07/07/22: NBCU flies with Rally Cry

Thursday July 7, 2022

Good morning! It’s Thursday and this is your early morning Esports brief.

NBCUniversal is targeting an esports play through its subdivision NBC Sports Next and SportsEngine, partnering with youth and amateur esports hosting platform Rally Cry to launch a national youth esports tournament series designed for players ages 13-18 to compete for scholarships. SportsEngine will serve as a sponsor for the series. Each tournament will feature single day, double elimination game play with players competing on their preferred platform beginning on July 23 with Madden, and including events that will also focus on Rocket League and Fortnite.

“Rally Cry is dedicated to creating esports opportunities for players of all ages and skill levels. Our unique platform provides the industry-leading security and ease of use that players and parents have come to expect from traditional youth sports,” said Adam Rosen, Founder and CEO of Rally Cry. “We are thrilled to work with SportsEngine to share these competitions with their audiences.”

COMPETITION

With the Apex Legends Global Series Year 2 Championship set to get underway in Raleigh this weekend, the series announced that the ALGS Team Shop will include team-branded Epic Banner Frames, as well bundles featuring Epic or Legendary Weapon and Legend Skins, with a portion of each sale going to the participating teams, beginning with 100 Thieves, TSM, Crazy Raccoon, Cloud9 and NRG in the first week. NaVi, Alliance, G2 Esports, Complexity and Team Liquid will take the helm in week two. The Championship begins at 1p today with a Group Stage spread over the first two days of competition and the finals on Sunday at 5p.

Riot Games announced that Gangneung Ice Arena, located in the eastern South Korea, will serve as the home of the 2022 LCK Summer Split’s final match on Aug. 28. The former 2018 Olympic Game venue has a capacity of 12,000 spectators.

Riot Games also revealed that the League of Legends World Championship will host their semifinals in Atlanta at State Farm Arena. The semifinals originally were set to take place at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, but due to COVID-19 impacting the viability of securing multi-entry visas to the U.S. within necessary timelines, Riot made the decision to move the location to provide a clear path for teams to complete in all stages of Worlds. The new city schedule for Worlds 2022 sees Play-Ins in Mexico City; Groups & Quarterfinals in New York City; Semifinals: in Atlanta and the Finals in San Francisco.

Tencent paved the road ahead for the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2022, dangling a prize pool of $4 million for the slate (down $2 million from a year ago), while the PUBG Mobile World Invitational will offer $3 million. The event crowning will be held between December 2022 and January 2023 while the PMWI will run August 10-20 in Saudi Arabia.

Supercell announced that the 2022 Clash of Clans World Championship will take place in Helsinki, Finland, offering competitors a $1 million prize pool with the eight best Clash of Clans teams qualifying for the finale.

Meanwhile, BLAST Premier’s biggest event of the year will take place in Abu Dhabi in December – as eight of teams compete for the prestigious World Final trophy, a slice of the $1 million prize pool and a chance to claim bragging rights as the champions of Counter-Strike in 2022. Hosted at the Etihad Arena on Yas Island, the BLAST Premier World Final will run from Dec. 14-18 and will feature the world’s biggest esports teams, battling for glory and a share of the tournament organiser’s biggest prize pool of the year.

Fortnite leads the US in competitive earnings, according to a recent study at BetVictor that reports $16 million was handed out this past year. Overall, the country ranked the second highest across the globe for competitive earnings throughout all video games, behind China’s $87 million, with around $60 million

STREAMHATCHET

YouTube Gaming star Ludwig hosted another successful creator event this weekend, Mogul Money Live, sponsored by HyperX Gaming. From appearances on Ludwig’s YouTube channel, HyperX recorded over 20 million brand impressions during the 5-hour event.
Mogul Money was held in person this past weekend in front of a live audience of 5,000 fans at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California. The event was a Jeopardy-like game show featuring famous creators including Pokimane, xQc, Sykkuno, Mizkif, Sodapoppin, Fuslie, Valkyrae, Will Neff, and others.
Mogul Money was also live streamed to Ludwig’s YouTube channel where it garnered 373k hours watched with a peak viewership of 149k viewers. Featuring a bunch of other famous creators from Twitch and YouTube helped Ludwig bring in a massive fanbase to watch the show and buy in-person tickets.
HyperX, the sole sponsor of Mogul Money, saw a boost in brand impressions from the event on Saturday. They recorded over 20 million impressions during the almost 5-hour event. Their logo was shown on screen for almost 93% of the time, between physical logos on stage and digital, on-screen static banners. An average of 76k viewers saw the logos on screen at any given time.
Read the full article on Stream Hatchet’s blog.

