The 2022 Unified Proving Grounds Circuit will hold its first qualifier tournament starting on Monday. The 32-team invitational will have teams fighting against each other to see which 16 squad will move on to the next portion of the season. Here is a breakdown of the format and how to watch.
Unified Proving Grounds Qualifier #1 format
The 32 teams competing in the event have all been seeded based on overall team rank. In this qualifier, all 32 teams will play in a five-round swiss format. This means that after each round, teams will play against other squads with the same record. For example, in Round 3 teams that are 2-0 will play against each other, teams that are 1-1 will fight against each other and teams that are 0-2 will face off against one another.
Each match will be a best of one with the top 16 teams after the five rounds moving on to the next portion of the tournament. Even if teams don’t qualify for the next portion, every win counts. Teams will receive five circuit points for every win in the swiss rounds. For Round 1, the teams will play against each other based on their initial seed with the No. 1 seed, Golden Guardians Academy, playing against the 32 seed, Meme City Esports, and so on.
The first two rounds will be played on Monday. The final three rounds will be played on Tuesday.
Participating teams
The 32 teams were revealed in a live stream on Saturday. The teams were selected from a field of over 50 and were determined by overall rank. Out of the field of the 32 teams selected, there were four LCS organizations represented, eight teams from the collegiate circuit and many other smaller organizations that are mainstays in the amateur scene.
Where to watch
The event will be broadcast live on Twitch during both days of the competition. On Monday, two streams will run side-by-side to bring as much of the action as possible to fans. The mainstream will be on the UnifiedLive channel and the secondary stream will run on the Unified2 channel.
The broadcast will also feature a big lineup of talent giving play-by-play as well as analysis of each game. The action kicks off at 7 p.m. EST on both Monday and Tuesday.
