ESL today announced a partnership with GIGABYTE™ for ESL tournaments featuring Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft® II and Hearthstone®: Heroes of WarcraftTM. GIGABYTE will serve as the exclusive motherboard sponsor for the StarCraft II World Championship Series Premier League, operated by ESL, and the ESL Hearthstone Legendary Series.

Produced by ESL from studios in both Burbank, CA (United States) and Cologne (Germany), competition for the World Championship Series Premier League, which kicked off on February 14, features 32 of the best StarCraft II players from all around the world. The ESL Hearthstone Legendary Series is an ongoing tournament series that pits 8 players against one another in weekly tournaments for a chance at winning US$20,000 in a live competition. Season 1 just concluded, with Canada’s Austin “SilentStorm” Li emerging victorious over Keaton “Chakki” Gil, from the United States. Season 2 will begin soon—stay tuned to www.eslgaming.com for further details.

GIGABYTE, who have sponsored numerous ESL events and are trusted throughout the gaming industry as the premier motherboard supplier, will enable players to unleash their fullest potential this year. Having launched their G1™ Gaming brand, the company seeks to support those “Born to Game” in any and every way they can with focus on premier esports tournaments.

“The StarCraft II World Championship Series and the ESL Hearthstone Legendary Series are two of the most professional esports tournaments out there, and host some of the world’s best players in weekly competition. We knew that was something we had to get our premier G1 Gaming brand involved in,” said Colin Brix, Director of Marketing Motherboard Business Unit at GIGABYTE. “With our newly-launched X99 motherboards to help support the competition, there’ll be nothing holding these players back from unleashing the best that they can be.”

“Changes in the StarCraft II World Championship Series mean that from the get-go competition will feature games between the best from all around the world. It’s no longer just Europe and North America battling it out, we’re talking Asia, Africa, America and the Middle East,” said David Kugelmann, Product Manager at ESL. “We are very excited to get started and are extremely happy to welcome GIGABYTE along for what promises to be a fantastic year.”