Esports and gaming agency PROJEKT GAP has announced a new tournament series called PATHFINDERS. It will focus on women and marginalised-community competition.
The series will kick off with a League of Legends tournament in May 2023, and will feature a semi-franchised model. Teams such as G2 HEL, BIG Chroma, Galaxy Racer and QLash Midnight are set to compete in the series.
PROJEKT GAP is an agency from the United Kingdom that focuses on ‘creating accessibility for players and brands’ in gaming and esports, according to a release. The company also organises and produces esports tournaments in a number of games. PATHFINDERS is a new project for the company which has been teased for a while.
The focus of the PATHFINDERS tournament series is League of Legends, and the company did not announce any other games that might also be included. There will be at least four PATHFINDERS tournaments in 2023, and each one will feature eight teams, six of which will be franchise teams.
The model sees the six teams sign an agreement with the organisers to participate in the tournament series for at least one year. These teams are Team Solary, Galaxy Racer, G2 Esports, QLash Midnight, Vitality French Bees and BIG Chroma.
The six partnered teams will be joined by two qualified teams that need to earn their spot through open qualifiers. According to PROJEKT GAP, the system will allow signed organisations to invest more into rosters with the assurance of regular, high-quality tournaments.
The first open qualifiers for the tournament will be held on May 13th and 14th, and the first event will take place on May 27th and 28th.
Ali Rashid, Head of Product at PROJEKT GAP, said: “We want to provide a safe environment for women to play and develop their careers within esports. However, we also understand that for the growth of the scene, it is important to incentivise not only players but organisations as well.”
