The Hongkong-based smartphone company Infinix Mobile will be the title sponsor of Esports Premier League (ESPL) for its inaugural edition.
The tournament wants to tap into the growing landscape of esports in the country.
The ESPL is being floated by the India Today Group, and the Season 1 of the league will get going from June 16. The league will witness a total prize pool worth Rs 25 lakhs.
ESPL has teamed up with Garena to create an exclusive gaming platform for Free Fire, one of the most popular battle royale games now among gamers in India.
- Asus ROG Academy launched to support upcoming eSports players in India
- Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan gets his avatar on Garena's Free Fire game
Tournament will be run over two-and-a-half months
The ESPL will be played as a virtual tournament in its inaugural edition and will comprise more than 700 online matches with about 300 plus hours of streaming.
The tournament, which will be played over a period of two-and-a-half months, will see close to 100 teams competing in the initial two levels while the best eight teams will progress into the grand finale representing eight cities across the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
The 8-team league will be streamed on multiple platforms including OTT giant Disney+ Hotstar as well as the official YouTube and Facebook channels of India Today and Aaj Tak along with their websites.
To participate in the league, gaming enthusiasts and gamers can register themselves on: www.indiatodaygaming.com/espl
Infinix and its new innovation in its mobiles 'Darlink'
Talking about the launch of ESPL and its association with Infinix Mobile, India Today Group Vice Chairperson, Kalli Purie said: “This pandemic and the resultant lockdown have contributed to propelling the esports industry into mainstream entertainment. These are very exciting times as smartphone usage continues to grow exponentially and I believe the partnership with Infinix Mobile will help us intensify our mission of taking Esports to the next level in India.”
“The Indian online gaming industry is growing at a rate of almost 27% per annum and is estimated to reach $2.8 billion by 2022. At Infinix, we are part of this revolution by making devices for the mid-range segment that is feature-rich and enhance the users gaming experience, to further amplify the gaming capability of a user our R&D has developed a technology called Darlink which optimizes and improves the performance of a device on several parameters,” said Anish Kapoor, CEO of Infinix Mobile.
Infinix mobile phones are manufactured and are available in Asia and in about 30 countries in the Middle East and Africa.
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