09/27/18: The FACEIT London major saw massive growth over 2017

CynopsisESPORTS
It’s Thursday September 27, 2018 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.

FACEIT is reporting record breaking viewing figures for the FACEIT London Major. The Grand Finals on Sunday drew over one million concurrent viewers who tuned in to watch Astralis claim the CS:GO prize. The company reports that the event ranks as the third highest viewed esports tournament of all time, behind only Dota 2’s The International 2018 and League of Legends World Championship 2017, excluding Chinese viewership. The event drew more than 57 million views on Twitch, with a total of 61 million hours watched and established the FACEIT TV Twitch account as officially the fastest growing account earlier this month. The Major was broadcast across over a dozen platforms in over 15 territories and saw Sky Sports broadcast competitive CS:GO for the first time.
 
 
COMPETITION and VENUES

Riot unveiled the lineup for the 2018 League of Legends World Championship with the Play-in Stage set to begin on Oct. 1 from Seoul beginning with Edward Gaming/Infinity Esports/ Bahcesehir SuperMassive/G2 Esports/Dire Wolves and Ascension Gaming in action. The play-in stage will be streamed on Riot Games’ official Twitch channel, in addition to their official esports YouTube channel.
 
The world’s largest and most successful college athletic recruiting network, Next College Student Athlete is officially entering esports, marking the 34th sport in NCSA’s recruiting network. NCSA now serves as the official recruiting partner of the National Association of Collegiate Esports. “Recruiting for esports has become just as competitive as recruiting for any other collegiate sport,” said NACE Director Michael Brooks. NCSA will support all 14 collegiate-supported esports games, including League of Legends and Overwatch. As part of the NCSA recruiting network, esports student-athletes will be able to create free recruiting profiles and have access NCSA’s lineup network of college coaches. Additionally, collegiate esports coaches from NACE institutions can create a free account to search NCSA’s growing database of esports athletes.
 
Amazon announced GameOn Masters: Gear.Club 2018 featuring Pagani, a new competitive gaming event that will showcase racing title Gear.Club from Millennial eSports’ Eden Games. Amazon GameOn will power the tournament’s public qualifiers, which begin in-game on Sept. 27, as well as the finals, which will take place on Nov. 11 at the PokerGo Studio in the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. “We’re extremely excited about GameOn Masters: Gear.Club 2018 featuring Pagani,” says David Nadal, CEO of Eden Games. “Nothing brings a gaming community together like competitive play, and with the help of Amazon’s GameOn, players from across the globe can compete for a spot in the tournament and connect through competitive play.”
 
The German Football League is reportedly looking to launch a tournament for clubs in both the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. Play will see teams from the two tiers of the German football league compete in FIFA, anchored with the support of game publisher EA Sports, according to Esports Insider. Currently, 11 German clubs have signed players to represent them in esports.
 
Capcom unlocked details for the official Street Fighter League in Japan. Based on the Street Fighter V Arcade Edition, competition will begin in 2019 with three-on-three team battles. Six teams will be formed from a mix of unlicensed competitors and those licensed by the Japanese eSports Union
 
Last call! Don’t miss the Esports Business Summit next week, complete with networking fields trips, our 2018 Harvest Celebrity Charity Stream to benefit Gamers Outreach, and now Sunday will see the Esports Charity Poker Game, presented by ESP Gaming and open for attendees only! Play against your fellow esports executives at The PokerGO Studio at Aria, with commentary from World Series of Poker on-camera talent and analyst. Sign up by clicking here. If you aren’t registered for the Summit, get your tickets NOW.
 
Tencent Games and PUBG Corp. unveiled PUBG Mobile Star Challenge, a new tournament that will feature teams from six regions competing for a $600K prize pool. Teams will represent Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Japan/Korea, and China with the event sponsored by Samsung Galaxy Note9. Finals will take place in Dubai at the end of this year. Meanwhile, the first stop of the global tournament circuit will be the European region final in Kiev from Sept. 29-30. Players will be made up of celebrities, professional gamers, and internet personalities.
 
