The Korea e-Sports Association said Tuesday that regional representative qualifiers for the "18th Presidential Cup Amateur Esports Tournament (Presidential Cup KeG)," the nation's largest amateur esports competition, will be held across the country from July 17 through August 2.
The Presidential Cup KeG is a nationwide competition launched in 2007 to promote balanced regional development of esports and expand the amateur base. Since being elevated to a presidential cup event in 2009, it has continued for 20 years as the only nationwide amateur esports competition involving the government.
To date, approximately 37,000 amateur players have competed in the tournament, and about 180 of them have advanced to the professional stage. Last year alone, nine players who competed in League of Legends and two players who competed in FC Online made their debut as professional players.
This year's tournament will be held across four official titles: Eternal Return, Brawl Stars, FC Online, and League of Legends. For the first time this year, Puyo Puyo Esports has been included as a strategic title.
The regional representative qualifiers will begin in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province on July 17 and proceed online or offline in each local government area nationwide. Each region will select representative players for one Eternal Return team (three to four players), one Brawl Stars team (three players), two FC Online players, and one League of Legends team (five players). For Puyo Puyo Esports, the strategic title, eight national finalists will be determined through a separate online qualifier on July 19.
The national finals will be held August 15-16 at the Gyeongju Indoor Gymnasium in North Gyeongsang Province. The overall winning region will receive the Presidential Award, while the regions winning each official title will receive the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Award. The top two finishers in the FC Online title will earn direct berths to the quarterfinals of the FC Online Futures League main event, and the total prize pool is 25.5 million won.
Meanwhile, the tournament is hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and jointly organized by the Korea e-Sports Association, North Gyeongsang Province, Gyeongju City, and the Gyeongju Cultural Foundation. It is sponsored by SK Telecom, Sidiz, MOTTA, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, and the Korea Creative Content Agency, with Nimble Neuron, Supercell, Nexon Korea, Riot Games, and Sega participating as title publishers.
