The 2017 edition of the Nordish Gaming Convention Masters is about to start, with eight teams battling it out for their cut of a €15,000 ($~17,600) prize pool.

Running until Saturday at the Nordsee Congress Centrum, in Husum, a German town located close to Denmark, the NGC Masters will begin with a GSL group stage, featuring a best-of-three format in the elimination and decider matches, followed by the single-elimination, best-of-three playoffs with the top four teams.

Neither of the two qualified teams, 1337HUANIA and DIVIZON, are able to attend the event, with EURONICS replacing the former Playing Ducks roster, and Final filling in for Robin "⁠ScrunK⁠" Röpke's new team.

mertz's North Academy will open up the tournament against Singularity

Tournament favourites include MK, who are currently trying out Branislav "⁠BrN⁠" Panov, North Academy, who recently signed Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen and Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup, and AGO, who beat HellRaisers 2-0 earlier this week in the online qualifier for SL i-League Invitational Shanghai 2017.

Below you can find the group draw in full:

Group A	Group B
ALTERNATE aTTaX	AGO
Singularity	MK
North Academy	Tricked
Final	EURONICS

DIVIZON #386 Alexander 'alexRr' FrischJan 'LyGHT' PatockaRobin 'ScrunK' RöpkePatrick 'P4TriCK' ZarembaRigon 'rigoN' Gashi Branislav 'BrN' Panov Age: 18 Team: MK Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 76 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.66 Johannes 'b0RUP' Borup Age: 18 Team: North Academy Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 338 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.69 AGO #41 Damian 'Furlan' KislowskiDominik 'GruBy' SwiderskiMichał 'snatchie' RudzkiMateusz 'TOAO' ZawistowskiTomasz 'phr' Wójcik Final 1337HUANIA #165 Lukas 'lukjjE' BaciliunasNikolaj 'kalinka' RysakovEimantas 'pounh' LazickasRobertas 'Carcass' MikuckisTautvydas 'HyPe' Paldavicius EURONICS #101 Christian 'crisby' SchmittOliver 'kzy' HeckMarkus 'maRky' ReitenbachThilo 'syken' PhanMarko 'kressy' Đorđević North Academy #52 Nicklas 'gade' GadeDennis 'sycrone' NielsenDaniel 'mertz' MertzFrederik 'acoR' Gyldstrand HellRaisers #17 Kirill 'ANGE1' KarasiowPatrik 'Zero' ŽúdelÖzgür 'woxic' EkerBence 'DeadFox' BöröczIssa 'ISSAA' Murad Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen Age: 21 Team: North Academy Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 240 KPR: 0.62 DPR: 0.67 Singularity #61 Robin 'robiin' SjögrenMiran 'dumz' MatkovićBenjamin 'BENDJI' SöderenaLinus 'b0bbzki' LundqvistSaif 'Sayf' Jibraeel ALTERNATE aTTaX #92 Tizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschFlorian 'syrsoN' RischeNicolai 'HUNDEN' PetersenStefan 'stfN' SeierLukas 'ecfN' Kauer Robin 'ScrunK' Röpke Age: 22 Team: DIVIZON Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 178 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.73 MK #42 Hristian 'shEMETA' SpasovEmiliyan 'spyleadeR' DimitrovViktor 'v1c7oR' DyankovSimeon 'dream3r' GanevBranislav 'BrN' Panov Tricked #35 Peter 'Inzta' KragelundThomas 'Ryxxo' NielsenLucas 'Lukki' PilhedenMads 'Console' SkovbyIsmail 'refrezh' Ali