Liandri Grand Tournament

The Liandri Grand Tournament is the world-spanning Tournament sponsored and tri-cast by the Liandri Mining Corporation. It evolved from the underground leagues and matches used by mining companies to channel aggression on the mining worlds.

In 2291, in an attempt to control violence among deep space miners, the New Earth Government legalized no-holds-bared fighting. Liandri Mining Corporation, working with the NEG, established a series of leagues and bloody public exhibitions. The fight's popularity grew with their brutality. Soon, Liandri discovered that the public matches were their most profitable enterprise. The professional league was formed; a cabal of the most violent and skilled warriors in known space, selected to fight in a Grand Tournament. Now it is 2341. 50 years have passed since founding of DeathMatch. Profits from the Tournament number in the hundreds of billions. You have been selected to fight in the professional league by the Liandri Rules Board. Your strength and brutality are legendary. The time has come to prove you are the best. To crush your enemies; to win the Tournament.

Unreal Tournament series

The Unreal Tournament series of game centers around the Liandri Grand Tournament.

The original Unreal Tournament takes place in 2293 according to the official Unreal timeline, although the game's introduction mentions 2341. This article will use the more recently released date from the timeline. After many years of being the champion (when the Tournament wasn't yet legal), Xan Kriegor is finally defeated by Malcolm who entered as a member of the Thunder Crash team. Malcolm remains champion for nine consecutive years.

Unreal Tournament 2003 takes place in 2302. Gorge manages to unseat Malcolm as the reigning champion. He is only champion for one year.

Unreal Tournament 2004 takes place in 2303. Gorge is defeated by the player. Epic has yet to establish which character has won in the official timeline. It is assumed that Jakob won due to the fact that the default character skin in UT2004 is Jakob.

Unreal Tournament 3 takes place sometime after 2303, although the exact year is still unknown.

Unreal Championship series

While Unreal Championship happens simultaneously with UT2003, Unreal Championship 2 takes place in 2315, over a decade later and is about a qualifying tournament for the Grand Tournament.

Orginally an age-old traditional Nakhti competition used to find the new Nakhti emperor, the Liandri sponsor and sanction the The 523rd Nakthi Ascension Rites as an official qualifying tournament. Only Nakhti individuals can become emperor, but outsiders are allowed to fight in the earlier matches. The Rites are won by Anubis, who becomes the new emperor at a cost of being forced to fight in the Grand Tournament.

Known Champions

• Xan Kriegor - 2291-2292
• Malcolm - 2293-2301 (or 2341)
• Gorge - 2302
• The player - 2303

Trivia

In 2251, before the Tournament started, Raff jokes about holding a tournament about capturing the enemy's flag while he gives John Dalton a combat "Refresher Course" in Unreal 2.

References

• Official Unreal timeline
• Post about the UT timeline by Jim "Entropy" Brown
• Post about Selket by Jim "Entropy" Brown