Esports Wales introduces brand-new Welsh Esports League

12 January 2023

Esports Wales, a company founded in 2018 to foster the development of esports in Wales from grassroots to national level, is looking to start 2023 with a bang. The organisation has announced the coming launch of a brand-new Welsh Esports League, featuring some of the best esports talent in the country in different popular esports titles, including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Dota 2 and League of Legends. Additionally, Esports Wales will also kick off the new Welsh Community Overwatch Tournament this month.

Big step for esports in Wales and the UK

“The Welsh Esports League is brand new for 2023, and the long-term goal is to create that grassroots league for players and teams develop before moving on to the larger leagues in the UK and Europe scene”, said John Jackson, CEO at Esports Wales, after the announcement of his organisation’s new projects, “It will also help us with developing and scouting national players for upcoming international games for Wales and Team GB”.
The improved focus on grassroots esports talent in Wales is not only good news for Wales itself, but for esports in the UK as well. As Jackson mentions, the biggest talents from Esports Wales’ programs will also be able to compete for spots on Team GB for major international events like the Commonwealth Esports Championship and the upcoming inaugural Olympic Esports Week that will take place in Singapore between June 22nd and June 25th, 2023.

The new Welsh Esports League is set to start on January 23rd, 2023, with all of the participating teams competing in a classic round robin format for all involved titles. This means that all teams play another an equal number of times to win as many points as possible, with the winner being the team with the most points at the end of the competition. The Welsh Community Overwatch Tournament will begin three days later, on January 19th, with eight teams competing in an identical format.

Prize pool

While scouting, mentoring and developing Welsh esports talent is at the heart of Esports Wales’ newest initiatives, the organisation has not forgotten the importance of a decent prize pool. For the first editions of these two projects, they have reserved a total prize pool of £4,500, which is a good start. The hope, of course, is that the organisation will be able to increase this amount for future editions of the Welsh Esports League and the Welsh Community Overwatch Tournament.

“Prizes differ for each game but it’s roughly £100 per player with a sub in a team, for example Dota has a £600 prize pool, Rocket League has £400”, explains John Jackson, “The total prize pool is just £4500. Rules also differ for each game but generally, it’s a round-robin tournament where each team plays the other once, on a best-of-one [basis]. The matches for each game will be on the same night of the week for four weeks”.