ELeague puts up $300,000 prize pool for 'Overwatch' tournament, will air on TBS
Not even finished with its first major esports tournament, ELeague is setting itself up to host another international tournament: The Overwatch Open.
The Overwatch Open is poised to have biggest prize pool yet, capping out at $300,000 in prize money for the two-month-old game. This triples the current biggest prize pool of ESL's $100,000 Atlantic Showdown tournament.
Similar to the ESL Atlantic Showdown, ELeague's and partner FaceIt's Overwatch Open is starting off with online qualifiers for European and North American teams, culminating with regional finals and finally the grand finals at the ELeague Arena in Atlanta.
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The schedule
If teams have any interest in signing up, they better hurry. The online qualifiers start Saturday, July 23. (Here's the link to sign up.) They are being held through online tournament organizer FaceIt.
The regional qualifiers go through August, with playoffs happening Aug. 26-28. A month later, the regional finals begin with North American teams competing on Sept. 25 and 26, and European teams competing on Sept. 28 and 29. These games will be available to watch on Twitch.
First place teams get a place in the grand finals, which airs live on TBS and Twitch Friday, Sept. 30.
The prizes
The first place team at the Overwatch Open grand finals will get to take home $100,000, and the runner-up will get $32,000.
All teams that place in the regional finals will get prize money scaling from $24,000 for second place down to $6,000 for fifth through eighth place.
What it means for Overwatch
Not only does ELeague's pursuit of Overwatch incentivize players to invest time and money, it could also give Overwatch a big boost in viewers.
With a $300,000 prize pool, Twitch viewers are more likely to be invested in the action. That number gives the tournament -- and the game -- some clout.
The fact that the grand finals are going to be broadcast on TBS also means Turner Broadcasting thinks there's an audience out there that's eager to see Overwatch on TV, and if the Overwatch Open gets the same 500,000 plus viewers that Counter-Strike got on its first TBS appearance, that means big things for the Overwatch community. ELeague can keep putting on Overwatch tournaments and growing its audience, as long as the audience shows up to watch.
Let's just hope everyone's favorite characters don't get nerfed halfway through the tournaments.
ELeague is owned by Turner Broadcasting, which also is an investor in Mashable.
