Action sports competition X Games will host a $75,000 FACEIT Rocket League tournament next month in Minneapolis as part of the arts and entertainment side of the event, called X Fest, X Games announced on Wednesday. The FACEIT X Games Rocket League Invitational will run July 14-16 and will be streamed live on ESPN3.
"The X Games and ESPN have done a great job of bringing attention to nontraditional sports over the years," Rocket League parent company Psyonix's esports operation manager Josh Watson said in a news release. "Adding esports and Rocket League to that lineup is something we at Psyonix are very excited about. We can't wait to bring this competition to a whole new audience."
The event will be part of the X Games festival village, which features art installations, musical acts and interactive skateboarding and BMX courses. It runs alongside the main X Games event, which features elite skateboarding, BMX and moto events. X Games has hosted several esports competitions in the past, including Call of Duty and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments.
The news comes a week after NBC Sports announced its 2-vs-2 Rocket League tournament with a $100,000 prize purse. It will be televised Aug. 5-27 on NBC Sports in coordination with FACEIT as well.
Rocket League, which has more than 32 million players globally, according to Psyonix, has seen growing success in the esports space. The game featured a streaming event at Twitch and Healthcare.gov's White House gaming event in December. It has also received a big push from developer Psyonix, which has made advertising deals with several sports companies, including professional wrestling's WWE.