ASUS ROG announced ROG Masters 2017, a $250.000 tournament series featuring the whole globe.
A new tournament series have been announced by the ASUS ROG, branded ROG Masters. According to the official announcement, the first iteration of ROG Masters will see numerous teams from more over 30 countries fighting for their share of $250,000 prize pool. From June to November ROG Masters 2017 will take place over four phases and two different games - Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Phase 1 - Open Qualifiers
The first phase will be open qualifiers which are open to all teams, professional or amateur. ROG divided the globe into four regions with each having its own qualifier process.
APAC (Asia-Pacific)
The APAC region will have 12 open qualifiers with each having one slot to offer in the next phase. Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and Singapore are announced to have their own national qualifiers. Participants from Australia and New Zealand will compete in the same qualifier. Two remaining open qualifiers are South Asian Open Qualifier which will have teams from countries such as India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and an open regional qualifier.
EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)
ROG decided to make European, Middle Eastern and African teams compete in the same region named EMEA which will see 12 teams advance to the next phase. In this region Germany, France, Poland, Russia, Spain, UK, UAE and Romania will have their own open qualifiers with one slot at the second phase. Nordic and Benelux teams will not have their own national qualifiers, instead they will have to qualify through Nordic and Benelux qualifiers. And for the rest of the region, an open qualifier will be held to determine the last two teams to advance to the next phase.
Americas
Unlike previous two regions, Americas have eight spots in the next phase. USA, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile have national qualifiers with one team advancing per qualifier. Remaining two spots will be given out through an open regional qualifier.
China
Opposite to other regions, China's qualification process is different for games. Dota 2 will have invite-only regional finals. On the other side, three invited teams will be joined by one qualified team from a selected tournament at the regional finals. Both regional finals will be held at ChinaJoy.
Phase 2 - Regional Qualifiers
The second phase will see all qualified teams from each open qualifier compete against each other online to determine which team advances to the third phase, regional finals. Chinese teams will skip the second phase as they will be already qualified for the regional finals.
As stated above, APAC and EMEA will have 12 teams while eight teams compete in the Americas regional qualifiers. A single team per region will advance to the regional finals.
Phase 3 - Regional Finals
The third phase is the final qualification phase in the long but entertaining ROG Masters 2017 circuit.
APAC
The winner of the regional qualifier will face seven invited teams in the APAC Regional Finals. Top-2 teams from each game will secure their spots at the grand finals.
EMEA
EMEA will have the same format as APAC with eight teams, seven invited and the winner of regional qualifiers, fighting for two spots at the grand final.
Americas
There will be three invited teams per game title at Americas Regional Finals. These three sides plus the winner of regional qualifiers will be fighting for the single spot Americas Regional Finals offers at ROG Masters 2017 Grand Finals.
China
Dota 2
Four invited teams fight for a single grand finals spot.
CS:GO
Three invited teams and one qualified team from a selected tournament fight for a single grand finals spot.
Phase 4 - Grand Finals
ROG Masters 2017's six-month journey will come to an end in November 2017 when six teams per game compete at the Grand Finals. Tournament structure for both games will be the same as well as teams per region: 2 from APAC, 2 from EMEA, 1 from Americas and 1 from China. It is not announced yet whether the revealed prize pool of $250.000 will be awarded solely at the grand finals or divided across the phases.
Image courtesy of ASUS ROG
