If there was anything to be learned from Northern Arena’s Call of the North online qualifiers presented by Bell this past weekend, it’s that Canada is ready to become a major player in esports event hosting.

The eight-team remote event, which featured Canadian and North American women’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) teams competing for two spots at the Toronto LAN Finals at Fan Expo in September, was the first of four events in Northern Arena’s summer and fall schedule that features two online qualifiers and two LAN events.

The Toronto LAN Finals run from Sept. 1-4, followed by the second Call of the North online qualifier from Oct. 21-23. The schedule culminates with the Montreal LAN Grand Finals at the Canadian Video Game Awards from Nov. 11-13.

Despite being a smaller event hosted online, Carl-Edwin Michel, the CEO of the Canadian League of Gamers and co-founder of Northern Arena, couldn’t be happier with the finished product and the momentum gained moving towards the first live event in Toronto.

“It was kind of interesting to have the crew all in two rooms … because it was a great time for the team to have a bonding session,” Michel told TSN.ca. “They are all together working on this and I think that chemistry-wise it was a good thing. At the end of the day I think we delivered a really good show production-wise and people liked it. For me it was a big success and I’m excited to be preparing for Fan Expo, but I am confident now that we can pull off those online events and make them bigger in the future.”

Ace Gaming put on a remarkable display over the two days of action and didn’t drop a map in four series to claim the championship over Synthetik Gaming.

Both Ace and Synthetik will be a part of the show in Toronto, which will feature some of the best CS:GO teams in the world. Northern Arena has already announced Counter Logic Gaming, Selfless Gaming and Immortals as attendees at Fan Expo, with many more to come.

The field at the first Call of the North qualifier was comprised of semi-professional teams. Michel and Northern Arena’s goal has always been to create opportunities for Canadian and North American women’s semi-pro teams to take the next step. This tournament was right in that wheelhouse.

Michel chose the eight teams from a list of 29 applicants. He doesn’t rule out the possibility of expanding the online qualifiers in the future, but it was important to establish a standard for North Arena and Call of the North for gamers and fans alike.

“We need to start somewhere … so we want to make sure we have a structured esports community in Canada and I think that by bringing Northern Arena, it’s going to bring that,” Michel said. “We wanted to make sure that those eight [teams] had a real structure to show to the rest of Canadians that if you want to be part of Call of the North and then have a chance to play at Northern Arena against the pros, you need to be serious about that.”

The result was blistering action for two-straight days led by the coverage team of host Marissa Roberto, and casters Alexandre “Vansilli” Nguyen and Mohan “Launders” Govindasamy.

Roberto guided viewers through the weekend while Nguyen and Govindasamy brought the maps to life with their insight and experience on the caster’s desk. It was a relaxing and inviting affair for CS:GO fans, both casual and die-hard, that rounded out a successful event.

“The good thing about Marissa, well she has a TV background so that’s great, but also she’s a video game fan. She’s TV friendly, so that helps and I think she did a great job to talk to the audience,” Michel said.

“The casters are great. I mean, Alex and Mohan, they have a lot of experience, so for me it was great to have them there.”

“I want to promote Canadian esports, but I think Canadian esports is also the casters and the analysts so we want to make sure we have a future in that too.”

All in all, the first Call of the North online qualifier lived up to expectations, most importantly Michel’s. It showed off the platform readily available for up-and-coming semi-pro CS:GO teams in Canada, set the bar for level of competition and was inviting and exciting for fans.

With just over a month until the Toronto LAN Finals at Fan Expo, the ball is officially rolling and Northern Arena is here to stay.

“This time it was sharing to Canadians that we’re here and we’re coming in a big way and I think that we have a little bit of a momentum here,” Michel said. “People were talking about us, even on social and everything we’ve seen with the numbers, we created a little buzz after our first event and now that we’re announcing the [pro] teams, people are paying attention.”