January 13 – While the MLS season doesn’t kick off until the end of February, its eSports equivalent has already kicked off with the first stage of 2020 eMLS competition played this weekend in Philadelphia.
Dubbed League Series One. It was the first of three tournaments for the reformatted eMLS. League Series Two will be played in February and eMLS Cup in March. The League Series One winner received a $7,500 cash prize.
The expanded competition saw 25 clubs competing and 12 new competitors from the those clubs. All 25 players played 12 games during the regular-season portion of the event, played last Thursday, with the top eight overall players qualifying for the live-stream event on Friday, along with the host club Philadephia Union.
Such is the fluidity of esports competitive levels, five of the new players to the competition made it to the knockout stage of League Series One.
The series was won by FC Cincinnati’s Fiddle who beat eMLS newcomer Adamou, from the New York Red Bulls, in the final. Adamou had beaten current champions and cross City rival DidyChrislito (NYFC) and current champion Doolsta of Nashville (he transferred from Philadelphia in the close season) to get to the final.
Friday’s event was live streamed on Twitch and Twitter as well as on mlssoccer.com and the MLS mobile app. The live event was held at Union Transfer and was ticketed for fans to attend.
League Series Two with be played in Portland, hosted by the Portland Timbers, weekend of February 15 while the final will be played in Austin, Texas, March 21, during the second weekend of the SXSW (South by Southwest) esports event.
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