An upcoming esports media network and tournament system beginning in 2020, simply titled Esports Pro League (or ESPL), has just been announced by its parent company eSports Pte Ltd. The three founders bring with them international experience in both the gaming/esports and traditional sports worlds.
Once it launches, ESPL will host its own tournaments across a variety of games, with its focus being predominantly on mobile gaming. There will also be room for PC and console gameplay, at least on the network, if not in the tournaments themselves. Co-founder and president Kin Wai Lau holds the Chairman position at iCandy Interactive Ltd., a large mobile game production company, so their games can be expected to be included among those featured by ESPL. Its first tournament season will begin in February 2020, with planned hybrid in-person/online competition for these events, and future tournament seasons are planned.
Its other two founders are Micahel Broda, who is a former CEO of esports.com, and has worked in the esports industry in both Europe and North America; and Datuk Noor Azrin Bin Mohd Noor, whose large amount of experience in the soccer world earned him the nickname "the Father of Football" for the Southeast Asian region of the world.
From the start, ESPL will launch globally, across 16 different countries. Rather than simply showcasing its own tournaments, aims to be a hub for all things esports, featuring all aspects of the esports world, including various brands and publishers. With digital interactivity as one of its selling points, it's likely the ESPL is taking some lessons from Twitch and other streaming platforms, and integrating a similar system that allows fan participation through the platform itself. For tournament play, its own spin on something like the Overwatch League's "path to pro" will be called "bedroom-to-champion," seeming to bring to the foreground the possibility of its fans eventually becoming players and/or contributors.
More details about just what will be showcased on the network, as well as the rules and details of its tournaments, will be announced leading up to the February 2020 launch of the network and its first tournament season.