German soccer club Schalke 04 announced today that it will host its first ever Scouting Days competition, the culmination of a program designed to discover and sign top unknown League of Legends talent to its pro team. The event will start Oct. 24 and run throughout the week, whittling down 12 candidates carefully selected from hundreds of applications to a starting five. Editor's Picks Worlds: Faker, Miss Fortune and an unforgettable Friday night

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The process will double as a media experience documenting "the birth of a professional esports team" on Twitch, Facebook and YouTube with livestreams. It is very unusual for an esports team to run open global tryouts for all of its positions at once, and this is the first time such proceedings will be broadcasted so publicly. As Riot noted in its announcement of a similar upcoming event called the North American Scouting Grounds, Europe's League of Legends professional scene relies on a system of local leagues to surface promising talent; Schalke's approach appears to defy that convention.

"Our focus will be on the players who show the biggest potential and progress throughout the event. On top of that, we are really excited about making it possible for the fans to take part and watch live, as well as enabling the online audience to get an impression of professional esports training," said head of Schalke 04 Esports Tim Reichert in the announcement.

Schalke 04 purchased the European League of Legends club Elements this past May, rebranding the team and revamping the roster. In August, Schalke was relegated from the EU League Championship Series after a promising start took a disappointing turn at the end of the season. Although many expected it to sell its berth in the Challenger Series, it is instead doubling down on its commitment to League esports.