After a hugely competitive and thrilling first season, players and teams who have been chomping at the bit to enter the second season of ESL African Championship can do so from today.
Both the Hearthstone and Counter-Strike portions of the registration are live, and player/teams who wish to enter can do so at by clicking here for Counter-Strike, or by clicking here for Hearthstone.
Registration into either tournament will secure players and teams a spot in the open qualifiers, with the hopes of moving into the group stages.
For Hearthstone, open qualifiers will be held on 19 and 30 July. It is important to note that registration and qualifiers are open to all Africans, and not just South Africans.
In the first open qualifiers, nine different African nations were represented, and reached as far Algeria, Madagascar and even Mauritius.
For the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive portion of the ESL African Championship, registration will also secure teams a spot in the open qualifiers - which will be held between 18 July and 29 July.
For season two, open qualifiers will be split between Southern African teams and North African teams.
Southern African teams will enter the open qualifiers on 18 and 19 July, and on 25 and 26 July. North African teams will see open qualifiers on 22 July and 29 July.
Qualifying Southern African countries are: Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius and of course South Africa.
Northern African countries who qualify are: Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.
It should be noted that the SA dates are four half-days, while NA dates are two full-days.
Just to reiterate:
North African Qualifier:
Date for #1 Open qualifier: 22nd of July - 15:00 CEST
Date for #2 Open qualifier: 29th of July - 15:00 CEST
South African Qualifier:
Date for #1 Open qualifier: 18th of July & 19th of July - 19:00 CEST
Date for #2 Open qualifier: 25th of July & 26th of July - 19:00 CEST
The tournament structure is slightly different for North African teams when compared to South African teams.
For South Africa, the top four teams from this open qualifier will play against the four relegated teams from the first season.
The best four teams from those matches will then move on to play in season two's group stages. For North Africa, the best eight teams from the open qualifiers will compete in their own Round Robin group stage games.
The Round Robin Best of 2 matches for both regions will start on 7 August and culminate on 22 September.
At the conclusion of the North and South African group stages, the best two teams from each region will compete against each other at the ESL African Championship Grand Finals.
The official rules governing ESL African Championship can be fund here: https://gfx.esl.eu/media/africa/african_championship/African_Championship_Season_2.pdf
Again, to register for the Hearthstone open qualifiers click here, or to register your Counter-Strike team for either the North or South African qualifiers click here.