K1 League has announced specific match schedule for Group A which will run from May 26 until June 3. A very unorthodox match format was announced as well.
As previously announced, Group A features the heavy favorites Natus Vincere as well as three Chinese teams MI5, ETeng and hiQi. Group A will be played over the next two weekends in Shanghai.
While the actual tournament format is regular including two groups of four where each team plays one another twice and the final four advance to a best-of-three single elimination bracket, the match format is fairly different.
Na`Vi practicing CSOL in Shanghai
In each match, teams play the first half until either team reaches nine rounds. In the second half, the team that won the first half needs to win one more round than the other team did in the first half to guarantee a win, or the other team needs nine.
If there is a tie, regular max rounds three overtime is played to determine the winner, there are no ties even in the group stage. Teams get one point for a win and zero for a loss in the group stage.
Schedule:
Saturday, May 26
| 10:00 |  Natus Vincere | vs.  MI5 |
| 11:00 | ETeng | vs. hiQi |
| 12:00 | Natus Vincere | vs. hiQi |
Sunday, May 27
| 10:00 | MI5 | vs. ETeng |
| 11:00 | Natus Vincere | vs. ETeng |
| 12:00 | hiQi | vs. MI5 |
Saturday, June 2
| 10:00 | Natus Vincere | vs. MI5 |
| 11:00 | ETeng | vs. hiQi |
| 12:00 | Natus Vincere | vs. hiQi |
Sunday, June 3
| 10:00 | MI5 | vs. ETeng |
| 11:00 | Natus Vincere | vs. ETeng |
| 12:00 | hiQi | vs. MI5 |
According to our sources, all teams arrived in Shanghai earlier this week and have been practicing Counter-Strike: Online since then. CSOL is a game built on CS:CZ for Asia that is very similar with the addition of a couple of new guns and the fact it works with a micropayment format.
All matches will be played with a roundtime of two minutes, freezetime of ten seconds and a map randomly drawn from the map pool that features de_dust2, de_inferno, de_nuke, de_train and de_tuscan.
Teams in Group A:
| Natus Vincere | ceh9, Edward, markeloff, starix, Zeus |
| ETeng | forget, HZ, PiPi, Rita, songxiao9 |
| MI5 | lovezhu, qhz, qz, Richie, Vincent |
| hiQi | higirl, KOKO, sola, speee, tkt |
All matches will be broadcasted via stream and we will do our best to have the links added under hot matches here on HLTV.org. Matches kick off tomorrow at 10:00 with Natus Vincere taking on MI5.
Time is adjusted to your selected timezone(责任编辑：cs cases free)
