ESL UK has announced first details of its 2016 Spring Season League of Legends eSports tournaments.
The competition will feature a £10,500 prize pool (over £5,000 during the group stages, with £5,500 available during the offline playoffs).
This dismisses previous rumours, which suggested that ESL UK was going to double the prize money for its League of Legends UK Premiership in 2016, from £10,000 per season to £20,000.
The main change is that the winner of the ESL UK Premiership will now automatically gain a spot in the EU Challenger Series qualifiers.
Season 3 will also be shorter, taking place from January 27th (qualifiers) through to the final playoffs weekend on April 2nd and 3rd. You can check out the full schedule here.
Season 4’s timings haven’t been scheduled yet, but an ESL spokesperson told eSports News UK that ESL is “working on eliminating as much downtime as possible”.
ESL previously confirmed that the UK CSGO Premiership will have three seasons in 2016, up from two in 2015. However, ESL has confirmed to eSports News UK that the League of Legends ESL UK Premiership will still have two seasons throughout 2016.
ESL has also revealed details of the ESL UK Premiership Qualifiers.
“Teams will play across three qualification cups, gathering points that scale depending on their final placement,” ESL expained in a statement on its website.
“At the end of the four weeks, the top three teams will be invited to test their mettle against last season’s fifth to eighth place finishers in the ESL UK Premiership Promotions, alongside MnM Gaming who qualified via the ESL UK Major Ladder.
“Playing in a double elimination format, the ESL UK Premiership Promotions will determine who will advance to face Season 2’s finalists in the Group Stages, for an ever coveted spot in the ESL UK Premiership Playoffs, live from the ESL UK Studio’s in Leicester.”
League of Legends and CSGO teams in the ESL UK Premiership will still need to have at least three players from the UK. The key change is that the number of substitutes a team can have is dropping from five to four. The full Season 3 rulebook can be found here.
ESL has put out the following trailer for the Premiership:
‘UK teams are not good enough to play in the Challenger Series’ – scene reacts to ESL announcement
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
The substitute rule change seems a little odd. Did they give any reason for the change?