COMPETITION

The LEC Summer Finals will hit Malmö, Sweden from Sept. 10-11. Tickets will be available for purchase on July 1. “We are absolutely thrilled to announce that we will be hosting our 2022 Summer Finals in Malmö, Sweden. Being the first roadshow we’ve hosted away from our Berlin studio in three years, we can’t wait to give the fans an unforgettable experience. We’re pleased to be working with the City of Malmö again and look forward to bringing the breathtaking atmosphere to their city.” said Maximilian Schmidt, Head of League of Legends Esports in EMEA.

Esports entertainment company BLAST launched an esports-inspired Nike branded apparel collection that “will look to encapsulate gaming culture and lifestyle through spotlighting and celebrating the people and personalities behind esports – from the talent and players, all the way through to the unsung heroes behind-the-scenes.” The apparel line will be launched and made available for general sale in August during the BLAST Premier Fall Groups (Aug. 19-28).

Epic’s Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3 FNCS will kick off in July offering players a shot at the $3 million prize pool and bringing in a new point format that rewards more aggressive plays. Season 3 matches can be seen both on the official Fortnite Twitch channel as well as on the Fortnite YouTube channel with play starting July 6.

FaZe Clan partnered with Hulu’s animated TV show Solar Opposites to host a new Fortnite tournament in early July 2022. Titled the Solar Opposites FaZe Elite Cup, the tournament will be open to both amateur and professional Fortnite players from North America while FaZe Clan will also host a number of activations and giveaways for viewers. This third season of Solar Opposites is out in July.

SPONSORSHIP & ACTIVATION

Evil Geniuses is tapping the services of HP Enterprise via multi-year partnership will see the team leverage HPE’s cloud computing infrastructure in a move designed to help them better understand its data. HP Enterprise will provide Evil Geniuses with access to HPE’s artificial intelligence services and solutions. In addition, the pair locked in three key fields of cooperation: talent discovery to find emerging players; game strategy to help EG “design winning strategies” via artificial intelligence; and talent development by improving training modules.

Gen.G ordered up another deal with McDonald’s, renewing the team’s McDonald’s Crew League partnership. The agreement will continue in specific locations in Southern California, as well as Southern Plains (Kansas, Oklahoma), and the DMV (Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia) as well as an expansion into the northwest. Each region has been designed to recruit and retain its employees through gaming, with a season expected to kick off this summer.

Meanwhile, Immortals, and gaming chair brand DXRacer kicked off announced the start of a three-year partnership. As part of the agreement, DXRacer will become the Official Gaming Chair of Immortals and will be used by all Immortals competitive teams, including League of Legends (LCS), Wild Rift and Valorant. “Working with DXRacer, a pioneer in the gaming chair space, to provide Immortals-branded chairs to our players and influencers underscores our commitment to creating a first-class experience for our talent,” said Brett McGrew, Immortals’ VP, Partnerships & Activation. “We’re excited to be enhancing our performance with DXRacer.”

Gamelancer Gaming Corp. renewed its longstanding relationship with G FUEL through Q3/Q4, 2022. The six-figure contract will feature user-generated-content curated by Gamelancer influencers, featured across the company’s @Gaming, @Gamer, @Gamelancer and @Egirl channels on TikTok and Instagram.

Envy and Jack Link’s renewed and expanded their partnership that represents Jack Link’s longest continuous running investment in an esports sponsorship to-date with Jack Link’s serving as the Official Protein Snack of Optic Gaming, OpTic Texas, the Dallas Fuel, and Envy Gaming under terms of the deal. New this year is sponsorship of OpTic including content creators and competitive esports teams under the OpTic brand. Jack Link’s will have prime jersey position on the OpTic Texas (Call of Duty League) jerseys and sleeve sponsorship position on all other Envy and OpTic teams, as well as sponsor the Envy team competing in World Chase Tag.

Gamers8 locked in an exclusive partnership with Spotify, who will become the official audio streaming partner for the upcoming season in Riyadh this summer. In addition to co-curated playlists by Spotify’s music team and Gamers8 gaming professionals, Spotify and Gamers8 will create and launch a podcast dedicated to the season in partnership with Rising Giants Network in an eight-episode series.

PLATFORMS/METAVERSE

The NBA, the National Basketball Players Association, and Niantic, the makers of Pokémon GO, partnered up to create NBA All-World. The mobile game will launch globally during the 2022-2023 NBA season as an officially licensed, geolocation, 1-on-1 basketball game where players compete to and visit Drop Zones to acquire collectible sneakers, jerseys, and more to outfit their roster.

GameSquare Esports locked in a partnership with YouTube Gaming to distribute exclusive content for TimTheTatman’s Tailgate, a two-day festival blending gaming, sports, music, and pop culture, taking place in Frisco on July 16-17. YouTube Gaming will also serve as the presenting partner of TimTheTatman’s Hoedown $100,000 Zero Build Tournament featuring Fortnite and livestream. In addition to livestreaming the Fortnite tournament finals on Sunday, YouTube Gaming will livestream the $15,000 Tim Pong finals.

ESL Gaming and EarlyGame Group are teaming up to launch MobileMatters described as an all-new mobile gaming brand and publication launched to serve the mobile gaming community and offering news, guides, and video content designed for mobile gaming. As part of the arrangement, ESL Gaming will offer exclusive access to media from the Snapdragon Pro Series, the world’s largest multi-genre mobile esports competition including tournaments in Supercell’s Brawl Stars and Clash Royale, Riot Games’ League of Legends: Wild Rift and Legends of Runeterra, and more.

G4 and WWE are teaming up for the release of new content series, in partnership with Xfinity, titled Arena. The monthly show blends the world of streamers, celebrities, pro-athletes and WWE Superstars as they enter the G4 Arena to hash out their personal/professional issues with a gauntlet of chaotic, and hilarious, challenges. The series if hosted by Xavier Woods Gina Darling and will feature major internet personalities including Twitch streamers QTCinderella and Myth who are stepping in to the Arena to air out their personal grievances for episode 1. The series debuts on June 29 at 7p.

TEAMS

Envy Gaming will retire its branding and moniker and will officially be known on all fronts as OpTic Gaming (while OWL team will be known as the Dallas Fuel). The companies merged last November.

Complexity Gaming is set to host a slate of gaming experiences during the 10th annual UFC International Fight Week this week. In addition to the previously announced battle between TimtheTatman and NICKMERCS on July 1, events will include a Call of Duty: Warzone tournament with top creators on the Las Vegas strip as well as the launch an exclusive merchandise collection from Complexity Stars athlete and five-time UFC title winner Max Holloway. Merchandise will be available for purchase online on Complexity’s store and will be given away to attendees at UFC X on July 1 and pre-fight on July 2.

Apparel brand Champion teamed with Fnatic to launch a capsule collection, a limited-edition collection comprised of four hoodie designs, “each inspired by the ancient elemental concepts of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.” The collection will see a drop of just 400 hoodies, and each of the themes will see Fnatic ambassadors bring their own flavor to the capsule collection.

INDUSTRY

Last week saw the Board of the Global Esports Federation approve the establishment of a Study Group to lead the development of a Universal Framework on Esports Standards & Certification in consultation with the global esports and gaming community. The work of the Study Group will focus on four key areas: Safeguarding, Education & Coaching, Tournaments & Events, and Governance & Ethics.