ESL, the worlds largest esports company has announced the ESL SEA Championship, a regional tournament brought to life to help build competition and introduce a platform connecting a path for regional talents going global.
ESL SEA Championship will have an overall prize pool of $20,000 shared between eight teams and also the winner earning a direct spot in the closed SEA qualifiers of ESL One Birmingham 2020.
Michael Kiefer, Head of Products at ESL Asia, said: “There is a lack of opportunities for up-and-coming teams, and we wanted to develop a product to tackle this issue. With the ESL SEA Championship granting a direct path to the closed qualifiers of ESL One Birmingham 2020, it provides additional opportunities and financial support for teams as well as a more interesting storyline for fans to follow.”
Nick Vanzetti, Senior Vice President of ESL Asia-Pacific Japan, further added: “The zero-to-hero notion has always been a very important aspect for us and we are excited to have a direct connection between our regional and global product. This is a great start for 2020 and we will continue to make the path to pro as direct as possible.”
Out of the total of eight, four teams will receive an invite to the ESL SEA Championship who will be revealed on a later date while the other four to join them via open qualifiers.
Those who wish to participate can register themselves at https://play.eslgaming.com/dota2/southeast-asia/dota2/major/esl-sea-championship
The Open Qualifiers will be held in two sets, 29th February – 1st March and 3rd – 4th March.
Once we have our eight teams, they will be further divided into two GSL Groups, with 4 teams in each. Group A matches will be happening on the 9th & 10th March while Group B matches on 25th and 26th March. The finals will be held on April 4-5th with top two teams of each group in a single-elimination playoff where we will find out a team that is going to make it to the lucky slot which will allow them a chance to compete in the grand $300,000 tournament, ESL One Birmingham 2020 happening in May. All the games played will be the classic BO3, except the grand finals which are going to be a BO5.
All of the ESL SEA Champions matches will be streamed live in English on ESL Asia’s YouTube, Twitch and Facebook channels.