eSports Weekly Update – Stories you may have missed!
In Dota2 OG beat NaVi convincingly last Sunday earning their second Dreamleague title in a row.
The CSGO community has seen the start of the much anticipated ELeague as the tournament hosts confirm that Twitch will be their prime streaming platform for the next few years.
NBA Star Gordon Hayward has opened up on his future plans for esports and his dream of owning his own organisation.
RIOT have slammed an article suggesting they have just agreed a broadcast deal with ESPN.
Read these top stories and more.
Gordon Hayward on acquiring an esports franchise: ‘I’m itching to get in the game’
Utah Jazz Forward Gordon Hayward told IGN eSports Today’s host Kevin Knocke that he plans on buying an esports team.
“I am actively looking to get involved and have explored multiple opportunities that have presented themselves. I haven’t found the right moment just yet,” he said. “But I’m itching to get in the game and get involved. I think there’s a lot of potential and I think that’s what everyone sees.”
He told Knocke that the fast-paced nature of esports is what draws professional athletes like himself and why esports is gaining in popularity.
When it came to the topic of a players’ association in esports, Hayward stressed the importance of an association in the NBA. He said that if there are parties involved in governing and regulating a sport, “you gotta have someone fight for the players too.”
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Weekly League of Legends News Update
ESPN and ‘League of Legends’ studio aren’t making a broadcast deal
League of Legends is one of the most popular esports titles in the world, but it’s not heading to ESPN any time soon. Spokespeople for Riot Games and ESPN tell Engadget that the companies are not working on a broadcasting deal, despite a report on PVP Live claiming otherwise.
“The story is inaccurate — no active talks with ESPN at the moment,” the Riot spokesperson said.
An ESPN spokesperson further confirmed, “The story is false. We do not have a deal with Riot Games to broadcast League of Legends.”
The report claimed that ESPN and Riot were negotiating a deal valued at $500 million that would give ESPN broadcasting rights to League of Legends content. Riot currently streams its games live on Twitch, often for millions of viewers at a time. For example, the final game of the 2015 Worlds championship pulled in 36 million unique viewers.
ESPN is no stranger to esports: In January, it kicked off its own news division dedicated to professional gaming. Another television network,TBS, is diving into regularly scheduled esports broadcasts, starting with the first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The esports industry is poised to generate $500 million in revenue in 2016.
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OG defeat Natus Vincere 3-0, win DreamLeague Season 5
OG wasted no time dispatching Natus Vincere in DreamLeague Season 5’s Grand Final Sunday, defeating them 3-0 en route to their second consecutive DreamLeague title.
OG started the series off with an extremely aggressive push strategy in Game 1 that prevented Na`Vi from securing a foothold in any lane, forcing them to play defensively. OG took a huge lead by the 20 minute mark, knocking on Na`Vi’s base and winning fight after fight, forcing Na`Vi to call GG in just under 27 minutes.
Game 2, while not as quick as Game 1, progressed similarly, with OG securing a comfortable lead in the early game that Na`Vi was unable to defend against. And while Na`Vi started to put up a fight in the mid game, it wasn’t enough to prevent OG from snowballing to a 26k net worth lead by the end of the game.
The draft for Game 3 featured two unorthodox picks, with Na`Vi picking Terrorblade and OG taking Timbersaw in response. Miracle-‘s Timbersaw proved to be a very solid pick, regularly winning fights against multiple Na`Vi members by himself, in addition holding a 20k net worth lead over the next player at 48 minutes. With Miracle- proving to be unstoppable, Na`Vi bowed out of the game and granted OG their well deserved championship.
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Thorin vs. Moe Returns! Tyloo Visa issues & more!
ELEAGUE signs multi-year deal to stream on Twitch
Some good news for cord-cutting esports fans: You won’t need a cable subscription to watch the first Counter-Strike league to be broadcast on a major American TV network.
Turner Broadcasting’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition, ELEAGUE, kicks off on Tuesday and viewers will be able to watch the competition from start to finish on Twitch, the two companies announced today.
ELEAGUE is a joint collaboration between Turner and talent management agency WME | IMG. Two 10-week tournaments will see 24 of the best CS:GO teams from around the world competing for their share of $2.4 million, or $1.2 million for each season. Teams will be competing live from the new ELEAGUE studio in Atlanta.
Turner and WME | IMG have reached a multi-year agreement with Twitch to distribute on-demand content as well as the live competitions.
Competition will be streamed on the ELEAGUE Twitch channel every Tuesday and Wednesday from 12pm ET, with six games played per day. Thursday will see best-of-three coverage from 2pm ET. The Friday night best-of-three weekly finale, which will be broadcast on national television station TBS, will also be broadcast on Twitch starting from 10pm ET. The first six weeks will see four teams compete each week in a group stage, with the winners heading through to the playoffs.
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