Red Bull SoloQ returns for 3rd year in a row and bigger then ever

Red Bull SoloQ the surprisingly popular duelist event is back for the third time! The 1v1 League of Legends tournament is coming back around yet again – in fact, quite a lot about the Red Bull SoloQ 2021 will look familiar to fans who watched or played in the previous iterations.

Kick-off for the SoloQ 21 is next month – and it will once again have some of the best amateur players from around the world battling to become the solo champ. Originally, the Solo Q was ‘just’ a grassroots event in 2014, however thanks to its popularity and unique setup, it’s now pretty much become a regular circuit event.

As before, the winner of the event will get to take part in the League of Legends All-Star event. Don’t think it’ll be easy to get that title though. Last year, some 80k competitors tried their hand at national and international matches as part of the SoloQ. The qualifiers will be running from the 24th of April until the 7th of November – by then, the players taking part in the final will be set.

Bring back the old

If you regularly play LoL you may well have already seen that the event is even being promoted in the game client… that’s how big SoloQ has gotten! Red Bull and Riot Games are sticking with a tried and true concept – once again, we’ll be seeing queen Sjokz (Eefje Depoortere) as the Global Brand Ambassador for the event. She’s been the face of the competition since 2019 and will once again be part of some of the events, from national tournaments to the world finals!

The rules are the same as well – the 1v1 format requires players to either draw first blood, kill the opponents tower, or just exterminate 100 enemy minions in order to claim victory – and all that with a time limit!

Signups are available here.

A big event

This year’s Red Bull Solo Q 2021 will feature over 30 national competitions leading up to 10 international qualifiers, as well as of course the big global final near the end of the year. At the moment, it’s scheduled to be an in-person event in Germany, however whether or not that will be possible will depend on the conditions and safety precautions necessary at that time. Safety first – the organisers have already announced that the event will be switched to fully remote if necessary. For the moment, it’s set for the 3rd of December, in Frankfurt.

Not all is the same as in previous years though – this year, Red Bull SoloQ signed with SteelSeries, who will be providing all the necessary peripherals for the event, including headsets, keyboards and mice. Another partner is AOC – they will be supplying the monitors for competing players in in-person events.