ZOTAC unveil road to $300,000 CS:GO Cup Masters
ZOTAC, a technology company known most notably for their graphics cards, have announced the ZOTAC Cup Masters, a tournament series that will see three regional qualifiers lead into an eight-team grand final in Hong Kong.
One team from China will also receive a direct invite to the finals, where they'll join four invited professional teams to compete for $300,000. ZOTAC's last event, the ZOTAC 10 Year Anniversary World Cup, saw Splyce take home $7,000 alongside $10,000 of gear back in October of 2016.
The road to the grand finals commences with a gauntlet run of online qualifiers, running from March to June as teams from Asia, Europe, and North America compete for a slot in their region's finals. The Americas finals will take place from June 30th - July 1st, where a single squad will emerge victorious and move on to compete in Hong Kong.
Each of the regional finals will field their own prize pool of $20,000, giving teams an additional incentive to play through the online qualifiers. Although the invited teams for the main event are likely to not be revealed until a later date, it's quite possible that the top tier of professional teams will choose to opt out due to their already packed travel schedules. This opens the door for mid-tier and inexperienced teams to make their mark, and possibly claim a larger than usual prize purse for a team of their caliber.
The American open qualifiers are set to begin on April 21st, and will run until May 26th to lead into a set of closed qualifiers. Four teams (two from each region) will advance from the closed qualifiers to join two invited sides in California for the regional finals.
The ZOTAC Cup Masters Grand Finals, which will run from August 24-26, will see its $300,000 prize pool distributed as follows:
1. 
$200,000
2. $60,000
3-4. $20,000
3-4. $20,000
Signups for the open qualifiers will be available on ZOTAC's website starting Wednesday.
