Indian esports and gaming company Skyesports has announced a Rs 2.25m (~£23,900) Pokémon UNITE esports tournament in collaboration with The Pokémon Company.
The event will feature a range of open qualifiers and playoffs with the best teams competing in the national finals. The finals will be a LAN event held in Mumbai around mid-December.
The Pokémon UNITE India Open 2022 LAN Finals will occur during the Skyesports Championship 4.0, a multi-title event created by the tournament organiser. As a result, the finals will feature a live audience. With this information — alongside its prize pool — this is one of the biggest Pokémon UNITE esports events in India to date.
Zonal qualifiers and finals will commence from November 21st to December. 2nd. From then the top four teams from each zone will advance to the livestreamed national playoffs from December 3rd to 13th.
Despite being in partnership with The Pokémon Company, it seems that the event will be separate from the Pokémon UNITE Championship Series which concluded its inaugural season in August. The Pokémon UNITE World Championship 2022 was won by American organisation BLVKHVND, which claimed $100,000 (~£88,225) in the process.
Shiva Nandy, the Founder and CEO of Skyesports, commented: “We are thrilled to be working with The Pokémon Company to bring the biggest esports IP for Pokémon UNITE in the country, the India Open 2022.
“We are working to make Pokémon UNITE a household title for Indian audiences and families. The zonal-based format will ensure maximum regional penetration and will boost participation from the grassroots level as we look to grow and support the game in the country.”
This isn’t the first time that Skyesports has launched a Pokémon UNITE event in 2022. Last month the company teamed up with 8Bit Creatives to run the Pokémon UNITE Skyesports Streamers Showdown.
