Here's everything you need to know about Gears of War 5 esports.
Our Gears of War 5 Esports guide contains everything you need to know about Gears esports, including Escalation, upcoming matches and more.
Gears of War esports has been on the rise over the last few years, and it feels like Gears 4 has been a real turning point in the game’s competitive history. For the first time, the game had a solid esports foundation in its competitive focused mode, Escalation, and the infrastructure was in place to draw in record numbers on Twitch.
It’s clear with Gears 5 that The Coalition plans on building off the previous games’ success. There’s a partnership with PGL to create a Pro League featuring top teams, major international events, a World Championship event and big prize pools.
Unlike CS:GO or League of Legends, Gears of War esports is still in its infancy and can be quite a confusing setup to the uninitiated. Below we’ll take you through everything you need to know about its competitive scene, so you can get in on all the action once it kicks off in September.
Gears 5 esports guide – Everything we know so far
How will the 2019-2020 season work?
Details are a little thin at the moment, but we know that upon Gears of War 5’s launch on September 10th, players will be able to sign up and compete in regional ladders and online tournaments for weekly cash prizes.
The 2019-2020 Season will feature three major events, culminating in the World Championships. There will also be a smattering of regional events mixed in here and there too.
Every Pro League team is automatically provided travel coverage to major events and the opportunity to compete for divisional prize pools. Teams that qualify for the Pro League will be removed from regional ladders and will be ineligible for weekly online tournaments. This will allow new teams to rise to the top.
Throughout the season, these top amateur teams will be given the chance to break into the Pro League via online qualification, while the lowest ranking Pro League teams from each division will be forced to fight for their spots.
What game mode will be played?
Gears 5 esports will be centered around the game mode, Escalation.
Here’s how it works:
Objective
- Two teams of five players fight to control three rings across the map.
- Each ring your team holds produces one point per second, towards the round-winning goal of 250 points. If you hold two rings, you earn two points per second.
- If your team captures all three rings, you’ll win a ‘Domination’ victory after five seconds.
Rounds, Weapon Picks and Spawns
- Every round, new weapons are placed on the battlefield and player respawn times get shorter.
- Each player in Escalation starts off with five lives per round. Each time you die, you can choose to spend a life to rejoin the fight. Run out of lives in that round and you can’t respawn to help out your team.
- One life is refreshed at the end of each round, at five at half time.
- After each round, both teams are able to select a weapon and its spawn point on the map. On top of this, teams can also choose to disable enemy weapons for three rounds.
- Each map has a centerline. Teams can choose to place any weapon of their choice on this centerline for no cost, but of course, no team will hold an advantage as to its placement.
- Weapon placements can also be upgraded to provide more ammo, or more powerful weaponry.
- When it comes to spawns, the front three players will spawn much further forwards than their compatriots at the back. However, the back two players are the only ones who will spawn with smoke or flash grenades. If you want to arm any of your front players, you’ll need to sacrifice weapon placement picks.
Who are the top teams?
Below we’ve listed all of the current top ranked teams as of the Gears 5 ELEAGUE Summer Invitational, which took place in April.
TOX Gaming came out on top against Ghost in the finals of the ELEAGUE Invitational. For those unfamiliar with Gears esports, it’s safe to say that TOX Gaming are clear favourites to start the 2019-2020 season strong.
Formerly under the OpTic banner, TOX are filled with Gears superstars who’ve been on top of the game from the early days.
- Ghost
- EU’s Finest
- Glory
- Mazer
- Reciprocity
- RISE
- Simplicity
- TOX Gaming
If you’re curious to find out more about the Gears esports scene, then make sure you give the ELEAGUE Gears “Bonds & Betrayals” series a watch:
There’s a total of six videos in the series, focusing on some of the biggest Gears personalities and top players.
