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ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship coming October 21

By Brittany Frederick

June 15, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; General view of microphones during week 4 group play at Turner Studios. Mandatory Credit: Edward M. Pio Roda/Turner Sports via USA TODAY Sports
June 15, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; General view of microphones during week 4 group play at Turner Studios. Mandatory Credit: Edward M. Pio Roda/Turner Sports via USA TODAY Sports /
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The ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship is coming to TBS this October just a month after the franchise returns to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Turner and IMG’s ELEAGUE is breaking into another new game. The ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship will come to your TV screens this October, the organization announced Sunday as part of Twitch’s E3 2017 presentation.

The ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship begins with an open qualifier on Oct. 21 and ends with someone winning the lion’s share of a $250,000 prize pool. No further dates or details past that were formally announced, so fans will have to wait to find out who will be involved and what the specifics are.

If you’re not familiar with Injustice 2, below is the game’s official trailer:

The announcement continues the efforts of Turner and IMG to make ELEAGUE a full-on gaming brand. While finding success with two seasons of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive play, they had the Overwatch Open in 2016 and their first Street Fighter V tournament this spring.

The ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational averaged 213,000 live viewers according to a ratings report from Awful Announcing.

Before that tournament had even concluded, the announcement was made that ELEAGUE would return to Counter-Strike. The Clash for Cash showmatch between Virtus.pro and Astralis is set for next week (details here), while a full-on tournament called the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier starts in September.

If you’re doing the math, yes, that means the ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship will start the very next month after the CSGO Premier — maybe even less than that if the Premier runs into October.

And it will be the third ELEAGUE tournament in 2017.

That’s some heavy lifting for all involved, but it also continues to push the brand forward as not defined by any one game. Injustice 2 is one of the buzziest fighting games at the moment, having just been released a month ago, which means the World Championship will be happening within five months of the game’s drop date.

This is striking while the iron is hot, and the question will be if ELEAGUE viewers will warm to another new game and its presumably new broadcast talent the way that audiences had to adjust to the Street Fighter V scene and personalities after getting used to CSGO.

And coming right after what will almost certainly be another thrilling Counter-Strike tournament with those personalities fans already know and love, the ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship will have a very high bar to clear. But if anyone can reach new heights, it’s Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

One thing’s for certain: if ELEAGUE host Richard Lewis returns for the Injustice 2 World Championship (and there’s no reason to think he won’t), someone had better get him the biggest cup of coffee in human existence. He and the rest of ELEAGUE’s production staff will be putting in more than enough hours this year.

Next: Watch the new Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer

What do you think of the ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship? Are you interested in tuning in when the action starts this fall? Let us know in the comments.