Hi-Rez Studios and WESA have announced that the first online matches for their jointly run Paladins Premier League will run throughout this weekend.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The EU and NA dvisions will play in a five-week split for the Fall season, with all ten teams later meeting at a Super Regional offline event.[/perfectpullquote]

From September 30 through to October 1, four games from the EU and NA divisions of the league will be broadcasted exclusively on Facebook Live. This will be the first of a five-week split for the Fall season, with all ten teams later meeting at a Super Regional offline event. The results will determine the top seeds for the Paladins World Championship at HiRez Expo 2018, scheduled for early January.

Todd Harris, co-founder and COO of Hi-Rez Studios told The Esports Observer:

“All League play is exclusive to Facebook. There will be some different Paladins content that appears on other platforms. Specifically, the way the ecosystem goes to Hi-Rex expo, the World Championship will have the best teams from the PPL, but also other teams from around the world. That World Championship will actually be broadcast on multiple platforms.”

Harris further explained that regions outside of the League will have a chance to qualify through the Paladins Global Series. The bottom teams in the PPL will compete against the top PGS teams for a slot, while China (where Tencent is responsible for Paladins esports) will run their own regional competitions to field two teams.

Speaking specifically to the PPL matches taking place this weekend, Harris added:

“Candidly, I expect viewership to be pretty modest. But to me, this is about where Paladins will be in a year from now, not a week. I think we have the right partners in place to make Paladins huge over the next year.”

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]As a WESA sanctioned competition, the PPL will share revenues between all member teams, and set a minimum salary for players.[/perfectpullquote]

Surprise announcements like this have become characteristic of Hi-Rez and WESA now, who announced both the PPL and its Facebook exclusivity in the space of a month. Since then, the WESA-member organisations have signed top-performing Paladins squads. SK Gaming brought aboard the former roster from Denial Esports, while G2 Esports acquired Team CryptiK, winners of the $40,000 prize at Dreamhack Valencia.

The announcement also confirmed which esports orgs would play for each region of the league: SK Gaming, Team EnVyUs, Splyce, Renegades and G2 Esports will compete in North America, while Virtus.Pro, Natus Vincere, mousesports, Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas will face off in Europe.

As a WESA sanctioned competition, the Paladins Premier League will share revenues between all member teams, and set a minimum salary for players. “The whole ecosystem is starting to mature,” said Todd Harris. “We’ve always wanted teams to share in the upside, there just wasn’t as much upside in the past. But now more partners are wanting to get involved, and lift esports in general, and the PPL will be a part of that.”

Disclosure: Jens Hilgers is co-owner of G2 Esports and partner at BITKRAFT Esports Ventures. BITKRAFT Esports Ventures is an investor in Esports Business Solutions UG, the company behind The Esports Observer.