Esports tournament organiser FACEIT, part of the ESL FACEIT Group, has announced the OFFSEASON OPEN, a new off-season tournament focused on Rocket League.
The tournament will take place between October 20 and 22, and feature a €10,000 (~£8,600) prize pool. The tournament is open to all interested players in Europe and will take place online. The game mode played is the standard competitive 3v3.
The newly announced online tournament is a part of a larger series of Rocket League tournaments taking place in the off-season, between major tournaments organised by the game’s developer Psyonix. The tournaments aim to keep the viewers’ attention between major events, and to help professional and amateur players compete in more laid-back and casual environments.
This year’s schedule includes high-profile events such as Collegiate Rocket League, the official Psyonix esports league for colleges in North America, as well as smaller online cups like the OFFSEASON OPEN. FACEIT noted in a release that the company has been organising smaller online cups that rewarded FACEIT points for a while now and is now aiming to “test the waters” with a larger event with a more substantial prize pool.
The tournament will be divided into several segments. The open qualifiers will take place on October 20, and aim to provide the top 16 players that will advance to the next round. The closed qualifier is next, taking the 16 players and giving the top eight the chance to advance to the finals on October 22.
Rocket League’s most recent World Championship was a success in terms of viewership, with 468,292 peak concurrent viewers tuning in to the tournament.
This is around 100,000 more viewers when compared to the previous most-watched event in the game’s history, signaling a steady growth of popularity for the car football game.
