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TournamentsHow to enter your first local gaming tournament without embarrassing yourself
Finding the event is the easy part. Registering, showing up prepared, and surviving your first bracket take a little more care.
Articles by Hugo Marchetti
TournamentsHow does a Swiss stage actually decide who makes the playoffs?
Three wins advance, three losses go home, and a strength-of-schedule number picks your next opponent. A primer on the format that now runs esports' biggest qualifying stages.
TournamentsHow do regional qualifiers send teams to worlds?
Open qualifiers, closed qualifiers and regional finals are the ladder between a team's home region and the world stage — every major title runs a different version, and the details decide who gets a chance.
TournamentsWhere do esports prize pools actually come from?
Publisher guarantees, crowd funding and state-backed mega-events: the three funding models behind esports prize pools produce wildly different numbers — and the biggest pool is almost never the healthiest scene.
TournamentsHow does a League of Legends world championship work?
Play-ins, a Swiss stage and an eight-team knockout: the Worlds format is a month-long funnel that turns twenty qualified teams into one champion — here is how each stage filters the field.