B SITE LEAGUE OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED AS "FLASHPOINT", TO OFFER OVER $2 MILLION IN 2020

The team-owned league launching in March up until now known as B Site has been officially announced, boasting the name FLASHPOINT, which will offer over $2 million in prizemoney over two seasons in 2020.

The news was revealed on Wednesday during a press conference held in London, where some of the broadcast talent, representatives from the organizations involved, and players from the participating teams were present.

As previously revealed, FLASHPOINT was devised by some of the team organizations "to address a lack of stability and long-term investments, and the immediate threat to team organizations of the establishment of a tournament organizer monopoly."

As such, the company behind the league will be co-funded by ten team organizations, with the total investment into the creation of the project amounting to a staggering $25 million. Six of them are currently known and comprise Cloud9, MIBR, MAD Lions, Dignitas, Gen.G, and c0ntact, with four more set to join them on the ownership level.

"Today, many esports leagues are fundamentally broken, pitting the leagues against teams and players to bicker over divergent interests and scraps of economics. B-Site radically changes the model by bringing all groups together to share the rewards of their collective success,"

• Kent Wakeford, Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman of Gen.G

"While there are many reasons to be excited about FLASHPOINT, two stand out: first, there is deep alignment among the participating organizations, league operators, broadcast talent, and players about how and why FLASHPOINT can and should be different, and additive to the overall CS:GO ecosystem. It's fun and inspiring to be collaborating with great people and entities from multiple stakeholder groups. I think it makes us all better. Second, this truly is a new and different product for fans. Our analysis is that fans have long-clamored for a product like this, and we've worked hard to be able to bring that desire to life."

• Ari Segal, CEO of Immortals Gaming Club

Two more participating teams will come from a set of two-stage qualifiers in Europe, North America, and South America beginning on February 6, which will culminate at a global LAN qualifier in Los Angeles on March 3-5. The qualifying process will have $100,000 in prizemoney on offer.

With FACEIT acting as the league's operator, FLASHPOINT will be played in a live studio environment and host two seasons annually, with its prizepool totaling over $2 million in 2020. Financial support for up-and-coming teams will be built into its infrastructure — at the very least offering a $25,000 monthly stipend to qualified teams without organizations behind them.

The first season, which is set to launch in March, will be played in two phases, where the participants will garner points depending on their placing. Each phase will feature three best-of-three double-elimination groups seeded in a special manner, partially by the teams themselves. At the end of the first two phases, eight teams with the most points will advance to double-elimination playoffs.

More information about the details of the format, such as the fashion in which the teams will seed each other.

The league promises unique entertainment targeted at adults, citing inspiration from the WWE and UFC. It has previously been announced that the broadcast will be spearheaded by Duncan "Thorin" Shields as the Creative Director and on-air talent, with several other well-known names joining him in front of the cameras, including Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles, who previously worked on the Overwatch League and on various League of Legends broadcasts.

The full talent lineup is:

United Kingdom Duncan "Thorin" Shields - Creative Director, talent

United States Auguste "Semmler" Massonnat - Product Advisor, talent
United States Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles - Product Advisor, talent

United States Sean "seang@res" Gares - talent
United Kingdom Freya Spiers - talent
Denmark Anders "Anders" Blume - talent
United States Jason "moses" O'Toole - talent
United Kingdom Daniel "ddk" Kapadia - talent
United Kingdom James Bardolph - talent
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original: https://www.hltv.org/news/28993/b-site-league-officially-announced-as-flashpoint-to-offer-over-2-million-in-2020
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