ESL has announced the dates and qualifier information for the upcoming 2017 UK Premierships, and has hinted at some ‘special’ new changes.
The open qualifiers for the next League of Legends UK Premiership will take place on January 11th-12th, while CSGO qualifiers will get underway on January 9th-10th.
Both games will adopt a seven-week double round robin format, with the finals taking place at the ESL 1 Studio in Leicester.
The prize pools have not yet been 100% confirmed.
CSGO matches will take place on Mondays, with League running on Wednesdays. The seasons will run from January 16th to March 2nd, with the finals taking place on the weekend of March 18th and 19th.
“League Of Legends remains the most stable and powerful presence in UK esports while Counter-Strike remains hugely popular within the UK and Ireland,” ESL said in a statement.
“We’ve got something a little special in the works for League of Legends over the next few months that we hope to share with you very soon, so keep your eyes peeled during the season.”
“We’ve got something a little special in the works for League of Legends over the next few months that we hope to share with you very soon, so keep your eyes peeled during the season.”
ESL UK
For Overwatch and Hearthstone, open qualifiers will get underway from February 20th to March 17th, with the seven-week season running from March 27th to May 10th.
Overwatch games will kick off on Mondays, and Hearthstone on Wednesdays. The finals will take place at MCM London Comic Con on the weekend of May 26th to 28th. Plus, specialist anti-streaker crews have been put in place to prevent a repeat of last year’s streaker at the UK Hearthstone finals (not really).
Again, ESL hinted at another special something for Overwatch.
“We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves for Overwatch this year and we can’t wait to share some exciting details later in the year,” it said in a statement.
“Overwatch took the Premiership by storm last season and we look forward to being a big part of the growing UK scene over the coming months, while Hearthstone continues from strength to strength and its very dedicated core fanbase continues to impress.”
Last year’s Hearthstone finals broke UK viewer records.
In addition, Will Attwood has been named product manager in charge of the Premiership for ESL UK going forward.
Sign ups for CSGO and League of Legends are open right now, while Hearthstone and Overwatch signups begin in January.
There’s more info on qualifier signups on the new ESL Play homepage
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.
