06/27/19: Riot at Nielsen

CynopsisESPORTS

It’s Thursday June 27, 2019 and this is your weekly early morning Esports briefing. For additional longer-form esports news plus jobs, a team directory, glossary, calendar and data, check out our new esports hub updated daily: http://cynopsisesports.com.

Riot Games announced plans to use Nielsen for comprehensive sponsorship valuation measurement across the company’s multiple esports leagues and competitions around the world in order to demonstrate the monetary value of exposure provided to brands currently activating or considering association with its League of Legends events. The deal will see Riot Games provide access to its aggregated streaming viewership data to support Nielsen’s independent brand exposure measurement. Nielsen will measure brand exposure throughout 2019 and 2020 including the North America League of Legends Championship Series, League of Legends European Championship, the League of Legends three international events, and select regional leagues in Asia.

“As esports continues to gain momentum with brand marketers and advertisers, the need for independent, third-party verification of audiences and brand exposure is critical,” said Nicole Pike, Managing Director, Nielsen Esports. “With this agreement, we have the opportunity to help monetize Riot Games’ platform and validate this growing market.”

“Trust and transparency are vital components of building and maintaining relationships with brand partners,” said Doug Watson, Head of Esports Insights, Riot Games. “As major companies invest in our tournaments, we want to help them see the value of their exposure and identify how best to engage with our passionate fan base.”

COMPETITION AND VENUES

FACEIT announced plans to operate a brand new Quake Pro League that will span August 2019-August 2020 from the FACEIT Studio in London. The Quake Pro League kicks off at QuakeCon 2019 and will see 20 pre-selected players face off in a year-long linear tournament structure. The Quake Pro League kicks off at QuakeCon 2019 and runs until QuakeCon 2020 and the world’s top players, with 10 from NA/SA and 10 from EU/CIS, competing at QuakeCon 2019 to earn their Global Ranking via a new competitive mode, Timelimit Duel. Following QuakeCon 2019, the first league games on FACEIT will start in August with weekly online studio broadcasts every Sunday. Offline Major and Minor events will occur during November 2019; February 2020; May 2020; and conclude at Quakecon 2020.

Riot Games announced that Berlin, Madrid and Paris will all play host in the leadup to this year’s League of Legends World Championship. The Play-In Stage will open n on Oct. 2 at LEC Studio in Berlin, with Group Stage Action beginning on Oct. 12 out of Verti Music Hall in the city. Starting Oct 26, Quarterfinal and Semifinal play will be held at Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid while the World Championship Finals take place at ccorHotels Arena in Paris on Nov. 10. The event will see 24 teams from 13 regional leagues compete for the Summoner’s Cup.

PUBG Corporation unveiled plans for the PUBG Nations Cup, described as a global event taking place in Seoul at the Jangchung Arena from August 9-11 where top PUBG pro players will be selected to represent their respective countries for a $500,000 prize pool. Overall, a total of 16 teams spanning five continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania) will be represented in Seoul with participants from each country selected by their peers or through other country-specific methods. The selection process will produce four all-stars that will be part of a 16-team tournament across three days of competition, with each team playing a total of five matches a day.

Electronic Arts and FIFA announced that the EA SPORTS FIFA 19 Global Series this year generated more than 680 million viewership minutes, for a markup of 60% over last year with 61 million total views, a 25% rise. Viewership growth was anchored by 17 official league partners, up over eight a year ago, the first-ever eChampions League and the introduction of the FIFA eNations Cup. FIFA 19 Global Series Playoffs starts first with the Xbox ladder on July 5-7 in Hamburg, Germany with the PlayStation 4®bracket occurring July 12-14 in Berlin, Germany. The top 120 EA SPORTS FIFA 19 players in the world will advance from the playoffs to the pinnacle – the FIFA eWorld Cup 2019.

