Announcing the Scouting Grounds Circuit

Today we’re excited and humbled to announce a new exciting project for the North American Community of League of Legends: The Scouting Grounds Circuit.

Born from a collaboration between Riot Games and FACEIT with the goal of promoting new talents within the North American League of Legends community, the Circuit represents an expansion of the current Scouting Grounds and it wants to provide the community with a new, accessible and inclusive circuit made by multiple team-based competitive formats to qualify for the Scouting Grounds Finals.

The first Season of the Circuit will take place during the months of July, August and September and players of any skill level will have the chance to compete for a $60,000 prize money and qualify for the Scouting Grounds Finals this year.

Since one of our missions in FACEIT is supporting the competitive ecosystem by promoting third party organisers on our platform, the Circuit project will be inclusive not only from a player perspective, will also support all of the community tournament organisers that are interested in creating and managing competitive contents for the community.

During the first season, we are happy to announce that the Circuit will see already the direct involvement of 4 third party tournament organisers which will manage some of the online qualifiers events available for the community: Player One Esports, Upsurge Esports, Dark Star Gaming and Paleo Gaming.

For the future, we want to invest more and more in this direction and therefore we are inviting any Tournament Organisers interested in creating and managing competitions for League of Legends North American players to contact directly our team (organizers@faceit.com) and join our rich community of organisers that every month are creating and managing more than 10,000 tournaments on our platform

We are thrilled to start this project and start providing a first concrete support for the development of the competitive Ecosystem. This is just a first step and we are looking forward to hear the community feedback and keep improving the system over and over in the future.

Below you can find all the details related to the format and the rules but make sure to follow us on Twitter where we will keep the community updated by posting any important news related to this project and other events of League of Legends.

Grab a team and Have fun!

July-September 2019: The first season of the Scouting Grounds Circuit

With a total prize money of $60,000, the first season of The Circuit will take part during the months of July, August and September. It will provide the community with a format comprised of 10 online events, including qualifier, playoff, and final stages.

Following The Circuit, the top two teams will receive an invite for the LCS Scouting Grounds event in November.

Season 1: Overview

Total Prize Pool: $60,000 ($50,000 contributed by The Circuit)

Format: The Circuit includes a total of 10 online events: 8 qualifiers, a playoff, and a final.

Eight online qualifier events will take place during the months of July and August. The two top teams from each qualifier event will be invited for the playoff stage. Qualifier events will include competitions of varying formats and community organizers such as Player One Esports, Dark Star Gaming, Upsurge Esports, and Paleo Gaming.

The playoff event will take place September 6–15. The top sixteen teams from the qualifier stage will compete within a swiss bracket format, and the top eight teams will win participation in the final event.

The Circuit Finals will take place September 26–29 where the 8 qualified teams from The Circuit will compete in a standard, single elimination bracket format. Matches will be broadcasted with live production video. The top two teams of the finals will win participation in the LCS Scouting Grounds starting on November 10.

Season 1: Event details

Qualifier 1 (July-August): Organized by Player One Esports, team league will feature 7 invited teams and one team from open qualifiers to play within a round-robin format for a total prize pool of $2,500. The league will be played throughout July and August, with the top four teams from the round-robin stage qualifying for a final single elimination bracket.

• Open Qualifier: 6th-7th July
• Round 1: July 9th-10th (Tues-Wed)
• Round 2: July 16th-17th (Tues-Wed)
• Round 3: July 23rd — 24th (Tues-Wed)
• Round 4: July 30th-31st (Tues-Wed)
• Round 5: August 6th-7th (Tues-Wed)
• Round 6: August 13th-14th (Tues-Wed)
• Round 7–8: August 20th-21st — Quarter-Finals (top 8 on 20th) Semi-Finals (top 4 on 21st)
• Round 9: August 28th — Finals (Wed)

Qualifier 2 (July-August): Organized by Upsurge Esports, the qualifier will be split into two different competitions:

• UPL Play-off — Main product of Upsurge Esports featuring 8 top amateur teams playing in a single elimination BO3 bracket, with the exception of 3rd party match and Finals which will be BO5. Winner of the UPL Play-off will qualify for the Scouting Ground Circuit Play-off. Prizepool is $3,000
• Quarter-Finals: 11th July
• Semi-Finals: 18th July
• 3rd place match: 25th July
• Finals: 1st August
• Open Qualifier — After UPL Play-off ends, Upsurge Esports will organize a large Open Qualifier that will be a single elimination bracket. Winner of the open qualifier will qualify for the Scouting Grounds Circuit Play-off. Prize pool is $2,500
• Open Qualifier Day 1: 3rd August
• Open Qualifier Day 2: 4th August

Qualifier 3 (June-July-August): Organised by Dark Star Gaming the “B.I.G. League Season 2” will serve as a qualifier for the Scouting Ground Circuit Play-off. The league will be played by 16 teams in a swiss bracket, with 12 teams directly invited and 4 teams qualified through an open qualifier hosted in June. All teams participating in the regular season will pay a $200 entrance fee which will contribute to the prize pool. Top 8 teams will proceed to the play-off bracket where they will compete for the prize pool of $8,500 and two slots for Scouting Grounds Circuit Play-off.

