NBC Sports in collaboration with online competitive gaming platform FACEIT this summer will host a 2v2 Rocket League tournament featuring a prize pool of $100,000.
The network notes that players of all skill level are welcomed to participate. Initially, gamers will battle it out on FACEIT's platform in regional online qualifiers starting July 22. Competitors that advance will move on to in-studio regional matches with the tournament culminating in a two-day Grand Finals that'll air on a variety of NBCUniversal and Comcast national and international platforms.
The finals will feature 16 teams competing on August 26-27 for the $100,000 prize pool and the inaugural title (suggesting annual tournaments could be a possibility).
NBC Sports says that in total, more than 40 hours of event coverage will be presented across live-streaming, video-on-demand and linear platforms. The finals will air on NBCSN in the US and on Syfy in Germany, Australia, the UK and across several countries in Latin America.
Rocket League seems like an excellent choice for NBC's first foray into esports. Unlike other popular esports titles such as League of Legends or Dota 2, Rocket League is an easy-to-understand game that people can immediately pick up on without an in-depth explanation.
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