The South Korea Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea e-sports Association, and several esports companies have announced an entirely new esports league for the region, the Korean Esports League (KEL).
The league will feature teams from major cities in South Korea, such as Busan, Sejong, Daejeon, and others. Its inaugural season will feature three games: PUBG Mobile, Eternal Return, and EA FC Mobile. The total prize pool will be 100m KRW, or around $71,000.
Image credit: Korean Esports League
The esports league is the first of its kind in South Korea, a country known for its rich gaming and esports heritage and some of the best teams in the world. The KEL has been co-launched with the Ministry and the Korean esports association, but gaming companies Krafton, Nimble Neuron, and Nexon Korea will also participate in organising events in their respective titles. In addition to the prize money, the tournament winners get other benefits.
The winners of the PUBG Mobile event will earn points toward the PUBG Mobile Global Championship, the Eternal Return winners will receive a share of the profits from the Season 7 Support package (a form of battle pass similar to the revenue shares in other games), and the finalists of the EA FC Mobile tournament will qualify for the FC Pro Champions Cup.
The league will feature online group stages and qualifiers with offline finals at esports stadiums in Busan, Gwangju, Daejeon and Goyang (during the KINTEX Play Expo). The events will leverage South Korea’s impressive esports infrastructure, esports stadiums and other venues and locations. What makes the league interesting is its focus on regional and provincial competitions. The idea of its founders is to have teams from different parts of South Korea compete for prizes, regional prestige, and bragging rights.
The games selected are sensible choices, and the three titles are all very popular in South Korea. PUBG Mobile is much more popular in Korea than the console and PC versions of the same game, and the country has its own professional esports league, such as the PUBG Mobile Pro Series. EA FC Mobile, the world’s most popular mobile football game, is also very popular in Korea. The country is the second-most popular region for EA FC Mobile.
Lastly, perhaps the most unfamiliar game to Western esports fans is Eternal Return. It is a Korean-made MOBA and battle royale hybrid and a sleeper hit in Korea. The game’s esports scene is largely based in its home country, but online and offline viewership is solid for a game launched approximately a year ago.
While the KEL will lack the large prize pools of some of the other esports leagues, its deep connections to the South Korean government might make it an interesting contender for the growth of grassroots esports in the country, especially with its focus on two popular mobile games and one local esports hit.
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