Great news for League of Legends fans in the UK: The Leicester Haymarket Theatre will host the season three finals of the European Masters.
This venue played host to the very first EU Masters which took place this time last year and was won by Origen. The Season 2 EU Masters finals took place in Katowice – now the tournament is coming home to the UK.
The latest live finals are returning to the Leicester Haymarket Theatre from April 27th to 28th, with ESL and Riot Games teaming up to put on the event once again. Four teams will do battle in the finals.
Overall, the EU Masters will see teams from 13 regions battle for supremacy and the lion’s share of €150,000. Riot says the European competition will determine which region is home to ‘the strongest up and coming League of Legends players’.
It kicks off with the first set of play-ins streamed at Twitch.tv/riotgames on April 8th at 6pm CEST. These play-ins will see seven teams from Spain, France, the UK, Germany, Balkans, Nordics and Poland battle it out to be one of the three teams to qualify for the group stage alongside the thirteen champions representing their region.
The eight top teams from the group stage will reach the knockout stage, which runs from April 20th-21st, with the four strongest regional teams progressing to the live finals.
Regional leagues across Europe are well underway to determine which teams will compete in the play-ins and which will go straight to the group stage of the exciting tournament.
In the UK, Diabolus Esports have already secured a spot in the EU Masters and the other UK spot will be decided this weekend in the UKLC playoffs.
The regional leagues sending their teams to the European Masters include the UKLC and the Premier Tour (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), which already has BIG, who will be heading straight to the group stage, while SK Gaming Prime head into the play-in stage.
In Spain, SuperLiga Orange has seen previous EU Masters champions MAD Lions cement their spot in the competition, with their second team to be confirmed on March 31st.
Regions and teams competing in the EU Masters (in progress)
- UKLC (UK & Ireland): Qualified teams: Diabolus and TBC March 30th
- Baltic National Esports League (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia): Qualified team: eNsure (Group Stage)
- Ligue Française (France): Qualified teams: Team LDLC and TBC April 4th
- Premier Tour (Germany, Austria, Switzerland): Qualified teams: SK Gaming Prime (play-ins) and BIG (Group Stage)
- Nordic Championship (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland): Qualified teams: Ventus Esports (Group Stage) and NYYRIKKI White (play-ins)
- Ultraliga (Poland): Qualified teams: Rogue Esports Club and devils.one
- Superliga Orange (Spain): MAD Lions and TBC March 31st
- Esports Balkan League (Balkans): Qualified teams: Crvena zvezda (Group Stage) and TBC March 30th (play-ins)
- Benelux Premier League (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg): Qualified teams: TBC March 31st
- Hitpoint Masters (Czech Republic, Slovakia): Qualified team: AS Trenčín eSports (Group Stage)
- Greek League (Greece, Cyprus): Qualified team: TBC April 7th
- PG Nationals (Italy): Qualified team: TBC April 7th
- LPLOL (Portugal): Qualified teams: TBC March 31st
For more info on the EU Masters visit https://www.eumasters.gg/, this post on the official LoL Esports website or to buy tickets, click here.
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.
