The UK Masters is back with a twist – it’s returning with a series of new Weekly Cups.
There will be open cups every week for hit game of the moment PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), as well as classic MOBAs Dota 2 and League of Legends.
The UK Masters team described the weekly cups in this announcement post as ‘a more laid-back and player-focused environment’ than its usual UK Masters tournaments. They start next week and will still require 60% of each team to reside in the UK.
Prize pools will be different too. League and Dota will offer £100 per night, with first place receiving £70 and second-place being awarded £30.
UK Masters can’t give away cash prizes in PUBG (due to the developer’s licensing rules), so winners will instead receive tickets to attend the UK Masters grand finals at i62 next year.
“The driving force behind these weekly cups is to help drive the online grassroots esports scenes in the UK, especially during the quiet periods of the domestic tournament circuit.”
The PUBG weekly will take place on Wednesdays and will be duo-focused for now.
League of Legends meanwhile will take place on Thursday evening, coinciding with GAME Belong’s League of Legends community night (GAME owns Multiplay), while Dota 2 will take place on Tuesdays, starting October 31st at 7pm.
The UK Masters team said in the announcement post: “This is a departure from our usual ventures at UK Masters. We hope it’s a new opportunity for us to help build UK esports as a whole alongside our full UK Masters seasons, and that you’ll join and support us in these open cups.
“The driving force behind these weekly cups is to help drive the online grassroots esports scenes in the UK, especially during the quiet periods of the domestic tournament circuit.
“Hopefully these cups will be a platform for bringing new blood into the UK competitive scenes and potentially help some less popular games develop as esports within the community.”
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.
