ESSENDON fans, don’t stress.

Your AFL side might not be playing finals this year, but your esports team is - and they could be facing the Crows’ squad in an elimination final.

The Bombers’ esports team, fittingly enough named Bombers, has qualified for the gauntlet stage of the League of Legends Oceanic Pro League’s second split.

In layman’s terms, it’s the finals for our local League of Legends competition. Five of the league’s eight teams make the gauntlet, with fourth playing fifth, then the winner playing third, and so on until the Grand Final.

With a 2-1 series win over Mammoth on Saturday evening, the Bombers ensured they would be in the first stage of the gauntlet. They will either face a rematch with Mammoth or a clash with Legacy Esports.

Legacy is owned by the Adelaide Crows - meaning both AFL clubs who are still mathematically in finals contention but unlikely to make it could face off on August 24 on the virtual battlefield.

Legacy must win its best-of-three game against Mammoth this week 2-0 to earn a gauntlet spot.

There are big stakes for the teams too. The League of Legends season is portioned into two ‘splits’, with the winner of each split qualifying for an international tournament - for split one, the Midseason Invitational, and split two the World Championships.

While Australian teams are yet to advance past the initial play-in stage of Worlds, it is still a massive platform for exposure.

Last year the champions, Korean size Samsung Galaxy, took home $US1,855,114 in prize money. Aussie side Dire Wolves - the current favourites to win split two of the OPL - claimed $US24,735 for finishing equal-last.

The Grand Finals of split two will be played at the Melbourne Esports Open, with Dire Wolves to face whoever makes it through the gauntlet on Sunday September 2 at Rod Laver Arena.

Fans can watch OPL matches live and free on streaming platform Twitch. The Mammoth v Legacy mini-final will be played on Friday evening.