N3rd St. Gamers will kick off a national esports championship in January

Northern Liberties-based N3rd St. Gamers, an esports event organizer and talent development network, said it will launch a 10-city gaming game championship with an eye to easing access into the esports realm.

In January, for the inaugural season of the company’s National Championship Series (NCS), players will be able to enter “hundreds of tournaments and weekly training events held throughout the country under the NCS umbrella,” the company said last week.

The overall goal of the championship? Build up the national esports talent pipeline.

“Traditional sports put kids in college and catalyzes careers for millions of people,” said John Fazio, the company’s CEO. “Our ultimate goal is to create those same opportunities for gamers while lowering the cost barrier to competing in high quality competitions.”

It's time. After more than a year of planning, countless late nights, and entirely too much air travel, we are thrilled to finally share with you all what we've been working on.

Introducing, the National Championship Series. pic.twitter.com/W8f1Mx9EES

— Nerd Street (@nerdstreet) December 21, 2018

The tournament is split in four tiers: Academy, Minor, Major and The Grand Finals, the latter of which will pit players against each other in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) at the company’s Denver gaming hub for a shot at a $50,000 prize pool per game.

(N3rd St. has its roots in NoLibs gaming hub Localhost, where fans and gamers have long been gathering to watch esports matches.)

Other regional tournaments and training events will focus on game titles such as Overwatch, Hearthstone, and StarCraft II and Call of Duty.