ESL has taken to twitter to reveal the schedule and first matchups for the group stages despite there being nearly a week and a half left until the event. A welcome change to some events that leave it until the last 48 hours or so...

This will be the first top tier event of the new season, following the end of the summer player break that ends the day before ESL Pro Lague is due to kick off.

To start with, group play will be between 16th August and end on 5thh September, with each group playing separately. Group A will be on 16th to 20th August, then Group B on 21st to 26th, Group C on 27th to 31st, and then finally Group D on 1st to 5th September.
But who is in what team? Well, we know that too;

Group A
- Heroic
- Vitality
- Astralis
- Bad News Bears
- ENCE
- Spirit

Group B
- Virtus.pro
- OG
- Sinners
- Renegades
- G2
- Complexity

Group C
- FaZe
- Natus Vincere
- Evil Geniuses
- fnatic
- mousesports
- BIG

Group D
- TeamOne
- NIP
- Liquid
- FURIA
- Entropiq
- Gambit

With the groups as they are, Karrigan will come across his old team of mousesports, where he helped nurture the talent of Ropz & Bymas & frozen in mousesports. Will his good work there backfire and see them overrun Karrigans new home of FaZe? In other areas of interest, the CIS teams are fairly evenly spread, which means there is a high chance of all of them going through to the playoff stages, and possibly giving us another Grand Final with at least one of the dominant CIS forces. The 'group of death' is certainly Group C, where at least three of the fan favorites in mousesports, FaZe, Evil Geniuses, Natus Vincere, fnatic & BIG will be sent packing. It's also worth noting, that with over a week left in the player break, some teams may still be to announce squad changes in the interim. 
Only time will tell what happens in these groups, and it all kicks off with Group A, on the 16th August. Be sure to check out the ESL twitch channels to watch all the action as it goes down. You can view the original announcement by ESL on their Twitter here.