Ali Muslumanoglu, General Manager of Riot Games MENAI.

Riot Games MENA is to reward eSports viewers with incentives during the second stage of the Intel Arabian Cup (IAC) as part of its commitment to engage with fans and grow the gaming landscape in the region.

The Intel Arabian Cup, held in partnership between Riot Games, Intel and Lenovo, will resume with Split Two on Oct.1 with 13 teams, who won their respective national competitions, set to represent their country and continue their quest of becoming the inaugural regional champions.

With the region’s best sides set to go head-to-head in the popular League of Legends game, Riot Games is bringing innovation to the competitive landscape in the region by introducing a Twitch plug-in called the ‘IAC Companion’. IAC Companion aims to help increase fan engagement, attract new viewers and reward them for their dedication during the regional competition.

By downloading the Twitch plug-in, fans across the MENA region can earn rewards by cheering their favourite team during the tournament and correctly predicting the winners.

Viewers can also be rewarded for their time by watching the matches live. All that will be required is to link their Riot Games account to Twitch. Rewards will be automatically placed into those accounts.

Through an easy interface, they can also get the latest updates on standings and see how teams are faring.

Among the teams they will be able to follow are Siren eSports (Bahrain), Handless (Jordan), Fatigue Team (Iraq), Galaxy Racer Esports (UAE), Overmind (Algeria), Noobs Unleashed (Qatar) and Anubis Gaming (Egypt). Also competing are Divine Vendetta (Tunisia), TEAM WK (Oman), Titans Gaming Center (Kuwait), Summon Aery (Lebanon), Fox Gaming (Morocco) and EGZ (KSA).

During the eight weeks until Nov.21, the sides will put their skills to the test in a double round robin format with the top eight teams advancing to the Final Stage.

Matches will begin at 20:00 (UAE time) and will be streamed live on the Twitch, YouTube and Facebook platforms on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Split One, which was held between May and early September, was a huge success with more than 5,000 players from over 1,000 teams participating.

Ali Muslumanoglu, General Manager of Riot Games MENAI, said: “We have been thoroughly impressed with the quality we have witnessed during Split One of the Intel Arabian Cup which has resulted in some enthralling matches so far.

“This reaffirms how popular League of Legends is across the MENA region which is equally matched by the exceptional pool of talented gamers. At Riot Games, we are always looking at new ways of how we can engage with our fans and the ‘IAC Companion’ allows us to interact and reward our fans who are watching online. With the best teams set to go head-to-head, we are confident Split Two will raise the bar and provide plenty of drama.”

Joe Zoghbi, founder of Tunisian side Divine Vendetta is looking forward to competing in the second stage of the Intel Arabian Cup.

He said: “The Intel Arabian Cup has been an extraordinary experience so far. To see so many fans across Tunisia show their support has been fantastic and we’re over the moon to represent the country and hope to make them proud.

“With around 6,000 viewers watching the Tunisia Finals, we think Split Two is going to take esports viewership to another level which the tournament deserves.”