BSC team up with ESL

Big news has dropped today - Supercell has announced a multi-year partnership with ESL FACEIT Group in the continuation of the Snapdragon Pro Series sponsored by Samsung Galaxy.

ESL FACEIT Group is by far the largest third-party event organiser in all of esports, and has led large events in many well-known titles, most notably Counter-Strike. In 2022, they announced their mobile series - the Snapdragon Pro Series - which currently hosts events in 8 mobile games - Brawl Stars, Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Asphalt 9, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Free Fire, Honor of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile.

EFG covers a large range of esports, with ESL as event organisers, FACEIT as a tournament platform, as well as DreamHack as venue organisers - this was in fact where 2023 World Finals were held.

The format of the 2024 SPS circuit remains unannounced, but BSEN sources indicate that there will be no separate circuit for the Snapdragon Pro Series - i.e. it is just the BSC circuit though SPS is advertised as a sponsor, and the partnership will likely be a financial one. Whether they will organise events in BSC is also unknown, as it seems that Supercell is continuing to outsource organisation to Esports Engine (another EFG product).

As a part of this announcement, it was also revealed that this year's LCQ will be in August and Worlds in November, though more information on location and dates remain unconfirmed, as well as the Bonus Season that was teased.

2023 saw the extending of the Snapdragon Pro Series. At the start of the year, we saw Season 2 get wrapped up, with new region India, before the top 2 teams from each of the 4 regions headed to Japan to fight it out for $200,000 at the Mobile Masters. Reply Totem continued their SPS dominance as they added a 3rd title, this time a global one, to their trophy cabinet.

For the rest of 2023, we saw a slightly reduced circuit. Starting with Season 3, we saw the discontinuation of the APAC and India regions, whilst the North America circuit was cut short into an exclusively online event, resulting in a $10,000 Open Finals, which were won by Luminosity Gaming. Meanwhile, the EU&MENA season provided an opportunity for teams to gain points for the BSC, which ended up vital in the race for the direct Worlds qualification. In the end, ZETA DIVISION clinched the trophy in Cologne.

Moving into Season 4, we saw the same circuit for both regions, except the EU&MENA finals were now offline, and with World Finals complete, there were no BSC points up for grabs. STMN Esports were the victors of NA this time around, though in EU&MENA we saw underdogs HMBLE claim top spot, over favourites such as Nouns Esports, the strongest team in South America of 2023.

This year, we can expect a very different SPS with much higher stakes. Let's hope the entertainment can go on for years to come.

Written by m4d0o3e (@m4d0o3e)