The newly released Quake Champions will have a $1,000,000 (~£787,800) World Championship taking place at QuakeCon in late August.
The qualifiers for the finals, which will take place in Dallas, start on the 29th June and will be split across the “Duel” and “4v4 Sacrifice”. 8 Sacrifice teams will qualify and 24 Duel players will travel to QuakeCon 2017 and compete for the prize money. In addition, eight additional Duel players will qualify at the QuakeCon BYOC Qualifier in Dallas.
ESL will be working with id Software and Bethesda to bring the action to a wider audience.
“I think ESL and Bethesda have a great opportunity with Quake Champions because of how good a spectator sport Quake is. Quake has the potential to unite viewers of all game genres,” commented Michal Blicharz, VP of Pro Gaming, ESL on the ESL website. He continued: “ESL has Quake in its DNA and we are a perfect esports partner for id Software.”
In the same release, Tim Willits, Studio Director, id Software said: “Quake is back in the esports scene in a big way with Quake Champions, and the Quake World Championships will be the ultimate test of skill for the best competitive players in the world. Working with ESL, we’re excited to produce an incredible competition featuring amazing pro player talent, all vying for the million dollar prize pool and the title of the very first Quake World Championships champion.”
Quake has a storied history with esports and the Champions relaunch come as it looks to reestablish itself as a modern esport. Tim Willits told Red Bull in an interview: “Quake has always been a competitive game, we’ve run esports events for 21 years, so it’s funny – a lot of people that run esports companies got their start playing Quake, they just love Quake.”
Esports Insider says: Big news from Quake Champions as it looks to reestablish a place in esports. There’s clearly a lot of affection for the title from past players, so it’ll be interesting to see if it can capture the minds of those that never played or watched the original.