Banner image: Ubisoft / @itsmeERROR
Earlier this week, Ubisoft presented a new regional competition for North America called Element One. The tournament is expected to take place from June to July.
Here's everything we know so far about Element One.
Participating Teams
Element One will have 16 participating teams. Eight of the squads will be directly invited to Element One. Meanwhile, the other eight participants will join the competition by competing in the online qualifiers.
So far, two teams have been invited to Element One:
Arial Arise
Arial Arise has been in North America's tier-two for a long while now. In 2021, the organization finished in second place in the region's Challenger League. One year later, Arial Arise finished in fourth of the overall standings and finished in second place after falling to Reality TV.
Recently, Arial Arise signed the former KOI and Rogue coach Matthew "meepeY" Sharpless, who parted ways with the purple organization in Feb. 2023.
Carry The Boats
Carry The Boats is an organization-less squad with four former tier-one players, including Kyle "Whimpy" Anderson, Adam "Drip" Kolodkin, Jacob "Sweater" Bravico, and the Six Invitational 2021 champion Bryan "Merc" Wrzek.
Requirements
With such a prize pool, people may expect North America League rosters to join the competition — but nothing could be further from the truth.
All tier-one players are excluded from the competition, which makes Element One an exciting platform for tier-two talent.
Other requirements include:
- Being 18 years old or older.
- Currently living in North America.
- Clean player record with no outstanding bans.
Element One's requirements and prize pool make this competition the closest tournament to the already extinct North America's Challenger League.
Format
Element One will be divided into three phases: Phase Alpha, Phase Beta, and Phase Gamma.
Phase Alpha
The initial phase of the competition will be the online qualifiers.
Element One's first online qualifier will start on Jun. 16 and conclude on Jun. 18. Meanwhile, the second online qualifier will start on Jun. 23 and finish on Jun. 25.
Each online qualifier will be divided into two stages: open qualifier and closed qualifier. First, the open qualifier will follow a Swiss format with BO1 matches. The best 12 teams will move to the closed qualifier, a single-elimination bracket with BO3 games.
Phase Beta
Phase Beta will be played on a Buchholz Swiss bracket. It will consist of 12 gameplays.
Every team with three wins will move to the following phase, while the losers will be eliminated. All of the games will follow a BO1 format, except for elimination and promotion matches.
Phase Gamma
Finally, the final phase of Element One will be a single-elimination bracket with BO3 games. The grand final will be a BO5 match.
Prize Pool
Element One's prize pool consists of $25,000 USD. Here's how the money will be split among the teams:
- 1st: $10,000 USD
- 2nd: $5,000 USD
- 3rd - 4th: $2,500 USD
- 5th - 8th: $1,250 USD