ESL One Cologne locked in its talent roster with competition running July 2-7. 16 teams will compete from Lanxess Arena with a lineup set to include OJ Borg, Alex “Machine” Richardson, Chad “SPUNJ” Burchill, Duncan “Thorin” Shields, Jason “moses” O’Toole, and Jacob “Pimp” Winneche. Serving as commentators will be Anders Blume, Henry “HenryG” Greer, and Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett.

Chinese League of Legends series LPL is reportedly on the cusp of growing to 17 or 18 teams by 2020, according to a TEO report. League organizer TJ Sports announced the planned expansion during the Tencent Esports Summit last week with buy-in bids for a spot slated to start around $11.6 million

ESPN is bringing esports back to the X Games, announcing plans for the EXP Invitational – Apex Legends at X Games Minneapolis. Online qualifiers begin on June 29 for teams in North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. Two winners from North America, two winners from Europe, and one winner from Australia/New Zealand will be selected to compete in Minneapolis. Along with the five teams earning their spot via online qualification, ESPN will invite 15 of the best teams in the world to compete at the EXP Invitational – Apex Legends at X Games Minneapolis, from August 2-3 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Drodo studio, Dragonest Network, and ImbaTV announced plans for the Auto Chess Invitational, held in Shanghai in October with $1 million on the line. Global qualifying will be launched early August 2019.

The ESL Pro League announced that the longest-running CS:GO league in the professional circuit will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a return to Odense, Denmark for the Pro League Finals from Dec. 6-8. The 16 top teams from Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific will compete for the lion’s share of the $750,000 prize pool at the Jykse Bank Arena. In addition, gaming expo ODINCON will take place parallel to the Pro League Finals for the third consecutive year. “We are extremely proud on the overall development of the ESL Pro League,” said Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Product at ESL. “Following our great success stories and sold-out Odense tournament in 2017 and 2018, we are working hard to make the Season Ten Finals even bigger and better.”

Meanwhile, ESL also announced that ESL One Birmingham drew record-breaking numbers to draw the highest viewership for an ESL One Dota 2 event ever. The tournament reached a new peak concurrent viewership record of 306,070 for a markup of 12.4% since its last record during the Hamburg Major in 2017. Hours watched also saw over 7.6 million hours being consumed over the course of the weekend.

Esports Business Summit, slated to take place from Sept. 10-12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas announced that the Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, will address audiences as a headliner for this year’s event. When he takes the stage at EBS, he will offer a global perspective on esports and will shine a spotlight on how esports can foster community connections and impact local economies. Click here and get your tickets today!

GameWorks announced plans to host the national finals in its $25,000 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Showdown tournament in Las Vegas, wrapping up competition that spanned all seven GameWorks venues around the country. Seven local winners from each market will compete at GameWorks Las Vegas – Town Square, with sponsors that are set to include COUGAR, a manufacturer and provider of gaming gear, Alienware, and Tabasco.

TRENDS

Each year, Activision and Electronic Arts go head to head in the AAA shooter with their franchises Call of Duty and Battlefield. Last year, the publishers’ latest installments took over Twitch, generating a combined 83M hours watched during their first months. This week, Stream Hatchet explores trends related to each games historical viewership and benchmarks against last month:

Launch month viewership is not a strong indicator of long term viewership: Despite experiencing large peaks during their first months, viewership for both titles has declined by approximately 90%.
The lasting impact of AAA streamers: For the first two months, Shroud contributed a significant percentage of the hours watched for both titles (CoD: 13%, BFV: 25%). Although the streamer brought in high viewership for the title’s initial viewership, last months leaders (Stodeh, Call of Duty) have yet to top him.
The impact of esports: In May of 2019, Call of Duty lead Black Ops 4 viewership contributing 19% of the title’s hours watched. The esports channel has grown significantly since Month 3, generating 1.5M more hours watched.

For more insights and analysis, visit our blog at: Blog.Streamhatchet.com.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

S U M M E R V A C A

Cynopsis will be on vacation and will not publish the week of July 1.

Stay tuned for a big update! When the edition arrives on Monday, July 8, we’ll have a new, refreshed look… and we hope you’ll like it!

