Konami is announcing the formation of a brand new esports tournament for eFootball PES 2020, the eFootball.Open, in addition to the return of eFootball.Pro – both now existing within the overarching eFootball competition structure.
KONAMI will hold various competitions under the eFootball banner, including, but not limited to eFootball.Pro and eFootball.Open.
eFootball.Pro, the returning tournament for professional football clubs that started with remarkable success last year, and eFootball.Open, a new tournament for regular or casual users. The total prize pool across eFootball will be over US$2M, with significant prizes available for eFootball.Pro.
To support the larger scale of eFootball compared to the company’s previous esports initiatives, KONAMI will once again be partnering with Esports Media Rights (EMR), the esports company founded by Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué, for both eFootball.Pro and eFootball.Open
KONAMI’s top-flight tournament, eFootball.Pro, will include only professional, real-world football clubs from Europe, with each club selecting at least three esports players to compete in 3v3 CO-OP matches throughout the season. Clubs will be responsible for selecting their own players, largely chosen from last season’s professional players plus those who participated in the recent PES LEAGUE Regional and World Finals.
The professional esports teams will compete against each other with fully authentic club line-ups with balanced stats, specific for tournament play. eFootball.Pro participating clubs, locations and dates will be announced soon.
For eFootball.Open, the amateur eFootball tournament that replaces PES LEAGUE, the match format will be exclusively 1v1, with players selecting one club when they enter and competing alongside others who have picked the same club. The schedule and clubs available in eFootball.Open will be the same for those competing in the professional eFootball.Pro.
To allow for increased participation of casual users in esports, the new online Matchday mode in eFootball PES 2020 will play a key role in identifying participants in eFootball.Open. For increased accessibility, there will be three classes available – Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, with top-tier users proceeding to Regional and World Finals.
Furthermore, the joint sponsorship competitions in co-operation with football associations such as “eJLEAGUE” or “TOYOTA Thai League” will be held in Asia, South America and Europe as local eFootball tournaments.
Further details on tournament structure and player selection process will be announced soon, though both tournaments will start by the end of 2019.
Jonas Lygaard, Senior Director – Brand & Business Development at Konami Digital Entertainment B.V. commented:
“With eFootball PES 2020, we made the bold decision to reposition our brand and take bigger steps towards esports. eFootball is a clear example of the steps that we are taking to elevate the sport and allow as many users as possible, casual or professional, to get involved. Following an exciting start, we’re thrilled to see eFootball.Pro back for another season with substantial changes and additions to be unveiled soon.”
eFootball PES 2020 will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, on September 10th (Americas/Europe/Asia) / September 12th (Japan) with pre-orders now available for the Standard and Legend Editions.
For more information on the recent eFootball League for eFootball PES 2020 announcement, please see the following link: https://www.konami.com/wepes/2020/eu/en/all/page/efootball2020
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