Today, Multiplay have announced through Twitter, further details around Season 3 of UK Masters. After a rather heavy domestic schedule in January, many teams will be somewhat relieved to find out that the qualifying process for this particular league will be in February now and with £15,000 up for grabs in prize money, they won’t want to miss out.
Both Team Endpoint and the current reigning champions, fm-eSports, have been given invites back to Season 3 and thus will avoid having to qualify. There are also two further invited teams to this season, although Multiplay are yet to reveal such information, however if logic was to be in play we would assume that it would be the two teams that reached the playoff stage last season, which were Team CeX and CAZ eSports. This now means that Multiplay have reduced the number of cups, to just two, where two teams will qualify from each cup to join the four invited teams into the group stage.
UK Masters Trophy
Meanwhile Multiplay have also revealed some more intriguing things as they confirm Season 4 will also appear later in this year, with the possibility of heading to some of their brand new “Belong Gaming Zones” which feature prominently in their owners, GAME Retail stores. This move is a rather unique and bold strategy from the event organiser as they look to pull closer to their owners and make gaming and Esports in the UK a much more tantalising prospect.
Taken from the news post on the Multiplay Website:
At Insomnia59 we announced the next outing for the UK Masters as we headed into 2017. Today, we’re extremely excited to talk more about the next iteration of the UK Masters and our new approach for this year.
We kick off the 2017 UK Masters calendar with the Spring Season, a return to the roots of the UK Masters. Counter Strike: Global Offensive takes centre stage as the sole title for the Spring Season of the UK Masters, with teams battling it out for a £15,000 prize pool. Prizes will be awarded for each map win, giving teams that extra boost to play at the very top of their game throughout the duration of the league.
Alongside moving to a single title for the Spring Season of the UK Masters, we’re also changing how we share the tournament with you. This Season will once again be broadcast from the Multiplay studio, providing incredibly high level quality content to our brand new UK Masters Twitch channel, 3 nights a week from 7 to 11pm and rebroadcast on our UK Masters Facebook page the following day, meaning you can catch up on any of the matches you might miss.
The format for the Spring Season of the UK Masters gives 4 teams direct invites into the league that will be joined by the 4 teams that advance through the 2 open qualifiers into the league. Teams will duke it out over 5 weeks of matches, culminating in the top 4 teams advancing into the playoff stage of the competition with the final 2 teams joining us at Insomnia60 for the Grand Finals of the Spring Season.
The first qualifier for the Spring Season of the UK Masters takes place on the 1st and 2nd of February, followed by the second qualifier on the 8th and 9th of February. You can sign up to the qualifiers now!
As we move further into 2017, we have a lot of really exciting things to share with you about the future of the UK Masters. Multiple games return to the lineup in the Summer Season and the brand new Belong Gaming Zones up and down the country will provide new, dedicated esports experiences. We’re really excited about 2017 in the UK Masters and we think you will be too.
Be sure to follow the UK Masters on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
We will be covering every step of the way for UK Masters in greater detail over the coming season, so make sure you stay tuned to UKCSGO for all the latest news, coverage, and event announcements.