Until then, past editions, jobs center, special reports, & event information can always be found on our website .

ACTIVATION

The 2019 GuardianCon charity stream drew $3.7 million in donations over the weekend with the tally set to benefit the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and its fight against childhood cancer. Ben ‘DrLupo’ Lupo delivered the most money for the cause, reeling in $920,343.98 in donations.

GameStop locked in a deal with Justin Wong, who has been ranked No. 1 in Street Fighter gaming tournaments, to launch a gaming clinic this fall for GameStop customers. Through this partnership, Wong and GameStop will create a unique 45-minute gaming clinic comprised of a series of shorter videos that help amateur players perfect their performance in their favorite fighting games. “Teaming-up with GameStop while supporting the fighting game community is a dream come true,” said Wong. “I am excited to develop educational content for some of the top fighting games and raise awareness to this specific area of gaming.”

Scuf Gaming and the NBA 2K League are launching a collection of controllers to celebrate each of the 21 teams in the NBA 2K League. Each NBA 2K League team controller features a unique design, including a faceplate emblazoned with one of the NBA 2K League team’s respective colors and logo. “This collection is a nod to the league’s fans, who are just as faithful and loyal as those that cheer on live basketball,” said Scuf Gaming founder and CEO Duncan Ironmonger. “Whether it’s the royal purple and gold of Lakers Gaming, the iconic blue and orange of Knicks Gaming, or any other team, fans can now represent their favorite team when they are gaming.”

High School Esports League, which features over 1,500 partnered high schools across North America, announced the launch of the HSEL Esports Equipment Bundle hardware program in partnership with MAINGEAR. The initiative offers schools that sign up for three years of esports competition six high-end gaming PCs, with Razer peripherals and includes unlimited access to HSEL competitions for three years, with unlimited teams and student slots, plus six MAINGEAR VYBE gaming rigs powered by AMD Ryzen processors, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti graphics cards.

PLATFORMS

Twitch is opening the door to Subscriber Streams. The company announced that the new initiative will help build “authentic connections” and help creators offer new and better ways to reward their viewers. The feature launched in beta yesterday and if a viewer subscribes to a channel at any tier, including a Twitch Prime subscription, they’ll have access to that creator’s Subscriber Streams. Streamers must be a Twitch Affiliate or Twitch Partner and must not have violated the Twitch Community Guidelines in their last 90 unique broadcast days.

ReKTGlobal, owner of Rogue, announced that acquisition of Greenlit Content, which owns GameDaily.biz and the GameDaily Connect event series. In addition to GameDaily, Greenlit Content operates gaming sites TwinGalaxies.com, Shacknews.com, and PrimaGames.com, and also creates viral branded gaming content, events and activations in collaboration with major consumer companies such as Xbox, HyperX, Chips Ahoy!, Warner Bros., and Redbox. The new corporate ownership will open up new marketing opportunities for the combined Greenlit/ReKTGlobal client base.

Team Liquid is forging deeper ties with Chinese audiences, announcing a partnership with Chinese streaming network HUYA in an exclusive streaming deal in the Chinese market so players can reach Chinese fanbases on a daily basis, including the team’s rosters from LCS, CS:GO, Apex (Rogue, Flanker, caliburn, Casper), PUBG, & Fr0zen. New streaming services and technology will be implemented for this partnership by Restream.io.

Facebook Gaming is integrating StreamElements into the platform, where livestreaming tool will be made available for users that enables broadcasters to bring tipping, overlays, and more to their livestreams on Facebook Gaming. In addition, StreamElements has optimized OBS Live for Facebook, allowing creators to control the look and feel of their livestream.

Myesports Ventures, owners and operators of Canada’s first esports arena, and Super Channel, operators of GINX Esports TV Canada), entered a partnership that will see TGS produce Canadian content that will be shown exclusively on GINX Esports TV Canada. “As esports in Canada continues to grow, it makes perfect sense to partner with the great team at GINX Esports TV Canada to bring new and diverse content to viewers across the country,” said Spiro Khouri, VP of sales and marketing. “Our venue allows us the chance to connect with the gaming community on a level never seen before in this country. By doing so, we will be able to share amazing stories of those individuals and teams through the GINX Esports TV Canada platform.”

