After the moderate success of the first UK Masters season, debuting in CS:GO, Multiplay is hitting back and giving us a second season of competition – adding in two more titles to the list.
The second season is set to be giving out £47,500 out over three titles, with CS:GO and League of Legends each taking £20,000 and Hearthstone set to shell out £7,500 for its competitors. Multiplay has kept it safe with the titles it has chosen, by picking stalwarts from its LAN offering to be their new titles.
The prize pools on offer make these the largest leagues in recent UK esports history, immediately blowing out ESL UK’s recent Summer Season of tournaments with only £34,000 on offer between four titles, and with ESL’s season starting before many CSGO teams had finalised their rosters to qualify, the UK Masters would most certainly be the watching point for UK CSGO in the coming months.
For Hearthstone, it would be most certainly considered that the best UK players would be in attendance – especially with the fact that the Truesilver tournament has been the highest prize pool tournament at recent Insomnia events, bringing players from all over the world to compete. Considering that Torpedo’s British player Joe “Ness” Zazzaro-Francis won i57’s Truesilver tournament earlier in the year, and adding in players like Dignitas’ Greensheep and others – it’ll be an exciting tournament to watch.
League of Legends has undergone some controversy recently, but with its own new tournament to set itself up for more competition to feed into Insomnia i59 there should be some time to clear up so teams such as MnM Gaming, TCA and Perilous Void can push on to potentially add another title to their list – even if there isn’t a Challenger spot up for grabs with this tournament.
For CS:GO, CAZ eSports and FM-esports are set to be receiving invites straight to the main league tournament before three qualifiers, with two teams qualifying from each, set to round out their team list. League of Legends and Hearthstone will be seeing their teams come from two qualifiers – of which four competitors go through. Details on these qualifiers are available on the UK Masters site.
The season will finish with finals at the Insomnia i59 event at the NEC in Birmingham this December, where the final two teams will compete for the lion share of the tournament money. Qualifiers start on the 21st September so there’s enough time to start practising for getting through.
Header image from Multiplay’s official announcement, which can be found here.