SPONSORSHIP & ACTIVATION

Williams Racing partner, Duracell, is taking on the world of virtual racing, signing on to become the title partner of the Williams Esports eNASCAR team. The two Duracell Williams Esports eNASCAR entries will run with a new livery to celebrate the partnership while the duo will collaborate to offer gaming and esports competitors and fans opportunities to engage in both online and live events. Ramon Velutini, Chief Marketing Officer & Latin America President, Duracell, said: “Expanding into the virtual world of esports with Williams Racing was a natural next step. Our shared desire to innovate and achieve optimal performance when it matters most continues to inspire the heart of our partnership. We are excited to support Williams Racing on both the virtual and real-life tracks.”

ONE Esports teamed up with Marriott Bonvoy to launch Gamer’s Paradise, a gaming variety talk show that celebrates the diversity of gaming and esports culture in Asia. The series serves as a 15-episode variety talk show series that will feature content that celebrates the diversity of gaming and esports culture across Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The program will be hosted by popular ‘Super Host’ and emcee Eri Neeman and ONE Esports’ MikaFabs. Neeman and will premier across ONE Esports’ digital channels on July 4.

2022 TEMPEST ESPORTS BUSINESS AWARDS

Its Not Too Late To Save!

Early bird pricing ends TOMORROW, July 8th, for the 2022 Tempest Awards. You could save up to $250!

Enter today for the 2022 Tempest Awards held in Las Vegas!

ENTER NOW

EBS 2022

Want to take home a 2022 Tempest Award? With more than 27 categories to choose from, there’s bound to be one to showcase your accomplishments! Early bird entries close July 8th, and this year’s ceremony (in Vegas!) is going to blow you away. Entries will be judged by key leaders in the esports industry. You’re encouraged to submit as many campaigns into as many categories as you wish. Are you the best of the best? Of course you are! ENTER TODAY! (Think you have an eye for talent? Then you must join us as a judge for this year’s entries. Contact [email protected] for more info!)

IT’S ALIVE: YouGov Living Data Insights

Where to advertise to esports fans?

Esports fans are highly sensitive to advertising. Data from YouGov Profiles shows that, compared to the average American, they are more likely to notice every type of ad that we asked about.

PLATFORMS/METAVERSE

Juked, a social media app aimed at esports fans, launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Wefunder platform allowing anyone to invest in the company, starting at $100. Funds will be used to continue the platform’s growth strategy as well as to improve the Juked mobile app and overhauling the original Juked.gg website to include user-generated content, profiles and other features.

TEAMS

Counter Logic Gaming announced its entry into the Fighting Game Community (FGC) through the launch of CLG FGC. The organization will now run a weekly tournament series with East and West Coast brackets titled “CLG Run It Thursdays.” Competition begins July 7 with the Top 8 from each bracket live streamed weekly on Thursdays via the official CLG Twitch Channel as players compete in Street Fighter V and Guilty Gear Strive with an eye to host tournaments for additional fighting game communities in future iterations, such as Tekken 7 and Dragon Ball FighterZ. In addition, CLG has signed FGC players Brian_F (Street Fighter) and Cuddle_Core (Tekken), with two additional players to be announced in the coming weeks.

INDUSTRY

Metaverse innovation and entertainment company Infinite Realty announced the close of their previously reported $470 million acquisition ReKTGlobal, Inc., based on an equity valuation for iR of $2 billion, for a combined post-close valuation of $2.47 billion. As part of the deal, Infinite Reality will consolidate ReKT’s entertainment and esports business into their array of creative tools covering social, gaming, virtual and remote production, NFT minting, UGLC, and Metaverse creation.

ROSTER MOVES

Ophir Lupu is reportedly leaving UTA after more than 10 years as a partner and the agency’s head of video games. Variety writes that he is expected to pursue other business opportunities in the sector. Lupu joined UTA from CAA in 2011.

Skillz hired finance executive Jason Roswig as the company’s President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Roswig will join the company on August 8, from Blackstone, where he served as Managing Director. He will replace the current Skillz CFO, Ian Lee, who is stepping down to pursue other opportunities.

2022 TEMPEST ESPORTS BUSINESS AWARDS

Its Not Too Late To Save!

Early bird pricing ends TOMORROW, July 8th, for the 2022 Tempest Awards. You could save up to $250!

Enter today for the 2022 Tempest Awards held in Las Vegas!

ENTER NOW

Trivia
What does the “J” stand for in Homer J Simpson? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city).

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question
Born on a Monday and later buried on a Sunday, what famed Batman villain is associated with the creepy 1842 English nursery rhyme? Answer: Solomon Grundy. Kudos: Elan Saratovsky-AMC Networks/NY; Jonathan Crane/NY; Thomas Elliot/NY; Waylon Jones/Miami; Arnold Wesker/Chicago; Victor Fries/Minneapolis; Floyd Lawton/Phoenix; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Jervis Tetch-Wonderland/LA

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