Riot Games has announced it will be launching its own official League of Legends ‘league’ with a prize pool of $64,000 up for grabs.
It will be a league, featuring eight of Australia’s top teams duking it out twice a week over the next couple of months.
“We have some amazing talent in this region and they are only going to get better in a professional league,” said Daniel Ringland, esports manager, Riot Games Oceania.
The teams all played for the first time last night. Chief went up against ex-Champions Legacy in the first match and won. 4Not then played against Legacy and Legacy won that match. That was followed by a face-off between Chiefs and Sudden Fear, which the Chiefs won, but not without a fight. The final match was Sudden Fear versus 4Not. 4Not took that one.
The winner of this first tournament will be rewarded not just in cash, that team will also be given a chance to play in Turkey at this year’s International Wildcard Invitational. Victory at that tournament will grant them a chance to play in the Mid-Season Invitational against the absolute best teams in the world
“Our ultimate goal is to see an Oceanic team win at Worlds,” claimed Ben de Rider, esports Co-ordinator, Riot Games Oceania. “We’re not on the same level as some of the larger regions yet, but you should never underestimate a bunch of Aussies and Kiwis.”
The matches will take place every Monday and Thursday from 6pm AEDT and you can watch all the action here
Comments
6 responses to “Riot Games Launches Australia’s First Pro League Of Legends Tournament”
I watched last night’s stream and it was actually pretty enjoyable.
This coming from someone who follows EU and US LoLeSports pretty closely.
The quality of games is not as high but the meta is entirely different and pretty interesting.
I haven’t played in some time, what was the meta on display ? If you don’t mind me asking
Most teams seemed to build for the mid-game, focusing on fast initiation characters. I was surprised to see some of the champion selections too, such as Ryze and Wukong.
Sadly, no Teemo =P
Well, this isn’t the first Riot’s OCE pro tournament – they have had a number over the last year and a half.
I was watching and it felt like I was watching a coordinated version of solo queue. 🙁 It was still nice to see our region get the pro league treatment 😀
Do you recall how NA LCS looked when it first began? Besides a select few teams, the others were horrendously unco.
Point is that with top end competition for money comes improvement. If people get around it and stick with it, I have no doubt OCE could be great.
This wasn’t a dig at you, by the way.. your statement is entirely correct =P I’m just saying that it will improve.