International Olympic Committee and Intel to host $500,000 esports tournament ahead of 2020 Tokyo Olympics

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The International Olympic Committee and Intel, one of the world’s leading multinational technology corporations, have partnered up to announce the Intel World Open, an esports competition that will take place in the run-up to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Featuring a $500,000 prize pool, the Intel World Open will feature Rocket League and Street Fighter V competitions in partnership with each title’s respective developers Psyonix/Epic Games and Capcom.

The Intel World Open kicks off with a series of online qualifiers in early 2020 for both titles followed by a live qualifier event that will take place in Katowice, Poland in June to determine which teams will be able to advance onto the main event. Intel and the IOC will host the World Open finals at Tokyo’s Zepp DiverCity venue from July 22-24, 2020, with an even split of $250,000 from the prize pool being up for grabs for competitors in each title.

IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell stated, "We are excited Intel is bringing the Intel World Open esports tournament to Japan in the lead up to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. As we explore the engagement between esports and the Olympic Movement we are looking forward to learning from this event and continuing to engage with the passionate esports community from around the world."

Event production will be handled by none other than ESL who has years of experience hosting large scale tournaments around the world for various esports titles. In 2018, ahead of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, ESL similarly collaborated with both Intel and the IOC to run the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) PyeongChang which featured esports tournaments for titles ranging from StarCraft II to Overwatch.

Following the conclusion of the Intel World Cup, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics themselves begins two days later on July 24.

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