Intel World Open Details Leaked
Thanks to the discovery of its rulebook hidden on its website, details for the upcoming Intel World Open including Rocket League, have been revealed.
The Format:
The biggest news to come out of this leak is the format of the event. Following online qualifiers (a mixture of best-of-three and best-of-five matchups in a double-elimination bracket) in May, sixteen teams will be making their way to Katowice from June 11-14 as they make their bids for an elusive spot in Tokyo in July. As well as a European qualifier (May 16-17) giving out three spots, each of the following regions and countries will be sending their online qualifier’s victor to the live qualifier:
May 2-3:
- Africa
- Asia Mainland
- Middle-East
- Latin America
May 9-10:
- Australia
- Brazil
- China
- Asia Maritime and Oceania
May 16-17:
- Canada
- France
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- United States
The other online qualifier is the one for Japanese players, who’s May 2-3 qualifier will see the winner automatically advance to the Tokyo finals as Japan is the tournament’s host nation.
The slots also appear to be evenly distributed among each continent. Asia has four slots at Katowice (including ASM and OCE but not including Japan), Europe has six, North America has two, South America two, Oceania has two (including the shared spot with ASM) and Africa has just one slot.
Once teams make it to Katowice, they will be fighting for seven Tokyo spots in a group stage followed by a double-elimination bracket. The top four teams in the group stage will immediately qualify, with the next eight battling it out for the remaining three spots. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for the other teams, as they are competing for a combined prize pool of $40,000. Tokyo’s live finals will be a single-elimination bracket with a prize pool of $210,000 - bringing the total pot up to $250,000.
As well as the format and the prize pool, some additional important information has also been revealed. The restriction of the tournament to players over the age of 16 will certainly draw some criticism, as will the inability of players to represent any third-party organisations outside of their country and utilise any licensed cars, including the ever-popular Batmobile.
While the qualifiers kick off in May, it’s still not known when signups will open or when tickets for the Tokyo finals will go on sale. The full leaked ruleset can be found here.
Thanks to DanMB and Lukasz for first discovering this information
Main image via Intel