Esports event organiser DreamHack has today announced the 2020 Summer Split of the UK League of Legends Championship (UKLC).
The main piece of news alongside this is a new partnership agreement which sees Barclays as the lead sponsor for the tournament.
The next season of the UKLC is set to start on June 14th 2020 and will run over an eight-week period in June, July and August. Weekly matches will be broadcast on Sunday and Monday, with the semi-finals and grand finals on August 2nd and 3rd respectively.
It will feature eight teams from the UK and Ireland.
Two spots are up for grabs. These will be filled by two teams emerging from an open ‘anyone can participate’ qualifier, featuring teams from the lower-tier UKEL and university leagues NSE and the NUEL. More info on qualification can be found here.
The six confirmed teams so far are:
- Enclave
- Demise
- NVision
- Barrage Academy
- MnM Academy
- Munster Rugby Gaming Academy
The teams will compete in a double best-of-1 round-robin format, with the top four teams advancing to the playoffs.
There will be £20,000 awarded to the teams and players for participation in the UKLC. Additionally, the top two teams of the UKLC will be able to compete to advance to the recently announced NLC, in a structure mirroring professional football.
“We are so excited to be partnering with Dreamhack to present the UKLC, the pinnacle of UK League of Legends, showcasing and nurturing the top UK esports talent.”
Ben Davey, Barclays
While Excel and Fnatic’s academy sides will no longer player in the UKLC, they will be two of five UK teams taking part in the NLC, the others being Barrage, MnM and Munster’s first teams.
Excel and Fnatic’s first teams are of course playing in the top-tier LEC.
The Barclays partnership was brokered by Lagardere Sports UK.
“The UKLC is a key part of the new Northern European League of Legends Ecosystem we are developing,” said Michael Van Driel, Chief Product Officer at DreamHack.
“We are extremely excited to bring on Barclays as a key partner alongside the participating teams to continue to innovate and create a competitive ecosystem in which all fans, teams, organizers, and partners can work together for mutual benefit.”
Ben Davey, CEO of Barclays Ventures, added: “We are so excited to be partnering with Dreamhack to present the UKLC, the pinnacle of UK League of Legends, showcasing and nurturing the top UK esports talent.”
“With our heritage of supporting sport and seeing the power it has to bring people together, the UKLC partnership was an obvious first step for Barclays into professional esports. We’re really looking forward to learning from the community how we can support teams, players, and fans to thrive and grow.”
Additional details can be found at dreamhack.com/uklc.
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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.
