Konami sent out the following
Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced the formation of a brand new esports tournament for eFootball PES 2020, the eFootball.Open, in addition to the return of eFootball.Pro – both now existing within the overarching eFootball competition structure.
eFootball will consist of two separate tournaments; eFootball.Pro, the returning tournament for professional football clubs that started with remarkable success last year, and eFootball.Open, a new tournament for regular or casual users. The total prize pool across eFootball will be over US$2M, with significant prizes available for eFootball.Pro.
To support the larger scale of eFootball compared to the company’s previous esports initiatives, KONAMI will once again be partnering with Esports Media Rights (EMR), the esports company founded by Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué, for both eFootball.Pro and eFootball.Open.
KONAMI’s top-flight tournament, eFootball.Pro, will include only professional, real-world football clubs, with each club selecting at least three esports players to compete in 3v3 CO-OP matches throughout the season. Clubs will be responsible for selecting their own players, largely chosen from last season’s professional players plus those who participated in the recent PES LEAGUE Regional and World Finals.
The professional esports teams will compete against each other with fully authentic club line-ups with balanced stats, specific for tournament play. eFootball.Pro participating clubs, locations and dates will be announced soon.
For eFootball.Open, the amateur eFootball tournament previously known as PES LEAGUE, the match format will be exclusively 1v1, with players selecting one club when they enter and competing alongside others who have picked the same club. The schedule and clubs available in eFootball.Open will be the same for those competing in the professional eFootball.Pro.
To allow for increased participation of casual users in esports, the new online Matchday mode in eFootball PES 2020 will play a key role in identifying participants in eFootball.Open. For increased accessibility, there will be three classes available – Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, with top-tier users proceeding to Regional and World Finals.
Furthermore, the joint sponsorship competitions in co-operation with football associations such as “eJLEAGUE” or “TOYOTA Thai League” will be held in Asia, South America and Europe as local eFootball.
Further details on tournament structure and player selection process will be announced soon, though both tournaments will start by the end of 2019.
Will you be checking this out?