We’re adding a new ESL League division in Asia-Pacific which will have increased coverage, $20,000 per season in prize money, and a road to the ESL Pro League.
New ESL Challenger League in Asia-Pacific on Esea
For Season 40, teams can qualify in one of three ways:
- Two teams will be invited via the ESL World Ranking
- The top eight teams from Season 39 open Division will qualify in to ESL Challenger League based on the playoff standings
- Another six teams will qualify via the following set of qualifiers below
Each qualifier will be a best of one single elimination bracket. The qualifying match will be a best of three. The top two teams from each qualifier will advance to ESL Challenger League for Season 40 in Asia-Pacific. Players will need an ESEA Premium membership to participate, just as they will do during the upcoming Season 40.
- Qualifier #1 - 17th/18th of January
- Qualifier #2 - 19th/20th of January
- Qualifier #3 - 22nd/23rd of January
The top ESL Challenger League team in Asia-Pacific will qualify to the ESL Pro League Conference in a structure that is announced each season.
For Season 40 moving to Season 41, teams will qualify to the ESL Challenger League exclusively through the ESEA Asia-Pacific Open division, similar to how Australia/New Zealand Premier has historically operated. With the increase in prize money, both the Challenger League and Open division in Asia-Pacific will now have an entry fee consistent with our other regions. Players wanting to compete should consider buying a Premium bundle with ESEA points as a multi-month membership on Steam will provide enough points to cover the League fee. Some long-standing ESEA players in the region may find that they have already accumulated enough points to cover their first season or two of the League.
With this new path, we want to create a road to the ESL Pro League for teams who previously had to rely on ESL World Ranking invitations. For example, those teams in South East Asia, China, East Asia, and Eastern Russia who would struggle to compete in other regions due to high ping. Following the announcement of the merged ESL ANZ National Championship and ESEA Premier, players in Australia/New Zealand should start their way to the ESL Pro League through the new ANZ National Championship Open division and qualifiers.
Fast-path comes to Asia-Pacific
All teams are welcome to enter and compete on our servers in Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong, Seoul, Guam, and Tokyo. We are also proud to also announce that we have expanded ESEA Fast-Path to Asia-Pacific which helped reduce the average latency in the region down to 35 this season. During the course of Season 39, 78% of players in our Asia-Pacific Open League saw improvement with 55% of their sessions being accelerated. So far, 369 hours of packet loss were reduced in Asia-Pacific courtesy of Fast-Path.
Stay tuned and start getting your team together for registration opening for Season 40 of the ESEA League.
