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Weekly esports guide (1 - 7 August): E1 Championship returns for second season

If you have an esports event or listing for Southeast Asia you’d like to have considered for this weekly update, please email yahootvsg@verizonmedia.com. For other esports news updates, visit Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page.

E1 Championship, the premier simulator racing championship for Malaysia and Southeast Asia, will be making its return later this month. The event's second season will take place from 25 August to 27 October and will feature a US$15,000 prize pool.

Do note that the status of some events may have changed after publishing because of the coronavirus.

The International 10

(Photo: Valve)
(Photo: Valve)

Date: 7 - 17 October

Venue: Bucharest, Romania

The International 10 (TI10) finally makes its return this year after it was cancelled last year by the coronavirus pandemic. The latest iteration of Dota 2's annual marquee tournament features the best teams from the DPC competing for the lion's share of a US$40 million prize pool, the largest in the history of esports.

TI10 was originally planned to be held this August in the Avicii Arena, formerly known as the Ericsson Globe, in Stockholm, Sweden. However, TI10 was forced to move to a different venue in Europe after the Swedish government refused to give the tournament official recognition.

TI10 will now be held in the Arena Nationala in Bucharest, Romania but has been postponed to October. The tournament will start with a Group Stage from 7 to 10 October followed by a one-day break before the Main Event kicks off from 12 to 17 October.

After the conclusion of the second Major of the 2021 DPC, the teams who garnered the most amount of DPC points were given direct invites to TI10. The 12 teams that have been directly invited to the tournament include Evil Geniuses, PSG.LGD, Virtus.pro, Quincy Crew, Invictus Gaming, T1, Vici Gaming, Team Secret, Team Aster, Alliance, Beastcoast, and Thunder Predator.

Meanwhile, OG, Elephant, Fnatic, Team Spirit, Undying, and SG Esports won the qualifiers of those respective regions to round out the list of competing teams in TI10.

BTS Pro Series SEA Season 7

(Photo: Beyond the Summit)
(Photo: Beyond the Summit)

Date: 27 July - 15 August

Venue: Online

With TI10 still over two months away, Beyond the Summit is looking to fill the downtime in the Southeast Asian Dota 2 scene by hosting the seventh season of the BTS Pro Series' Southeast Asian leg. The tournament features 10 of the best teams in Southeast Asia competing for a cut of a US$50,000 prize pool from 27 July to 15 August.

The region's two representatives in TI10, T1 and Fnatic, have been seeded directly to the tournament's group stage alongside Motivate.Trust Gaming and Team SMG. They have been joined by OB Esports x Neon, Execration, Galaxy Racer, and Army Geniuses, who survived the closed qualifier from 27 to 31 July to round out the list of teams in the event's group stage.

MPL Philippines Season 8

(Photo: MPL PH/Moonton Games)
(Photo: MPL PH/Moonton Games)

Date: 13 August - late October

Venue: Online

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) developer Moonton Games will be implementing a franchise league system in the MLBB Professional League (MPL) Philippines for its eighth season, which will begin in mid-August. The eight initial franchise teams for the league include Blacklist International, Bren Esports, ECHO, ONIC PH, Smart Omega, Nexplay EVOS, RSG PH, and TNC Pro Team.

MPL PH Season 8 features a total prize pool of US$150,000 and will kick off with its regular season from 13 August to 3 October, with the eight initial franchise teams competing to be among the six teams advancing to the playoffs in late October.

The regular season will follow a double round-robin format, with matches being broadcasted on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday every week. Meanwhile, the double-elimination playoffs will see all qualified teams start in the upper bracket with the Top 2 teams from the regular season earning direct seeds to the upper bracket semi-finals.

2021 League of Legends World Championship

(Photo: Riot Games)
(Photo: Riot Games)

Date: November

Venue: Shenzhen, China

The 2021 League of Legends (LoL) World Championship, more commonly referred to as Worlds, will be hosted in Shenzen, China from 6 November. Worlds 2021 will be held in Shenzen's Universiade Sports Centre, a state-of-the-art arena with a seating capacity of over 60,000 that is also the home of the Chinese Super League football club Shenzen F.C.

More information about the tournament is set to be released soon.

