ONE Championship has officially launched ONE Esports.
The promotion first announced their intention to dive into the world of esports in November last year. With that announcement, ONE Championship signaled plans to invest “up to US$50 million alongside other key partners” into their new esports and competitive gaming arm.
ONE Championship also announced that former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson had been named Chief Brand Ambassador of ONE Esports.
Read more: Demetrious Johnson named Chief Brand Ambassador of ONE Esports
Today’s announcement shared that ONE Esports plans to get the ball rolling by hosting events in Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia in 2019 and 2020.
The first two events to be officially announced are the ONE TEKKEN Tokyo Invitational and ONE Street Fighter Tokyo Challenge. These events will take place on October 5 and 6 respectively in Tokyo, Japan, aligning with the promotion’s upcoming “Century” event that is planned for Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, on October 13.
The ONE Esports TEKKEN and Street Fighter competitions will serve as somewhat of a warm-up for the brand before they host monumental Dota 2 tournaments in 2019 and 2020.
The first major event — the ONE Dota 2 Singapore World Pro Invitational — is scheduled for the Singapore Indoor Stadium on December 20-22, 2019.
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In this case, there’ll be no ‘piggybacking’ off a ONE Championship event, as the martial arts promotion has plans to host ONE: Home of Heroes in Seoul, South Korea, on December 20.
The second event, titled ONE Dota 2 Jakarta World Pro Invitational, is scheduled for April 17-19, 2020, at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition in Jakarta, Indonesia.
At each event, teams will be competing for a prize pool of USD 500,000.