Top four teams of the Gold Series League: DiNG, Utopia and two more teams victorious in the playoff matches, will come over to Katowice to compete during a live studio event and prove who deserves a share of the €325,000 prize pool and, most importantly, the regional Championship title!

Watch it live!

Any World of Tanks fan is welcome to come down to the ESL Studios located ul. Żeliwna 38 in Katowice from 13:30 CEST.

By coming to Katowice you will have an opportunity to meet pro players, other WoT fans and our casters in person and witness the atmosphere of a live tournament. When prizes and glory are on the line, that brings out the best in players. Expect to have a great time! We will have also something special in store for you as well.

The number of seats in our ESL Arena is limited to 100 people so be sure to reserve a spot well ahead of time or you may miss out.

Feel the real emotion of being a part of a live event!

The entrance is free of charge!

REGISTER HERE

• What: WGL EU Season 1 Regional Finals 2016
• Who: Europe’s best World of Tanks Teams
• Where: ESL Studios in Katowice, ul. Żeliwna 38, Poland
• When: October 23rd starting at 13:30 PM GMT+2 (Warsaw time)

Or watch online

The WGL EU Season I 2016-2017 Finals will also be streamed in English on our official Twitch channel: http://wgl.gg/watch.

What is the WGL?

In World of Tanks esports, teams of 7 players jump into WWII-era, historically accurate tanks on-screen and fight it out in a simulated tank battle until one team’s tanks are destroyed, or one team captures another’s base. These teams have been battling it out over an intense 8-week season, and the top four teams will qualify to Katowice to settle the score live, on-stage.

The Regional Finals will also take place in other WGL regions, NA and APAC. Here are the details:

North America

• Who: North America’s best World of Tanks teams
• What: WGLNA Season 1 Regional Finals 2016
• Where: ESL Studios in Burbank, California
• When: October 22nd starting at 11AM Pacific
• Watch online: http://wgl.gg/watch

APAC

• Who: APAC’s best World of Tanks teams
• What: WGL APAC Season 1 Regional Finals 2016
• Where: Unit 4, 199 Parramatta Road in Auburn, Sydney
• When: October 22nd starting at 2 PM AEST

Watch online:

• EN: http://wgl.gg/watch
• JP: www.twitch.tv/wgl_jp
• KR: www.twitch.tv/wgl_kr
• ZH-TW: www.twitch.tv/wgl_tw

CIS

• Who: CIS’s best World of Tanks teams
• What: WGL CIS Season 1 Regional Finals 2016
• Where: Татнефть-арена / Tatneft Arena, Kazan
• When: October 9th, 13:00 PM MSK
• Watch online: http://wgl.gg/watch

Stay tuned for upcoming information on the event, and be sure to follow WGLEU on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest updates.

We are excited to see how this casting powerhouse will bring energy and experience to this season’s broadcasts. If you want to learn about our new casters, check out their bios below and be sure to tune in on Thursdays, Fridays at 7PM GMT+2 as well as Saturdays and Sundays at 4PM GMT+2 here http://wgl.gg/watch to see them in action!

Jordy “Dakillzor” Versmesse

Unlike many players in the community, Jordy was never a real gamer as a child. When he was 14, he started playing his first actual game called Combat Arms (online F2P First Person Shooter). When the game slowly started to ‘die’ he switched over to FPS games like A.V.A, Call of duty etc.

It was around 2010 when he got to know the World of Tanks. At first he was not dedicated to it and just played the beta version. When the game got released Jordy started getting more and more actively involved in it. Believe it or not, he used to be a mediocre player until he joined MUMMY (Sub clan of PTS). This is a point where he got his first introduction to high level clan wars. Afterwards he joined PTS and switched clans a few times until he ended up where he is today in FAME.

The introduction to E-sports happened to Jordy before Season 4 when one of his friends recommended Jordy to join CPLAY as he didn’t have time to play the game.

Jordy managed to get in the team and won 3rd place at his first e-sports event in Cologne. He also went to the Season 5 Finals in Sofia later on with WASD. Before Season 1 of 2015/2016 he decided to join HWC and thus to switch to the NA region where they finished second in their first season together. More successes soon followed as Jordy and his team won the Lan finals in Burbank, Pacific Rumble in Japan and WCA in China. At that time, Jordy was also voted MVP (most valuable player) for that season. The last competition he took part in was the Major League in which he won the second place together with Ding.

When he was not playing he acted as an analyst at the Grand Finals in 2015, Continental Rumble, Season 1 Finals. He also did some casting for ESL Asia. In his free time he likes to stream on his Twitch channel some “high level” gameplay and he dedicates his time to his clan FAME.

Mihajlo “Mojo” Jugovič

 Mihajlo is a genuine gamer. He has many years of gaming experience under his belt, having played competitively various titles such as Counter Strike, Dota and Guild Wars. He also organized several tournaments in CS and even a multi tournament that involved over 400 PCs in LAN in various games like Q3, CS, Dota NFS.