The rivalry between Northern and Southern California reaches new heights as the Los Angeles Valiant and San Francisco Shock announce the formation of the California Cup. The official home-and-home Overwatch League off-season event showcase begins on October 20 at the Esports Arena Santa Ana and finalizes on November 10 at the Esports Arena Oakland. Both locations will feature a meet-and-greet with the new-look Shock and Valiant rosters, amateur and collegiate Overwatch tournaments, exclusive merchandise, free-to-play computers and more. Each event will culminate in a match between the Valiant and Shock to determine the guardian of the California Cup.
 
Formula 1 charted the course for the F1 Esports Pro Series 2018, presented by New Balance, where the official F1 Esports teams will rev up to be named this year’s F1 Esports Series Teams’ and Drivers’ World Champions on Codemasters’ F1 2018 videogame. The Pro Series will be held as a series of three live events at London’s Gfinity Esports Arena on Oct. 10, Oct. 31 with the Grand Finale spanning Nov. 16-17. Events will be streamed live on Facebook and broadcast globally on selected TV networks, bringing the excitement and exhilaration of Formula 1 to a new generation of fans across the globe.
 
Gfinity and Ove Arup & Partners entered a partnership to design a “world-leading integrated esports facility,” combining their skills and resources to develop a blueprint for a scalable, specialist playing, watching, training, learning and broadcast venue. “We are delighted to be working with Arup to design the world’s most advanced integrated esports facility,” said Garry Cook, Executive Chairman, Gfinity. “The esports professional and aspiring amateur learning their craft have similar needs to their counterparts in a host of other sports. Environments that optimize their ability to play and train to their highest potential is the difference between winning and losing.”
 
 
INSIGHTS


Stream Hatchet’s access to cross platform data enables our users to make informed decisions in matching their content with streaming platforms. Our insights focus on the top 4 North American platforms over the month of August.
  • Twitch is the most influential platform in game streaming. 80% of the combined platform hours watched were generated by Twitch viewers. 
  • Although Facebook social media boasts an active user base of over 2 billion, it’s gaming platform lags behind competitors. Less than 1% of the unique channels in our sample originated from FB.gg.
  • Of the top five games across all platforms, Playerunknown’s: Battlegrounds generated the most even spread. Twitch accounted for only 68% of the total hours watched, whereas YTG (25%), Mixer (3%), and Facebook (4%) generated more even percentages. 
 
For more information, insights, and analysis, visit us at: blog.streamhatchet.com.
 
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE
SPACE IS LIMITED
REGISTER YOUR TEAM TODAY
Tuesday, October 2nd | 7PM – 10:30PM | The Esports Arena Las Vegas
 
Come celebrate the latest and greatest in esports from over the last 12 months as we recognize over 60 frontrunners from across the esports ecosystem. Network with some of the industry’s elite over cocktails, dinner and at our after party—all while being inspired by the work our honorees produced. View finalists here .
 

ACTIVATION


NBA 2K League squad Magic Gaming tied up a new deal with Boxed Water to become the official water of the team and Magic Gaming will be using Boxed Water instead of plastic water bottles in all facilities. “Magic Gaming is thrilled to announce this socially responsible partnership with Boxed Water,” said Director of Magic Gaming Ryan DeVos. “It’s important as an organization to find ways to grow our business, but to also do that in a responsible manner. We are excited to introduce this great concept to all of our fans while integrating them in innovative ways through our digital platforms.”

 
Digital trading card platform Epics set its sights on RFRSH Entertainment and the company’s upcoming CS:GO tournament, BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul. The deal will produce a series of card packs and player cards be introduced into Epics’ library of collectibles.
 
 
FanAI SNAPSHOT


Last week FanAI looked at one method of running an esports marketing campaign, maximizing the reach by partnering with influencers from different gaming communities. This week FanAI looks at a different tactic, going all in on one influencer group to maximize repeat impressions. To investigate, FanAI looked at the overlap in follower groups of Fortnite’s top 30 influencers. More than 42% of the total audience follow at least 2 of the top influencers, with 28% following at least 3 players or streamers. Within Fortnite, the point of diminishing returns seems to fall around 3 or 4 influencers. However, for Fortnite there is a major outlier that should not be discounted, roughly 40% of the total audience only follow Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. Because these percentages will vary widely with differing game communities, this shows how critical it is to understand an audience before choosing where to spend your marketing budget.
 
