Eight Teams Will Play a Straight Knockout for Half a Million Dollars in Barcelona With No Group Stage
StarLadder's autumn Counter-Strike event drops the group phase entirely, running double elimination from the first match with every series a best of three.
StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 begins in Barcelona on 17 September 2026, running to 20 September with eight teams and no group stage at all.
The total prize pool is 500,000 US dollars, split into a 250,000 dollar player share and a 250,000 dollar club share. From the player pool the winner takes 100,000 dollars, the runner-up 65,000, third place 35,000 and fourth 20,000, with 10,000 each for fifth and sixth and 5,000 each for seventh and eighth.
The field is MOUZ, Team Vitality, Natus Vincere, FURIA, NRG, magic, Aurora Gaming and MIBR. Four qualified as direct invitations from the global rating and four came through closed qualifiers in Europe, North America and South America.
The format is a straight double-elimination bracket with every series a best of three and a best-of-five grand final, four matches a day, with the lower bracket final and the grand final both on 20 September. The opening round pairs MOUZ with NRG, magic with Team Vitality, Aurora Gaming with Natus Vincere and FURIA with MIBR.
In the world ranking published on 14 September, MOUZ were third, FURIA fourth, Team Vitality fifth, Aurora ninth and Natus Vincere tenth. FURIA said after a disappointing run that their performance had been below expectations and that they had a few days to reset and prepare for the next championship.