Red Bull has announced a new 2XKO esports tournament, Red Bull Knockout, which will take place on Saturday, May 16 in Paris, France, with a unique format.
The marketing company and energy drink brand has been hosting more esports tournaments, including the recent Red Bull London Londonium event that brought Age of Empires II to the Royal Albert Hall.
Red Bull Knockout will be a country-based 2XKO tournament with duos battling for national pride and a cash prize.
There will be eight duos competing in the final event — seven directly invited national duos and an eighth wildcard team (representing the in-game region of Ionia) that won the 128-player Last Chance Qualifier.
The seven invited nations are:
- France
- USA
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- Sweden
- Japan
Each nation will have one top player selected, who can then choose a duo partner from the same country.
Two teams have already been locked in with eight-time EVO champion Dominique ‘SonicFox’ McLean and Lenwood ‘INZEM’ Arnold representing the USA, while France will be represented by Marwan ‘Wawa’ Berthe and Yonis ‘Yasha’ Ahamada.
It’s also likely that Sweden will be represented by two-time EVO champion and DreamHack Atlanta 2XKO champion, William ‘Leffen’ Hjelte.
Red Bull Knockout Prize Pool
Red Bull Knockout will feature a €20,000 ($23.5k) prize pool distributed among the eight 2XKO teams in the Main Event:
- 1st Place: €6.5k ($7.6k)
- 2nd Place: €3.5k ($4.1k)
- 3rd & 4th Place: €2.5k ($2.9k)
- 5th & 6th Place: €1.5k ($1.7k)
- 7th & 8th Place: €1k ($1.1k)
Red Bull Knockout 2XKO Format and Schedule
The 64-team, 128-player Last Change Qualifier will be played on the morning of the event on May 16.
The LCQ will be a single-elimination tree made up entirely of best-of-fives.
The winning duo will then join the seven invited national teams later that day to compete in the main event across a Group Stage and Playoffs.
Then, the eight-team main event will start with a Group Stage with two groups of four duos competing in a best-of-three Round Robin to determine the top four.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the Playoffs with a crossover knockout bracket where the winner of Group A faces the runner-up of Group B and vice versa.
The semi-finals and final will be best-of-fives in order to decide the Red Bull Knockout 2XKO champions.
This tournament is at least some positive news for the game’s community after Riot downsized the 2XKO team earlier this year, with around 80 staff members laid off.
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Waste of money for a flop game guess Red Bull likes burning money