TEAMS

Dignitas announced the grand opening of a new content and media production facility in Newark that will be dedicated to producing original content dedicated to the “cross-section of gaming, entertainment, music and lifestyle media.” The 3,000 square-foot facility is adjacent to Prudential Center, the HBSE owned 19,000 seat multi-purpose sports and entertainment arena, and will feature a 500-square foot Content Studio presented by Caffeine TV, equipped with four 4K cameras capable of 4K-quality live broadcast workflow, two soundproof live-streaming and recording pods and fully-stocked café. The new East Coast training home for Dignitas’ seven teams, including League of Legends, World Champion Rocket League and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams, includes a professional gaming space, outfitted with high-end gaming computers, console systems and Dignitas-branded Raynor Gaming chairs.

The Renegades announced the grand opening of GAMETIME Detroit with doors opening at 6p on Friday in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The site will serve as the official headquarters of the team and be the only esports facility located in the Midwest that offers open play access for professional and casual gamers as well as events, tournaments and more.

ROSTER MOVES

PUBG Corporation named Glen Schofield as the CEO of its new game development studio, Striking Distance. “As a company, we have focused on developing and making content available for global audiences through close collaboration with international teams located across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. That vision is taken to the next level as our development and service portfolio expands and diversifies with Glen Schofield and Striking Distance,” said C.H. Kim, CEO at PUBG Corporation. “We are thrilled to welcome Glen to the company. His unique blend of proven leadership and boundless creativity will help us create great synergy.”

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

READY FOR YOUR NEXT CAREER MOVE?

To see all the opportunities from the past few weeks, visit our career site:

[ I’M READY ]

ON THIS DAY in 2008: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is released.

Trivia: What was the name of the movie in which Matthew Broderick caused chaos after playing a game called Global Thermonuclear War? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What was the name of the MMORPG pictured above? Answer: Toontown. Kudos: Nobody!

For more news and coverage, check out: http://cynopsisesports.com (updated daily).

Later — Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
Kerry Smith Division President Access Intelligence Roberta Caploe Publisher @robertacaploe	Cynopsis Ad Sales Mike Farina 203-218-6480 Albert Nassour 917-545-3129	Cynopsis Job Listings Sales Trish Pihonak 203-899-8459 Director of Operation

CYNOPSISJOBS – For More jobs, please visit Cynopsis.com

SR ANALYST – AD SALES RESEARCH/Discovery Communications/NYC: Responsible for leveraging a variety of research resources to provide data driven intelligence in support of advertising sales and marketing initiatives. 3-5 yrs relevant business exp @ media co, ad agency, mkt rerch firm or equivalent. Full info HERE (7/17)

SR ANALYST, ADV & CONSUMER INSIGHTS/Discovery Communications/NYC: Dvlp mkt-level insights incl mkt trends, consumer behavior & competitive dynamics, with a focus on identifying growth levers. Min 2-3+ years of research and data experience in TV/media rsrch @ media brand, TV ntwrk or agency. Full info HERE (7/17)

DIRECTOR, PROJECT MANAGEMENT/Nickelodeon Live Action/NYC: Temp position from August – Jan. Candidate resp for project management of all marketing & creative promotion for the live action properties on Nickelodeon Network. 5-7 yrs proj mngmnt exp + Excellent understanding of production methodologies. Full info HERE (7/16)

CLIENT SOLUTIONS COORD/UP & ASPIRE/NYC: Asst. in dev & execution of sponsorships. Coord upfront & client evnts. Update ad sales pres, videos, photos & keyart. Proj mgt & pres skills req. Mkting/Comm degree pref’d. 1-2 yrs cable or related exp, digital/social a +. Knowledge of PowerPt required. Full info HERE (7/16)