Mihajlo is now 39 and until recently he owned his own net cafe called MOJO, to be more exact he owned it for the last 15 years! An interesting fact about Mojo is that he actually created the first Kazna team known as Mojo Kazna Kru because they played from Mihajlo’s net cafe online. Almost four years ago he formed the Kazna Kru clan and an ESL team with the same name.

 His adventure with WoT started 5 years ago right after the game came out officially and this translates into a wealth of experience he has today. He was always a tactician and a leader in his WoT teams. With the Kazna ESL team he went to promo tournaments at IEM Katowice 2013, next Cebit Hannover and he won the Wargaming 15-Year Anniversary Tournament. The team also went to Dreamhack Sweden for Season 1 Finale, then to Gamescom Cologne for Season 2 where they won the 3rd place. The Season 3 finals in Tychy was the last time he played with Kazna. After Kazna Mojo played for TCM for two  seasons as their captain/tactician, and one season for WUSA as a player. That is the last time he played professionally.

It was about at this same time, Mojo started casting WoT – he went to the 1st Grand Finals in Warsaw as an analyst and acted since then as an analyst during the Grand Finals. He also casted some online Wargaming cups like Super Six, Easy 8, Mangled Metal, fun cups. ESL then asked Mojo to cast ESL Major League (also online). In total he participated in 6 major offline events as a player, and in 6 as an analyst, He’s also done some online casting solo and with other casters, but purely for fun and as a hobby.

In his free time apart from playing games obviously, Mihajlo likes reading, mainly books based on history and science fiction. Travelling is also a great passion for him:), he also has a 9k You Tube channel where he teaches people how to play WoT by commenting games and giving tips. It is called ‘kursor TV’.

Ryan “Ectar” Murphy

To many of the World of Tanks community, Ectar should be a familiar face (if not a familiar voice) that you’ve seen before. Hailing from Scotland, Ectar has been playing computer games since the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was around.

Working in the games industry since 2008 when he joined Blizzard to be a Games Master. In 2012 he then moved to Paris to join the EU office of Wargaming.net in the Community Team where he served as Community Manager for the past 3 years. After participating in the EU season finals as an analyst and then the Grand Finals as an analyst and caster, Ectar will be the new play by play caster for the EU region this season.

“Whilst I lack the experience of other casters, this is a huge opportunity for me and I will be trying to deliver the best possible experience for the viewers, all the while learning from my peers and constantly looking to improve upon my past shows. I like to have a good laugh whilst keeping things professional and hopefully I can interject that in my casts.”

A huge fan of bands like Kings of Leon and The Black Keys, he loves any music with a strong bass rift. He supports Glasgow Celtic and whilst he doesn’t always watch NFL, he’s attached to the Seattle Seahawks. He’s also a car nut and has a big interest in the modified/import car scene. What car to buy next is something he’s currently spending a bit too much time thinking about!

If you want to stay up to date on all the latest  #WGLEU news, be sure to follow the WGLEU Twitter and Facebook!

The final showdown

Little did we know that the first matchup to kick off The Grand Finals 2016 proceedings this weekend would also be the one to close out the event the next day. A close final battle with an insane tiebreaker, it would have been hard to finish things off in a more dramatic manner!

It was Natus Vincere versus Hellraisers once more, with the two teams locked in an epic showdown that saw all players except three wiped from the map – only Applew0w and Grifon remained for Hellraisers and Inspirer for Na’Vi.

With two against one, it looked like it was all over for Na’Vi. However, Applew0w managed to get stuck on a cliff while attempting to come down from an elevated position, meaning the grievously damaged Grifon was left to face Inspirer alone. After a tense game of hide and seek eventually ended in Inspirer’s favor, there was nothing Applew0w could do except watch as his opponent rolled on to victory and a 7-6 series win for Na’Vi.

The prizes

With Na’Vi taking home the trophy as well as the majority of the US$300,000 prize pool, the final placing and prize distribution for The Grand Finals 2016 was as follows:

• First place: US$150,000 to Natus Vincere
• Second place: US$75,000 to Hellraisers
• Third place: US$35,000 to Wombats on Tanks
• Fourth place: US$20,000 to Not So Serious
• Fifth to eighth place: US$5,000 to Tornado.Rox, YaTo, SIMP and Kazna Kru

Congratulations to Na’Vi!

Congratulations to Grand Final 2016 winners Natus Vincere as well as all the participating teams for their incredible performances at the event

Ladies and Gentlemen, your champions: @natusvincere #theGrandFinals https://t.co/Y1sOS8uJVy

— Wargaming League EU (@wgleu) April 9, 2016

For all the latest World of Tanks news, make sure to follow WGL EU on Facebook and Twitter!

The teams

Group A

• YaTo Gaming
• NSS
• EL Gaming

Group B

• RED Canids
• SIMP
• Wombats on Tanks

Group C

• Hellraisers
• Natus Vincere
• Gold Bass

Group D

• Eclipse
• Kazna Kru
• Tornado ROX

The format

While the 7v7 lineup remains, the year’s Grand Finals will also see a couple of big changes. The first of these is the battle time, which has increased from 7 minutes to 10. The Grand Finals 2016 will also see the introduction of Tier X tanks, meaning everyone will get to witness the very best that World of Tanks has to offer first hand during the competition.

