With Gfinity announcing its expansion to Australia earlier this year, more details about their plans have been revealed.

Launching in January 2018, Australia's Gfinity Elite Series is a brand new competition in the Oceanic region that will see six city-based franchises compete against each other in three titles — CS:GO, Street Fighter V, and Rocket League — for a combined prize pool of $450,000 AUD (~$341,865 USD).

It was revealed last week that the Sydney Sixers' General Manager Dominic Remond (an Australian professional cricket team) had been appointed as CEO of Gfinity Australia.

Gfinity is ready to launch their events soon in Australia

Today's announcement outlined the Challenger Series, which is an open online competition for all players. It will give out $15,000 AUD prize money each month, kicking off this week with the pre-season. The Challenger Series will feature two types of cups - Contender and Competitor. The Contender Cup is designed for entry-level players, while the Competitor Cup is aimed at the more experienced players, featuring more ranking points and prize money.

At the end of the Challenger Series season, the top 20 players with the most rankings points will be selected for the professional draft. Each franchise will be required to select players from the draft, who will compete in the Elite Series. There will be two seasons of the Elite Series per year. Each season consists of seven weeks of competitive matches on LAN at Gfinity's dedicated esports arena in Sydney, Australia.

Every match will be broadcasted online and in front of a live audience. The top four teams will progress on to the semi-final playoffs, which will have its own dedicated weekend for the finals to be played out.

In an interview with Redbull Australia, here is what Gfinity Australia COO's Sam Harris had to say on the matter:



"It's that grassroots support network that you've typically seen in sports, but not yet seen in esports," Sam told us when we asked why they went this route. "It provides that direct pathway from amateur to professional. The amateurs go online and play on that challenger platform, then at the end of the challenger series a top selection of players will go into the Draft. And from there professional teams will select new players from the Draft." "We're using a model based off [what Gfinity has done in the UK] and there will be an obligation [for teams] to take players in the draft," he continued. "What we'll work out closer to the date is how many that will be, how many players each team will take."

Australian and New Zealand players can register here.