With the next major, first in North America and first to feature a staggering $1 million, starting in under two days, here is the viewer's guide for MLG Columbus.
MLG Columbus 2016 is set to start on Tuesday, March 29th, with the first two rounds of group stage matches. The groups will see a standard GSL format being played, with all matches barring the decider played in best-of-ones.
A peculiar veto format will be used in best-of-ones, where one team vetoes three maps, the other only two, and the map will be chosen randomly out of the remaining two in the pool.
Groups are following:
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
 Ninjas in Pyjamas |  FaZe |  Envy |  Natus Vincere |
 Luminosity | fnatic |  Astralis |  Virtus.pro |
 MOUZ |  Splyce |  Gambit | G2 |
 FlipSid3 | Liquid | CLG | Cloud9 |
The entire group stage on the first three days will be played without audience in the MLG Arena, for the three-day playoffs the competition will move on to the Nationwide Arena.
The full schedule looks as follows:
| Tuesday, March 29th | |||
| 16:00 | Ninjas in Pyjamas | vs. FlipSid3 | BO1 |
| 17:10 | Luminosity | vs. MOUZ | BO1 |
| 18:20 | FaZe | vs. Liquid | BO1 |
| 19:30 | fnatic | vs. Splyce | BO1 |
| 20:40 | Envy | vs. CLG | BO1 |
| 21:50 | Astralis | vs. Gambit | BO1 |
| 23:00 | Natus Vincere | vs. Cloud9 | BO1 |
| 00:10 | Virtus.pro | vs. G2 | BO1 |
| Wednesday, March 30th | |||
| 16:00 | Group A - elimination match | BO1 | |
| 17:10 | Group B - elimination match | BO1 | |
| 18:20 | Group C - elimination match | BO1 | |
| 19:30 | Group D - elimination match | BO1 | |
| 20:40 | Group A - winners' match | BO1 | |
| 21:50 | Group B - winners' match | BO1 | |
| 23:00 | Group C - winners' match | BO1 | |
| 00:10 | Group D - winners' match | BO1 | |
| Thursday, March 31st | |||
| 16:00 | Group A - decider | BO3 | |
| 18:20 | Group B - decider | BO3 | |
| 20:40 | Group C - decider | BO3 | |
| 23:00 | Group D - decider | BO3 | |
| Friday, April 1st | |||
| 16:00 | Quarter-final #1 (A1 vs. TBD) | BO3 | |
| 18:30 | Quarter-final #2 (B1 vs. TBD) | BO3 | |
| 21:00 | Quarter-final #3 (C1 vs. TBD) | BO3 | |
| Saturday, April 2nd | |||
| 16:00 | Quarter-final #4 (D1 vs. TBD) | BO3 | |
| 18:30 | Semi-final #1 | BO3 | |
| 21:00 | Semi-final #2 | BO3 | |
| Sunday, April 3rd | |||
| 18:00 | All-Star match | BO1 | |
| 19:30 | Grand final | BO3 | |
The official English broadcast will be streamed via both Twitch and MLG.tv. The following 13-man lineup will take you through all the action in Columbus, Ohio:
Paul "Redeye" Chaloner - Stage Host
Matthew "Sadokist" Trivett - Commentator
There will also be an official Russian stream produced by SLTV, who promised to bring a massive production for Russian-speaking audience, with the following on-air team:
Konstantin "leniniw" Sivko - Commentator
As mentioned above, the first North American major will also bring the biggest prize purse yet, a staggering $1,000,000, which will be distributed among the participants as such:
1. $500,000
2. $150,000
3-4. $70,000
5-8. $35,000
9-12. $8,750
13-16. $8,750
Make sure to give our previews a read, as we have prepared one for each group during this past week:
MLG Columbus Group A preview
MLG Columbus Group B preview
MLG Columbus Group C preview
MLG Columbus Group D preview
We have also released pre-interviews with some of the teams attending MLG Columbus. Check below if you missed any of them:
 Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad: "Getting to semis is our goal" |
| Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski: "Want to break the NA streak" |
| Cloud9: "Not content with summer 2015" |
| Robin "flusha" Rönnquist: "LG & NiP our biggest threats" |
| Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas: "Slowly grinding back to form" |
| Andrey "B1ad3" Gorodenskiy: "Gambit is the underdog" |
| Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov: "We bootcamped for 10 days" |
All of the information about MLG Columbus can be found on our brand new landing page for the event as well.
HLTV.org will be travelling to Columbus, Ohio with a four-man lineup to bring you a full coverage of the first $1 million major, including galleries, interviews, stats as well as live Tweets and more, so make sure to follow @HLTVorg for the latest updates about the event.
