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Tickets to this double-esports event have been selling quickly after the dramatic LoL Worlds event in October, and it promises to be a hugely exciting five days of action, with some big money up for grabs.
Let’s take a look at both events individually, starting with the event that has the most teams competing for the top prize, the CS:GO tournament.
IEM Season XI Oakland
CS:GO tournament
Counter Strike: Global Offensive enjoys huge popularity in the US, and it is fitting that this game will showcase alongside League of Legends at the Intel Extreme Masters in Oakland.
The competition boasts a prize pool of $300,000, with $125,000 going directly to the winning team. With just $2,000 up for grabs for the two teams that finish in 11th and 12th in the competition, the incentive to win could not be stronger.
Twelve teams will compete in two distinct phases.
The group stage will see two groups of six teams play to decide which of the teams qualify as the top seeds (and thus earn a spot in the semifinal) and which teams will finish second and third in the group to earn a spot in the Round of 6 to battle it out for the other semifinal spot.
The eight invited teams in the tournament are:
- Astralis
- Heroic (which replaced Virtus.pro; they cited intense and stressful travel for their withdrawal from the tournament)
- G2 Esports
- Team Liquid
- mousesports
- Natus Vincere
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- SK Gaming
The four teams that made it into the tournament via the iBUYPOWER Masters series of events are Cloud9, Immortals, TyLoo, and FaZe Clan, all of which are very familiar names to CS:GO fans around the globe.
The teams have already been drawn into one of two groups, and they will play each other once in the group stage to decide the final positions in the group.
The group draws are as follows.
Group A:
- Team Liquid
- Natus Vincere
- G2 Esports
- Astralis
- Immortals
- TyLoo
Group B:
- SK Gaming
- Ninjas in Pyjamas
- mousesports
- Heroic
- Cloud9
- FaZe Clan
Group A’s matches were played on Nov. 16, with Group B’s games all taking place on Nov. 17.
Then, there’s a rest day before the resumption of matches with the Round of 6 on Saturday, Nov. 19, then the semifinals and final will be played on Sunday, Nov. 20.
Bet365 esports is offering plenty of top quality esports betting on the CS:GO Oakland event during the next few days. Eight markets are currently available.
The most interesting market is the To Win Outright option with SK Gaming the current 5/2 favorites ahead of Natus Vincere at 3/1 and Ninjas in Pyjamas at 6/1. The rank outsiders are TyLoo at 500/1 with the other teams currently rated between 9/1 and 28/1.
People can also bet on the winner of each group, which team will reach the final, the region from which the winning team will come, the group from which the winning team will come, as well as betting on the outcome of the group stage matches.
IEM Season XI Oakland – League of Legends tournament
The League of Legends event at IEM Season XI Oakland is smaller than the CS:GO event, with six teams participating. As such, the League of Legends tournament does not get under way until Saturday. Nov. 19, followed by the culmination of the tournament a day or so later.
The six teams have been seeded. Two teams, Team SoloMid and Flashwolves, were handed byes into the semifinals, which start on Sunday.
The remaining four teams will play off against each other on Saturday, starting with INTZ facing Unicorns of Love, and then Chiefs will take on Longzhu Gaming.
The winners of those two matches on Saturday will move on to face the seeded teams on Sunday, with the winner of each semifinal going on to contest the final and stake a claim for the $50,000 first prize.
Bet365 is currently offering Unicorns of Love as the 1/2 favorite to win their clash against INTZ, while Longzhu are a massive 1/12 to defeat the outsiders Chiefs, which are 7/1. Bet365 is also offering plenty of betting on how matches will go, such as backing the correct map score and handicap betting on matches.
Dota 2 The Summit taking place this weekend
Let’s head down the coast from Oakland to Los Angeles. For esports fans who enjoys the thrill of Dota 2, it’s the place to be this weekend for 
Dota 2 The Summit.
Four qualifiers from China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US have joined the four directly invited teams to compete for the $42,500 first prize on offer and the title of The Summit winners 2016.
The teams comprise:
Direct invites:
- Wings Gaming
- Digital Chaos
- Evil Geniuses
- OG
Qualifiers:
- EHOME (China)
- Team Faceless (Southeast Asia)
- Virtus.pro (Europe)
- Team NP (America)
The format is a double bracket competition with a winners and losers bracket. The tournament will start with four quarterfinals, where the four winners will progress into the semifinals and the four losers into the Losers Round One.
After the semifinals, the two winning teams will compete in the Winners Final, with the winner of that heading into the Grand Final.
Losers of the semifinals and final will drop into the Losers Bracket at Round 2 and the final stage before the winner of the Losers Final earns a place in the Grand Final and a chance to compete for the top prize.
Bet365 is offering healthy esports betting odds on this keenly-contested competition.
Bettors can back Wings Gaming as the 6/4 favorites right now. Evil Geniuses are 7/2. These are the two standout teams in the betting.
OG, EHOME, and Team Faceless are all 9/1 shots, with Virtus Pro and Digital Chaos a 10/1 chance, while Team NP are the outsiders rated at 20/1.
