Europe has been given its own professional esports league for PC MMO action game World of Tanks.
The Pro League will consist of three seasons, starting this year, with the top 12 teams battling it out each season. There’s €300,000 in prize money up for grabs – €100,000 per season. So, how does the league work?
Four open qualifiers will get underway at the CeBIT Intel Extreme Masters in Hanover this weekend. All teams can enter.
The four winning teams will go to Hanover and qualify for the league. The teams that finished fifth to eighth will enter an online tournament, where the top two will qualify, too. Then the other teams will come from the Go4WoT and A-Series run by the ESL.
The top six teams from season 1 will pass directly through to season 2, while relegation games will take place to determine which teams will stay in the Pro League.
Plus, the finals of each season will be streamed online and available to watch live.
World of Tanks has produced these handy diagrams to illustrate.
In the US, the World of Tanks Pro League will have $2.5m up for grabs.
“The scale and popularity of competitive gaming has been skyrocketing over the last couple of years, and we have now reached the point where we can focus significant effort on advancing World of Tanks on to the global eSports scene,” said Global eSports Director at Wargaming, Jonghyuk Baak.
“The Wargaming.net League is a groundbreaking step in our quest to bring the game’s eSports potential into the international spotlight.”
For more information, visit the World of Tanks Pro League site.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