• Open Qualifier #1: 22nd and 23rd June
• Open Qualifier #2: 29th and 30th June
• Swiss league begins on 1st July and ends on 1st August
• Round 1: 1st and 5th July
• Round 2: 8th and 12th July
• Round 3: 15th and 19th July
• Round 4: 22nd and 26th July
• Round 5: 29th July and 1st August
• Play-off begins on 5th August and ends on 27th August
• Quarter-Finals: 5th August, 8th August, 12th August and 15th August
• Semi-Finals: 19th August and 22th August
• 3rd place match: 26th August
• Finals: 29th August

Qualifier 4 (July-August): Paleo Gaming will host the ‘’Imperial Esports Pro League’’ which is a 16 team single elimination bracket. Eight teams will be invited through an application process, while the other 8 teams will be decided through 2 open qualifiers in July. The qualifiers will be free to enter while the play-off will have a $25 buy-in. Play-off will begin on 2nd August and each round will be played every Friday, with the finals being played out on 23rd August. The prize pool will be $3,000.

• Open Qualifier #1: 20th and 21st July
• Open Qualifier #2: 27th and 28th July
• Play-off starts on 2nd August and ends on 30th August
• Top 16: 2nd August
• Quarter-Finals: 9th August
• Semi-Finals: 16th August
• 3rd place match: 29th August
• Finals: 30th August

Qualifier 5 (13th July — 14th July): Open Qualifier organized by FACEIT. The top two teams will qualify for the play-off. Matches up to semi-finals will be BO1 format. Semi-finals, 3rd place match, and Finals will be played in a BO3 format. All matches of the Open Qualifier will be played using the “Tournament Draft” pick mode. Prize Pool is $2,500 (1st $1,500–2nd $700–3rd $300)

Qualifier 6 (10th August — 11th August): Open Qualifier organized by FACEIT. Top two teams will qualify for the play-off. Matches up to semi-finals will be BO1 format. Semi-finals, 3rd place match and Finals will be played in a BO3 format. All matches of the Open Qualifier will be played using Tournament Draft pick game mode. Prize Pool is $2,500 (1st $1,500–2nd $700–3rd $300).

Qualifier 7 (17th August — 18th August): Open Qualifier organized by FACEIT. Top two teams will qualify for the play-off. Matches up to semi-finals will be BO1 format. Semi-finals, 3rd place match and Finals will be played in a BO3 format. All matches of the Open Qualifier will be played using Tournament Draft pick game mode. Prize Pool is $2,500 (1st $1,500–2nd $700–3rd $300)

Qualifier 8 (31th August — 1st September): Open Qualifier organized by FACEIT. Top two teams will qualify for the play-off. Matches up to semi-finals will be BO1 format. Semi-finals, 3rd place match, and Finals will be played in a BO3 format. All matches of the Open Qualifier will be played using Tournament Draft pick game mode. Prize Pool is $2,500 (1st $1,500–2nd $700–3rd $300)

Play off and Finals

Play Off (6th-15th September): The 16 teams that passed through the qualifier events will take part in a swiss format league in which we will determine the best 8 teams. These teams will qualify for the Scouting Grounds Circuit Finals.

The swiss format league will consist of 5 rounds where each team will play up to five(5) BO1 matches, and as soon as a team collects three(3) wins they will achieve invite status for the finals. If a team loses three(3) matches they will lose the possibility to qualify for the finals.

For the first round, teams will be seeded as first tier if they qualified as winner of one qualifier, or second tier in case they qualified as second runner. For each subsequent round a Bucholz system will be used.

This phase of the Scouting Grounds Circuit will last 7 days, and each team will have the flexibility to agree on the most convenient schedule for the 5 matches they must play.

The top 8 teams will be seeded based on their play-off results into the final phase of the Scouting Grounds Circuit.

Finals (26th-29th September): $30,000 event that will be played by 8 teams in a BO3 Single Elimination bracket, with the exception of finals, which will be played in a BO5 format.

All matches will have a set schedule and will be broadcasted live by FACEIT to give maximum exposure to every match and team that made it this far through the qualifiers. Streaming content will be distributed on both Twitch and YouTube streaming platforms, live from our Santa Monica studio in Los Angeles, CA.

Match schedule:

• 26th September — 2 Quarter-final matches (BO3)
• 27th September — 2 Quarter-final matches (BO3)
• 28th September — 2 Semi-final matches (BO3)
• 29th September — Finals (BO5)

Prizepool breakdown:

• 1st — $10,000
• 2nd — $6,000
• 3rd/4th — $3,000
• 5th-8th — $2,000

GENERAL RULES

• In order to participate, players must be North America resident and older than 16 years of age. Players must not be under contract by any semi-professional or professional teams that are participating in semi-professional or professional leagues in North America. A “professional” league is defined as any league that directly feeds into the World Championships. The definition of semi-professional is any league that promotes or feeds into a professional league such as LCS Academy.
• Teams can participate in multiple qualifier events without limitation. If at the end of a qualifier event the qualification for the play-off is won by a team which has already qualified for the play-off, the play-off invite would instead be assigned to the next best available team for that particular qualifier event.
• Players can participate in multiple qualifier events with different teams, but must not compete in multiple competitions with multiple teams simultaneously. In particular, during the months of July and August, there will be certain qualifier events which will last multiple days/weeks. If a player is already involved in one of those qualifier competitions with a team, they can compete in other qualifier events simultaneously with the same team only.
• During all of the stages of the Circuit (Qualifiers, Playoffs, and Finals) each team can rotate a maximum of 7 players (2 substitutes on top of the starting 5-players roster). Before the Play-off stage (between the 1st and 5th of September), Teams will be required to declare the roster of 5 players which will take part in both the Playoff and Finals stages.
• During both qualifier and playoff stages players are able to stream every match on their personal channels.