The UK Esports League (UKEL), a tournament provider mainly focused on League of Legends, is set to announce a Pokémon Unite tournament.
Pokémon Unite is the latest Pokémon game for the Nintendo Switch, which features MOBA gameplay akin to the likes of League of Legends and Dota 2, albeit on a more simplistic scale with casual gameplay.
The organisation made the teaser announcement on its Twitter page just now, with UKEL co-founder and MD Marc ‘Omni’ Busby saying it’s going to be an exciting Q4 this year, suggesting the tournament could take place around October to December 2021.
While there have been some community tournaments in Pokémon Unite, this could be the first that’s broadcast.
Esports News UK understands the UKEL are in discussions with Nintendo, but there’s no confirmation or other details on the tournament at this time.
The UKEL currently runs the third tier of UK League of Legends esports, below the mid-tier UKLC and the upper-tier NLC, which includes teams from the UK and Nordics. The most recent UKEL concluded recently, with LDN UTD winning the UKEL Summer 2021 playoffs.
Speaking of LDN UTD, they recently hired UKEL founder and ops director Alex ‘Synygy’ Winton as their new esports manager.
In a Twitlonger post, Alex addressed a potential conflict of interest if LDN UTD remain in the UKEL next season, and will step back from day to day running from the tournament if this happens. If LDN UTD qualify for the UKLC, however, he will continue running the League of Legends UKEL as usual.
Expect the UKEL to make more announcements on the UKEL Pokémon Unite tournament in time – we’ll of course update this article with the latest information as they do so.
Pokémon Unite has captured the hearts of MOBA and Pokémon fans alike after launching on July 21st 2021, across a variety of age groups and player demographics.
Further reading: Pokémon Unite – thoughts from a 4-year-old and his 35-year-old dad: Is this the perfect entry-point MOBA?
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.