The Grand FInals game mode will be Attack/Defense – one team must protect two base capture zones while the other team has to try and capture them or else destroy all their opponents’ vehicles.

The venue

This year’s Grand Finals will be taking place at the Torwar Hall in Warsaw, Poland. Twice the size of last year’s venue, The Grand Finals 2016 will be able to welcome more World of Tanks fans than ever before – and you can be part of the crowd without paying a penny!

Torwar Hall is located right of Warsaw and is a short distance from the stadium. Having previously been host to a number of massive concerts and sporting events, the venue is easy to find and get via local transport.

The schedule

Check out the full Grand Finals 2016 schedule below!

Click to enlarge

Get ready to roll out!

It all kicks off at 12:00 CEST on April the 8th and 9th, so be sure to tune in via Twitch or join us live at the world’s most epic World of Tanks event in Warsaw, Poland. Entry is free, attendees can get their hands on some exclusive in-game goodies and there are also premium tickets available for the most dedicated World of Tanks fans – find out more here.

For all the latest updates, be sure to follow WGL EU on Facebook and Twitter – especially as there will be plenty of giveaways throughout the event that could mean you get your hands on some exclusive in-game goodies and gaming hardware!

The teams

Representing Europe at the Continental Rumble will be:

• Wombats on Tanks (formerly Virtus.pro)
• Tornado ROX

Russia and CIS, meanwhile, have the following two teams ready to fight it out:

• Natus Vincere
• Hellraisers

Kazna Kru have also been invited to the proceedings, and will be treating viewers to an exciting tier 10 all-star showmatch.

The prizes

Although there is both prestige and the Continental Rumble trophy on the line, the real show-stopper is the US$100,000 prize pool, which will be divided among the competitors as follows:

• First place: US$45,000
• Second place: US$30,000
• Third place: US$15,000
• Fourth place: US$10,000

The schedule

The Continental Rumble is set to take place on Saturday the 17th of October at the Poznań Game Arena – you can find the full schedule for a day filled with explosive tank action below.

• Starting time: 11:45 CEST
• First match: 12:10 CEST
• Showmatch: 17:00 CEST
• Final: 18:20 CEST

Tune in here to watch the action live!

If you’d like to be there live for what will no doubt be a cracking set of games then head over to the Games Arena site and pick yourself up a ticket! Doors open at 10:00 CEST and there’s a lot of other awesome stuff to check out before the Continental Rumble kicks off including the MGT-20 gaming truck.

For more information about the Wargaming.net League as well as the Continental Rumble, check out the official website. Also be sure to keep an eye on WGL EU’s dedicated Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as the #RumbleWGL hashtag for the latest updates and your chance to pick up some sweet World of Tanks swag!

The format

The tournament will be using the new 7/54 Team Battle mode. This means that each team consists of seven players with a total of 54 tier points between them – competitors can play with either five tier 8 tanks and two tier 7s or six tier 8 tanks and one tier 6. One team is the attacker and must either destroy the enemy’s tanks or capture one of the defender’s two bases. The defender, meanwhile, must survive the attack by either killing all the enemy’s tanks or outlasting the clock.

The teams

This season will see some familiar faces back on the battlefield, including Grand Finals fourth place winner and wild card Kazna Kru as well as Virtus.PRO, who represented Europe as the second seeded team before coming in at a respectable seventh place. As well as veterans of previous seasons such as PENTA Sports and WUSA, a number of new teams will be joining the lead. Tornado ROX, Stronk Siema, Synergy, DiNG and noMERCY will all be joining the fray, with the two remaining teams to be decided via the open qualifier, which is currently in progress.

Join the fight!

If you want to get involved, now’s your chance! Simply join the Bronze Series and battle other teams in order to climb the rankings. Every week, some of the top Bronze Series teams are promoted to the Silver Series, which houses the region’s top thirty World of Tanks teams. From here, you can try and earn your place in the coveted Gold Series as well as compete for cash prizes and even go as far as the end of season finals, where teams do battle for an additional prize post in nailbiting matches in front of a live audience.

For more information on how to get involved, head over the Wargaming.net League site.

The talent

This season will be brought to you by a great talent team including old hand Lauren “Pansy” Scott and new ESL addition Mitch “Uber” Leslie, who will be guiding you through the shows and providing play-by-play commentary in alternation. Oliver “Laughter” Maxfield will be returning to provide detailed breakdowns of the season’s thrilling in-game action and high-level competitive play, while social media host Melek “m3lly” Balgün will bring you plenty of mini-games, contests and giveaways throughout the shows.

The entire season will be being streamed live on the Wargaming.net Europe Twitch.tv channel, so make sure you tune in!

For more information about the Wargaming.net League Europe, please visit the official website.