What’s on this week? – ESI is the Tower Champion – February 19th – 25th

“What’s on this week?” is ESI’s weekly feature letting you know just what’s going on in the wonderful world of esports in the next seven days. Each week, ESI picks a selection of events and provides a brief overview of what’s going down, where it’s taking place and how you can watch it.

This week we’re feeling especially different, no singular genre or game standing out. From Katowice and some top CS:GO action, we then stay in Europe for some MMO esports from World of Warcraft before heading home to the UK to take a look at the LVP UKLC and get some regional League of Legends action.

IEM Katowice Major 2019 – Week Two – CS:GO

It’s CS:GO Major time and Katowice is our location, so we’re surely in for another great event. We looked at week one of the Major last week, week two sees us focus on ‘The New Legends Stage’. Taking place between the 20th – 24th, the 16 team Swiss Format and will follow the previous rounds ‘Best of’ rule set, with Elimination matches, played on Bo3 and all other matches played on Bo1. The top eight teams will progress to next weeks ‘The New Champions Stage’ with the bottom eight being eliminated.

The 16 will see the legends playing their first matches, Astralis, Natus Vincere, MIBR, Team Liquid, compLexity Gaming, BIG, HellRaisers and FaZe Clan. With week one challengers NRG, Renegades, ENCE, Team Vitality, AVANGAR, NiP, Cloud9 and G2 Esports rounding out the 16 teams.

Stream: ESL CS:GO – Location: Katowice, Poland – Date: 20/2 – 24/2  – Sponsors: Intel, Vodafone, Acer Predator, HyperX, Betway, paysafecard, NEEDforSEAT, MTN Dew  – Organiser: ESL – Prize pool: $1m (£770,000)

WoW Arena World Championship EU Cup #3 – World of Warcraft

2019 promised to be a big year for WoW esports, with Blizzard announcing a slew of changes and new events for both the Arena and MDI series’. The first round of Arena cups is well underway and we join as EU takes to its 3rd cup of the year with a regular face a top of standing in Method Black.

The AWC features Bo5 across all rounds, with Bo7 reserved for the end of season final. Right now in the EU as we head into the final two weeks, Method Black sits atop the standings with 240 points, with Wildcard Gaming on 180 in second place and Choccy Milk Men & Change My Mind in joint 3rd. A notable admission from this list is Tempo Storm, one of the only other recognised esports teams’ in the standing who currently sit in 10th after the team has so far failed to hit the mark in the 2019 season.

Stream: Warcraft – Location: Online – Date:  22/2 – 24/2 – Sponsors: N/A – Organiser: Blizzard – Prize pool: $10,000 (£7,500) per cup

LVP UKLC – Week Two – League of Legends

When the EU League of Legends scene became franchised for 2019, it created a lot of hype for regional leagues’ across Europe. One of the standouts was our very own UK league. 2018 saw LVP take over from ESL UK as the organiser of the UK LoL scene and 2019 saw the start of LVP UKLC, featuring familiar faces from UK’s past alongside new LEC team Excel and current EU champions Fnatic enter academy rosters in their home regions.

LVP UKLC is made up of MnM Gaming, Barrage Esports, Enclave Gaming, Diabolus, Excel UK, Bulldog, DarkSpawn Esports, Phelan Gaming and EULCS champions Fnatic. The series features a ‘Tower’ system, which sees the previous week or Tower, winner taking the form as the ‘end boss’ of the following week. Week one saw Excel claim the Tower with Fnatic, Diabolus and MnM making up 2nd – 4th. All matches are played Bo1 with each week being a single elimination

Stream: LVPUK – Location: Online (UK) – Date:  20/2 -21/2 – Sponsors: N/A – Organiser: RiotGamess & LVP – Prize pool: £50,000

That’s a wrap on this week’s picks, be sure to check back next week for another edition of the ESI weekly picks.

We want to feature at least one smaller event each week on the ESI weekly picks. If you want an event included in a future edition, send an email to [email protected].

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