Credit: Fergus Halliday
This year’s Melbourne Esports Open is shaping up to be the biggest weekend in Australian esports. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
What is the Melbourne Esports Open?
The Melbourne Esports Open is an annual esports event that brings together professional players across several different games for a series of tournaments and exhibition matches that take place over the course of a single weekend. Some of these tournaments are even open to the public.
At the time of writing, the Melbourne Esports Open is the single-biggest esports event in Australia and if you’re looking to get in on the action, it’s not to be missed.
What games are being played at this year’s Melbourne Esports Open?
At this stage, the 2020 Melbourne Esports Open will play host to the following:
League of Legends - Oceanic Pro League Finals
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - Intel Extreme Masters Melbourne 2020
Additional games and tournaments are expected to be announced in the lead up to this year’s Melbourne Esports Open. Last year's event also featured Fortnite, Overwatch, Rainbow Six: Siege and more.
Where is this year’s Melbourne Esports Open taking place?
As with last year’s event and the inaugural MEO in 2018, this year’s Melbourne Esports Open will take place at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
Credit: Fergus Halliday How many people attended the Melbourne Esports Open in 2019?
An improvement on the 12,000 attendees of the 2018 Melbourne Esports Open, the 2019 Melbourne Esports Open attracted 17,000 spectators.
What’s different about this year’s Melbourne Esports Open?
This year’s Melbourne Esports Open is different from its 2019 counterpart in a number of ways.
The biggest of these is the integration with another esports event: the Intel Extreme Masters. Previously held in Sydney’s Olympic Park, IEM is moving to Melbourne for this year’s event. This adds to an already stacked schedule but does fracture the value of an MEO ticket somewhat. Where last year’s MEO ticket got you access to everything, this year’s weekend passes only get you access to some things.
Credit: Melbourne Esports Open The line-up of games being played at this year's Melbourne Esports Open may also be different to last year's event. For example, there's no word yet on whether or not there will be an Overwatch international exhibition match akin to the one featuring the Overwatch League's Washington Justice that took place at MEO 2019.
When is Melbourne Esports Open 2020?
The Melbourne Esports Open 2020 is set to take place on the 22nd and 23rd of August, 2020.
How much do tickets for the Melbourne Esports Open 2020 cost?
Last year's Melbourne Esports Open offered both single-day and weekend passes. In 2020, those tiers return with the former priced at $25 and $39 respectively. This is a slightly pricier proposition than last year’s tickets - which saw prices start at $19.90 and $37.90, respectively.
The bigger detail to note here when it comes to tickets for this year’s Melbourne Esports Open is that the weekend pass doesn’t get you everything. When it comes to the parts of the Rod Laver arena playing host to IEM 2020, both standard MEO passes only get you access to a "first come, first serve unreserved general admission section.”
If you’re serious about seeing any of the action at this year’s Intel Extreme Masters, you’ll have to shell out for a separate pass. While these passes do include access to the rest of the Melbourne Esports Open, they’re much more expensive.
IEM Arena Single Day Tickets are priced at AU$69, Weekend tickets are priced at AU$139, Weekend Premium tickets are priced at AU$229 and Global Elite tickets are priced at AU$999.
Credit: Fergus Halliday 
