Injustice 2 will be getting the ELeague treatment. ELeague will host a 16 person tournament on Oct 21 with a $250,000 prize pool that will be broadcast on TBS. The ELeague Injustice 2 Tournament will come at the tail end of the $600,000 Injustice 2 Championship Series and will use seedings from the series and other methods to choose the competitors for the event. ELeague recently wrapped up their Street Fighter V event and it looks like they won't be taking any breaks in their coverage of fighting games.
A Sensible Collaboration
Turner Sports and Warner Bros.
share a special relationship as sister companies so the collaboration makes great business sense as a whole. With ELeague Street Fighter V putting up favorable numbers in their two month long run, the hope is to capitalize on the synergy of ELeague as an esports brand and working that to raise the popularity of Injustice 2 amongst a more mainstream audience. For ELeague, it keeps their million dollar G-Fuel ELeague Arena in constant rotation as their more flagship game Counter Strike: Global Offensive takes a backseat. If they follow the strategy of last year, the game would fit in right around the end of the ELeague CS:Go season.
Christina Alejandre, Vice President of Esports at Turner Sports, called Injustice 2 an “evergreen property” stating that the game was great for the Fighting Game Community.
It features popular DC Comics characters, along with an interface that makes it easy to spectate. Feedback from their first foray into fighting games started off rocky but ELeague has shown the community that they are extremely responsive to feedback and have won over many fans in the process.
Injustice 2 Gets an Important Platform
For the longest time, Netherrealm has played second fiddle to Capcom in terms of popularity in the fighting game community. The games traditionally have a shorter lifespan in comparison to other fighting games but this time Injustice is putting more emphasis on esports, with events like the Twitch Esports Arena and on releasing timely DLC, like the reveal of Red Hood at Combo Breaker.
The ELeague announcement has put Injustice 2 on the same playing field in terms of recognition and the side by side rivalry with Street Fighter V will play out for the mainstream. The fighting game community as a whole wins out as it becomes more lucrative to play a wider field of games and as more players learn about the community.