2021 Pacific Championship Series Summer Split

(Photo: Riot Games)
(Photo: Riot Games)

Date: 9 July - TBD

Venue: Online

The 2021 Pacific Championship Series (PCS), the official LoL esports league for Southeast Asia, continues with its Summer Split, which will kick off on 9 July and will feature a US$80,000 prize pool.

The 2021 PCS Summer Split will continue with the same ten teams from the Spring split, namely Alpha Esports, Berjaya Dragons, Beyond Gaming, BOOM Esports, Hong Kong Attitude, Impunity, Taipei J Team, Liyab Esports, Machi Esports, and PSG Talon.

The 2021 PCS Summer Split will also follow the format from its Spring Split, starting with a double round-robin group stage. The ten teams will be fighting to be among the eight making it to the playoffs, which will follow a double elimination format.

The finalists of the 2021 PCS Summer Split will qualify for the 2021 LoL World Championship while the champion will claim the grand prize of US$30,000.

VCT Masters Berlin

(Photo: Riot Games)
(Photo: Riot Games)

Date: 9 - 19 September

Venue: Berlin, Germany

The Stage 3 Masters tournament of the VCT will be held in Berlin, Germany from 9 to 19 September. While Masters Reykjavík featured just 10 participating teams, the field for Masters Berlin will be expanded to include 16 squads.

The winning team of Masters Berlin will notably be receiving a direct seed to the VALORANT Champions tournament in December, where VALORANT's first-ever world champions will be crowned.

2021 ONE Esports MPL Invitational

ONE Esports Mobile Legends Pro League Invitational (Photo: oneesports.gg)
ONE Esports Mobile Legends Pro League Invitational (Photo: oneesports.gg)

Date: November

Venue: TBD

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) developer Moonton has once again partnered with ONE Esports, the Singapore-based esports venture of sports media company ONE Championship, to host this year's MLBB Professional League Invitational (MPLI) in the "final quarter of 2021".

The 2021 ONE Esports MPLI will feature the best teams from the regional MLBB Professional Leagues (MPL) across Southeast Asia in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Myanmar competing for their share of the US$100,000 prize pool. More details about the 2021 MPLI including whether the event will be hosted live or online, as it was last year, have yet to be revealed.

VCT Game Changers SEA

(Image: SelectStart, Riot Games)
(Image: SelectStart, Riot Games)

Date: June - October

Venue: Online

Watch live: https://yhoo.it/FSLxYahoo

The FSL VALORANT Circuit has been added to Riot Games' VALORANT Champions Tour, and is now the VCT Game Changers Southeast Asia Series.

The series will have four stages - the FSL Open, a monthly open group stage tournament, from which eight teams will advance to the Playoffs. The playoff teams will then compete in a best-of-3 double elimination format, that will culminate in a best-of-5 format. Teams will earn points for the FSL Open Leaderboard, with the top three teams qualifying for FSL Elite.

The next stage is the FSL Open Overtime in September, where teams that finished 4th to 19th on the leaderboard will compete for three qualifying spots to FSL Elite. This is followed by the FSL Wildcard, which is open to teams who have not qualified for the FSL Elite, or teams new to the circuit. The top two teams will earn a spot for FSL Elite.

Finally, the FSL Elite, which is currently scheduled for October, will see the eight teams that have qualified play for a prize pool of US$25,000, and the top team earning the first VCT Game Changers Southeast Asia Champion crown.

The VCT Game Changers SEA Playoffs will be live on FSL Twitch, FSL FPS Facebook (for English), FSL TH Twitch (for Thai), and FSL YouTube (for Bahasa Indonesia), as well as on Yahoo.

Upcoming dates for VCT Game Changers SEA series:

FSL Open V:

  • Registration: 6 - 15 July

  • Open Group: 19 - 21 July

  • Playoffs: 29 July - 1 August

FSL Open VI:

  • Registration: 3 - 12 August

  • Open Group: 16 - 18 August

  • Playoffs: 26-29 August

FSL Open Overtime:

  • 2 - 5 September

FSL Wildcard:

  • Registration: 9 - 19 September

  • Group Stage: 25 - 26 September

  • Playoffs: 1-3 October

FSL Elite:

  • 23, 24, 30, 31 October

Call of Duty: Mobile World Championship 2021

(Photo: Activision-Sony)
(Photo: Activision-Sony)

Date: December

Venue: TBD

This year's Call of Duty Mobile World Championship features the best Call of Duty Mobile teams from all across the world compete for their cut of the US$2 million prize pool.

