Items tagged with esports
Razer has debuted a new gaming mouse called the Viper that it is aiming directly at the world of eSports. The big claim to fame for the Razer Viper is the use of new Optical Mouse Switches described as the company's fastest switches yet. Razer says that the Optical Mouse Switches have three times the actuation speed of traditional mechanical mouse switches. Razer says that while traditional mouse switches send signals when a metallic contact is made, with it's new Optical Mouse Switch no physical contact is required to send a signal. These switches use an infrared light beam that passes through a shutter to fire an electrical signal to the computer. The switches promise to respond instantly to...
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Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world with massive Hollywood movie crossover events and special edition Xbox consoles to underscore its popularity. The game also has a dark underbelly with over 1,000 cheaters banned during the Fortnite World Cup alone. Furthering that drama, Fortnite also has one of its top streamers fighting a very public battle against his team over an allegedly oppressive contract. The world of eSports is likened to the "Wild West" by many, as there are no rules and regulations covering players and teams. Some compare the current environment between players and teams to the way Baseball was before players unionized. Many are waiting to see what happened between...
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Griffin Spikoski of Long Island, New York at first glance appears to be your typical 14 year-old teen. Spikoski recently started high school and loves playing the popular game Fortnite. However, there is more to Spikoski than meets the eye. The 14 year-old gamer rakes in $200,000 USD a year by streaming Fortnite on YouTube and Twitch. Spikoski, who is better known by his online persona “Sceptic”, first started playing Fortnite for fun. This all changed this past summer when he uploaded a YouTube video of him beating professional eSports player Tfue in Fortnite. The video received over 7.5 million views and quickly launched Spikoski’s career. He began receiving money from YouTube...
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The field of eSports has simply exploded in size over the last decade. Many corporations are throwing a lot of money at training facilities, tournament stadiums, and professional gaming teams. GameStop recently announced that it plans to sponsor an eSports training facility in cooperation with Complexity Gaming. Frank Hamlin, the Chief Marketing Officer for GameStop, remarked, “We are aiming to become the official minor leagues of eSports where GameStop provides fun and unique cultural experiences for player development while preparing the next generation of professional gamers.” Jason Lake, CEO of Complexity Gaming, stated that he hopes the new facility will further “professionalize”...
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Comcast Spectacor is a big name in the sports world, and it owns the Philadelphia Flyers. The company is set to expand in a major way into gaming with a new stadium that will be the very first meant specifically for eSports gaming. The investment into the stadium, called Fusion Arena, for now, is said to be $50 million. The stadium will break ground this summer and will sit on a 47-acre stadium complex site that Comcast Spectacor currently leases in South Philadelphia. The arena will be smaller than a football or basketball stadium, seating 3,500 people and will be placed on a parking lot next to Xfinity Live! and will be within walking distance of Linc, Citizens Bank Park, and the Wells Fargo...
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The Overwatch community has been shaken by a controversial “social experiment”. “Ellie”, the first female North American Overwatch Contenders player, was actually an imposter. Both Blizzard and Overwatch Contenders team Second Wind have confirmed the sad truth. Overwatch Contenders is a tournament for potential pro players. Twelve teams in each of the seven Contender regions battle it out multiple times a year, and the winners have a chance of joining the Overwatch League. Overwatch Contenders team Second Wind signed on a player only known as Ellie at the last minute. Every other player has listed their full name and gaming handle, but Ellie reportedly did not want...
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Fortnite has grown to become one of the popular games of the day, and is the top battle royale shooter in terms of concurrent players, having surpassed PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) earlier this year. In a relatively short period of time, Fortnite has grown to 125 million players overall. The fast success is not lost on Epic Games, which is celebrating the monumental growth with a $100 million prize pool for Fortnite competitions during the 2018-2019 season. That is a massive prize pool and speaks to both the growing popularity of esports and the widespread interest in Fortnite. The $100 million pool will be split between a bunch of events at different levels of competition around the...
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Listen up, Fortnite fans! Fortnite players could potentially rake in some serious dough this year, as Epic Games just announced that it will be providing $100 million to fund competitive prize pools. Epic Games’ promise is due to the overwhelmingly positive response it has received from Fortnite players since the game's release. Epic Games remarked, “Since the launch of Fortnite Battle Royale we’ve watched the passion for community competition grow and can’t wait to empower you to battle with the best.” The devs also noted that they plan “...to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game during this competition season." Fortnite...
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Your Fortnite: Battle Royale skills could get you a lot more than an umbrella. Ashland University is offering esports scholarships up to $4,000 USD to Fortnite: Battle Royale players. Ashland University is the first college to add Fortnite to its program. Head coach Josh Buchanan remarked, “Fortnite appeals to both the core and casual gaming audience. We're excited to provide this platform for gamers who want to showcase their skills in a more competitive space. Fortnite facilitates an environment that allows players to get creative, innovate and show off their mastery of their skills.” The program will organize Fortnite four-player teams that will practice and compete together....
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Overwatch is one of the most popular shooters on the planet, and has had some cool Halloween content for fans recently. It is also the basis for some of the biggest eSports tournaments out there. The game currently has about 35 million monthly players and thanks to its popularity, the Blizzard Entertainment Overwatch League has landed two major sponsors that have the pockets deep enough to offer up prize money to the gamers fighting for the win: HP and Intel. HP has said that its Omen by HP gamer-centric brand will be a multi-year sponsor for the Overwatch League. The official announcement of the sponsorship was made at the BlizzCon 2017 event in California. With a brand like HP sponsoring...
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The world of competitive esports is exploding in popularity right now, with huge number of players and fans flocking to events all around the world. Blizzard wants to have an official stadium for esports events to take place, so it has acquired the former home of "The Tonight Show: in Burbank Studios. The stadium will be called Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, and it will be used as a place for both pro and amateur gamers to hold events. The facility is said to have multiple sound stages and control rooms that will support a range of live events. All of these events will have the capability of being streamed live as the event happens. Blizzard and Twitch have a streaming agreement in place, so...
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Earlier this month we talked about the folks working to organize the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games wanting to add eSports games. Ratings for the Olympics have been on the decline as it appears fewer people care to watch most of the sports that the games highlight each year. This led the Paris Olympics committee to decide that adding in eSports might be a good thing to boost ratings and viewership. As you are likely aware, eSports draw huge crowds and have very avid supporters that could help turn the Olympic ratings slump around and get younger people interested in the games again. Most would assume from the willingness to consider eSports that it could mean shooters like DOTA 2, Counter-Strike,...
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The official announcement that Paris will hold the 2024 Summer Olympic Games is expected to be made next month. The only two cities vying to host the 2024 Olympic games were Paris and Los Angeles, and when LA agreed to take the 2028 games, 2024 went to Paris by default. When it comes to the Summer Olympics, big sports like gymnastics, swimming and track and field remain popular and highly watched, but organizers are looking to reach out to a younger audience when it comes to viewership. The younger generation of people out there are finding little that appeals to them during the Olympics, but that may be changing. Tony Estanguet, the co-president of the Paris Olympic Bid Committee, has recently...
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If you thought the esports phenomenon would eventually fizzle, think again. Esports is as popular as ever, and just as importantly, it continues to grow and attract major participants. To keep the good times growing, game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment announced today a two-year deal with Twitch that gives Amazon's streaming service live-streaming rights to select esport content. The deal gives Twitch third-party streaming rights for many of Blizzard's most popular esports events and games, including Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Overwatch. There will be over 20 major individual events that get live-streamed through Twitch, including the...
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