Esports platform Challengermode has announced the National Esports Leagues, a new amateur-to-pro initiative running across Europe.
The first leagues are set to kick off this autumn in CSGO, League of Legends and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, following a pre-season in each of the two launch regions: Scandinavia and the Baltics. The tournaments will run on Challengermode’s automated league system.
Challengermode CMO Philip Skogsberg has told Esports News UK that a National Esports League will run in the UK in the future, either by the end of 2018 or early 2019.
“We’re launching first in the Nordics but plan on rolling out in other countries including the UK by end of 2018 or early 2019,” he said.
Players from other countries can express interest in bringing a National Esports League competition to their country or region by signing up on challengermode.com.
The National Esports League is billing itself as ‘more than just another national or regional-level league’.
“One of our key goals is taking away the barriers that keep gamers across the world from participating in esports competitions – be these a lack of accessibility, or a fear of having to compete against much higher skilled players.”
“It’s a new competitive ecosystem for esports that has been created to connect casual, non-professional gaming with professional esports,” a press release statement read. “This ecosystem is based on several interconnected national or regional league competitions that anyone can participate in and that will see the best teams in every league rise to the top, culminating in a yearly European championship for the best teams.”
Philip added: “The NEL is the most ambitious project to date that we’re working on in hope of creating a healthy esports ecosystem for Challengermode and our many partners, as well as creating the most accessible esports league possible.
“One of our key goals is taking away the barriers that keep gamers across the world from participating in esports competitions – be these a lack of accessibility, or a fear of having to compete against much higher skilled players. We envision a future where every esports athlete will be able to play their favorite esports at a skill level that is appropriate to them, and in an environment that is part of a much larger esports ecosystem.”
Sign-ups for the NEL pre-season are now open.
Stockholm-based company Challengermode works with game developers, brands and tournament organisers including Dreamhack and OMEN by HP, and has hosted thousands of tournaments through its platforms. Some of these include the Nordic University Esports Championship and League of Schools, two student competitions.
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.
