After taking a week off for players to travel to Las Vegas for the 2016 World Series of Poker, the Global Poker League will come back to life with their six-week Summer Series. So just what is entailed in this “Summer Series” that differentiates itself from what we’ve seen previously from the GPL?
Over the first eight weeks of their inaugural season (the “first half”), the GPL has featured its 12 teams battling it out in an online format. The two conferences – the GPL Americas and the GPL Eurasia – have ritualistically played two Six Max Sit and Gos on Tuesdays (where each team puts up at least one player to play two sit and gos within each conference), then entered into team Heads Up battles (where one player takes on a player from another team in their conference) on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Over the next six weeks – and what will be an excellent test for the playoffs and championship action come this fall – we’ll see a completely different component from the GPL.
For the first time in the league’s existence, “The Cube” will make its premiere on Monday. “The Cube” is a soundproofed and vision-obscured…well, cube…that players will stand in to play their opponents in a live format (all other action previous to this has been online). While the players are sequestered in this manner, the entirety of the action can be viewed by those outside “The Cube,” including fans, television cameras and commentators. “The Cube” is expected to bring the fans closer to the game by being able to see the competitors up close and vicariously experience the action through those inside the structure.
There’s also a bit of a change when it comes to playing, and we’re not talking about the players standing to take part in the event. Up to this point, the 12 teams that make up the GPL have stayed within their conferences, meaning that the GPL Americas have been beating up each other and the same for the GPL Eurasia. For the first time, the Summer Series will allow the teams to step outside their conference alignments and take on teams from the opposite conference. Over the next six weeks, each team will play the six members of the other conference in “Cube” matches, with the results having an effect on the conference standings.
For Week 1 of the Summer Series, which will run Monday through Saturday (as will the subsequent weeks), the matchups have been laid out as such:
Monday: L. A. Sunset vs. Paris Aviators
Tuesday: Moscow Wolverines vs. San Francisco Rush
Wednesday: London Royals vs. Las Vegas Moneymakers
Thursday: Hong Kong Stars vs. Montreal Nationals
Friday: Berlin Bears vs. Sao Paulo Metropolitans
Saturday: Rome Emperors vs. New York Rounders
As the muscle of the GPL is working feverishly on completing the appropriate arenas (including the broadcasting studios) for the Summer Series, the Monday matchup between L. A. and Paris will begin at 8PM, according to the GPL website. Subsequent matches will air each day at 2PM (Eastern Time) and continue that schedule throughout the remainder of the Summer Series.
As the Summer Series prepares to kick off, the Nationals are looking to extend a lead that they recently took over in the GPL Americas. The top scoring team in the GPL with 106 points to this mark in the season, the Nationals also have a nine-point lead over the Sunset. The preseason favorite, the Rounders, have been at the top of the table in the GPL Americas since the season started, but they’ve suffered a couple of tough weeks that has seen their fortunes falter.
Over with the GPL Eurasia, the Royals have emerged as the challengers for the preseason favorite Wolverines. Holding a slim five-point lead, the Royals and the Wolverines are fighting it out for conference supremacy as an early season surprise, the Stars, continues to lurk in the background with the Aviators. The team that many thought would be a major contender for at least the conference title if not the first GPL championship, the Bears, have muddled through a less-than impressive first half of the season.
Will the GPL’s Summer Series be a success, moving from online play to live play? What effect will “The Cube” have on the overall play? And can those teams that have struggled in the first half find a rebirth? It will all play out over the summer as the Global Poker League continues to grow.
