EsportsBets Teams Up With Quickfire To Sponsor Malta’s Hotshot Series
Published: Jul 5, 2018 - Last Updated: Jul 17, 2023
Earlier this year, Malta’s leading esports platform Quickfire created a partnership with the tournament platform service FACEIT to help launch a new series of gaming tournaments for CS:GO and Dota 2 players across Europe.
The initial Hotshot tournament proved to be a big hit. The inaugural CS:GO tournament earned a 1,000 FACEIT point prize for the top team. Now, EsportsBets has teamed up with Quickfire and Face-it to become a co-sponsor of this exciting event.
What is the Hotshot Series?
Hotshot is a new tournament that will see teams competing in four weeks of qualification rounds. Each week, the top four teams will make it through to the final. There, a cash prize of €1,000 is available. But that’s not all the winning team will receive.
Esportsbets has announced that in November the winners of each monthly Hotshot Series event will face off in a brand new Grand Hotshots tournament. This offers a prize pool of €15,000. The tourney is scheduled for Nov. 6-8.
This tournament will pit the elite teams and individuals from throughout the year against each other to see who is the Grand Hotshot Champion.
Finer points of the Hotshot Series
Let’s begin with some specifics.
- Game – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Region – Europe
- Game Mode – csgo 5v5
- Client AC Required – Users must download and activate the Face-it Anti-Cheat client and have it activated to compete in the tournament.
- Stand In – Not allowed
- Next Road to Grand Hotshots Tournament – Starting July 4
- Teams Allowed – 64
- Cost of Membership – Free
- Server Locations – France, Germany, Sweden, UK, the Netherlands
- Maps to be played – Dust, Mirage, Overpass, Inferno, Nuke, Cobbles, Train
The tournament is a single-elimination, single-bracket format with the first round being the Round of 64, then on to the Round of 31, Round of 16, the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finally the final. All matches are a best-of-one format.
In addition to the cash prize, the winner of each Hotshot tournament will receive 2,000 Face-it points. The runners-up receive 500 Face-it points, while the third- and fourth-place teams will receive 250.
Grand Hotshots vs. the standard Hotshot Series
After the success of the first Hotshot tournament a while back, Quickfire — along with sponsors Esportsbets, Visit Malta, and Melita — have decided to expand the scope of the tournament and add a new long-term element.
Rather than simply running stand-alone tournaments each month, each Hotshot tournament will also act as a qualifier for the winning team for the Grand Hotshots tournament. Alongside the four winners of those Hotshot events, a further 12 CS:GO teams will be invited to compete for the €15,000 prize fund.
Quickfire CEO Simon Theuma said in a recent press release that the motivation behind the company’s involvement in the tournament was to broaden the scope of esports beyond the more recognizable teams and individuals.
“There’s a lot of talent out there, but only a very small percentage of it ever gets brought to the surface,” Theuma stated. “We’ve finally given up-and-coming players the opportunity to really show us what they’re made of and to prove that they’re worthy of making it to the next level.”
It was this more community-minded spirit that was a key factor in bringing on board one of the main sponsors of the event, Esportsbets.com.
“We appreciate the effort of our friends at Quickfire and are excited to be able to help make this tournament available to the community,” said EsportsBets Operational Manager Christoffer Cederholm.
What is the schedule for the Hotshot tournaments?
You can view the live stream on Twitch and sign up at Faceit. The tournament starts at 7 p.m. every Wednesday. Then, the finals get underway at 10 a.m. on Saturday mornings (all times GMT +2). Fronting the streaming of the tournament online will be by Harvey “Skrivix” Rodgers, Dean “Dean_Casts” Brown, Alex “Hawka” Hawkins, and Jake “Zarx” Karakouzian.
Quickfire has offered high-quality esports and gaming experiences from Malta since its founding in 2014. Its parent company, Eden Leisure Group, is the largest entertainment group in Malta and has ample experience hosting online and offline esports events.
Image credit: Battlefy
Since: August 10, 2015
