Hosted by Valve, the game's developer, the tournament began in May with the qualifier phase and ended after the main event in August.

[7] Valve anticipated that the total would exceed $15 million by the time of the tournament,[8] a target which was reached in July.

[12] The 'wild card' winners were decided during the main competition in Seattle from CDEC Gaming, Team Archon, MVP Phoenix and Vega Squadron.

[2] The tournament's first day of games began on July 26 with four teams competing for the two wild card spots.

[13] The winners of the upper and lower brackets, CDEC and MVP Phoenix, gained these positions in the main tournament.