The Melbourne Esports Open is back for 2019

From August 31^st until September 1^st, the Melbourne Esports Open is going to be held at Melbourne Olympic Park – it’s set to be by far the biggest weekend for esports in Australia, so definitely something to take note of for esports fans.

Last year, the event saw two huge esports final – the Oceanic Pro League Finals had several League of Legends pros battling for the title. This year, the finals for that League will be back to – as a matter of fact, the OPL Finals are going to be headlining the Melbourne Esports Open until 2022 at the very least! Players from Australia, New Zealand and surrounding islands get together to compete at Melbourne Olympic Park – a must-watch for fans.

© Melbourne Esports Open

Last year, the other big event that took place there was the Overwatch Contenders Australia Finals – the Australian Contenders region hosted 12 of the highest-performing teams from the circuit, all battling for a $50k prize pool. Like the OPL, the Contenders too are going to be back!

In addition to these two big-name tournaments, other games like Fortnite, Pokémon and Rainbow Six Siege will also feature, making for quite the triple-A line-up when it comes to esports tournaments at the event.

Of course, it’s not just the pros playing – fans attending the event can enjoy interactive gaming experiences in the so-called ‘JB Hi-Fi Game On Zone’, which despite its clunky name is a popular section of the event that lets fans experience gaming in a new way.

If you want to attend the event, you can do so by purchasing a ticket online – they will go on sale at 10am local time on Friday the 12^th of April. Passes for the entire weekend start at $37.90, while single-day tickets start at $19.90.

This event is just the latest in a series of similar ones that take place in the country every year – despite its remote location, Australia is a big region for esports. As a matter of fact, Australia is the 14^th biggest esports market in the world – that’s quite the considerable ranking. Of course, this is in no small part precisely because of events like this that make it possible for the wider public to attend esports events and exchange with others about their hobby!

Another example of this type of thing is the Melbourne Melee – one of Australia’s leading esports communities for Super Smash Bros, it too will make an appearance at the Melbourne Esports Open, and it just recently made headlines for teaming up with Mogul, a world-wide esports platform that hosts open tournaments for a variety of games out there. These games include Dota 2, Apex Legends, CS:GO, Overwatch and Hearthstone.

With more and more events and partnerships like these ones taking place down under, it’s really no surprise that the esports community in Australia is growing stronger every year – despite them not being part of most major leagues (which tend to centre on Europe, Asia or the Americas), Australia has established itself as an esports hub to be reckoned with.