Update (September 20th 2021): The WePlay Rocket League Invitational has been won by Karmine Corp (EMEA) and Team Envy (NA). Both teams picked up $15,000 in prize winnings.
Original article (September 9th 2021): WePlay Holding has announced its first Rocket League tournament, launched with the support of Psyonix, and a couple of UK esports organisations are participating.
The WePlay Esports Invitational tournament will take place online from September 16th to 19th 2021 featuring a total prize pool of $100,000.
From the UK, Guild Esports, who recently signed the Young STEM Personality of the Year as an ambassador, and Semper Esports, who who recently rebranded from Top Blokes, will be taking part.
16 teams will take part in the tournament overall: eight from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and eight teams from North America. The teams from each region will compete with each other in a Double Elimination Bracket format (BO7).
The English-language broadcast will be hosted from WePlay Esports Arena Kyiv.
The full list of participating teams are as follows:
- Team BDS
- Semper Esports
- Guild Esports
- Dignitas
- The General NRG
- Spacestation Gaming
- Rogue
- G2 Esports
- FaZe Clan
- Susquehanna Soniqs
- Karmine Corp
- Shopify Rebellion
- Sandrock Gaming
- Vodafone Giants
- Team EnVy
- Team Vitality
“We have no intention to stop developing: we continue to explore and discover new titles and areas of work,” said Eugene Luchianenco, head of esports at WePlay Esports.
“Rocket League has made waves among the esports community. I am sure that the WePlay Esports Invitational Featuring Rocket League will pleasantly surprise the fans of the game with what our team has in store for the event.”
Anton Tokarev, lead esports manager at WePlay Esports, added: “We’ve organised many memorable major events so far at WePlay Esports, and we finally have a chance to do another in Rocket League. It is a unique title with a special and passionate community behind it, and we cannot wait to show what we are capable of.”
You can watch the official broadcast of the WePlay Esports Invitational on the WePlay Rocket League Twitch channel and the official WePlay app for Smart TV.
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.