Multinational esports organisation Team Liquid has launched The Next Wave, a scouting combine focused on finding talented FPS players in North America.
The combine will be accompanied by a five episode series, with the finale broadcast live on Twitch. The project will focus on amateur and professional FPS players and content creators, with the winner of the competition receiving a cash prize, a contract with Team Liquid, and a partner prize package.
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Coinbase will serve as a presenting partner for the combine, according to Team Liquid, while Aim Lab, HyperX, IMC Trading, Kingston, MIKE AND IKE and Secretlab are supporting partners.
This is the first time Team Liquid has reached out to amateur players, instead of recruiting professionals to its ranks. Submissions are open to North American players, and the top 22 players will get the chance to advance to the finals.
The name combine appears to take inspiration from the NFL Scouting Combine, a showcase run by the American Football league where promising up-and-coming talent competes in front of teams and talent scouts.
Chris Ambrosio, Director of Events for Team Liquid, said: ” This competition aligns with Team Liquid’s consistent ethos of competitive excellence. Unline other industry predecesors, this contest looks beyond content creation to include a focus on game skill.”
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According to Team Liquid, everyone who enters will be presented with a Aim Lab task created around the core principles of FPS gameplay.
The 22 best competitors will be put through a series of tests that include tracking, flicking, target selection and others. The competitors will be overseen by a panel of judges, and will undergo eliminations until only one remains.
Esports Insider says: Team Liquid has decided to make a content series that resembles television reality shows to find a new player that will supposedly become a contracted member of Liquid. It is yet unclear what will the advertised contract look like, but Liquid is presenting his challenge as focused more on finding real pro talent than content creators, which existing competitions of this nature tend to focus on. Interestingly, Liquid is only searching for one player, not an entire team of players.
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