The European ESEA Open League kicks off on Monday, with the first of a long series of matches.

Just three weeks ago we reported the announcement of ESEA Season 3 European division. The league sees 34 teams from all across Europe competing for a prize pot of £1.500 (£750, £500, £250).

At the end of the regular season, the top 16 teams will advance to the playoffs, but it's still unclear if it will be a double elimination or a best-of-three single elimination.

The ESEA league has the potential to be one of the most interesting online tournament of this lean period; looking at the teams signed up we see some of the greatest Counter-Strike: Source teams of the moment, like the two teams that share the second position in our April Top 10 Rankings, Reason Gaming and Crack Clan.

Denmark has also its best teams in the competition, such as ROCCAT, who will play their first matches with the new lineup, fnatic, uber G33KZ and DSRack.

Half of the teams in the competition come from the Scandinavian area, with AIMAZING, BooYa and japanesebirdcooking (the newly formed team with Fifflaren and Helblinde) representing Sweden, while Finland has afterlife and team zOo.

Every week has two playdays with the same map for every match, and the map for the this first week is de_inferno.

Match Of The Week 1.1
uber G33KZ	vs.	Reason Gaming
3k2 FeTiSh gravity purity wantz		PhP UN GuardiaN bazy pR

In the first playday of the ESEA league we already have a great match to watch: Reason Gaming against uber G33KZ.

The Czechoslovakian team has been a surprise in the last months: after the departure of WT and sneix, many said the team would not be the same, but the latest results tell us that the team is actually one of the best in Europe, as it was before the lineup shuffle.

One month ago they won i36 beating Dignitas in the final, after the two second placements at i34 and i35, and more recently they came second at LAN79 in France, behind the unstoppable VeryGames.

In the same weekend Reason won i36, uber G33KZ got the first place at SLAP Live #17 in Denmark, claiming the title of Danish #1 team.

It will surely be an interesting match, don't miss it!

Match Of The Week 1.2
Reason Gaming	vs.	zOo
PhP UN GuardiaN bazy pR		Samitsky zaikovski delonge kononen Gem

Hot on the heels of Week 1.1 we have Week 1.2, again on de_inferno. Its not the easiest week for Reason Gaming, starting out with UberGeekz and following it up with zOo they manage to take on two of the best teams early on in the competition.

zOo have been keeping a rather low profile since the "folding" of TLR. Infact, at large sway of the community thought they had folded with the organisation, and this misunderstanding was perpetuated through delonge and Gem taking part in the UK EPS with the mix team Ondskan. However, with them now out of the EPS zOo will be the sole concern of the players again.

Unlike Reason, zOo should have an easy time in Week 1.1 as they play french team strafe and win, so they will be hoping this will be a good enough warm up for them to overcome the iseries champions.

Make sure you stay with us for continuing coverage through-out this first European season!