 
PLATFORMS

Newzoo’s August Game Streaming Tracker looked at the Evolution Championship Series, aka EVO, running Aug. 2-5. The company reports that the event generated 5.2 million hours of viewership across Twitch and YouTube Gaming, up over the 4.2 million hours generated during last year’s edition. Evo’s official channels alone made up 65% (3.3 million hours watched) of Evo 2018’s watched hours. The most popular Evo 2018 tournament was its main event: the Street Fighter V tournament. It was viewed for a total of 1.7 million hours—49% more viewership than last year. The second-most popular was the tournament for 2002 Gamecube classic Super Smash Bros. Melee, which drew in 907K hours watched.
 
League of Legends developer Riot Games is launching a viewer rewards program for its esports programming that will begin with October’s World Championship. The initiative will see viewers earn in-game items through “Watch Missions,” which debuts on Sept. 30 and runs through Nov. 10. To participate, viewers will need to tune in to the World Championship through the official website and the Twitch and YouTube broadcasts.
 
Cheddar announced a new series titled Cheddar Sports. The weekly program will be dedicated to the latest and most significant news and events in esports going live on Twitch on Thursdays at 3:30p. As part of its coverage, Cheddar will also be livestreaming interviews and stories from a dedicated on-site location all day on October 27 during TwitchCon 2018 with Cheddar CEO and Founder Jon Steinberg anchoring the broadcast.
 
 
INDUSTRY

PlayStation is finally coming to the party, announcing that Fortnite on PS4 would be compatible for cross-platform gameplay, progression and commerce. To make the process of tracking all Fortnite progression and purchases easier, Epic Games will be implementing a new merging feature. Starting Nov., account merging will allow players to link their PSN, Xbox account and Nintendo Switch accounts to a single Epic Games account.
 
Telltale Games announced a studio closure that will see the vast majority of its staff – estimated to be around 225 people – with 25 employees remaining. Most projects in the pipeline have been cancelled, according to the story. Telltale’s CEO, Pate Hawley, wrote: “It’s been an incredibly difficult year for Telltale as we worked to set the company on a new course. Unfortunately, we ran out of time trying to get there. We released some of our best content this year and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but ultimately, that did not translate to sales. With a heavy heart, we watch our friends leave today to spread our brand of storytelling across the games industry.”
 
H1Z1 is getting an overhaul that will see the game renamed Z1 Battle Royale. Publisher Daybreak Games stated that H1Z1 is now under the umbrella of the “newly re-formed dev team.” Earlier this month, NantWorks announced a strategic investment in Daybreak Game Company that will see the company assume control and management of the game.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE
YOU ASKED, WE DELIVERED.
Cynopsis created an esports news site to provide you with a comprehensive source & research tool for anyone in the esports and media community looking to stay one step ahead of this rapidly growing, multi-billion dollar industry.
 
Breaking News / Sponsorship White Papers / Team Directory / Interviews / Data & Infographics / Video Spotlight / Esports Jobs Listing / Calendar of Events / Esports Glossary / Esports Business Summit Announcements / And More!
 
Check it out: cynopsisesports.com
 

ON THIS DAY in 2005: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Lockdown is released.
 
Trivia: Two characters in the Mortal Kombat franchise, Raiden and Shang Tsung, each received design inspiration from this 1986 John Carpenter film about the adventures of Jack Burton and Wang Chi battling the ancient sorcerer David Lo Pan. What is the name of that movie? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)
 
Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: This classic 1982 movie about the search for the Ark of the Covenant became the first licensed video game to be based on a film. What is the movie? Answer: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Kudos: Chris Davies-Virign/London; Rob Casalaina-ITN/NY; Luke Watson-Essential TV/NY; Danny Araque/NY; Scott Jenkins-Gracenote/NY; Allison Weiner – MMSI/Warwick; Matt Sautter-WideOrbit/Harrisburg; Glen Ross/DC: Brad Stern/Carbondale; Andy Pittman-TAMU/College Station; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA
 
For more news and coverage, check out: http://cynopsisesports.com (updated daily).

