WINNERS League announces North American debut; Oceanic receive first invite
WINNERS League, a FACEIT-based competitive team league that has already debuted in Europe with their first season, have announced that they will be opening up North American leagues for teams to compete in. The first season of the European division saw the enrollment of a number of notable semi-pro teams, including Izako Boars, Nemiga, x-kom, Bpro, and x6tence Galaxy, the last of whom took home $7,000 with a 2-1 win in the grand finals.
The two divisions that currently exist are the starter division, which offers a combined total prize pool of $4,800 split among the top eight teams and is open to any team looking to signup, and the invite division, in which the organizer plans to have 32 teams playing through a 7-week round-robin system that culminates in a best-of-three playoffs stage. Signups for either division costs $4 per month, although creating a new account on the organizer's website seemingly halves the entry cost.
The first team to receive an invite to the league was announced earlier yesterday in the form of Oceanic, who will look to claim a portion of the invite divison's $15,000 prize pool. Oceanic currently sit at 12th in the ESEA Advanced Season 30 standings, with a spot in playoffs all but assured as they now await the end of the league's regular season.
Signups for both divisions remain open until the start of April, with the starter division beginning on April 3rd and the invite division kicking off a day earlier, on April 2nd. The league currently has no teams signed up in the starter division, while Oceanic are the only team in the invite league at the moment.
