Photos by: TeamLiquid, WellPlayed, SK-Gaming, ESFI World
Three days before the start of the MLG Winter Championship we get to see how the four pools like and who will be commentating the event.
Running March 23-25, the Winter Championship is the second and final event for the winter season of the Major League Gaming. As opposed to the previous event - the Winter Arena in New York - the Winter Championship bears the same structuring and idea as the 2011 Pro Circuit stops: a large offline event with a pool play, open bracket and a championship bracket.
The top sixteen finishers from the MLG Winter Arena are seeded directly into the pools and the group stage thus has the following appearance:
| MLG WInter championship groups | |||
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
 MarineKing | DongRaeGu |  HuK | Oz |
| Ganzi |  Naniwa | Violet | Parting |
| MC |  DeMuslim |  Ret | Grubby |
| Sase | Haypro |  Socke | TheSTC |
If you think that there are some irregularities with the top sixteen you are absolutely right. MLG's Adam Apicella said on twitter that Leenock and NesTea will not be able to attend the event as the FXO zerg has a GSTL match to play at the same time and NesTea has suffered a wrist injury and needs recovery time.
The race for the $76,000 prize pool will be covered by the established MLG caster line-up of Tasteless, Artosis, DJWheat, Day[9], JP McDaniel, and Blizzard's Rob Simpson. They will be joined by a plethora of other commentators of the likes of Tumba, Robin, Adebisi, Psylence and Axeltoss. Haypro and Sase will step in their spots.
As mentioned, the tournament begins this Friday and unlike the Winter Arena, it will have a free SQ stream plus a paid HD channel, i.e. you will be able to enjoy it just as you did the Pro Circuits in 2011.
Source: MLG
