European Development Championship series announced with $150,000

Broadcast partners will be given slots in the tournaments, which can be used to invite teams or conduct qualifiers.

Eden Esports, the Malta-based organizers behind events like SuperNova Malta, Champions Cup and Malta Vibes, have teamed up with gaming agency Fantasyexpo to create a new tournament series, the European Development Championship, which will feature $150,000 in prizes across the first five tournaments.

The tournaments, which aim to promote regional teams and broadcasters, features an invite system by which broadcast partners from different regions will be given a slot in the competition they purchase the rights for, which can be used to invite selected teams or conduct qualifying tournaments of their own to support their local broadcasts.

The main tournaments will have sixteen teams, and be preceded by sixteen team wild card tournaments, which will have twelve teams invited by the tournament organizers and four teams coming from open qualifiers.

The first set of open qualifiers is scheduled for November 14-15 and November 21-22, while the wild card tournament will be played on November 27-29, with the first main event starting the following day, November 30.

The first placed team will get a $17,500 grand prize, as well as the opportunity to bootcamp at the InterContinental hotel in Malta. The second-placed teams will earn $7,500, while the third-fourth place finishers will take home $2,500.

"The launch of the European Development Championship is a consequence of the long dominance of a number of countries with the strongest teams that leaves fans from many nations with no possibility to follow their local teams on a regular basis," says Sergey Bidzan, CEO of Eden Esports. "We believe that through partnerships and slots dedicated to regional representatives we can start changing the situation for the better."