MANAGER, PUBLIC RELATIONS & MKTG/NESN/MA: Seeking a collaborative thought leader who can translate bus objectives into promotional collateral across multiple platforms. Must have a degree in English, mass comm, PR, and/or mkting in a related field. Min 5+ yrs exp in both PR and mkting & Sales promo. Full info HERE (7/15)

MANAGER, PARTNER MKTG/NICK VELOCITY/NYC: Individual to dev mktg campaigns for Ent advs (ie: movie studios) across Nickelodeon Kids & Family nets. Must have B.A. Degree, plus 3-5+ yrs mktg/sales exp within ent & media. TV and/or exp with a Movie Studio or Video Game comp preferred. Full info HERE. Apply HERE. (7/15)

ACCOUNT SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE/ION MEDIA/NYC: Responsible for acct management for the General Ad Sales Department. Handling requests from multiple dept including Ad Agencies, Planning, Traffic, and Gen Ad Sales. Bachelor’s degree required, emphasis in Bus, Adv and/or Mktg. Ability to handle multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment. Full info HERE (7/15)

DIRECT RESPONSE AD SALES ASSISTANT/FUSE MEDIA/NYC: Support Direct Response Ad Sales team by working with director and AE to service and maintain agencies and clients on a daily basis. Must be detail oriented w/good comm, interpersonal & organzt’l skills, and able to multitask in fast paced team envir. Wide Orbit & OnAir knowledge a +.” Full info HERE (7/12)

EVENT PRODUCER/BOOKER/A+E Networks/NY: Responsible for booking talent & experts, developing panel discussions, interviews & experiential exhibits for History-branded events. Full Info/Apply HERE (7/12)

AP RESEARCHER/BOOKER/A+E Networks/NY: Responsible for supporting the producing team in building individual events and exhibits for HistoryTalks and HistoryCon. Full Info/Apply HERE (7/12)

MANAGER, CONSUMER INSIGHTS/Nickelodeon/NYC: this position will be a part of Nickelodeon’s Brand & Consumer Insights Team, supporting all of Nickelodeon’s preschool content research with non-ratings based consumer insights. Job requires a bachelor’s degree preferably in communications, business, market research, or child psychology, graduate research work. Plus 4+ yrs experience in primary research. Full info HERE (7/12)

SALES ACCOUNT EXEC/NBC/LA: Responsible for generating new Local/Regional business, Digital advertising, and growing existing advertisers. A minimum of 5+ years of Media, Digital and/or Broadcast Sales exp w/strong rec of success building new biz. Full info HERE (7/11)

DIRECTOR, DIGITAL PLATFORMS & STRATEGY/SNY/NYC: Work w/partners to help drive strategic, multiplatform dig. content initiatives. focus on expanding availability/consumption/monetization of SNY’s content across a variety of platforms. Min 6 yrs exp content dist, platform dvlpmnt & partnerships within media ind. Full info HERE (7/10)

MOTION GRAPHIC ANIMATOR/Viewpoint Creative/Boston: Work w/a talented team of creative directors/producers/designers & editors explore different animation styles including 2D, 3D and practical while continually pushing your artistic and technical abilities. 3+ yrs exp req’d. Full info HERE (7/10)

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR/SiriusXM/NYC: Responsible for directing multiple shows a day from camera positioning to assigning handheld operators in studio. Make sure all equipment is ready to go across multiple studios. 2 – 3 yrs of exp operating New Tek TC-1 (Tricaster) & as Adobe Premiere editor. Full info HERE (7/2)

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR/SiriusXM/LA: Responsible for directing multiple shows a day from camera positioning to assigning handheld operators in studio. Make sure all equipment is ready to go across multiple studios. 2 – 3 yrs of exp operating New Tek TC-1 (Tricaster) & as Adobe Premiere editor. Full info HERE (7/2)

