Fansided

Next ELEAGUE tournament to focus on Street Fighter V

By Brittany Frederick

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 15: Capcom's 'Street Fighter 5' is introduced during the Sony E3 press conference at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena on June 15, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. The Sony press conference is held in conjunction with the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) which focuses on gaming systems and interactive entertainment, featuring introductions to new products and technologies. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 15: Capcom's 'Street Fighter 5' is introduced during the Sony E3 press conference at the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena on June 15, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. The Sony press conference is held in conjunction with the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) which focuses on gaming systems and interactive entertainment, featuring introductions to new products and technologies. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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TBS’s ELEAGUE is taking a break from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and will host a new Street Fighter V tournament this March.

Fans of Turner and IMG’s ELEAGUE will see something completely different when it returns next month. It was announced on Thursday that the next round of ELEAGUE will focus on Capcom’s Street Fighter V rather than Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

CS:GO isn’t being removed from ELEAGUE, but Turner and IMG are looking to diversify the brand to feature more than one game.

The ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational will consist of 32 individual players. Half the field will be selected from those who competed on the Capcom Pro Tour last year, while the other half are being invited directly by Capcom.

The tournament will begin with an opening round from March 27-30 to determine which 24 of the contestants will be selected for the ELEAGUE “regular season.” That first round will be available via live stream on Twitch.

Once the field of 24 is decided, the season will take place across select Fridays in April and May: April 7, April 21, May 5 and May 12.

While Twitch will carry full coverage on those days, that’s when you’ll see the live ELEAGUE TV broadcasts on TBS at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT — just like how ELEAGUE would have CS:GO teams play each other to get to the Friday night live shows in the past two seasons.

The ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational Playoffs then take place on one single day: Friday, May 26, with the same streaming and broadcast information as the regular season. The winner will get the biggest share of a $250,000 prize purse.

Bonus coverage will come in the form of a regular season recap show (on April 28) and a playoff preview show (on May 19).

Thursday’s announcement did not include any news about what talent will be involved with the new tournament, so fans may have a new broadcast team to fill in for the now well-known and loved Richard Lewis, Jason “Moses” O’Toole, Duncan “Thorin” Shields and their casters.

This is a gutsy move for ELEAGUE. January’s ELEAGUE Major shattered viewership records in addition to providing some of the best Counter-Strike that’s ever been played. It’s no small risk to move away from that right after such a big accomplishment.

And we also don’t know when ELEAGUE’s next CS:GO tournament will be. Hopefully there will be room for it sometime in 2017, but the dates above would seem to indicate that it wouldn’t be until the second half of the year. Will audiences miss the teams and players they’ve come to love?

Not to mention that ELEAGUE was the only U.S. TV broadcast platform for CS:GO, so fans who want to follow the game this spring will have to find streams for upcoming tournaments.

But from a business standpoint, this could potentially pay off for Turner and IMG in a big way. It’s similar to how some tournament brands like ESL One have events for more than CS:GO. And if they can successfully expand the brand into multiple games, they could turn it into a year-round happening, running one game in the spring and another in the fall. Think of it like The Voice for eSports.

Plus, with the ELEAGUE Major just having happened in Atlanta in January followed promptly by DreamHack Masters Las Vegas this month, it likely didn’t make overall sense for there to be a third U.S. Major in three months. CS:GO is a global game, with far more international teams, and we’ve got to share it with the rest of the world.

Next: Who Won DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017?

Are you excited for ELEAGUE to take on Street Fighter V? Or will you be waiting for it to get back to Counter-Strike? Leave your thoughts about Thursday’s announcement in the comments. The first two seasons and the Major are also available for streaming via YouTube.