Garena will be facilitating the tournament's qualifiers for Southeast Asia, which will start on 8 July and will take place until October. The qualifier is split into four stages: Solo Play, Team Play, local championships, and the Garena Region Playoffs.

The first stage, Solo Play, will take place from 8 to 24 July and will see individual players compete to earn points to advance to the next stage of the qualifier. Players that were able to earn the required amount of points from the Solo Play stage will advance to the Team Play stage from 29 July to 8 August, where the eligible players form teams of five or six to become one of the eight teams in their country to advance to the next stage.

The third stage of the qualifier in August will be local championship tournaments for the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, as well as a combined region for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The top two teams from each championship tournament will then advance to the final stage of the qualifier.

The Garena Region Playoffs will be the final stage of the qualifier and will take place from September to October. The top two teams from the local championship tournaments will be competing to become the representative for Southeast Asia in the World Championship 2021.

FIFAe World Cup 2021

(Photo: fifa.com/Getty Images)
(Photo: fifa.com/Getty Images)

Date: 6 - 8 August

Venue: London, United Kingdom

The FIFAe World Cup returns after last year’s hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. From 6 to 8 August, London will host the climax of the EA SPORTS FIFA 21 Global Series as 32 of the world's best individual FIFA 21 players compete for the chance to claim the coveted FIFAe World Cup 2021 trophy and the grand prize of US$250,000 out of the event's US$500,00 prize pool.

FIFAe Nations Cup 2021

(Photo: FIFA, EA)
(Photo: FIFA, EA)

Date: 20 - 22 August

Venue: Copenhagen, Denmark

This year's FIFAe Nations Cup, the pinnacle of 2v2 national FIFA esports, will be held from 20 to 22 August in Copenhagen, Denmark. The best FIFA players from 24 countries all across the world will be competing for their cut of the US$400,000 prize pool, in addition to the US$100,000 already distributed throughout the qualification process.

Aside from reigning champions France and host country Denmark, the 22 other participating countries in the 2021 FIFAe Nations Cup include England, Germany, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Romania, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.

E1 Championship Season 2

(Photo: eGG Network)
(Photo: eGG Network)

Date: 25 August - 27 October

Venue: Online

E1 Championship, the premier simulator racing championship for Malaysia and Southeast Asia, returns for a second season from 25 August to 27 October and with a US$15,000 prize pool.

The list of confirmed teams competing in the event include Singapore's Flash Axle Sports — notably the reigning champions of E1 and Blackwolf Racing, Malaysia's Stratos Motorsports, the Philippines' GT Radial Eurasia Motorsports, South Korea's SafeHouse, Macau's BlackArts Racing, and Brunei's i1Racing.

All rounds of E1 Championship Season 2 will be broadcasted live on eGG Network’s channel across eight countries and on its Facebook page on Wednesdays at 9pm.

Campus Legends Season 3

(Photo: SCOGA)
(Photo: SCOGA)

Date: 12 June - 8 August

Venue: Online

Singapore’s Cybersports & Online Gaming Association (SCOGA) has announced that its Campus Legends student esports development platform is returning for a third season, featuring competitions for League of Legends Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

The group stages and playoffs for Campus Legends Season 3 will be taking place over nine weekends, commencing 12 June and culminating in the Grand Finals on 7-8 August. Aside from giving Singaporean students the chance to showcase their skills in two popular esports titles, Campus Legends will also provide them with career exposure opportunities should they choose to enter the esports industry once they have finished their studies.

University e-League Malaysia

(Photo: Esports Business Network/Prime Sports International)
(Photo: Esports Business Network/Prime Sports International)

Date: 4 July - 12 September

Venue: Online

Esports Business Network and Prime Sports International have partnered to launch the inaugural University e-League (UEL) for Malaysia. The UEL will be a nationwide collegiate esports league to be held from 4 July to 12 September, featuring over 300 university esports teams competing across four game titles for a combined prize pool of RM20,000 (or over US$4,800).

The UEL will be broadcasted online and will include competitions for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, League of Legends, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and VALORANT. Students from both private and public universities across Malaysia who are interested in participating can register starting 14 June.

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