Ninjas in Pyjamas #10 Patrik 'f0rest' LindbergChristopher 'GeT_RiGhT' AlesundRichard 'Xizt' LandströmAdam 'friberg' FribergJacob 'pyth' Mourujärvi 
CLG #14 Stephen 'reltuC' CutlerJosh 'jdm64' MarzanoJames 'hazed' CobbJacob 'FugLy' MedinaTarik 'tarik' Celik Time is adjusted to your selected timezone 
Natus Vincere #2 Ioann 'Edward' SukharievDanylo 'Zeus' Teslenko
Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsDenis 'seized' KostinEgor 'flamie' Vasilyev 
Gambit #21 
Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevDmitry 'hooch' BogdanovMihail 'Dosia' StolyarovRustem 'mou' TelepovJan 'wayLander' Rahkonen Igor 'sL4M' Sopov 
Age: 27 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.88 Maps played: 3 KPR: 0.58 DPR: 0.64 
Ivan 'Johnta' Shevtsov 
Age: 28 Team: ArcadeC 
Andrey 'B1ad3' Gorodenskiy 
Age: 29 Team: FlipSid3 Rating 1.0: 0.86 Maps played: 534 KPR: 0.60 DPR: 0.72 Oleksij 'xaoc' Kucherov 
Age: 28 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.00 Maps played: 0 KPR: 0.00 DPR: 0.00 Juriy 'strike' Tereshenko 
Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.86 Maps played: 15 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.74 
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas 
Age: 29 Team: Virtus.pro Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 934 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 
Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski 
Age: 18 Team: Liquid Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 278 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.71 James 'BARDOLPH' Bardolph 
Age: 31 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.52 Maps played: 7 KPR: 0.33 DPR: 0.74 Daniel 'ddk' Kapadia 
Age: - Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.76 Maps played: 2 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.90 Taufiq 'Tafa' Khidri Age: 31 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.00 Maps played: 0 KPR: 0.00 DPR: 0.00 
FaZe #11 
Ricardo 'fox' PachecoMikail 'Maikelele' BillPhilip 'aizy' AistrupHåvard 'rain' NygaardJoakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad 
Cloud9 #13 Jordan 'n0thing' GilbertTyler 'Skadoodle' LathamRyan 'freakazoid' AbadirMike 'shroud' GrzesiekJake 'Stewie2K' Yip Robin 'Fifflaren' Johansson 
Age: 28 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 537 KPR: 0.60 DPR: 0.60 Konstantin 'leniniw' Sivko Age: 21 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.60 Maps played: 6 KPR: 0.51 DPR: 0.89 
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist 
Age: 22 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 817 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.63 
Astralis #3 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenRené 'cajunb' BorgAndreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenNicolai 'device' Reedtz 
MOUZ #9 
Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong
Nikola 'NiKo' KovačJohannes 'nex' MagetTimo 'Spiidi' RichterDenis 'denis' Howell Dmitry 'hooch' Bogdanov 
Age: 29 Team: Gambit Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 248 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.70 Jason 'moses' O'Toole 
Age: 29 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 13 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.68 Liquid #16 Spencer 'Hiko' MartinNick 'nitr0' CannellaOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievJonathan 'EliGE' JablonowskiEric 'adreN' Hoag 
Envy #5 Kenny 'kennyS' SchrubNathan 'NBK-' SchmittDan 'apEX' MadesclaireVincent 'Happy' SchopenhauerTimothée 'DEVIL' Démolon Henry 'HenryG' Greer 
Age: 27 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.68 Maps played: 1 KPR: 0.48 DPR: 0.78 
Splyce #26 Arya 'arya' HekmatAbraham 'abE' FazliDavid 'DAVEY' StaffordJason 'jasonR' RuchelskiAndrew 'Professor_Chaos' Heintz Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad 
Age: 22 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 249 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.70 
Luminosity #4 Lincoln 'fnx' LauGabriel 'FalleN' ToledoFernando 'fer' AlvarengaMarcelo 'coldzera' DavidEpitacio 'TACO' de Melo 
G2 #8 Richard 'shox' Papillon
Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' DroolansCédric 'RpK' GuipouyEdouard 'SmithZz' DubourdeauxAdil 'ScreaM' Benrlitom fnatic #1 Olof 'olofmeister' KajbjerDennis 'dennis' EdmanRobin 'flusha' RönnquistJesper 'JW' WecksellFreddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson FlipSid3 #15 Yegor 'markeloff' MarkelovAndrey 'B1ad3' GorodenskiyOleksandr 'Shara' HordieyevVladyslav 'bondik' NechyporchukGeorgi 'WorldEdit' Yaskin Virtus.pro #6 Wiktor 'TaZ' WojtasFilip 'NEO' KubskiJarosław 'pashaBiceps' JarząbkowskiJanusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiPaweł 'byali' Bieliński