A one-off UK & Ireland Valorant tournament has been announced, which will be operated under the ESL Premiership banner.
The Valorant UK&I Skirmish – Powered by Intel, will see the first instance of organised Valorant play for the local ESL UK office. It will include open qualifiers and an eight-team round robin group stage, which will see two groups compete to qualify for position in the playoffs.
On Saturday June 26th, qualified teams will begin their bracket run to be crowned champions and lay claim to the £10,000 prize pool.
The news comes after ESL UK announced the League of Legends: Wild Rift ESL Premiership tournament back in March.
The ESL Premiership has also announced the renewal of Intel’s support as headline sponsor for the 2021 year of competition.
Throughout the Premiership and Valorant UK&I Skirmish, the Intel #PREMVP will highlight exceptional play for individual players. Fans will also be able to listen in to players during their matches with the Intel Team Comms.
“It’s been exciting to see the tremendous growth of the Valorant community over the past 12 months. We’re delighted to support its inclusion in the ESL Premiership alongside League of Legends: Wild Rift, with both games promising to make this an impressive season for fans and competitors.”
Mark Walton, Intel
“It’s been exciting to see the tremendous growth of the Valorant community over the past 12 months,” said Mark Walton, EMEA graphics and gaming comms manager at Intel. “We’re delighted to support its inclusion in the ESL Premiership alongside League of Legends: Wild Rift, with both games promising to make this an impressive season for fans and competitors.
“Through organisations like ESL, Intel remains committed to supporting esports at both grassroots and professional levels.”
Dan Ellis, partnerships director at ESL UK, added: “Intel continues to be an instrumental partner of the Premiership. They have been critical in allowing us to bring these brand new titles and communities together. I cannot wait for the Skirmish to kick off next month.”
ESL is currently celebrating its 20th year of esports. As well as Intel being the longest-running sponsor of the ESL Premiership in the UK & Ireland, it also recently extended its global partnership with ESL in what was described as ‘the biggest brand partnership deal in esports history to date’.
Commencing in 2022, the renewal will see the brands invest over $100m in esports over three years up to and including IEM Katowice 2025, and marks 20 years of collaboration between ESL and Intel – extending the longest-running partnership in the esports industry.
Open qualifiers for the Valorant UK&I Skirmish take place on Monday May 31st and Tuesday June 2nd, and sign-ups are live now at esl.im/VALORANTQual1 and esl.im/VALORANTQual2.
The Valorant UK&I Skirmish broadcast kicks off on Monday June 7th on the ESL Valorant Twitch channel.
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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.
