Structure of Season 3 completely changing E-sports

If you’ve always wanted to become a professional player here is your chance. Riot is holding a tryout of sorts to find the new wave of stars for its massively popular game League of Legends.  Don’t worry this isn’t just for the NA teams this includes the international regions of EUW and EUNE which will have their own competitions.  There is one limitation to who can qualify though which can be frustrating for some teams. Everyone must be 17 years old by February 8^th 2013, although this won’t be a problem for most teams some might run into the issue. 

The structure of the event is as follows;

o   Round 1: Qualify as one of the top on ranked 5v5 team ladder by December 27^th 2012.

§  32 teams (NA)

§  16 teams from both (EUW) and (EUNE)

o   Round 2: Online tournament to be played from January 4^th through 6^th. The rules are single elimination best of three

§  32 teams(NA)

§  16 teams from (EUW) and (EUNE) combined into one

o   Round 3: Partner Tournaments

§  Top 10 placing teams move onto round 4

o   Round 4: 16 team live tournament, NA and EU will have their own tournaments

§  6 teams from the online tournaments

§  10 teams from partner tournaments that will prequalify them for this stage

§  Top 5 teams become championship series teams

The top 5 teams from the live tournament will then get the opportunity to compete in the championship series.  These teams join the teams of Moscow Five, SK Gaming, CLG EU, Team Solomid, Dignitas, and CLG NA who have already qualified for the championship series.  This is going to start season 3 off with a bang and inject some new faces into the professional League of Legends scene.  This could create one of the most exciting preseasons of not just esports but competitive sports in general.  Next Week I’ll go into more of why this is such a huge deal and riots plans for those teams taking part in the championship series.