Later — Chris
Roberta Caploe
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Diane K Schwartz
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CYNOPSISJOBS – For More jobs, please visit Cynopsis.com

JOB OPENING: ANALYTICS LIAISON/ION/NYC: Act as primary liaison between ION Media & ad agency rsrch depts. Communicate ION’s unique position in marketplace & clear advantages to agency rsrch depts. 10+ yrs exp in TV/Agency ind. Well versed in ind tools such as Nielsen, MRI, Simmons, ComScore +. Full info/apply HERE (10/4)

 
JOB OPENING: SR SALES PLANNER/ION/Clearwater: Mng team of sales assistants; mng setting rate cards & placing inventory to maximize revenue & returns. Resp for generation of all sales proposals. 4-yr deg w/5+ yrs Local Ad Sales exp in Pricing & Inventory ad sales plan’g and/or systems admin strongly pref’d. Full info/apply HERE (10/4)

JOB OPENING: DIRECTOR, MULTI PLATFORM CONTENT (non-news)/ Disney ABC TV Group, ABC11/WTVD/Durham NC: Resp for brdcst specials to digital series, from parades to social town halls. Work w/Sales teams to maximize revenue opps from premium & integrated content deals. Exp producing content on brdcst/dig. platforms a must. Full info/apply HERE (10/4)


JOB OPENING:
SR DIRECTOR/DIRECTOR AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT/BET/NYC: Resp for collaborating with key constituents, incl Editorial, Ad Sales, Ad Ops, Product, UX & Design, Mktg & Rsch teams. 8-10 yrs digital mktg exp within consumer focused industries; 5+ yrs specifically in aud dvlpmnt & digital media. Full info/apply HERE (10/3)

JOB OPENING: DIRECTOR, AD SALES MARKETING/UNIVSION/NYC:  Highly motivated B2B marketer w/ proven track record of creating persuasive materials. Build presentations that offer marketers & agencies a compelling reason to work with Univision. 6yrs+ exp at media or research company, agency or a B2B advertising. Full info/apply HERE (10/3)

JOB OPENING: DIRECTOR, MARKETING/USA Water Polo/Irvine CA: Mktg professional w/track record of building brands, engaging consumers, driving sales & dvlpng partners. Construct strategic mktg plan. Brand/merchandise/sponsor dvlpmnt. Asset promotion. Event activation. Fan engagement. Min 5 yrs exp. Full info/apply HERE (10/3)


JOB OPENING: 
MEDIA PLANNING ASSIST/Mahwah, NJ: Leading kid media buying/planning agency looking for media planning assist with 2+ exp in digital/TV; inputter, & day-to-day maint of nat’l buys. EXCELL WIZ (must), PPT, Media Ocean, Comscore, Digital Exp a +. Great benefits. Resumes to: [email protected] (10/2)

JOB OPENING: Sr. DIRECTOR GLOBAL ACQUISITIONS/A+E/Stamford, CT: Plan, implement, monitor & optimization of content delivery; technical, file-based procurement of Domestic and International content; 10+ yrs exp technical procurement of content cable or broadcast network. Full info/apply HERE  www.aenetworks.com (10/2)

JOB OPENING: SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSOR/Boston University: Fall 2019, dept of Film/TV @BU seeks Professor – in area of writing/producing for TV emphasis on scripted comedy. Teach 3 courses (or mult sections of 1 course) per semester req’d. Plan/dvlp new courses in their field of expertise encouraged. Full info HERE (10/2)

JOB OPENING:
 AVOD CONTENT PROGRAMMING MANAGER/BROOKLYN NY: Create and apply AVOD content strategies. Work closely with several teams to grow performance on platforms. Daily contact with major 3rd party AVOD platforms. Comfortable w/spreadsheets and databases. For full info or to submit resume: [email protected] (9/29)

JOB OPENING: FREELANCE PROJECT COORDINATOR/PARAMOUNT NETWORK/NYC: Mng, plan & track all creative assets for short form promo content project team incl. on-air, social, digital. Exc client-facing & internal comm skills. Growth potential for person with high motivation/dependability Resume HERE (9/29)
 
