CYNOPSISeSPORTS & GAMING
01.26.17 It’s Thursday, January 26, 2017, and this is your weekly early morning eSports & Gaming brief.
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Blizzard Entertainment and Facebook are becoming “Dorm”-mates, announcing a deal to stream this year’s Heroes of the Dorm 2017 on Facebook Live featuring schools from across the US and Canada competing for a chance to earn free tuition beginning with the regular season of Heroes of the Storm play and continuing all the way through the Heroic Four and National Championship. Meanwhile, the viewing experience will see Blizzard deliver up-to-date statistics, team and player profiles, and updates for the Bracket Challenge and a new Pick ‘em Challenge.
“Heroes of the Dorm has featured some of the most dramatic college esports action of the past two years, and with more prizes for more teams up for grabs this year, we’re looking forward to a whole new level of competition,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re also excited to be working with Facebook this year to bring more live Heroes of the Dorm play to more viewers around the world than ever before.”
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EVO is hitting its 2017 Las Vegas event with a flurry of nine games this year, announcing that titles will include Street Fighter V, Smash Melee, Smash Wii U, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev. 2, Injustice 2, BlazBlue: Central Fiction, Tekken 7: Fated Retribution and King of Fighters XIV. In addition, the event will serve up a charity fan vote that will detemine the ninth and final game for the tournament with selections that include: Mortal Kombat XL, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Skullgirls, Pokken Tournament, Killer Instinct, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, ARMS, Windjammers or Nidhogg. The donation drive runs through Feb. 8 at Generosity.com.
BTN is developing a taste for esports, announcing a deal with Riot Games to launch of the official BTN League of Legends season. The new pilot program, in which clubs from Big Ten Universities take part in a season-long competition, will see teams from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Rutgers and Wisconsin all play in the inaugural season, which will kick on off Jan. 30 on BTN2Go and watch.lolesports.com. The company detailed more of its plans in our Q&A below.
Get in while you can because time is running out for our awards! Bring us your nominees to determine who dominated esports in 2016 for the following categories: eSports Event of the Year; eSports Sponsor Activation; eSports Production of the Year; Ambassador Award for Personality of the Year. Who will walk away the champ? Don’t miss your opportunity to shine in front of our readers on April 12 at the Cynopsis World eSports Summit by entering here.
ELeague wraps up its first Major for Dota 2 this weekend from Fox Theatre in Atlanta for the playoffs, which will see three quarterfinals on Friday; one quarterfinal and two semis on Saturday as well as the Grand Final on Sunday, with all coverage starting at 10a with live coverage on Twitch and YouTube and the Grand Final on TBS.
Millennial Esports Corp. detailed plans to host Halo World Championship 2017 in Las Vegas for a $50,000 prize pool with the top 6 teams of the Millennial Esports Halo World Championship Open LAN qualifying for the Halo World Championship Finals this Spring. The company will also celebrate its grand opening of the new arena on March 3.
Meanwhile, MLG announced that the 2017 season of the Call of Duty World League will see the CWL Dallas Open held on March 17-19 with 16 international teams earning a spot in pool play based on regional CWL point totals. The prize pool will dangle $200,000 for the 176 teams competing from North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
The Esports Integrity Coalition announced the addition of GameCo Inc., creator of the world’s first video game gambling machines, to its membership. Esports Integrity Commissioner Ian Smith said, “We are delighted that GameCo has decided to join ESIC. GameCo operates at the juncture between esports and betting, and embracing integrity efforts in this early stage of its operations speaks to the company’s impeccable ethos and values and its determination to get things right from day one, not just for itself, but for the wider community in which it operates.”
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CS:GO scored as December’s most-watched game on Twitch in esports hours, according to Newzoo. The game generated 16.8 million hours watched, anchored by the Boston Major. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends took the second and third sports on the chart, with CS:GO edging LoL with a boost from the final of ELeague’s second season to hit 10.9 million hours while Lol notched 10.7 Rounding out the top five were hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft with 6 million and Overwatch at 1.5 million.
