League of Legends: DreamHack and Riot Games Launch Northern Championship

DreamHack will merge its Nordic and UK & Ireland leagues to form a new Northern Championship.

The league will begin in June, with regular-season matches played online. The finals of the event will be played at DreamHack Summer in Jönköping, Sweden in August. The new league will work as the top tier for the Northern League of Legends competitions. 12 teams have been invited to the new league including;

ENCE
Team Singularity
Tricked Esports
Dusty
RIDDLE
Nordavind DNB
GODSENT
Fnatic Rising
BT Excel
Munster Rugby Gaming
Barrage
MnM Gaming

An infographic showing the new structure with the NLC will be the top-tier with the UKLC and Telia Esports Series acting as tier-two competitions

As seen in the image above, the NLC will be the top-tier with the UKLC and Telia Esports Series acting as tier-two competitions. The league will feature relegation, with top sides from the tier-two leagues competing in the Telia Masters against the bottom two sides from the NLC to take their place in the league.

Michael Van Driel, Chief Product Officer at DreamHack, had this to say;

“DreamHack has been the leading esports organizer in the Nordics for a very long time and we are very excited to partner up with Riot on a long term basis to create a more stable ecosystem for players, fans, and teams around League of Legends. In partnership with 12 top team organizations from all of the different countries here, the NLC we believe is going to be the best regional esports competition out there.”

A great move for regional League of Legends in Europe

With a 1M SEK ( $100,000) prize pool on offer per split to teams in the NLC, this new commitment from DreamHack looks set to add even more strength to the regional scene in Europe. The inclusion of the UKLC is also a great move in unifying the League of Legends esports scenes operated by DreamHack, and should prove to add more of a competitive edge to the Northern half of Europe.

Images via Riot Games.