Relog Media Announce Flagship Teams For 2021 Competitions

The creators of the HomeSweetHome Cups have sold that brand to Relog Media, who have announced a series of events for 2021. This time around, some well known teams like Sprout, North, Gambit, and NiP have committed to play in at least six of these tournaments.

The SnowSweetSnow cups will take place as a continuation of sorts to the HomeSweetHome series. Last year, GRID Esports held eight week-long tournaments, each one handing out $40,000 in prize money. In the first few weeks, teams like BIG, Endpoint, Sprout, and Virtus.pro featured in the competition. Later, organizations like Complexity, ALTERNATE aTTaX, Heroic, and OG joined in as well.

To make their 2021 tournament lineup even more appealing, Relog Media now offer an increased prize pool. Teams will now cash out a total of $100,000 per cup, which increases the overall tally more than twofold. The organizers have also expanded the structure of the events, offering regional Group Stages now as well. A part of the prize money is reserved for these earlier event stages in order to still somewhat award the teams who haven’t made it to the playoffs. This should help to support the smaller organizations and reinforce lesser known regions.

FLAGSHIP TEAMS

The biggest change, however, comes in the form of flagship teams. 34 organizations have conctractually committed to taking part in at least six Relog Media events in 2021. Scandinavian fans will rejoice at seeing North, HAVU, and the Copenhagen Flames in play. The Ninjas in Pyjamas will feature both with their main and youngsters rosters. Astralis Talent will also partake. Sprout will most definitely be the German favorites, but in Gambit, Winstrike, Endpoint, and the Movistar Riders, they have quite the opposition ahead of themselves.

These teams will probably spread their participation out over the entire year, even though they’re likely to attend their first three tournaments in this half of the year already.

THE FIRST CUP

The first SnowSweetSnow cup will commence on January 18, starting with the CIS Group Stage. Over the next couple of days, teams like Astralis Talent, NiP Youngsters, HellRaisers and Honoris will provide the action. Later, these teams will play a regional Swiss Stage, which only eight rosters can come out of on top. Those eight teams will then play against Sprout, Endpoint, forZe, and PACT, amongst others who have been pre-qualified for the Main Swiss Stage. The event will culminate in the playoffs and the Grand Finals will eventually provide a conclusion on February 11.

In addition to those changes and regional expansions, the organizers now want to provide more broadcasts, aiming to increasingly include additional language casts over the year. Relog have also made a point to ramp up their content production to deliver an all-around better package – after all, the online tournaments appear to be here to stay for quite a while.