At the conclusion of VR League season 1, we discussed how esports had been brought to a new level with the introduction of virtual reality games that involve ducking, jumping, dodging, and stealthy movements. Throughout season 2, competitors and teams have continued to discover new techniques in gameplay, improve their physical abilities in the game and truly raise the bar for VR esports.
We also pointed out that VR esports had entered this world as a “trust fund baby,” benefiting from the already-established billion dollar esports industry, but competitions such as the ones that took place this past weekend continue to prove that VR esports will make it’s own impact in the world.
Onward Summer Championship – Open Qualifiers
Stage one of the Onward Summer Championship began with the Open Qualifiers on August 11-12. The championship was open to any team ranked #14 or below in the VRML season.
Two groups of ten were required to play at least five matches against other teams in the corresponding group in a standard Swiss-system tournament. The first set of matches were determined randomly and partially seeded by standings.
The teams that won the Open Qualifiers and will advance to the next stage in the Summer Championships are Blaze and Burning Chrome. You can see highlights from the games on The Lonely Viper’s YouTube channel:
Stage 2 of the Onward Summer Championship is the Round-Robin Group Stage. The first six slots were taken by teams who were ranked #8 to #13 from the worldwide season standings. This left the two spots from the Open Qualifiers that were claimed by Blaze and Burning Chrome.
There will be four teams competing at the World Finals for the $60,000 prize pool. Globochem earned a spot during the Onward Invitational event at the ESL studios in Leicester, England in June. During the semi-finals, one team from each group will earn a spot. The fourth team will be determined during another Onward Invitational in Leicester on September 1-2. Read more about the path to OC5 for Onward teams in this article.
Echo Arena – Stage #3 Finals
Any team could enter the Last Chance Qualifier tournament that were held August 14 and 15. Numerous teams participated in the double-elimination best of three tournament.
In the European league, Smash Dash and Team Telepathy earned spots in the World Finals Qualifiers.
The two teams that earned spots in the North American league are Team Jokr and Atlas.
World Finals Qualifiers
On August 19 sixteen teams will compete for the opportunity to compete in a double elimination best-of-three format World Finals Qualifier. Two teams from each region will meet on September 27 at the World Grand Finals on the McEnery Convention Center stage at Oculus Connect 5.
