Sept 20: This Week in Esports
Week: Sept 14–20th
ESPN Magazine = Ninja (Pro Gamer & Streamer)
For the first time in ESPN’s history, a professional gamer will be on the cover of ESPN The Magazine. Ninja has become so popular he’s streamed with rappers Drake and Travis Scott, and professional NFL wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. He was also the first streamer to amass 10 million followers and holds the record for the most concurrent viewers during one stream at 667,000. There will also be an in-depth story about Ninja called “Living the Stream.” The magazine drops September 21st. It’s interesting to look back to 2014 when ESPN’s former President, John Skipper, said esports aren’t sports and now a professional gamer has been put front and center on ESPN The Magazine. It’s funny how things turn out, isn’t it?
New Battle Royale: Ring of Elysium (Tencent)
As you may know, Tencent owns 48% of Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, and has a partnership with the PUBG organization to distribute PUBG in China. As if that wasn’t already enough, Tencent has now released their own BR style game, Ring of Elysium. Fortnite has done a great job of creating a minimalistic story to their game that allows them to continue to update the map and give a fresh feeling to a game type that can get repetitive at times. Tencent took this one step farther by implementing a narrative. In PUBG, Fornite, and the new Call of Duty Blackout, the entire end goal is to be the last man standing, but that doesn’t really have the same feel as what Ring of Elysium has done. According to VentureBeat, “a cold wave has hit the Mt. Dione region in the game. Authorities have evacuated the population. But the weather has made it impossible to rescue you and the 99 other people stuck at the resort with you. The drama: only one helicopter is coming to the rescue. You have to do whatever it takes to ensure you get one of the four seats on that chopper.” Besides the narrative, this is slightly different because unlike the other BR gameplay’s, up to four players can win a solo’s match.
Call of Duty announces $6M Prize Pool
Call of Duty will dish out $6M across the CWL season where teams battle 5v5 in various game modes. This competition will begin in December in Las Vegas where the top four teams will automatically qualify for the pro league. According to The Esports Observer,”the top four teams from Las Vegas automatically qualify for the Pro League, which pits the CWL’s top 16 teams against each other in live, week-to-week competition.” There are no plans for a competitive Blackout league at this time (we’ll see).
August: Madden 19 wins again (top selling game)
Once again, Madden top’s the charts in the month of August with Madden 19. This isn’t new, though. According to NPD, Madden has been the top selling video game in the month of August since year 2000, excluding 2011 and 2012 when it was released in September. According to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella, Madden 19 was the best selling Madden game since 2013. The highlights of 2018 have been crowded with open-world, first person shooters, and the battle royale craze. It’s refreshing to see sports games still have a place in gamers’ hearts.
Mastercard: first Global Sponsor for LoL
Mastercard has officially signed a multi-year deal to be the global sponsor of League of Legends. This deal will be centered around LoL’s three biggest events, the Mid-Season Invitational, the All-Star Event, and the World Championship and Mastercard will even be adding event-based rewards to their Priceless program. According to The Esports Observer, Mastercard will “become the first global sponsor of League of Legends esports. The deal will make Mastercard the exclusive global payment services partner for the game’s global esports events.” This is a big step in global brands recognizing the size and potential of viewership in esports. The first reward program for Mastercard holders in the US and Canada is a chance to win a trip to the All-Star even in December (#perks).
Sony is releasing a $100 PlayStation Classic
According to Kotaku, Sony will be releasing the PlayStation Classic on December 4th, 2018. Sony announced they will be releasing 20 classic games but have only named Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3, and Wild Arms. It will also include two Playstation controllers and an HDMI cord — you won’t get the nostalgia of feeling like an electrician and dealing with the old school AV cables (remember those days?). It looks like Nintendo may have started a trend when they released the Super Nintendo Classic, and the NES Classic.
C9 beats TSM to earn final NA LCS slot in Worlds
According to ESPN, “Cloud9 finished its rebound from last place to a League of Legends World Championship berth by sweeping Team SoloMid in the final North American League Championship Regional Qualifier on Sunday in Los Angeles.” At one point in time, TSM had the world record of 7 straight world championship appearances, and now the team that ended that run, Cloud 9, holds the current streak of six. For the first time in TSM’s history, they will not compete in a World Championship after losing 3–0 to Cloud9.
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