In The News
Weekend in Review:
Tragedy struck the esports community Sunday when a contestant at a Madden NFL 19 qualifying tournament in Jacksonville, Fla. opened fired. He killed 3 people, including himself, and wounded 11 others. “Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams identified the shooter as 24-year-old David Katz of Baltimore,” ESPN reports. The 11 wounded, including Dubby and compLexity Gaming’s Drini Gjoka, are all in stable condition.
EA Sports tweeted about the shooting here. ESL received harsh backlash after, as ESL called it, “an unauthorized use of” their Twitter account in regard to the shooting.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased and those wounded in this horrific attack.
FoxNext took control of TV ads from July 16 to Aug. 15, VentureBeat’s Eleanor Semeraro reports. “TV ad impressions increased to 2.1 billion from 1.9 billion during the last period measured, with 26 brands spending an estimated $22.6 million on 54 spots that aired over 15,600 times.”
ESPN’s Jacob Wolf is not a fan of the Esports Business Summit being held in Las Vegas in early October. He gave this critique: “I feel pretty questionable about how and why these awards exist … In the past, when I looked at how to be nominated, there was a nominal fee, and that makes sense why some of the nominees (more than one so no need to call out) are… odd. Really sort of appalled by many of these esports award shows; they don’t really have acceptable practices.”
Partnership & Sponsorship News:
Pochta Bank and the Russian eSports Federation are partnering, Esports Insider’s Adam Fitch writes. They’re creating “a new card for gamers that will grant holders exclusive access to a new website, Cyberlab.”
Honor is sponsoring FC Schalke 04, Fitch writes. “The news was announced in a joint press conference at Gamescom in Cologne, with a two-year deal being signed by both parties.”
Extra Esports News:
Congratulations OG Esports on winning The International 2018! They defeated PSG.LGD to take home $11,234,125. Evil Geniuses came in 3rd and Team Liquid in 4th. The next International will be in Shanghai, China.
Congratulations Knicks Gaming on winning the inaugural NBA 2K League! They defeated Heat Check Gaming.
Congratulations Cloud9 on winning Rocket League Universal Open: Season 2! They defeated Girls to take home $32,500. CompLexity Gaming came in 3rd and Ghost Gaming in 4th.
OUT: Joshua-Lee “Joshh” Shephard left Splyce’s Call of Duty team.
Interviews: Anthony “NAMELESS” Wheeler (Dot Esports) and FC Schalke 04’s Tim Reichert (TEO).