09/12/19: 2019 Tempest Award winners!

CynopsisESPORTS

It’s Thursday September 12, 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.

Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2019 Tempest Awards! Taking place last night at Esports Business Summit, the honors recognize the best in business throughout the industry, with last night’s event hosted by Arda Ocal and featuring tributes to our Hall of Famers Ed Boon and Sundance DiGiovanni, Ambassador Award winner Alex ‘Goldenboy’ Mendez and Sentinel Award winner Benjamin ‘Dr.Lupo’ Lupo.

Among the companies taking hope multiple trophies was ESPN which took home three for Best Consumer Media Outlet, Best Collegiate/Amateur/Semi-Pro Event, and Best Esports-Themed Program for Good Game: UC Irvine; Overwatch League for Best Stream Experience and Breakthrough Technology; and ELEAGUE for Best Televised Broadcast and Venue of the Year.

Wrapping up 2019 winners:

100 Thieves – Team of the year

IEM Katowice – Esports Event of the Year (Single Event/Tournament)

League of Legends World Championship – Esports Event of the Year (Season/Series)

Fortnite World Cup – Best New Event

Twitch’s Sara Clemens – Executive of the Year,

State Farm – Brand of the Year

Doritos Bowl – Best Venue Activation

Samsung/Super League Gaming – Best Endemic Activation

Mastercard – Best Non-Endemic Brand Activation

NBA 2K League – Best Social Media Experience

Harrisburg University – Best Collegiate Esports Program

Thanks to our presenters, judges partners and everyone who entered and came!

COMPETITION AND VENUES

Intel continues to make in-roads for esports at the Olympics, locking in a partnership with the International Olympic Committee, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and an array of partners for Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The announcement included news that Intel would host the Intel World Open esports tournament ahead of the Games, which builds on the first esports experience delivered at Intel Extreme Masters PyeongChang. The Intel World Open will feature Capcom’s Street Fighter V and Psyonix’s Rocket League, with online qualifiers kicking in during early 2020 where any player at any level can compete for a chance to join their national team. A live qualifier event in Katowice in June will determine which teams will advance to the championship esports tournament in Tokyo from July 22-24, 2020, leading into the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The live finals in Tokyo will host fans at the Zepp DiverCity venue.

At EBS, Riot Games’ Naz Aletaha, Head of Esports Partnerships, noted that League of Legends spin-off TeamFight Tactics would see the company test the waters for esports for the title at this year’s League of Legends All-Star event.

Riot Games is promoting four European Regional Leagues to pro level. In a post about the changes, Riot’s Maximilian “Riot MAXtheX” Peter Schmidt announced that four of the 13 regional leagues will be shifted to a higher tier. “The Premier Tour (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), the UKLC (United Kingdom + Ireland), the LFL (France) and the Superliga Orange (Spain) will be the first Leagues to be included in this new tier, which will feature various new regulations and streamlined processes in order to ensure we are providing the best possible experience for our competitive players in Europe,” Schmidt wrote.

2019-20 Dota Pro Circuit plans are locked in, with the season set to begin on Nov. 7 with a $300,000 minor. Majors will again pay out $1 million. The new season will run through June 28, 2020 with locations and organizers announced in the coming weeks.

MMA Promotion ONE Championship detailed plans for ONE Esports’ upcoming ONE Street Fighter Tokyo Challenge. Taking place at the Bellesalle Shibuya Garden on Oct. 6, the event will see two winners of the Open Community Tournament team up with Capcom Pro Tour Super Premier winner Bonchan to take on three other teams consisting of nine of Asia’s strongest Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition pros. The tournament is part of the two-day ONE Martial Arts Fan Fest, which also features top ONE Championship athletes such as Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez, as well as martial arts legends Rich Franklin and Miesha Tate. “The ONE Esports team is excited to partner with Capcom to launch the first ONE Street Fighter Tokyo Challenge,” said Carlos Alimurung, CEO of ONE Esports. “The tournament will showcase the world’s best pro and amateur players, who will compete in an exciting team format. It promises to be an amazing experience for fans and players.”