Eclipse TV is bringing the NBA 2K17 All Star Tournament back to TV. The one-hour syndicated special pits the two top qualifying NBA 2K17 basketball teams as they square off in New Orleans during All Star weekend for a $250,000 prize. The show will live stream to Twitch, Facebook Live and YouTube on Feb. 17, while a post-produced syndicated hour hosted by Sacramento Kings announcer Grant Napear and ex NBA player Scott Pollard is now clearing in more than 85% of the US to run in the March 4-April 23 window, including ABC affiliates in NY, LA, Chicago and Philadelphia.
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The Dallas Cowboys are reportedly mulling a play into esports. Ad Age writes that the team selected the Alliance Data-owned marketing agency Epsilon to study if the franchise should make a move into the competitive gaming space. Epsilon developed a model for the team to profile the industrys target audience, grouped them by behaviors and matched brands that appealed the most to each group. “If we thought we could buy a team for gimme a number $2 million, $3 million, $5 million or whatever, but get $7 million in sponsorship deals over the next couple years it becomes a no-brainer,” Matt O’Neil, the Cowboys’ senior VP of brand marketing, told the publication.
Soccer star Ronaldo is jumping into the esports space, announcing a partnership with poker pro Andre Akkari to pick up 50% of Brazilian esports franchise CNB.
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HyperX is renewing vows with ELeague, announcing yesterday a deal with the esports organization to extend its ties as the official gaming headset sponsor for the 2017 season. “HyperX is proud to sponsor ELEAGUE for a second year as a marketing partner and the official headset sponsor,” said Daniel Kelley, director of marketing, HyperX. “ELEAGUE and eSports have grown to become more popular on-line and on broadcast TV, gaming is mainstream entertainment and HyperX gaming headsets are loved by gamers.” This weekend’s playoffs and Grand Final will see the brand demonstrating gaming headsets and keyboards, including the Cloud Revolver S gaming headset.
ELeague also locked in G FUEL Energy Formula for an official marketing partnership that includes naming rights to ELeague’s Atlanta-based studio, which will now be known as the G FUEL ELeague Arena. Deal points also will see the beverage brand become the official energy drink of ELeague with the company reserving the ability to promote its energy drink products as the official energy drink of the league across all platforms in addition to developing various integrated campaigns spanning custom digital video content, social media programs, and on-site activations
Audi is investing in Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive outfit Astralis, announcing a sponsorship of the team that will see Astralis change their team jerseys to feature Audi’s four-ring logo. “The upcoming Major is the perfect place to start our partnership,” said Jordi Roig, Chief Commercial Officer at RFRSH Entertainment, which brokered the deal on behalf of Astralis, per Mashable. “We are proud to be working with an absolute top-class global mega-brand and we look forward to see what the future will bring.”
Nintendo of America signed on to return as a sponsor for the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, with this year’s event taking place on March 11, just as the Nintendo Switch hits the market.
Riot Games casters will no longer be prevented from monetizing their streams, according to Yahoo Esports. The move allows paid subscribers for talent via the Twitch Partnership program and accepting donations from stream viewers. However, casters are still not allowed to have sponsors or paid advertisements.
Kinguin announced halting its sponsorship of EU LCS team G2 Esports in a move to comply with LCS and CS rule sets preventing conflicts of interest. “Kinguin believes in a balanced eSports scene and as such the company treats Riot Gaming’s conflict of interest regulations very seriously,” the company said in a statment. “With Team Kinguin’s advance to the EU Challenger Series it is clear to the company that changes will need to be made to ensure a fair playing field in the upcoming Spring Split.”
Gaming revenue got buffed in 2016, according to a report from the Entertainment Software Association and the NPD Group, which stated that the US computer and video game industry generated $30.4 billion in revenue in 2016, measuring revenues from all hardware, software, peripherals, and in-game purchases. That is up from $30.2 billion in 2015 sales. Video game software revenue grew 6% year-over-year, to hit $24.5 billion. “Growth in entertainment software consumer spend was seen across the mobile, PC, virtual reality, subscription, portable and digital console segments,” said Mat Piscatella, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “Consumers have more options to purchase and enjoy entertainment software than ever before, while developers have more and easier ways of delivering that content. No matter the delivery platform, entertainment software has never been more engaging, diverse or accessible.”
