In a bold move, epic.LAN and Grosevenor have partnered up to bring the epic.LAN CS:GO Championship powered by Grosvenor. This competition will hold five regional qualifiers all across the country and 1 LAN Finals, where the winner will walk away with a share of £10k.
In what is the most exciting news to hit UK shores for a little while (bar the CS:GO Major), grassroots gets a massive injection of cash through a partnership between epic.LAN & Grosvenor Casinos. With a £10,000 prize pool, and 5 regional qualifiers, it brings a lot more ambition to the CS:GO grassroots scene.
Five different locations will be used across the country, whilst the LAN finals will be held at a familiar location that used to host another particular LAN event. Grosvenor Casino at the Ricoh Arena will play host to 1 qualifier and the Finals of the epic.LAN CS:GO Championship. Each of the qualifiers will have £1k prize pool (£750 1st and £250 2nd) whilst it is a £10 per player (or £50 per team) entry fee.
Ricoh Arena will have some part to play in gaming once again (Credit: Ricoh Arena Website)
Of course the nature of the venues mean that this is a strictly 18+ tournament, with ID checks in place in the venues to make sure people are of correct age. Here are the five locations they will be based in:
- Newcastle – 14th July
- Coventry – 21st July
- Manchester – TBC Date
- Glasgow – 11th August
- Reading South – 18th August
- Coventry (FINALS) – TBC Date
Here is the press release from the epic.LAN Website:
epic.LAN is very excited to announce the launch of a brand-new community CS:GO tournament and this time, we’re bringing it to you!
We’re partnering up with Grosvenor Casinos to take CS:GO esports out to venues across the country over the coming months with a total of £10k on the line.
The one-day events will have PCs provided, so all you have to do is turn up (with your own peripherals if you prefer).
Qualifiers will be taking place at:
Grosvenor Newcastle – 14th July
Grosvenor Coventry – 21st July
Grosvenor – Manchester – TBC
Mecca – Glasgow Quay – 11th August
Grosvenor – Reading(South) – 18th August
Winners will go on to the grand final at Grosvenor Coventry later this year to compete for the grand prize.Each qualifier winning team will receive £750 and runners up £250, with the grand final champions taking £3000, second place £1500 and third place £500.
Qualifier tickets cost just £50 per team to enter and due to the nature of the venues, the tournament is restricted to ages 18 and over.
Jon Winkle, epic.LAN Managing Director comments, “epic.LAN has always provided community level tournaments for esports and recognise that some of the barriers to taking part in esports for new teams are the costs of entry and transport. That’s why we’re really looking forward to delivering this new tournament series with the team from Grosvenor Casinos so we can bring esports straight to the community and give more people opportunities to get involved”.
Callum Scott, Events & Entertainment Project Manager at Rank Group added, “We are very excited about working with epic.LAN. Having played for 10 years I know how hard it can be to get some much-needed LAN experience. We wanted to work with epic.LAN to bring tournaments outside of London, bringing it to the players and helping grow to our UK talent. It’s all about building a starting point for our future world-class teams!”
With this tournament going places, there will be an onsite casting team casting all matches that are ongoing at the venues on the epicLAN Twitch Stream. Each qualifier is open to 16 teams, with 8 of the best teams from 5 qualifiers going into the LAN Finals at Grosvenor Casino in Coventry.
We will be bringing coverage every step of the way for these events and you can follow all the coverage through our Twitter and Facebook pages, so make sure to give them a like and follow.
