Echo Arena VR Challenger League Registration Now Live For Rift Players
It’s already been six weeks since VR Challenger League has opened to the public. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, it is the first official VR esports tournament put together by Oculus, Intel and ESL. Today, Oculus has announced that registration for Echo Arena is now open to the public.
Oculus has decided to make some changes moving forward for the tournament. Starting now, both North American and European cups will be held during the weekend. They’ve seen higher play rates on weekends and have decided to give more of a chance to players who have the weekend off to play the game.
For The Unspoken, North American cups are now scheduled for Saturdays at 9:30 PM ET, with European cups at 7:30 PM BST. Echo Arena cups will take place Sundays—be sure to check ESL Play in your region for your local start and check-in times.
In addition, Oculus is reducing the number of individuals/teams required per bracket from 16 to eight. This will allow brackets to fill up faster so that players can compete for cash prizes and get a better shot at earning points.
For the Unspoken players, they are adding the Lockport Bridge to the arena selection. Oculus will also be extending duels to best of three matches, with each match remaining best of three rounds. This means that instead of playing three rounds max, you could play up to nine rounds across three matches to determine the winner. The lower-seeded player will pick the arena for the first match, with the loser selecting the arena for the second. If things are tied up 1-1 after the second match, you’ll go head-to-head for a third and final time.
For people interested in signing up for the Echo Arena bracket, you can do so on the ESL Gaming page. Competitive play starts up September 3 for both North American and European leagues. If you are in need of a team you can check out the official Echo Arena Discord channel and find other players to compete with.
Regionals for the VR Challenger League will soon be taking place at OC4, ESL One Hamburg, IEM Oakland, and DreamHack Winter so make sure to stay tuned for updates!