The Santa Ana Esports Arena has been revealed as the location for the final of the Universal Open Rocket League tournament, a $100,000 (£766k) tournament run by FACEIT and NBC Sports.
The Grand Finals will take place in Southern California on August 26th-27th and will feature the top sixteen teams that have made it to the final event. Tickets are already on sale to the event, which cost $15 for a single-day or $25 for the entire weekend. They can be purchased here.
Qualification can be achieved through battling through Regionals — which will be hosted at NBC Sports Regional Network studios on August 5th-6th and 12th-13th and will be live-streamed on the NBC Sports app as well as the Telemundo En Vivo app amongst other social media platforms. The final hour of each Regional will be shown live on participating NBC Sports Regional Networks as the company broadens its esports operations.
The Grand Finals will also have substantial television coverage. In the UK, Germany, Australia and across multiple countries in Latin America it will be broadcast on Syfy. In the United States the finals will be broadcast on NBCSN and there will also be a plethora of on-demand content available across NBC, NBCSM, Telemundo Deportes as well as FACEIT and Rocket League’s website.
The tournament is a deviation from traditional competitive Rocket League. The fast-paced flying car meets soccer game is normally played with three players on each team, yet NBC has chosen a two versus two format. The esports landscape is gradually seeing Rocket League become the go-to title for a mild introduction to the burgeoning esports world, with soccer and flying cars fairly easy to comprehend when compared to the likes of Dota 2 and League of Legends which are incredibly complex in their own right.
Esports Insider says: A dedicated esports arena for the Grand Finals of NBC’s Rocket League venture seems apt. Here’s hoping the tournament is well received and the best two versus two teams are greeted by a sell-out crowd as they bid for the inaugural championship and the lion’s share of a whopping $100,000.