Author: ToorAdmin

Our weekly digest is back! In the torrent of Esports news, here are the ones which clearly stand out.

Do you recognize me?

The IeSF is alive and kicking. The Federation main goal remains the same: bring Esports in the Olympics. Their latest goal? Establish an Athlete’s Commission.

Following France, Russia, Italy and Denmark recognized Esports. 21 nations around the globe have now officially embraced Esports. It’s still less than the 45 IeSF members, but it’s growing.

That’s a lot of gems

Chinese giant Tencent just bought Finnish wunderkid Supercell. Big numbers ahead. Paying 8.6 billion dollars for 84.3% shares stake values the Clash of Clans / Royale at a staggering 10,2 billion dollars valuation.

But this is a strategic investment, as online games accounts for more than 50% of Tencent’s $15 billion revenue last year ($8.5B). Tencent also own League of Legends maker Riot and has parts in Activision Blizzard, Crossfire and Epic Games. Yes, we’re looking at the biggest Esports player here.

It’s in the game

Tencent doesn’t own EA parts, tho. But the American publisher is clearly late to the Esports party and finally unveiled its strategy. From industry veteran Peter Moore’s own mouth, the key word is “Engagement”. Which means leagues and cash prize. Best-seller Madden 17 will thus get its CS:GO-like circuit with a mix of Majors and independant tournaments. But only offers $1M global prize, when a single CS:GO Major offers the same – plus the stickers revenue. Not in the big league yet EA, not yet.

Live in the Arena

The Xbox has been the Esports console for years with games such as Halo, CoD and Street Fighter. Now that Sony has secured CoD and Street Fighter for its PS4, we were wondering how Microsoft would re-establish itself as the place to be for console Esports.

The answer is named Arena, a platform integrated into the Xbox Live allowing developers and organizer to tap into a common API. We’ve been very excited by this move and followed it closely, as Microsoft platform and ours have clear synergies. Can’t wait to see Toornament being embed into your favorite game!

Small fact, big trends, trivia… Here’s what happened this week in Esport

If you can’t beat, be it

The “Sports vs Esports” rivalry is slowly dying, as numerous traditional sports households are simply getting into Esports.

After West Ham, Sampdoria, Besiktas and Shalke, the Valencia Football Club just announced and introduced its Esport team. All these clubs came at the right time: Esports are both big enough to invest in and small enough to invest moderately.

Back at it again, Russia

Without any announcement, Russia has officially recognized Esports. To be more specific, Russia recognized again Esports. The country did it already in 2000 but then retracted in 2006.

Sixteen years later, it changed its mind again and hope it’ll stay this way. Virtus.Pro, Russia’s biggest Esport organization, will be able to spend its millions dollars with a lighthearted mind.

Killing the Fatality killer

That’s a first: a team forbid its Mortal Kombat player Scar from performing to displaying on stream any Fatality, these gory finishing move that made Mortal Kombat so (in)famous.

Facing the expected community backlash, team Panda Global U-turned and killed the clause. We’ll never know how they killed it, tho. More seriously, this little drama shows one the ongoing Esport debates about on-screen violence and the will to go mainstream. As the ESL always claims, “It’s a family show, guys”. But do we really want it ?

Play (of) the Game

Another player went into trouble. Talented but unstable LoL player Konstantinos “FORG1VEN” Tzortziou was just benched by his club Origen. The team cited “motivation issues” in its official statement. The player cited “Overwatch” on its Facebook post.

If this isn’t the definitive sign the latest Blizzard shooter is on its way to become a huge Esport… You won’t escape the hype, even on Facebook.

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