LoL Championship Series Spring Takes The Cake This Weeks In eSports Betting

On the 14^th January 2016, the League of Legends 2016 Spring Season will get under way with a series of regional events around the world. Across the globe, teams will compete in North America, Europe, Korea, China and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao first in a series of round robin matches online and for those that qualify, a place in the offline playoffs beckons.

This is a huge event and incorporates almost all of the top League of Legends teams competing against their local rivals. The teams then compete again in a Summer Season of events before the qualifiers from each part of the globe for the 2016 Season World Championship are finalised.

The teams competing in each geographic event are as follows:

• North America LCS – Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, Echo Fox, Immortals, NRG eSports, Renegades, Team Dignitas, Team Impulse, Team Liquid, Team SoloMid
• Europe LCS – Elements, Fnatic, G2 Esports, Giants Gaming, H2k-Gaming, Origen, Spiyce, Team ROCCAT, Team Vitality, Unicorns of Love
• Korea LCK – Afreeca Freecs, CJ Entus, e-mFire, Jin Air Green Wings, KT Rolster, Longzhu Gaming, ROX Tigers, Samsung Galaxy, SBENU Sonicboom, SK Telecom T1
• China LPL – LGD Gaming, Snake eSports, Qiao Gu Reapers, Team WE, Masters 3, Energy Pacemaker.All, EDward Gaming, Invictus Gaming, Vici Gaming, Royal Never Give Up, Oh My God, Hyper Youth Gaming
• Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao LMS – ahq e-Sports Club, COUGAR E-Sport, Flash Wolves, Hong Kong Esports, Machi E-Sports, Midnight Sun Esports, Taipei Assassins, Heat Wave

Although the number of teams and qualification system may be slightly different from region to region, qualification is based on the same premise and that is teams will play each other over the coming nine weeks in a series of  best of one league matches.

After this, the top six teams in qualifying advance to the playoffs, with the top two teams in this section receiving a bye into the latter stages of the playoffs. 7^th, 8^th and 9^th place teams will enter a series of playoffs in the summer against teams from a lower division. However the 10^th placed team will be relegated from this elite group, with the top team from the series below them replacing them.

With so many high quality League of Legends teams lining up to face off over the coming nine weeks through until the 18^th March, there is sure to be a whole host of different betting opportunities available to enjoy on the first of the two big qualifiers for the massive 2016 World Championships event in the autumn.

CS:GO Dreamhack Leipzig 2016 Qualifiers this weekend

Following on from Cluj-Napoca 2015, Stockholm 2015 and London 2015, the next big DreamHack Counter Strike: Global Offensive event, Leipzig 2016 is very much looking on the horizon. That big three day event is scheduled to start on the 22^nd January, running until the 24^th and currently there are two spots open for teams to join Virtus Pro, Luminosity Gaming, Natus Vincere, ?, G2 Esports and mousesports in the finals in Germany.

Exactly who will be the two teams to make this trip will be decided over the coming weekend as the two qualifying events, the Leipzig Open Qualifier and the Leipzig Closed Qualifier will take place online, starting on the 9^th January 2016.

First up will be the Open Qualifier kicking the action off on the 9^th and 32 teams that qualified for the event will compete against each other over the weekend to whittle the competition down to just eight qualifiers. These qualifiers will then go forward to participate in the Closed Qualifier the day after.

The eight qualifiers will then join eight invited teams to participate in the Closed Qualifier in a straight knockout tournament with the 16 teams competing through until just two teams remain. These two teams will earn the two available spots in the Leipzig 2016 Main Event.

As yet, details of which teams have qualified or who have been invited to the Closed Qualifier have not yet been released, but there will likely be a huge amount of games available on the betting markets for CS:GO punters to enjoy over the coming weekend and then, once again, in a couple of weeks when the main event kicks off in Germany.

DOTA 2 Shangai Major 2016 Main Qualifiers played to conclusion

Ever since the next Valve Major Championship was announced to be taking place in Shanghai, there has been feverish anticipation for what is one of the most prestigious gaming series in eSports.

Of course, a big event such as the Shanghai Major 2016 has plenty of qualifying events and there has already been the Open Qualifiers, which took place last week, and which saw two DOTA2 teams from each of the four regions, qualify for their regions Main Qualifier.

The full list of teams qualified for each region, along with the eight invited teams into the Main Qualifier are outlined below.

American Main Qualifier

Invited teams:

• Team Leviathan
• Digital Chaos
• Power of Friendship
• Team Archon
• Void Boys
• compLexity Gaming
• Not Today
• Shazam

The two qualifying teams from the Open Qualifier were Team Freedom and Elite Wolves.

Chinese Main Qualifier

Invited teams:

• Newbee
• iG Vitality
• Newbee Young
• Wings Gaming
• Invictus Gaming
• Team FanTuan
• LGD Gaming
• CDEC Youth

The two qualifiers were CDEC Avenger and TongFu.

European Main Qualifier

Invited teams:

• RoX
• Team Empire
• Natus Vincere
• Team Spirit
• Vega Squadron
• Elements Pro Gaming
• Team Liquid
• HellRaisers

The two qualifiers are Mamas Boys and London Conspiracy.

Southeast Asia Qualifier

Invited teams:

• MVP Phoenix
• TNC Gaming
• Signature.Trust
• Fnatic
• Team SatuDuaTiga
• Execration
• Minseki
• First Departure

And the two qualifiers were Minseki-X and Extremist Dota2.

The format of the Main Qualifiers sees the ten teams in each region split into two groups and each team will play a best of two match against each of the other teams in their group. The top two teams at the end of the Group Stages will then progress into the playoffs, with the three other teams eliminated.

In the playoffs, The four teams qualifying in each region play in the semi finals, then the two winners play a winners final to decide the first qualifier. However, the two semi final losers, plus the loser of the first final will get a second bite of the cherry in the losers bracket and the winner of this bracket will earn the second qualification spot.

With Dota 2 gaming proving hugely popular on the eSports betting markets, and the Shanghai Major one of the biggest events on the calendar, you’ll be sure to find plenty of real money eSports betting available on many of these matches over the coming weekend.