Female-focused League of Legends tournament Equal Esports Cup returns

The Equal Esports Cup, EMEA’s tournament for women and non-binary people, has been officially announced for its third consecutive year.

A total of 12 teams will compete for the title, with the two finalists advancing to Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, for an offline grand final series.

Organised by SK Gaming, the Esports Player Foundation and German telecommunication company Telekom — with Riot Games as an official partner — the Equal Esports Cup will kick off on July 1st and last until August 24th.

The Equal Esports Cup will have a revamped format in 2025. Teams will no longer compete in a round-robin tournament; instead, they will be split into two groups of six.

Each group will play a best-of-two round robin with the top three teams from each group advancing to the playoffs. All matches will feature Fearless Draft, the same as all major competitions within the League of Legends esports ecosystem. The top six teams will then play in a double-elimination bracket of best-of-three series.

According to the official announcement, the tournament will feature eight invited teams as well as four additional teams that will qualify through open qualifiers.

Five out of the eight invited teams have already been confirmed: G2 Hel, SK Gaming Avarosa, Team Vitality French Bees, Solary Académie and Galions Pearl (previously known as Team GO Aurora). The remaining three are yet to be confirmed.

Last year, the tournament was won by NNOwO, which reverse-swept G2 Hel 2-1 in the final, taking €5,000 (~£4,183) of the €10,000 (~£8,366) prize pool. The other eight participating teams were Team GO Aurora, Chester Gaming, NORD Polaris, Vitality Rising Bees, MAD Lions KOI Female, SK Avarosa, Team BDS Valkyries and Solary Academy.

All matches of the tournament will be broadcast on the Equal Esports Cup’s Twitch channel.

The Equal Esports Cup joins the Milk Cup in offering women an opportunity to compete in the esports space in 2025.