The competitive scene for Marvel Rivals just stepped up a level as developers NetEase Games has unveiled an esports tournament with a massive prize pool of more than $3 million (£2.24m).
Marvel Rivals Ignite will be a global event with teams from the Americas, EMEA, China, Asia, and Oceania all competing for the trophy and the grand prize of $1m (£750k). The trailer, voiced by “Epic Voice Guy” Jon Bailey, who also voices Jeff in the game, confirmed that the tournament will take place in May 2025.
However, no other details have been shared. There’s no information on how the event’s format will work, including whether Ignite will be open for anyone to qualify like the Marvel Rivals Championship or whether it will be invite-only similar to the recent Fight Night events.
Ignite’s $3m+ prize pool is a dramatic increase from previous events with the previous record held by the Marvel Rivals Invitationals which spread $500k (£375k) across a multitude of regional events. It also dwarves the $250k (£189k) that Canadian influencer Félix “xQc” Lengyel is offering for his streamer-exclusive event.
There could be quite a few British competitors participating in Ignite with multiple players from the UK currently holding roles with professional organisations. Strategist Harvey “hxrvey” Scattergood has helped 100 Thieves to multiple titles in North America, including the NA Invitational and four different Fight Nights though they lost to Sentinels in the recent Marvel Rivals Championship North America final. There’s also another strategist in Max “fate” Currie who is currently playing for Luminosity Gaming EU and has a European Fight Night title to his name.
Unfortunately, the event may come too soon for British pro “Ghasklin” who recently departed FlyQuest and is taking a short break from competing due to personal matters. Upon seeing the tournament announcement, he reacted on his X (formerly Twitter) by saying: “Oh so we are just doing a 3 mil tournament when I’m on break are we deadass?” He then posted to confirm while he is on break until next week, he is still looking for opportunities to join another team in North America.
And outside of the esports scene, the game is still regularly being updated with five new heroes coming to Marvel Rivals according to a recent leak.
In my seven years of esports writing, I’ve introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I’m most proud of the latter.
