The international partnership with ESL commences at Australia’s most prolific esports event, the Intel Extreme Masters held in Sydney May 4-6.
Today ESL, the world’s largest esports company, announced a new partnership with Vodafone which will see the ESL Women’s Sydney Open presented by Vodafone. The tournament gathers the best women’s teams from Australia and New Zealand to compete for the opportunity to play live at the IEM Community Stage for a prize pool of $10,000.
Following two online qualifiers, the top four Women’s CS:GO teams from across Australia and New Zealand are set to play the first portion of the tournament at the Vodafone booth on Saturday May 5th, with the grand finals held on Sunday May 6th live at the Community Stage.
Competitor and captain of a finalist team, Jessica Majrouh, said the ESL Women’s Sydney Open is a great opportunity to give women the experience to showcase their potential and skill, while establishing a stable and driven environment within Australian esports.
“With the support of large brands entering the esports space, and a combined effort from tournament organisers like ESL, there is hope that we will have the backing to allow our community to develop and flourish for the future generation of women in esports,” she said.
The local partnership of the Women’s tournament comes following a broader international partnership with ESL. Off the back of the World Championships event held in Poland in March, IEM Sydney is next in line of a string of ESL events supported by Vodafone this year.
Consumer Business Unit Director Vodafone Australia, Ben McIntosh, said Vodafone is proud to support ESL in Australia and the exploding esports category globally.
“Technology is rapidly changing the way we work, play and consume content and as a telecommunications provider we’ve got an important role to play in the growth of the esports,” he said.
“We’ve been following the rise of esports from the sideline and we’re thrilled to be involved officially this year.”
“As the champion for customer choice, freedom and flexibility we’re particularly excited about the ESL Women’s Sydney Open and look forward to both the event and an exciting future with ESL.”
In 2017, IEM Sydney saw 8 of the world’s best teams take the stage at Qudos Bank Arena. Over 7000 fans filled the stadium each day, and 8 million viewers tuned in to watch the teams battle it out for a share of $260,000.
This year, IEM Sydney’s main tournament has grown even bigger and will see 16 teams play across 3 days with a prize pool of $310,000 AUD.
Tickets to the event are still available – join me and thousands of fans at Australia’s biggest esports event in the Qudos Bank Arena on May 4-6! Fans can follow all the happenings at IEM on Twitter and Facebook.
The full details of the ESL Women’s Sydney Open, Presented by Vodafone and the IEM Sydney event can be found on the IEM Sydney Website.