Marvel Rivals’ biggest-ever esports event, Ignite, begins later this May as NetEase Games has confirmed the first details for the event.
The hero shooter’s competitive scene is rapidly growing as former Overwatch pro Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel hosted a $250k (£190k) tournament for streamers last week, with British creator Sweet Anita part of the winning team.
Now, Marvel Rivals’ esports scene is getting similar investment with a prize pool of over $3m (£2.24m) and a top prize of $1m (£750k), making Ignite by far the game’s most lucrative event.
Further details have been confirmed for the event, including an overview of the schedule and which teams will potentially be competing.
Netease have also confirmed that the esports event will be open to PC competitors only.
Who can compete in Marvel Rivals Ignite Stage 1 2025?
Marvel Rivals Ignite will be a global tournament with events held in the Americas, EMEA, China, Asia, and Oceania.
The participants will be made up of a mixture of teams who are invited and teams that succeed in open, online qualifiers from all of the aforementioned regions.
Invitations will be sent to the “top teams” from the Marvel Rivals Championships – Season 1 and Marvel Rivals Invitationals from each region.
There will be 64 competing teams in total, with the following 30 invitees for Stage 1:
- Top 4 teams from Marvel Rivals Championship Season 1 – Americas
- Top 4 teams from Marvel Rivals Championship Season 1 – EMEA
- Top 4 teams from Marvel Rivals Championship Season 1 – Asia
- Top 4 teams from Marvel Rivals Championship Season 1 – China
- Top 4 teams from Marvel Rivals Invitational – Americas
- Top 4 teams from Marvel Rivals Invitational – EMEA
- Top 2 teams from Marvel Rivals Invitational – Asia
- Top 2 teams from Marvel Rivals Invitational – China
- Top 2 teams from Marvel Rivals Invitational – Oceania
Some teams won or recorded high finishes in both of these events for these regions, making it unclear who exactly will be invited.
However, it’s safe to assume that the champions of these events will at least receive invitations. They are: Sentinels (MRC Americas), Virtus.Pro (MRC & MRI EMEA), Uprise ( MRC Asia), OUG (MRC & MRI China), 100 Thieves (MRI Americas), U4RIA NLE (MRI Asia), and Kanga Esports (MRI Oceania).
The remaining 34 spots in Stage 1 will be up for grabs in online, Open Qualifiers with eight spots for the Americas, eight spots for EMEA, six spots for Asia, six spots for China, and six spots for Oceania.
Teams will have two opportunities to qualify in the Open Qualifiers on PC, with two splits each offering around half of the available slots.
Marvel Rivals Ignite Open Qualifier registration is open now.
Marvel Rivals Ignite 2025 format and schedule
Marvel Rivals Ignite will get underway with Stage 1, which kicks off on May 15th with the first Open Qualifiers.
The first split for Open Qualifiers will take place between May 15th – May 25th, and the second split will take place between May 26th – June 1st.
Following that, the 34 qualified teams will join the 30 invited teams in the Group Stages of Ignite Stage 1.
From the Groups, the bottom half will be eliminated while the top 50% of teams will advance to Regional Playoffs, which will take place in July to conclude Stage 1.
While unclear, it appears these online qualifiers will then feed into the Mid-Season Finals, which will also take place in July and will feature a dedicated $500k (£379k) prize pool.
It hasn’t been confirmed whether this will be an international event or will feature separate finals for each region.
Then, Marvel Rivals Ignite Stage 2 will feature the same format as Stage 1, but the top 50% of teams from Stage 1 will automatically qualify for Stage 2. Then, the remaining teams will be the top performers from more Open Qualifiers and the top teams from Championship Season 2.
From there, teams will compete in the Stage 2 Group Stages and Playoffs to qualify for the Grand Finals in November, which the trailer confirms will be an event featuring teams from each region.
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.
