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Another year, another list of the most valuable esports organizations from Forbes. This year the overall valuations for most companies were down. Due to COVID-19 the esports industry has taken some hard hits. TSM took the number one spot this year with Cloud9 and Team Liquid rounding out the top three. It is important to note however, that most people within the esports industry acknowledge the relative shortcomings of these Forbes valuations. They are well known for being rather inflated. Take all of this with a grain of salt. Even Envy CEO, Adam Rymer publicly slammed the article calling it “utter garbage.”
Nintendo seems like it is out to prove just how much it doesn’t care. An esport you don’t see a lot of in the Walkthrough, Splatoon is the next victim. The Splatoon 2 North America Open was scheduled to take place this past weekend. Many teams playing in the event named themselves some form of “Free Melee” in support of the Melee community which was brutalized by Nintendo last month. Nintendo in response cancelled the livestream for the event, citing “unexpected executional challenges.” The Melee community threw their support behind the Splatoon community in response. The Splatoon community in response had all of the teams in the top 8 of Nintendo’s event drop out of the tournament to play in their own grassroots tournament instead. Cale Michael at Dot Esports has the full story.
PAX has shared plans that it will be looking to host in person conventions again later next year. The convention organizer acknowledges that this plan is “optimistic” and they are planning on doing everything with health and safety at the forefront. Tentative announced dates are: PAX East June 3-6, PAX West Sept 3-6 and PAX Unplugged Dec 10-12. For the full update you can read the announcement here.