eSports Update – 10 Things You May Have Missed!
This week has seen the start of the first big CS:GO tournament of the year; StarSeries in Minsk boasts a $200,000 prize pool and sees some of the worlds’ top teams battle it out for the top spot.
With the start of the EU LCS around the corner, Gamehaus have listed 5 storylines that you might want to keep your eye on as the season plays out. Instant eSports partners with 2 major NA based eSports organisations, in hopes of further developing their website and mobile app.
Titan eSports have closed down, the French-based organisation had taken a back seat over the last year, having been a formidable team for a number of years.
Thorin interviews Fnatic CS:GO star JW in one of his reflections sessions, which gives some insights behind the scenes of life of a professional gamer.
eSports is having a moment
Former NBA player Rick Fox is on the phone when he receives another call: It’s from Denmark.
“I have to take this,” Fox says.
When the three-time NBA champion clicks over, the voice on the other line is of a young, Danish man who is being wooed by a host of North American eSports owners. Fox, who purchased an eSports franchise in December for an undisclosed sum, is one of those owners. Fox wants the gamer so badly that he’s not willing to give up his name for fear it will make it harder to land him. And Fox certainly won’t talk about how much he’s willing to pay.
“Everything that is happening in eSports is starting to mirror the rise of professional sports,” said Fox, who expects his Echo Fox franchise to have teams in all the major disciplines, starting with Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm and Call of Duty.
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The first big Counter-Strike event of the year is underway
The first major Counter-Strike event of 2016, the StarSeries XIV Finals, is now underway in Belarus.
The biggest teams in the game will battle it out for $200,000, though the first two days of group stages are closed to the public. The playoffs will take place at the Minsk Arena as part of the StarLadder i-Series event, a collaboration between veteran organizers StarLadder and ImbaTV.
Eight teams are divided into two groups of four, but the groups are anything but even. While Group A will see Na`Vi, G2 Esports, Luminosity Gaming and CyberZen of China compete for the top two spots, Group B will feature Question Mark, Titan and many people’s top two teams in the world Fnatic and EnVyUs.
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The Five Storylines To Follow Going Into The EU LCS Spring Split
The new El Classico? Courtesy of Fnatic.com
Fnatic vs. Origen: the New El Classico
Europe, as a region, has always tended towards monolithic super teams, having some of the greatest talent in the West, born and raised in their own region. During the Summer Split, Fnatic could not be considered any less than the strongest team in Europe, taking the first ever perfect split in the LCS. Right at their heels though were their younger, or older, brother in Origen, the team formed around the leaving of xPeke and Soaz that blazed from the EU CS to the Quarter Finals at Worlds. With the absolute crashing and burning that was SK Gaming’s LCS team, a new El Classico is brewing, that is, between the two European giants in Fnatic and Origen.
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Recruitment and exec-search must take eSports seriously
The eSports market is estimated to be worth over £525 million by 2018, according to Fortune. But recruiters are not up to the task of sourcing relevant talent to the sector.
That is according to Joe Hills, the Associate Director of AGP, a Norman Broadbent company. The agency is a combined recruitment and executive search firm. Hills tells Executive Grapevine that the eSports market is “no longer a niche fad limited to obscure forums.”
Instead, Hills argues, the market is ripe with opportunities for alert recruiters as the sector is maturing.
He explains that while the industry has been run by voluntary and short-term workers in the past, it is time to help the sector take the next step. That means stepping away from using fans, players and consumers.
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Instant eSports partners with Cloud9 and Liquid
Here at Instant eSports, we’re excited to announce that we will be partnering with Cloud9 and Liquid through 2016.
Instant eSports is a free mobile app that provides the most up-to-date League of Legends news, scores and stats. We have two goals: to support the eSports community with a central reference on everything eSports, and to provide a platform through which fans can connect with and learn more about their favorite teams and players.
As teams with rich histories in eSports and dedication to great performance, Cloud9 and Liquid are the ideal partners in this endeavor.
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Titan Bids Farewell
“Now why is Titan shutting down then? I began with an investment budget that was slightly on the lower side of the spectrum back in the days. The staff and myself made it count and counted every penny, in order to maximise the effectiveness of our choices.
Titan grew slowly, but organically, without major financial backing or the assistance of sponsorship budgets. I was building a brand and branding was where all the money was invested into; from social media, to teams, to activations and so on. As soon as Titan had grown to a respectable size and fanbase, we started reaching out to potential sponsors.
Even though the road was bumpy and we could have made smarter decisions in multiple aspects up to this point, we persevered. In December 2014, we had finally managed to negotiate a much greater than expected sponsorship budget for 2015. Life was good and we were close to entering the LCS through a team acquisition. The initial strategy had paid off, we had gotten it right!”
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Fixing the diversity gap in eSports
There is a diversity gap in eSports. However, it isn’t drawn across lines of age, race, or gender. The diversity issue lies in the shortage of out-of-industry professionals contributing to the space. Yet, as the industry around competitive gaming continues to grow, it will depend on a strong pipeline of external talent into the greater community. This will bring crucial diversity of thought and perspective that will propel eSports to even greater heights.
Ecosystems win. Silos topple
The current success of eSports can be attributed, almost exclusively, to its community of committed enthusiasts. A strong backbone of gamers built the foundation upon which today’s levels of mainstream traction, career opportunities, and more, are all fashioned. This has created a hyper selectivity for passion amongst eSports contributors, which isn’t, necessarily, a bad thing.
However, as a global marketplace and industry surrounding eSports continues to evolve, it can be a limiting factor. Especially since there are large segments of the world’s population entirely unfamiliar with competitive gaming, and video gaming culture, in general.
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Thorin – ‘Reflections’ with JW
Understanding the MLG-Activision Blizzard sale, and how it wraps up a decade of drama surrounding Gotfrag
Last week, we broke one of the biggest stories in esports—the sale of substantially all of MLG’s assets to Activision Blizzard. Now, we want to fully explain this deal, which we’ve discovered significantly affects former employees of Gotfrag.
According to sources, back in 2007, when Gotfrag was purchased by MLG, Gotfrag shareholders were supposed to be paid in two parts: half up-front and half a year later as an “earnout payment” based on company performance in that year.
In that earnout payment, MLG refused to pay the cash portion, leading to a three-year impasse and eventual lawsuit, which was resolved in a settlement in 2012. That settlement, and the initial buyout, left Gotfrag with a substantial portion of stock in MLG.
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First public high school in Norway to include eSports in its core curriculum, Dota 2 considered
Garnes Vidaregåande Skule – a specialized public high school situated in Norway’s utterly charming city of Bergen, the land of mountains and fjords – will take a dauntless step in August of 2016, when they will start teaching eSports classes. They don’t have everything figured out yet, as is normal, but they do know one thing for sure: the eSports subject will be introduced in their core curriculum, albeit as an elective subject. The initiative makes Garnes Vidaregåande Skule the first public school in Norway to put eSports on the same shelf as the ol’ gym class, with a similar grading weight to Math and Science.
Currently, Dota 2, League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have made Garnes high school’s shortlist of suitable games to be taught in class. However, students are welcome to express their options through an online survey and can even come up with their own proposals.
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