A tournament that showcases upcoming rookie talent, European Masters will pit the top regional league sides against each other to prove who is the strongest team outside of the LEC.

EU Masters’ Main Event begins Monday 24th August, kicking off with the Group Stage. This will see 16 sides compete across four groups, all playing out a double round-robin, with two from each group eventually moving on to the Knockout Stage.

The groups have been decided based on a 1-4 seeding which is determined by where the teams finished in their own leagues as well as their regions’ strength. Each group has a team of each seed and cannot feature two sides from the same ERL (European Regional League).

Holders LDLC, from France’s LFL, continue their defence as the fourth seed in a tough Group A, where they will rematch their fellow Spring finalists K1CK from Poland’s Ultraliga.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

The Group Stage ends on Saturday 12th September and the Knockout Stage begins three days later on Tuesday 15th. The quarter-final and semi-final matches will see teams progress in best-of-three series, while the grand final on Saturday 19th September will instead be decided in a best-of-five.

While the majority of the tournament is played online, the grand finals have historically been held offline in either Leicester’s Haymarket Theatre or Katowice’s ESL Arena. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, an offline final is hugely unlikely with the entirety of the tournament expected to be played out online (as was the case in Spring).

As always, the sides from the three largest ERLs will all fancy their chances at taking the EUM crown. Other than Origen’s victory in the inaugural tournament, no leagues other than France, Germany and Spain have yet produced an EU Masters winner and holders LDLC will hope to add to this pattern.

The French side (who boast Fnatic legend YellOwStaR as support) qualified as the third seed from the LFL, meaning that they had to make their way through the Play-in stage and only earn the fourth seed in Group A. They go up against Spring runners up K1CK, who themselves will be looking to go one step further this time around. Prime League’s FC Schalke 04 Evolution will hope that they can match the strong form shown by their main roster in the LEC, however their swift 3-0 loss to mousesports in the German final means that instant improvement will be needed if they are to even reach the knockouts.

Group B can easily be billed as the group of death, including AGO ROGUE, Movistar Riders and Team GamerLegion. ROGUE and Movistar both exited the Spring tournament at the semi-final stage last time around and are expected to be right up there again this Summer. Fourth seed GamerLegion had been dominant in the Prime League for most of the split, eventually faltering in playoffs and looking less than convincing in their Play-in series victory over G2 Artic. An incredibly strong side on their day, featuring 2018 Worlds semi-finalist Hjarnan in the bot lane, the Germans could be a realistic challenger if they can get back to their best.

Spring 2019 champions Misfits Premier go into Group C as the first seed, in what should be a fairly comfortable group where both themselves and Spain’s Vodafone Giants are expected to progress with relative ease. Poland’s Ultraliga gains three seeds for the tournament after K1CK and ROGUE’s impressive Spring results, however 7more7 Pompa Team looks someway off of both Misfits and Giants and may struggle to prove the deservedness of their place.

Finally, Group D will be led by first seed mousesports, whose ERL superteam failed to live up to their hype in Spring before smashing Schalke 3-0 in the Prime League final this split. They are up against France’s second seed GamersOrigin who were eliminated at the quarter-final stage in the last instance of EUM, as well as two-time semi-finalists Fnatic Rising who are the sole representatives from the newly formed NLC (Northern League of Legends Championship).

Sodi Pops’ Pick - mousesports to win European Masters

When I backed this side this time last Spring, I did so having seen the wealth of both experience and talent that the side has, only to see them fail to reach their potential.

This time around the German organisation comes into the tournament in strong form, flexing their muscles in their 3-0 playoff win against Schalke and going into an assassin meta that will suit mid laner LIDER to a tee.

With this being most player’s last chance to prove themselves this season as they push for LEC offers for 2021, EU Masters should provide the team with the perfect motivation needed to step up this time around. Three out of five of the lineup have had their taste of LEC play in the past, and this is the ideal moment for them to earn it once again.