DIRECTOR, INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS/Univision/Miami: Help company leaders engage/motivate their employees as part of a mission-driven company focused on informing/empowering the Hispanic community. Bi-lingual a must. 10+ yrs exp in corp comm, public affairs, employee comm or related areas, incl exp in a mngmnt/supervisory capacity. Full info HERE (7/2)

DIR, DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION/Science/NYC: Idea generator to create prog opps that suit, broaden & feed audience, & communicate w/production cos & multiple internal depts. 7+ yrs exp in cable industry & track record for ratings success req. Full info HERE (6/29)

DIRECT RESPONSE, VP/ION TV/NYC: Oversee/manage all aspects of the Direct Response (DR) business. Deep knowledge of DR marketplace. 8+ yrs of DR selling exp in media or a related field. 3+ yrs of exp managing people or leading a sales team. Full info HERE (6/28)

DIRECT RESPONSE SALES, ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/ION TV/NYC: Responsible for selling direct response air time for ION TV, and achieving quarterly and annual revenue goals. Min 5 yrs of DR exp. Excellent oral presentation, oral & written comm skills. Full info HERE (6/28)

NETWORK SALES, ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/ION TV/NYC: Dvlp/grow new and growing business among major agencies via strong relationships and superior client service. 5+ yrs sales exp w/national cable, brdcst ad sales or media buying background req’d. Full info HERE (6/28)

OTHER JOBS OF INTEREST

Design and develop data and code following direction from programming leads.
Mid-Level Game Programmer
2K Games
Media PA
https://2k.com/en-US/jobs/

Design algorithms that provide the desired gameplay results within real-time performance and memory budgets.
Senior Programmer
Ubisoft
Cary NC
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/careers/experience.aspx

Modeling ultra-detailed photorealistic assets, both hard surface and organic.
Senior Generalist Modeler – Advanced Projects
Epic Games
Cary NC
https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/careers

Designing and implementing schemes for data security, system availability, and disaster recovery, including backup, log shipping, mirroring and Always On.
Steam Database Administrator
Steam
Bellevue WA
https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/

Working as part of Valve’s SteamOS development team, adding features and components to our Debian-based Linux distribution.
Steam OS Software Engineer
Steam
Bellevue WA
https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/

Responsible for some of our key Xbox Live gaming services including Stats, Leaderboards, Achievements, and Game Saves.
Program Manager II – Xbox Live Gaming Services
Microsoft
Redmond WA
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/

Working in close collaboration with concept artists, the Art Director, and other engineers to push Unreal Engine 4 towards your combined vision.
Lead Rendering Engineer
2K
Novato CA
https://2k.com/en-US/jobs/

Leverage analytics and quantitative analysis to monitor game performance, tune mechanics, and identify new features to impact KPIs.
Mobile Product Manager
Bandai Namco Entertainment
San Jose CA
https://www.bandainamcoent.com/careers

Creates and directs new processes and procedure to ensure efficiency in our release management.
Quality Control Manager
Bandai Namco Entertainment
Santa Clara CA
https://www.bandainamcoent.com/careers

Working with internal development teams and creative teams to coordinate delivery of project milestones.
Lead Engineer
Epic Games
Larkspur CA
https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/careers

Attend and participate in combat-specific discussions concerning combat design and combat design issues.
Combat Designer
Santa Monica Studio
Santa Monica CA
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/corporate/about/careers/

Collaborate with game developers to effectively fit high impact user feedback into their development processes.
Lead User Experience Researcher
Santa Monica Studio
Santa Monica CA
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/corporate/about/careers/

Join the Core Engine / Graphics Team working on Treyarch’s state-of-the-art game engine and tools.
Senior Graphics Engineer
Treyarch
Santa Monica CA
https://activision.referrals.selectminds.com/treyarch

Analyze, refactor and improve existing graphics/engine technology and tools.
Senior Graphics Engineer
Treyarch
Santa Monica CA
https://activision.referrals.selectminds.com/treyarch

Develop gameplay and support designers implementing online gameplay.
Gameplay Network Engineer
Ubisoft
San Francisco CA
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/careers/experience.aspx