Esports Premier League announces Season 2

Esports Premier League (ESPL) has roped in global premium smartphone brand, Chinese smartphone brand TECNO Mobile as its presenting sponsor for the second edition of the country’s first franchise-based league for gaming after the inaugural edition. The upcoming edition of the esports league, ESPL will kickstart registrations on June 10 and matches will begin June 21.

This year’s league is set to engage gamers across the country in a high-voltage action with the most popular battle royale game, ‘Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) which carries a prize pool of ₹1 crore.

The champion team, it said, will earn ₹50 lakh while the second and third-placed teams will bag ₹25 lakh and ₹10 lakh respectively. The top 16 teams will be awarded cash prizes and the Most Valuable Player Award winner will get ₹1 lakh.

“The first season of the Esports Premier League was a great success and this time we will try to make it even bigger. We are thrilled to have them on board as the title sponsor for this event. We are committed to providing a world-class platform for Indian talent through this league in order to develop the Indian esports ecosystem, taking it to the next level,” said its director, Vishwalok Nath.

Arijeet Talapatra, CEO of the smartphone brand in India said, “India’s gaming community is witnessing a boom and growing exponentially at a rate of 38% per annum. The Indian gaming industry is estimated to be valued at over $3.9 billion by 2025. These developments have heightened gamers’ expectations from the technology sector and there is an increased demand for better and more powerful gaming devices with high-end processors, augmented speed and longer battery life.“

The league will be played in two separate stages in the initial phase -- online qualifiers as well as an invitational qualifier -- to shortlist the top 16 teams. The first 12 teams, top-2 teams from the online event and top-10 teams from the invitational qualifiers, will progress directly into the final stage and compete for the top 2 spots in the final.

The teams ranked from 3 to 10 (7 teams) in the online qualifiers and teams ranked from 11 to 18 from invitational qualifiers will compete for the other top two spots available in the finals. The finals will also witness two direct invited teams competing and vying for the title.

The inaugural season which recorded about one million registrations and 100 million-plus video views streamed live on YouTube and Facebook channels of India Today and Aaj Tak and its websites.

Nath added, “Every season we plan to do something different in order to take the league to the next level. The upcoming edition will also be action-packed, especially with players fighting it out on the BGMI esports maps which is a very popular title among the gaming community. This platform is for our athletes and they are equally excited.”