JOB OPENING: FREELANCE ASSOCIATE PRODUCER/EDITOR/PARAMOUNT NETWORK/NYC: Work in brand creative dept for Paramount Network, producing and editing promos and short form content. Must have strong Premiere editing skills. Prior experience in scripted programming a plus. Resume HERE (9/29)


JOB OPENING:
SR ANALYST, DIGITAL & SOCIAL ANALYTICS/BET/NYC: Analyze BET’s site, apps, & its presence on third party/social platforms. Focus on providing insights & recommendations contributing to goals & success of the brand. 2-4 yrs related rsrch exp w/demonstrated success. Full info/apply HERE (9/28)


JOB OPENING:
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE/MachinimaWarner Bros/NYC: Drive advertising sales efforts and be responsible for hitting ad sales targets for Machinima, the premiere digital video programmer of gamer and fan content. 3-4  yrs digital media sales exp. pref. with publisher/Ent. company. Full info/apply HERE (9/28)

 
JOB OPENING: SR MANAGER, CORPORATE STRATEGY/AT&T Advertising & Analytics/NYC: Dvlp the overall go-to-market strategy for existing/emerging businesses. BA/BS Business, Finance, Strategy related discipline. 2-4 yrs relevant exp. Exc comm/presentation skills & cross-team collaboration capability. Resume to: [email protected] (9/28)


JOB OPENING:
DIRECTOR, MEDIA RELATIONS/Telemundo/NYC: Build relationships w/key media outlets w/a focus on top tier business, trade & online outlets relevant to impact the corp brand, positioning, announcements, etc. Min 8 yrs exp in public relations/mktg pref’d or corp PR agency exp. Bilingual Eng-Spanish a +. Full info/apply HERE (9/28)

 

OTHER JOBS OF INTEREST

 

Create designs that benefit sales and conversion rates.
Senior Digital Designer
SteelSeries
Chicago IL
 
Develop beautiful software for our world class gaming products.
Senior Frontend Engineer
SteelSeries
Chicago IL
 
Expand our existing Android SDK with new features and feature improvements to help support game teams
Senior Android Developer
Big Fish Games
Seattle WA
 
Help manage a Linux-based ecommerce environment with about 3000 servers.
Linux System Engineer
Big Fish Games
Seattle WA

https://www.bigfishgames.com/careers
 
Create a wide variety of concepts including characters, fashion designs, pose sheets and props.
Senior Concept Artist
Maxis
Redwood City CA
 
Evangelize and pitch game ideas to the studio and generate excitement and enthusiasm among the Studio
Senior Creative Director
Maxis
Redwood City CA
 
Develop web services supporting game console clients, browser clients, and external server clients.
Senior .Net Backend Developer
Rockstar
San Diego CA
 
Work with others to expand our next-generation graphics pipeline including advanced lighting and rendering techniques, and special effects.
Senior Graphics Programmer
Rockstar
San Diego CA
 
Creation and maintenance of a prospering art culture and technical guidance within the VFX Team, through training, mentoring, and reviewing assets for quality.
Lead VFX Artist
Ubisoft
San Francisco CA
 
Work with team leads and other engineers to identify systems in need of maintenance, optimization, or refactoring.
Senior Core Engineer
Ubisoft
San Francisco CA
 
Work closely with product management and design teams to create innovative applications on the Android platform.
Senior Android Engineer
Razer Inc.
San Francisco CA
 
Lead, Develop and execute marketing and PR strategy for Razer Phone and accessories business globally.
Director of Marketing
Razer Inc.
San Francisco CA
 
Create and maintain the logic and processes to support trustworthy and efficient consumption of Twitch’s business data in aggregate form.
Senior Data Architect
Twitch
San Francisco CA
 
Architecture and implementation of high performance networking code solutions for both client-side and server-side game logic.
Senior Network Engineer
Infinity Ward
Los Angeles CA
 
Develop implementation plans and time  estimates for tasks.
Senior Audio Software Engineer
Infinity Ward
Los Angeles CA


 

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