The Ohio State University campus officially opened the doors to its esports arena. The state-of-the-art esports facility consists of 80 seats mixed between gaming computers, consoles and virtual reality systems, as well as a broadcast booth for students interested in shoutcasting.

TRENDS

The past two years has seen incredible growth in the esports industry; specifically for esports events and viewership. Stream Hatchet investigated the growth and percentage change from 2018 – 2019 to provide a quick trend of the ecosystem. As attendees of the Esports Business Summit, Stream Hatchet provided the following infographic as part of the Keynote presentation. Here are the insights:

The number of esports events jumped up 34% to 356 events this year (as of August 2019)
However, the total esports prize pool only jumped 7% from 2018 – not scaling at the rate rate as the number of events
The biggest jump from 2018 – 2019 has been from esports views which rocketed up 41% to 1.80 billion views (as of August 2019)

For more information regarding esports, streaming, and gaming analytics, please contact [email protected].

ACTIVATION

MTN DEW, MTN DEW AMP Game Fuel and Doritos are teaming up for a promotion surrounding Activision’s Call of Duty franchise, ahead of the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Activation will include the livestreamed, competitive event – the MTN DEW AMP Game Fuel Celebrity PRO-AM, pairing gaming professionals with celebrities in an adrenaline-inducing experience that highlights the new 2v2 game mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare at the Thunder Esports Center in Long Beach. The promotion also allows gamers to unlock 2XP with codes found on participating merchandise beginning Oct. 6.

Collegiate esports organizer Tespa inked Coca-Cola to serve as its exclusive beverage partner. The deal will see the brand offer a collection of branded merchandise for its clubs and players. Coca-Cola will also be supporting Tespa’s workshops, industry ask-me-anything sessions, and meetup events.

Nike revealed the official kits for the 16 teams set to plat in China’s League of Legends Pro League as part of a four-year deal announced earlier this year.

DreamSeat and its affiliates, Zipchair and Zipchair Gaming inked a deal with the Overwatch League and with the seating and furniture company now designated as the league’s official chair supplier. The Zipchair Gaming brand partnership kicks in with the remainder of the 2019 Overwatch League postseason as well as for the 2020 season. The partnership includes the license to distribute and sell chairs within the United States and Canada branded with official Overwatch League team logos. Overwatch League players will be competing for the rest of the 2019 season—and the upcoming 2020 season—in the Xpression gaming chairs from Zipchair Gaming that feature official team logos.

G2 Esports and Red Bull cemented a 360-degree global, multi-year partnership that will see the pair collaborate across all teams, players, and content creators to” enhance individual player and team performance, produce high-end entertainment formats and create dynamic and unique event activations.” The deal sees G2 teams don Red Bull-branded jerseys along with event activations across the League of Legends, CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, and PUBG squads. On-site activations will occur at the LEC finals in Athens and the StarLadder Berlin Major to showcase the new G2 and Red Bull jersey, host fan 1V1s, and have team meet-and-greets. “Red Bull and G2 have a shared vision of bringing more entertainment and adventure to the esports industry through interactive content and event activations, so a partnership was an obvious and important move for us,” said G2 Esports CEO Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez. “This holistic partnership is a big step for G2 and the content that we have coming down the pipeline is going to set this collaboration apart from all others in the space.”

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

TOP WOMEN, INDEED.

The Cynopsis Top Women In Media awards

At a time when it is more important than ever to shine a light on the incredible accomplishments of women in every field, Cynopsis is proud to honor excellence in digital, marketing, advertising, social media and sports. Click here to view a full list of Monday’s incredible honorees and a big thank you to our Platinum Sponsor: Turnkey Search .

CLICK HERE FOR PICS FROM THE EVENT

PLATFORMS

Twitch is bringing a taste of esports to the NFL’s Raiders and the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas next year, locking in a partnership that will include a Twitch-branded lounge in the lower level of Allegiant Stadium, with interactive elements that are native to the Twitch experience, including streamer stations, Twitch viewing screens, esports competitions and future Twitch events. The Twitch lounge will also bring Twitch’s unique live streaming capabilities and active community to a variety of entertainment experiences that will take place at the Allegiant Stadium, such as key sporting events, concerts, esports competitions and more in the years ahead.

