The EA SPORTS NHL World Championship is here.

As winter begins and the world juniors approach, another hockey world championship with a $150,000 prize pool for NHL 24 players is around the corner.

EA Sports announced it opened player registration for the EA Sports NHL 24 World Championship on Friday. The biggest eSports tournament on the calendar is scheduled to begin in mid-January with the North American Club Championship qualifiers and the European New Year’s Open. At the end of it all, only one person will win the $30,000 grand prize at the world final in April.

New features were added to this year’s championship, according to an EA Sports press release. Like last year, there will be tournaments for each of the NHL’s 32 clubs, with the winner automatically qualifying for the North American championship knockout round. This time, however, the runner-up in each of those qualifiers advance as well.

And while Jos x 10 won the NHL 23 World Championship ahead of the NHL draft in Nashville last June, this year has a more condensed schedule. The European Championship takes place on March 17 while the North American Championship occurs on March 24, with the world final going down on April 7 to coincide with the end of the NHL’s regular season. Six players advance to the world final, with four from North America and two from Europe.

Registration for the European New Year’s Open ends Jan. 1 along with the North America All-Star Open. Registration for club championships end on staggered dates, so check out NHL.com/nhl24 for specific dates. The portal for general North American online open play closes on Feb. 13, while the European online open play sees its registration close on Jan. 30. All events are only open to players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles.

Stay tuned for deep dives, impressions, and more on The Hockey News Gaming Site.