eSports in New Zealand and Australia: April Preview
With April now upon us, it’s time to take a look at all the upcoming eSports events happening here in Australia and New Zealand!
League of Legends
HSL live streaming in April
New Zealand’s exclusive High School League (HSL), the first secondary school competition featuring high school teams competing in League of Legends, will kick off it’s live stream on April 3rd.
50 high school teams from all over New Zealand will compete across a 10 week tournament, followed by playoffs and a grand final on June 6. All matches can be streamed on letsplay.live.
Oceanic Pro League Playoffs
The OPL playoffs kick off on April 7th with 5th seeded Avant Garde taking on 4th placed Sin Gaming. The winner of that series will play Chiefs eSports Club, the 3rd seed in this tournament with an 8-2 record and 22 points, on April 8th.
The Semifinals will start on April 9th, with Legacy eSports (8-2 with 24 points) taking on the winner of the previous match. The OPL Split Finals will take place on April 6th, with the winner of the Semifinals series taking on Dire Wolves (the 1st place seed with an 8-2 record and 25 points).
The winner of this split of the OPL will earn a trip to compete in the Mid-Season Invitational. You can checkout the matches on Riot’s official OPL LoL stream.
2017 Mid-Season Invitational
After the conclusion of all the major regional split playoffs, qualifying teams will embark on their annual quest for early international fame at MSI. This year the tournament will be undergoing significant changes. Australia’s representing team will be randomly seeded into one of two double round-robin groups that will also include the best teams from Southeast Asia, Japan, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, and Latin America.
Counter-Strike: GO
Zen Esports Network League
Featuring four Australian teams and four teams from Malaysia, Indonesia, Mongolia and South Korea, the ZEN League has proven to be a tight, entertaining affair from the very onset.
The league is split into two groups, one for the Australian teams and another for the Asian teams. Both groups are tightly poised at the time of writing, with all teams still capable of making the final four. The final four teams will face off in an offline finals, with ESL Australia and ZEN Esports holding a second season later in the year.
Matches can be viewed on ESL Australia’s official Twitch channel.
SMITE/Paladins
Paladins Masters
Local qualifiers for the Paladins Masters tournament have already concluded, with Team Kanga easily dispatching Avant Garde to represent Australia in Atlanta. Group matches will start from April 7, featuring the eight best Paladins teams the world has to offer.
You can check out all of the action starting on April 7th via Hi-Rez’s Paladin’s Twitch Channel.
SMITE Masters 2017
Held at the Hi-Rez Studios in Atlanta, 10 teams will converge from around the world to claim their part of $120,000 prize pool. Australia’s representative will be chosen from the winners of SMITE’s Oceanic Pro League. Along with a trip to Atlanta, the winners of the OPL will also earn $5,000.
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