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The 2019 Esports Awards is happening this Saturday. Time to vote up your favorite teams and plays, except that’s not how they decide on winners. Read more below.
The 2019 Esports Awards, dubbed “The Oscars of Esports,” will take place November 16 and celebrates the best teams, players, and streamers in the industry.
Types of awards: The award program features multiple categories based on community, industry, and pro classifications. Awards include Esports Team of the Year, PC Player of the Year, Esports Publisher of the Year, Esports Live Event of the Year, Esports Play of the Year, and Esports Content Creator of the Year.
Time of broadcast: Watch the event at 8:15 CST in-person in Arlington, Texas, or online at Twitch, Mixer, YouTube, or Twitter.
Of all the places one would expect to find an esports team, we would not have guessed it’d be the Army. U.S. army recruitment has spiked recently and they attribute much of that to their new esports team. When the announcement was first made about forming a brand new esports team, more than 7,000 soldiers volunteered to help with the project. Now they’ve decided on 16 team members.
Nothing new: Having an esports team isn’t new for the military. Members of the armed forces have been playing video games in their free time for years. It only made sense now to finally give them an opportunity to display their skills on a professional level. Games like Call of Duty may be jokingly thought of as a way to get young people ready for war, but the conspiracy isn’t anywhere near as crazy as you might think.
Getting in on things: According to statistic recruiters, over 72% of men and 49% of women from ages 18 to 29 will become gamers in some capacity by 2020. The U.S. Army hopes to get in on this statistic by appealing to the likes of every-day people.
This is likely one of the few esports teams out there that has to regularly work out.
A report was recently released from the University of Chichester that examined psychological challenges faced by professional esports players when competing in major contests. They interviewed CS:GO players primarily and found more than 50 different stress factors. This includes communication problems and competing in front of live audiences, essentially the same things pro athletes in soccer and rugby found issue with.
Coping methods: The report went on to further recommend solutions to help in coping with these stressors. This included giving psychological training to learn coping techniques to prepare for pressures of competing at the professional level.
I hear imagining the audience naked helps.
The first-ever ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore World Pro Invitational is to take place December 20 to 22. It will happen in the Singapore Indoor Stadium and will feature 12 teams facing off for the chance at winning the biggest stake of the $500,000 prize pool.
Who’s who: One team attending includes TNC Predator. Of the teams participating, nine were at the past International. They’ll even have the best cosplayers around to perform, including Redemption Props (who won the TI9 Best in Show award if anyone doesn’t know).
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Valve has decided to address the topic of conflicts of interest with Major-attending teams. In September, Valve posted a blog article called “Keeping Things Competitive,” where they shared their opinions on somewhat controversial subjects like media rights exclusivity. They also mentioned conflicts of interest and stated their intention to enforce teams participating in Majors to declare any business relations that could be considered a conflict.
What constitutes conflict: “We consider a conflict of interest to be any case where a tournament, team, or player has a financial relationship with any other participating team or its players.”
Keeping things see-through: Valve essentially wants to prevent a team having a relationship with a tournament organizer. For example, there’s the previous relationship between Astralis and BLAST Pro Series. While such relationships may not facilitate cheating or malpractice, it does generate some distrust for many in the industry.
Now is a good time to hide those Mary Kay side businesses.
Many colleges are only just now jumping on the esports industry bandwagon when it comes to putting together esports programs to attract students. But the acceptance of esports in the high school scene is the starting point for many budding esports players. An increasing number of schools now have esports programs and scholarships which are further paving the way for acceptance of esports athletes.
Scholarships everywhere: More than 200 universities in the United States offer esports scholarships totaling more than $16 million in value. But in order to compete for such scholarships, students are finding the need to participate in high school level esports. In 2018, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) partnered with PlayVS, an esports startup to help the Association’s 19,000 members set up high school level esport programs.
Brain benefits: Educators often use video games to help students develop real-life skills. Research proves that video games help improve problem-solving, spatial, and hand-eye coordination, as well as increasing creativity. And an NCES report indicated that students with higher extra-curricular participation performed better in math and reading assessments.
I knew all those years of video games would pay off. Who’s cool now, Matt from 10th grade P.E.?! