Want to keep up-to-date with the fast moving eSports industry? Here’s your weekly digest of trends, facts and results.
The hero eSports deserves, but not the one it needs right now
The latest attempt to an eSport Federation, the WESA, is being panned by the community and the media alike. While some members have come to its defense, others are already rumored to abandon ship. Ruling the world is no easy task.
eSport is just like Sport
Ah, the Twitch Chat. The infamous flood of lolz and memes can also show its worst side at times. That’s what we all saw and read during the Dreamhack, where each Hearthstone player TerrenceM appearance on stream unleashed a smelly wave of racist jokes and insults. Blizzard and Twitch want to change that. Seeing how traditional sports struggle to silent their most racist fans, we wonder how they’ll prevail. Silence spell card, anyone?
It’s in the game
Popular sports club are diving into eSports. This week, UC Sampdoria (Italia) and West Ham United (UK) signed their first FIFA player. Popular German club Shalke 04 went a step further and bought Element’s LCS spot and some of its players. Big move.
Faker faked its slump
Let’s remix Gary Lineker famous football quote: “LoL is a simple game. 10 gamers run after each other with spells and at the end, Koreans always win.” That’s what everybody thought while SK Telecom took home yet another trophy, the Mid-Season Invitational. And to think the team was said to be in slump for the past few months…
An epidemic of non-endemic
The much awaited ELeague from Turner is about to start in a few days. We know the teams (pretty much all the top CS:GO teams) but what about the title sponsors? Here they are :
Arby’s, Credit Karma and Buffalo Wild Wings. Anything special? None of them is related to gaming, which is a great sign of eSports entering the mainstream market.
Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems?
To the excitement of its 12 million active players, Valve released its Compendium for The International 6, included in a seasonal Battle Pass. Loaded with even more bonuses and eye candy than last year, it is poised to push the money prize to new heights – we’re talking 25 to 30M$ range. But we also hope the publisher will deliver on its promises, as huge delays on rewards delivery plagued the fan experience last year. And again: this year’s Compendium is way more generous than its predecessor.