- ESL Mobile Open will now welcome Wild Rift as one of the viable events
- The event will run with a prize pool of $5,000
- The winner of the Wild Rift ESL Open will qualify for the championship in October
Wild Rift continues to build upon the esports hype ahead of a major event in October as ESL Mobile Open now hosts the game in Oceania.
ESL Mobile Open Introduces Wild Rift to Oceania
The ESL Mobile Open is expanding its coverage of games with another worthwhile addition. League of Legends: Wild Rift will be joining the Oceania portfolio of viable games to compete in as The Wild Rift ESL Mobile Open Oceania Championship is now an official event in this year's circuit of competitive gaming tournaments.
The development is refreshing, especially in light of earlier news from this week that Cloud9 is also looking to sign up players for its Wild Rift roster. The event, which will sport a modest $5,000 prize pool, is another step forward for the competitive community built around Wild Rift, Riot Games' mobile MOBA inspired by League of Legends and trying to compete with Mobile Legends Bang Bang and Honor of Kings.
ESL is planning four competitive stages with open qualifiers, esports Swiss, a round robin phase, and finally, a gauntlet. Announced as a surprise, ESL will allow players to prepare for the tournament by staging four individual Open Qualifiers on July 4, 11, 18, and 25.
Get Strapped In, Competitive Wild Rift Is Here
Teams of up to seven players can register for each of these qualifiers and participate in a single-elimination bracket, with each series played in a Best of 3. The top four teams of each qualifier will make it to the esports Swiss format. A total of 16 teams will be able to compete in this phase of the event on August 15.
The third stage will then progress to a round robin format which will feature another Best of 3 games and take place from August 22 through 29, leading to the Gauntlet on September 5. A total of four teams will make it to the Gauntlet. The format here would make it a little more challenging for Teams #3 and #4 to win.
Teams #3 and #4 will be the first to play. The winner will then progress and play against #2 with the winner of the Round Robin phase comfortably waiting for the last team at the Grand Finals. Winning the ESL Open can be a huge boost to a team's Wild Rift career, as the game will have a separate major event this October.
Is $5,000 Really Enough?
There is also the $2,000 cash prize that the first team will win if they actually make it to the end. While this is good news for the Wild Rift community, a prize pool of $5,000 after nearly two months of play seems a little on the low side.
Riot Games is in the habit of growing its games organically, so this may be just a first step. Wild Rift will also need to excite a little more interest with players in order for the title to start commanding better prize purses.
Wild Rift already held a competitive event in early June, and the calendar for the mobile MOBA seems to be intensifying.
