Sports in Esports (SIES) has announced that the inaugural dafaNEWS Ecricket World Series (ECWS) tournament will commence on September 1st, 2021.
The tournament will be played online on Real Cricket 20 and will feature a $10,000 (~£7,253) prize pool. ECWS was originally scheduled to take place last year, however, the event was postponed due to the global pandemic.
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According to a release, the event will be played on the Esports Gaming League (EGL) tournament platform. The Season I playoffs and final will be presented from the ECWS studio and live-streamed worldwide.
More sponsors of the ECWS include Times Internet and its cricket news website Cricbuzz, as well as its pay television sports channel Willow TV.
Chris Cockerell, Co-founder of Sports in Esports, said: “As fans of esports, it is vital cricket joins the gaming elite. We have created a competition that will break all barriers to online sports gaming. With over 900 million cricket fans, India will be our initial core audience.
“Once established, our focus will be on introducing Real Cricket Mobile to other cricketing nations. We will be working with cricket associations and clubs across the globe to bring them into the world of gaming and esports with a dual focus on skilled competition and education.”
According to the release, 40,000 players have already pre-registered for the ECWS. The tournament’s qualifiers will last for eight weeks, giving players the chance to climb up the ranks. The eight players who finish in the ‘diamond league’ will progress to the playoffs which will be held across two weeks.
AnuJ Mankar, Senior Vice President at JetSynthesys, also said: “We at Nautilus Mobile are delighted to present to you the first-ever Ecricket World Series. We believe that Real Cricket 20 has redefined cricket games on mobile.
“Real Cricket 20 is an authentic and complete cricket experience, with features such as Real-Time Multiplayer and spectator mode. We look forward to working with the ECWS team to drive the Ecricket World Series to cricket gamers and Esports fans globally.”
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Glen Elliot, CEO of EGL, commented: “We are extremely excited to have Real Cricket 20 as our first game utilising our new SDK esports tournament technology, which helps games become an esport by creating a matchmaking and ranking system within the game.”
Esports Insider says: The dafaNEWS ECWS has managed to secure a range of partners for its inaugural season, which is always positive for a new esports event. It will be interesting to see how Ecricket grows as an esport and whether it will become a highly profitable market.