Bengaluru is set to host the second season finale of India’s most prestigious e-sports event, the ESL India Premiership, from 12 to 13 November at KTPO Convention, in conjunction with the Bengaluru edition of Comic Con 2016. Featuring competition between top two participants hailing from three online qualifiers, phrased as the Starter Cups, along with the four winners of the three open qualifiers and two invited teams across three game titles, Challenger 2 will be the final opportunity for Indian gamers to be a part of the 2016 Grand Finale, the Masters.
The on-ground event will also feature a competition for the popular rhythmic dance game, Just Dance. Challenger 2 marks the second of three LAN events scheduled under the Rs 42,00,000 ESL India Premiership 2016 calendar.
The Season 1 Finale, abbreviated as Challenger 1, organised in Pune, saw more than one Lac total viewers count on Twitch, with the last three of the Starter Cups setting new milestones for online league viewership.
“This is by far the most prestigious year for Indian E-sports with over Rs 70 Lacs of prize money at the disposal of the gamers and we are happy to lead this uprising,” said ESL India, E-sports operations head, Anup Dustakar. “The ESL India Premiership is synonymous with consistent high-level competition, and we’re looking to host only the best of the best to the 2016 finale in Delhi. It’s been a great season of top-tier plays, and India, is definitely going to witness another spectacular LAN event.”
Eight participants for each one of the three featured games – Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 and Clash Royale, will compete in a single elimination format with the winners entitled an almost 40 per cent share of the prize pool. Furthermore, only the top four participants from each game will proceed to the Masters, which will be played out from 7 to 11 December in Delhi.
NODWIN Gaming, founder, Akshat Rathee said, “The growth of e-sports in India has been phenomenal and we continue to push new boundaries. With our partnership with Comic Con India we expect the finale of Season 2 to be even better than the Season 1 finale. A testimony to this fact is that we have started receiving an influx of International team applications and we shall have two teams from Bangladesh coming over. I personally look forward to meeting the enthusiastic crowd in Bengaluru to come and cheer for their e-sport heroes.”