From the beginning till today, here’s everything you need to know about ESL India Premiership 2017

It has been a long time since I wrote my last tournament-related article. I remember it was before we went on the unplanned hiatus without even putting up a notice about it. But now, we’re up once again and it gives me great joy that we’ve actually progressed. From covering cafe tournaments I’ve finally reached the point where I think I can cover some big events as well. And for the first time, let me introduce you to India’s most classy and top-notch gaming event, ESL India Premiership.

Let’s start with some backstory. ESL or Electronic Sports League is a Germany-based eSports company which organizes video game competitions all across the globe. It first began with an online gaming league and a gaming magazine. Eventually, the company started organizing some of the world’s most renowned video game tournaments, both online and offline (LAN).

Currently, ESL has a large network of video game tournaments, of which the most popular ones are Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Clash Royale. The annual prize pool for these tournaments crosses $10 million in total. *That’s just HUGE!*

The Journey of ESL India

In 2014, Nodwin Gaming, India’s premier gaming company, brought ESL to India. ESL India was consistently organizing small tournaments and test-tubing the eSports community in the country. After a while when they saw the potential in India, ESL India Premiership came into existence.

ESL has a separate division namely “ESL National Championship” which organizes “National-level” tournaments in a total of 13 countries including India. ‘India Premiership’ is a part of it. Now if you’re curious to know about Nodwin Gaming, we’ll discuss that chapter someday later.

Watch LordNod introduce ESL to Indian folks.

ESL India Premiership’s first season appeared in 2016 and it took the Indian gaming community by storm. With a whopping prize pool of ₹42 Lacs (about $65k as per current rate), it was in the limelight. The Indian eSports community had never seen such a large-scale tournament series before. Hundreds of gamers from all across the country participated in the tournament series, and that was the only time organizers saw so much of engagement.

2017

Highlights

Prize pool bumped up to a massive ₹42 Lac.

2017 edition will feature 3 Seasons – Summer, Fall and Winter.

Tournament has begun from 26th April 2017 and ends on 17th December 2017.

Season finales will take place in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi.

ESL India Premiership introduces a three-tiered structure. The top 2 tiers – Master and Challenger Leagues are closed leagues, whereas the Starter Cups act as the open qualifiers.

Participants in the Master League are eligible for both appearance and winning fees.

Challenger League participants will only receive winning fees. There are no match fees for Starter Cup participants.

The top 3 competitive games (CS:GO, DOTA 2 and Clash Royale) are the selected games.

The ESL India Premiership is a free-to-play tournament and there is no entry fee for participating.

This year, ESL India Premiership is making a lot of difference. The cups are same as last year. Refer to this article to get rough idea of the Starter, Challenger and Master Cups. Unlike last year, ESL India Premiership has introduced 3 seasons – Summer, Fall and Winter. Each season will have separate Starter, Challenger and Master Cups, giving players extreme opportunities to prove their skills.

Last year we saw a prize pool of ₹42 Lac while this year, it has reached the ₹64 Lac mark. *That just got HUGER!* This year, OMEN by HP is sponsoring as the “Title Sponsor” for the tournament series. Other sponsors are HyperX for better peripherals, BenQ for quality monitors and SoStronk for tournament servers. Matches hasve started from April 26, 2017, and will run across three seasons (Summer, Fall and Winter) until December 17, 2017.

Furthermore, the tournament will feature three tiers, namely the Master League, Challenger League and Starter Cup. With promotions and relegations taking place across the tiers every month, the ESL India Premiership will activate an even more competitive spirit in the country. The offline LAN finale for each season are scheduled to take place at Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi respectively. The ESL India Premiership is the only open league in the country and does not feature any entry fee for participating.

In 2016, more than 9,000 gamers took part, while the social media engagement crossed 1 million. Over 850,000+ individuals watched the live streams and more than 75,000 attended the offline events on foot.

Games and Tournament Details

Last year, we had 3 games. Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Hearthstone. Due to poor response and the lack of an active enough community, Hearthstone was soon replaced with Supercell’s leading head-to-head strategy game ‘Clash Royale’. I was pretty impressed with the replacement as I am a regular Clash Royale player myself. (Cheap opinions.)

The burning topic to be discussed right now is the Summer LAN final. In fact, they’re starting from tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know –

The event will run from July 1 – July 2. The venue is – Phoenix Market City, Kurla, Mumbai. Time – 10AM to 8PM. 8 qualified Dota 2 teams will fight for a prize of ₹7.10 Lacs. 8 qualified CS:GO teams will fight for a prize of ₹7.0 Lacs. 8 qualified Clash Royale players will fight for a prize of ₹1.17 Lacs. The 8 teams will face off in Double Elimination, Best of 1 Brackets, all the way up until the Grand Finals; which will be Best of 3.

If you want to explore the world of ESL Gaming more than provided, you can always log on to the following websites – ESL Pro | ESL Play

Our contribution

ESL India Premiership 2017 Summer Finals is already a major attraction for gamers from all across the sub-continent and beyond. Being a community from the same country, we want to help the ESL team by giving our best to make the event even better. And that’s when I thought, ‘why not cover the event?’

It is extremely hard for me to cover the entire thing, sitting here in Assam and that’s the force that drove me not to engage myself in it. Then I thought if not now, it’s gonna be too late. That’s when I made the decision, whether I have the adequate information to keep this thing going or not, I will try my best and create unique content you’d enjoy reading.

We hope the tournament goes as planned and we wish the participants a “Big Good Luck” for the event.

Thanks for Reading!

You can expect some great articles regarding ESL India Premiership 2017 anytime soon. Subscribe to our newsletter to never miss an update. And here’s the final question: Are you attending the event? Do you like how Indian eSports is on an accelerating platform right now? Start the discussion in the comments below.