ESL to become esports partner for the $1,000,000 Quake World Championships culminating at QuakeCon this August
One of the most popular FPS franchises of all time will make a comeback into the competitive scene this summer with Quake® Champions, the latest installment of the skill-based arena-style FPS that helped launch esports more than twenty years ago. The world’s largest esports company, ESL, today announced that it has partnered with game development studio id® Software and one of the leading game publishers, Bethesda Softworks®, to create a global competitive ecosystem for this new title.
Additionally, ESL announced that it will become the esports partner for Bethesda’s QuakeCon® – an annual four-day festival celebrating Quake and the games produced and published by studios under the ZeniMax® Media umbrella. ESL will be leading the live event production and online broadcast for the Quake World Championships events across Europe and North America, as well as the finals event to be held at QuakeCon. QuakeCon hosts North America’s biggest BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) festival August 24-27, in Dallas, Texas, and will feature the Quake World Championships Finals for the $1,000,000 prize pool.
“I think ESL and Bethesda have a great opportunity with Quake Champions because of how good a spectator sport Quake is. Quake has the potential to unite viewers of all game genres,” said Michal Blicharz, VP of Pro Gaming, ESL. “ESL has Quake in its DNA and we are a perfect esports partner for id Software.”
“Quake is back in the esports scene in a big way with Quake Champions, and the Quake World Championships will be the ultimate test of skill for the best competitive players in the world,” said Tim Willits, Studio Director, id Software. “Working with ESL, we’re excited to produce an incredible competition featuring amazing pro player talent, all vying for the million dollar prize pool and the title of the very first Quake World Championships champion.”
Competitive Quake Champions will also be showcased and streamed live from the E3 ESPORTS ZONE Powered by ESL on June 14-15 from the E3 show floor. Wednesday, June 14 through Thursday, June 15, the E3 ESPORTS ZONE will host competitions and dev talks for Quake Champions. Competitors from Team Liquid, including 2016 QuakeCon Duel Champion, Rapha, will appear Wednesday, June 14 beginning at 10:30 am Pacific, alongside Tim Willits and John “ZeRo4” Hill from id Software. Rapha will be joined by Team Liquid teammates ID_, DaHang, and Azk. On Thursday, June 15, top competitors from Europe, including Noctis, Fazz, Stermy, and toxjq will take over the stream with their own play beginning at 10:30 am Pacific.
To enter the Quake World Championships, competitors should register by visiting https://play.eslgaming.com/quake/. Complete rules and eligibility requirements can be found online.
Stay up to date on Quake esports by following ESL Quake on Twitter and Facebook.
Quake Champions is currently available in Beta on PC. Players can join the Beta right now at www.Quake.com.