Part 2: Elite Invite

03/09/2021

The tournament that is going to be introduced in the first year of the transition is the “ELITE INVITE”. 

Europe's top 8 teams from each division will be invited to compete and to prepare for their season. In 2022 we want to invite a great diversity based on strength and upcoming highlights like the World Games or WUCC. This means that we are currently thinking about inviting the World Game teams in the mixed division as well as teams that weren’t able to participate at XEUCF due to travel restrictions. It is important to know that we will only decide on who to invite after XEUCF.

This event is focused on high level ultimate as well as showcases. Therefore we want to have an easy schedule for the participants and no more than two games per day. The tournament will take place through 3 days and after a short pool phase of 3 games it will continue with semifinal and final. The showcase part should be a stepping stone into a European season where you as a fan are able to follow a certain team throughout a longer period. The screen time will be equally distributed and we are looking forward to promoting this event not only through EUF channels but also through our new streaming partnership. Ideally, this high profile event can be such a magnet that it creates a revenue stream that can be used to make Ultimate and the EUCS accessible for more people!

CUS Bologna will be the host for the 2022 edition from 16.4.-18.4. as well as the 2023 edition featuring all 3 divisions at the same place. Since these two years won’t have any implication on the path to the XEUCF we figured that there is no need to create a structure where TDs/NFs can bid for hosting this tournament. As soon as this tournament will have an official implication for the rest of the season we will go through the same process as other sanctioned tournaments and create a call for bids. Since we want to keep this tournament a 3 day event the Weekend of Easter is the preferred 

After 2023 this event is the starting point of the European season and should serve the top teams to test the waters early on. At the same time with the top teams busy there should be more space at other tournaments for other teams and their path through the European season. More on this in the next articles about the Spring Invite as well as the summer invite.