Over the past two years, top players from universities across North America have competed on the biggest collegiate stages with a select few going on to enjoy LCS careers.

In 2014, we want to take collegiate competition to the next level. After a huge, region-wide playoff, we’ll invite the top four collegiate teams in North America to compete for a prize pool of $100,000 in scholarships. They’ll battle live on the LCS stage, immediately following the day’s LCS matches. The winners will earn the title of North American Collegiate Champions.

If you’re enrolled full-time in a US or Canadian university, you’re eligible to compete in the Collegiate Open. Here’s a quick breakdown of the tournament structure and some key dates –

We start with Collegiate Open registration

• Registration lasts from January 6 to January 22
• Multiple teams can register from the same university
• Players must be full-time students and all enrolled at the same university
• Your university must be officially accredited
• Each team needs a roster of between five and seven players
• You need proof of your enrollment for the university you register with

Once registration’s closed, we start up the North American Collegiate Open presented by IvyLoL

• The open launches on January 25 and lasts until February 2
• We’ll randomly assign seeds
• Tournament format is single-elimination, best of 3 for each round
• The top eight teams will be seeded into the North American Collegiate Qualifier alongside teams from IvyLoL and CSL

The Open’s followed by the North American Collegiate Qualifier presented by NACL

• Kicks off on February 8
• 16 teams square off in four groups and battle in a round robin stage
  • 4 teams pre-qualified from IvyLoL’s fall season
  • 4 teams pre-qualified from CSL’s Qualifier
  • 8 North American Collegiate Open Qualifiers
• The top two teams from each group then advance to the quarterfinals
• The qualifier ends with a best-of-three quarterfinal pitting the top seed of each group against the second seed of another group

Once the dust’s settled, the final four teams will be flown out to our Manhattan Beach studio to compete for the 2014 North American Collegiate Championship. They’ll clash during our February 22nd-23rd LCS broadcast in front of a live crowd with our very own casters commentating the action!