Microsoft’s Xbox as well as The Coalition are extremely proud to make the announcement of the Gears eSports Pro Circuit for Gears of War 4. In other words, the top tier Gears of War players are able to compete in marquee live open events that will be held at various venues worldwide, which will be operated by world-class tournament organizers Major League Gaming (MLG) and Gfinity. What is the carrot that will dangle in front of the interested pool of gamers? We are looking at prizes that comprise of $1,000,000 in cold, hard cash. Now that is certainly a tantalizing thought!
For Gears of War players who have turned professional, it looks like it is now your turn to bask under the spotlight. This particular announcement could not come at the better time, especially when Gears of War 4 is about to be launched. Both Microsoft and studio The Coalition will have a cool $1 million to hand out to top teams in the multi-city Gears Esports Pro Circuit.
The tournament organizer will be old hands at this -- with Major League Gaming and Gfinity taking the helm from this November onward. This is a month after the game has launched for Xbox One, and the entire professional league will carry on until July 2017. It will kick off in the double-elimination brackets format, where each team will comprise of five different people who will go up against one another in Gears of War 4's new Escalation mode.
How does one qualify for the various tournaments that are lined up? The answer is pretty much cookie cutter -- simply by picking up Gears Pro Points. These Gears Pro Points can be earned as one participates in online ladder matches that are held on Major League Gaming's site, as well as in daily and weekly tournaments. In other words, your time would be pretty much filled with full time gaming, as you embark on a quest to obtain as many Gears Pro Points as possible in order to emerge at the top of the pool -- or somewhere near there..
As for the full schedule for the events, you can check them out in the list below. Do take note that it does not include a single TBA event that carries a $100,000 prize pool.
- November 25-27, 2016, Columbus, Ohio
- December 17-18, 2016, London, United Kingdom
- Spring 2017, Mexico City, Mexico
- Spring 2017, Columbus, Ohio
- Spring/Summer 2017, Paris, France
- Summer 2017, Las Vegas, Nevada
Apart from that, the prize pools will not remain stagnant, but could jolly well end up as all the more lucrative as fans make additional purchases in Gears of War 4 via the in-game cosmetic items that have been specially created to support the Gears Esports Pro Circuit. Pretty smart move by the Gears of War 4 developers when you think of it, as it uses money from the fans in order to increase the dangling carrot for the professional players. It is somewhat akin to jersey sales that will help offset the cost of purchasing a marquee player in the mad world of modern day football (soccer) where Paul Pogba could potentially be the world’s most expensive football player by smashing the 100 million pound mark by returning to Manchester United from Juventus in Italy.
You can check out a quick YouTube summary on what this Gears of War 4 Professional eSports League is all about in greater detail below.
