ESL concluded the Stage 3 opening ceremony rehearsal at the LANXESS arena on June 16 evening with all eight Champions teams completing the full walkout sequence twice. The rehearsal ran from 14:00 to 19:30 CEST and covered three distinct broadcast segments.
The walkout sequence
The opening walkout follows seeding order: Aurora first (lowest-seeded Champions team), then Falcons, MOUZ, NAVI, Spirit, The MongolZ, Vitality (in reverse-seed order). Each team walks through the backstage tunnel to a personalised LED-wall reveal showing team logo plus Stage 2 highlight clips. ESL confirmed the segment runs 14 minutes total — 2 minutes per team walkout with a 30-second transition gap.
The German artist reveal
ESL community lead sjokz confirmed Berlin-based electronic act Schiller as the opening anthem performer. Schiller will perform a 12-minute set across the LANXESS arena's quadraphonic audio system, with a custom CS2-themed track produced specifically for the ceremony. The performance opens at 16:35 CEST on June 17, 25 minutes before QF1 first map veto.
Analyst desk soft-launch
The broadcast analyst desk (MonteCristo, Pimp, YNk, sjokz host) ran a soft-launch segment during the rehearsal — an unscripted 18-minute Champions bracket reaction to test camera framing and audio levels for the live broadcast. Tier-1 broadcast sources confirmed the rehearsal-broadcast was internally well-received with no major issues flagged for the live show.
Champions schedule reminder
Stage 3 opens June 17 at 17:00 CEST with QF1 Vitality-Aurora. QF2 NAVI-Spirit follows 21:00 CEST. QF3 MongolZ-paiN and QF4 MOUZ-Falcons run June 18. Semifinals June 19-20. Grand Final June 21 at 17:00 CEST.
