Skyesports announce $245,000 franchised league in India

The Indian tournament organizer has announced an eight-team league comprised of franchised members.

Skyesports have announced Skyesports Masters, a CS:GO franchised league. The tournament will take place over three months and will conclude with a LAN event in Mumbai, India with a live audience. The league will include eight franchised teams, that will compete for the lion's share of 20,000,000 INR, around $245,000.

The tournament will be split into three stages, starting with the café qualifiers taking place across gaming cafés in 20 different Indian cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Chennai. Skyesports hope the first stage will revive the game's popularity across the country and provide the eight organizations with local talent from which to build their rosters from.

The teams will also be allowed to pick already established Indian players as well as international talent to build their lineups, in addition to the rising local competitors from the qualifiers. From there comes the LAN stage, which will include the league phase and the playoffs. The offline portion of the circuit will be played in front of a crowd in Mumbai.

The organizers promised to unlock several revenue streams for the organizations in order to breathe new life into the Indian CS:GO scene. Some of their proposals include sponsorships, merchandise sales, and media rights deals.

"With our franchised system, we have found eight fantastic partners to be a part of the inaugural season of the league," read the statement from Shiva Nandy, CEO of Skyesports. "Our goal for the league is not to just create one of the grandest tournaments for audiences to enjoy but also to build a viable ecosystem for esports... as a lot of organizations are reeling under huge losses."

The schedule for the various stages of the event and the eight partner teams are yet to be revealed, with Skyesports set to announce the dates and locations for the café qualifiers soon through their social media handles.