eSports Update – 10 Things you may have missed!
2015 has been a great year for eSports for so many reasons but if you’re interested in the business side of things we’ve found an article that sums up the year for businesses involved. Talking of round ups of the year you can find out which teams made the most money in 2015 below too.
We’re getting hyped for the 2016 season and so is everyone else is seems. Check out announcements for upcoming Majors and “pre-season hype” videos in our weekly round up this week.
The biggest eSports business moves of 2015
Across the board in 2015, business was up. Viewer numbers, both at live events and online, broke records. More than 100,000 fans watched IEM Katowice in person, and 36 million watched the League of Legends World Championship final online. The esports ecosystem is supporting more games than ever. And more and more shoulder industries—journalism, legal services, analysis, merchandising—are becoming sustainable and profitable.
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Looking forward to 2016: What will be different in Counter-Strike
2015 has been a big year for Counter-Strike. We’ve seen vast changes to the game, some good changes and some… not so good. There have been a lot of advances made as regards standard of tournaments, prize pools, and the overall quality of teams at the very top level has gotten better and better. But there have already been set in motion some changes for next year that will shake up the scene on many different levels, but whether these are good or bad is yet to be seen. Let’s look at some of these changes we’ll see the effects of in the new year.
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Fnatic win ESL ESEA Pro Series making it 3 LAN wins in a row for the Swedes
Tencent purchases the remaining equity of Riot Games
As a result of our continued growth and changing circumstances, we’re shifting to a new structure to recognize and reward Rioters’ contributions – and that first involves a big change to our existing equity program. As part of this effort, our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games.
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Announcing the return of ESL One Frankfurt 2016!
As per ESL One tradition, the eight best Dota 2 teams in the world will be competing for US$250,000 plus community contributions in front of a stadium crowd full of esports fans. There will be a selection of invited teams as well as qualifiers for the remaining open spots. More detailed information regarding the invites and qualifiers will be released in January next year.
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[StarCraft II] 2016 GSL Pre-Season Hype
The Dota 2 6.86 Update Just Dropped and So Did Our Collective Jaws
The Dota 2 6.86 patch notes were released earlier today and as promised the changes look like they will change the face of Dota 2 forever.
The massive patch comes with a new hero release (Arc Warden, one of the few remaining DotA heroes yet to be ported to Dota 2), a comic, a sexy new Zeus Arcana, new runes, new items, changes to the map layout and a laundry list of tweaks on existing heroes, as well as full reworks of four other heroes.
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The 10 highest earning eSports teams of 2015
Make no mistake, 2015 has been a record year for eSports in almost every aspect. Viewing figure records have been smashed on multiple occasions, investment in teams has hit an all-time high and perhaps most importantly prize pools have skyrocketed. Again.
In August, the International 5 became the biggest eSports prize pool in history with $18,429,613 to divvy up, most pooled from crowdfunding. The Dota Asia Championships and the Frankfurt Major both gave away around $3 million and Smite’s World Championships became the biggest ever non-Dota 2 event with $2,612,259.00 in prize money.
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Turner Is Giving Away $2.4 Million to Gamers in 2016
Turner Sports officially enters the eSports arena at CES with a $50,000 “CS:GO” tournament that feeds into a $2.4 million prize pool for 2016.
Turner Sports, in partnership with WME/IMG, has chosen the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to kick off its eSports play. The company will livestream theCounter-Strike: Global Offensive finals, the culmination of a three-week online tournament involving 700 teams, during its daylong sports technology showcase Jan. 7.
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Peter Moore to head up EA’s new eSports division
CEO Andrew Wilson announced the news today in a blog post, revealing that COO Peter Moore will be leaving his current post to head up the division as executive vice president and chief competition officer.
EA tasks its Competitive Gaming Division to enable global eSports competitions for its biggest game franchises, such as Battlefield, Madden NFL and Federation Internationale de Football Association.
Details are scant, but EA said the CGD will be built on three core pillars: creating engaging competitive experiences, connecting and cultivating a community of players, and developing live events and broadcasting for global contests.
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