Meanwhile, video game industry analyst firm DFC Intelligence is projecting that the upcoming Nintendo Switch console will hit hardware unit sales of 40 million by the end of 2020, marking nearly three times what the Nintendo Wii U sold in its first four years on the market. “The Switch is a compelling piece of hardware that could potentially reach a much larger addressable market,” said DFC analyst David Cole. “However given the limited software and Nintendo’s poor recent track record of introducing new products we have tempered our forecasts to be conservative.” The report notes that in 2008 alone Nintendo sold a combined 55 million units of the Wii and DS and sales of a major hit console or portable platform can reach over 100 million.
Among publishers, FOX is plugging into FoxNext, described as “a new division focused on the expansion of the company’s video game, virtual reality, and augmented reality operations” ‘by THR. The report states that former 20th Century Fox Film’s President of Content Management Salil Mehta will oversee the division.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is picking up where Disney left off, announcing that the company will develop and publish the Cars 3 videogame, scheduled for 2017. The game will be developed by Avalanche Software, which has now reopened under Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment umbrella and will be led by John Blackburn. “It is a tremendous pleasure to welcome Avalanche Software into our development stable, and we look forward to working with our new team, Pixar Animation Studios, and DCPI to create ‘Cars 3’ based on the upcoming film and hugely popular franchise,” said David Haddad, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “The Avalanche talent and technology are a great addition to our group of outstanding developers, and we are excited for this ‘Cars 3’ game as well as all of the future games the team will create under John’s leadership.”
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BTN is dipping its feet into the world of esports with its new partnership with Riot Games for the upcoming BTN League of Legends season. The network will televise the BTN League of Legends championship on March 27 with competitors receiving scholarships while the winner competes in the League of Legends College Championship. Cynopsis spoke with Erin Harvego, BTN’s VP of Marketing, about the initiative.
Harvego on BTN’s interest in esports: Last year, we had a couple of Big Ten students reach out because they were interested in putting together a tournament with other schools in the conference, and through that, we were introduced to Riot which encouraged us to put together a Big Ten Invitational at PAX East. That was out first trial run into the esports world and we were excited to see how passionate the fans were at the event and the crowds were enormous. So we then had conversations to expand that into a trial run for a full season and we are looking forward to finally trying it out this year.
On lessons learned: One thing that really stood out to when I watched the fans, was that for the entire time they were watching it, nobody picked up their phones during the competition and I remember being surprised by that because these days, everyone is multi-tasker and Riot told me it was because nobody wanted to miss anything because they are also learning how to improve their own game. That struck me as a content provider that this was something that was quite powerful.
On benefits for the network: We are looking at it this year as just a content move, something we also serve for football fans, basketball fans, etc. I think that there is a huge audience for esports, and we have the opportunity to reach some viewers that, perhaps, we haven’t reached in the past. For us, this is a branding and marketing initiative, and moving forward we will see what our best strategy for esports is going to be.
On the plans: Starting on Jan. 30, we will show matchups between different schools every Monday and then that will lead into a playoff with the Championship taking play at the Riot Studios in Los Angeles. In addition to streaming it and carrying the Championship on the network, we are still considering some other things on the linear network so there may be more matchups televised as well.
ON THIS DAY in 1999: Konami releases the Castlevania 64 video game for the Nintendo 64.
Trivia: Translated, “Pokemon” is a contraction of two words meaning what? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What character says “@!#?@!” upon his death? Answer: Q*bert. Kudos: Chris Davies-Virgin/London; Rob Casalaina-ITN/NY; Scott Jenkins-Gracenote/NY; Luke Watson-Roker Labs/NY; Frank Hamilton-Tennis Channel/NY; Matt Charchan-Time Warner Inc./NY; Glen Ross/DC; Rob Felton-Threadbird/Orlando; Dan Hanson/Vail; Andy Babb-Super League Gaming/Santa Monica; Charles Park-NGE/Burbank.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cynopsis | eSports @VegasandVine
01.26.17
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