Beasley XP, the esports division of Beasley Media Group, is now part of the curriculum at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Under the new Checkpoint XP on Campus initiative, UNLV’s Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies is serving as the primary content creation and production hub for Checkpoint XP’s college-targeted brand extension. Plans include a college-agnostic esports weekly video and podcast show, as well as extensive online content the will be featured on CheckpointXP.com.

Kapersky introduced a beta version of a new solution aimed at helping esports tournaments counter in-game cheating. Kapersky Anti-Cheat is a cloud-based solution through the API of esports platforms and provides real-time cheat detection in addition to automated reports for players who have the ability to make disciplinary decisions on the rule-breaker. According to the latest Irdeto Global Gaming Survey, about one-third of gamers have confessed to cheating, while only 12% indicated that they have never had their multiplayer gaming experience spoiled by unfair actions from other players.

TEAMS

Enthusiast Gaming Holdings, parent company of Luminosity Gaming, picked up a non-controlling interest in Overwatch League franchise Vancouver Titans. The company already had a long-term management agreement with OWL team owner Aquilini Investment Group.

Gen.G unveiled a Player Wellness Campaign, described as an ongoing initiative designed to provide solutions and encourage healthier habits towards physical and mental health, as well as financial responsibility for esports athletes and their fans in partnership with international gym chain, LA Fitness, and wellness app, Simple Habit. “Maintaining a high level of gaming skill can be both physically and mentally demanding. We want our players and fans to be well rounded in all aspects of life,” said Martin Kim, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Gen.G Esports. “Through this Wellness campaign, our goal is to develop a healthier generation of gamers and instill a mindset of self-improvement.”

GumGum Sports unveiled its quarterly rankings of the social reach for esports teams, with FaZe Clan leading the pack despite the departure of Tfue. TSM came in second, while Immortals Gaming Club jumped three spots to #3, boosted by the acquisition of legacy esports team OpTic Gaming. Rounding out the rankings for overall esports organizations were 100 Thieves, NRG, Cloud9, Team Liquid, Team Vitality, Fnatic and Rogue. The company tallied follower count for every pro player, influencer and team account across all social platforms, taking into account the top esports teams in North America and Europe. “Social reach in esports shifts rapidly and we’re seeing the overall influence of teams growing a lot,” said GumGum Sports GM Brian Kim. “Look at this and last quarter’s top organization, FaZe Clan––they didn’t even finish in the top 10 of GumGum’s first esports rankings in 2018.”

READYUP GAMES OF THE WEEK

INDUSTRY

The Dominican Esports Federation announced its launch, in which all details of the organization were presented, designed to boost the ecosystem in the country “In a nutshell, the federation has three key functions: centralize the ecosystem information directory, serve as the liaison between international sponsors and entities with local event organizers, and represent the Dominican nation in key international scenarios and conversations,” stated Yaqui Núñez del Risco Mejía, president of FDDE.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

The 7^th Annual Cynopsis Rising Star Awards

The Cynopsis Best Of The Best Awards Featuring The Rising Stars will spotlight performers, innovators and emerging leaders in the TV Media industry. These young professionals’ experience spans research, digital, content and marketing and this awards program is designed to encourage and reward their exceptional accomplishments. Check out last year’s honorees .

Honorees will be celebrated alongside Best Of The Best Award finalists, at an awards gala this February in NYC.

NOMINATE

ON THIS DAY in 2008: Activision Publishing acquired FreeStyleGames.

Trivia: What is the name this young star (pictured above) of the 1982 commercial for the game Pitfall who went on become an actor, comedian, musician, songwriter, and media personality? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: What is the name of the original map used in PUBG? Answer: Erangel. Kudos: Chris Davies-Virgin/London; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Credit Union/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA

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

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SR MGR, PUBLIC RELATIONS >>
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SALES PLANNER >>
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SALES PLANNER >>
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DIR, BRAND STRATEGY, DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER >>

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