – there will be no direct re-invites to the league. This means that everyone, including last season’s Top 4, will have to start from the bottom in their new addition – The Contender Series.

The Contender Series are new for this season, bringing with them £500 in prizes for each cup. These are pretty similar to previous qualification cups, being single-elimination knock-outs with the top two going forward to the Promotions. The prize break-down for the cups will be £300 for first, £125 for second and £75 for third (decided on with a Third-Place playoff match). After the 8 teams are chosen, the Contender Series will continue through September and October giving £500 each month.

From the four cups over the series, eight teams will be qualified into the Promotions Tournament. This will be a double-elimination tournament set over two weeks, with the top four teams qualifying to the group stage and the side coming first picking up £1,000. This would set up an extremely cut-throat promotions tournament as every team would vie to go top and secure a fairly hefty sum.

The group stage is a lot different this year. It’s set to be a double-elimination GSL style group, with £600 available for each win. Each team will have to get two wins to progress, so there’s a potential to claim £1,200 for your team. Overall, there’s £3,000 up for grabs in this stage so the best teams will have access to very lucrative sums and those in the middle can still claim a fairly hefty amount.

The top two teams from the Group Stage will qualify for the ESL UK Premiership finals at the MCM Expo London in October. This will be held on one of the days over 28th-30th October, the exact day is as of yet unconfirmed. The Finals will have £6,000 up for grabs, £5,000 of which will be available to the champion.

Sign-ups to the for the first three qualification Contender Series are open now, these have no max team limit so get in as soon as you need to.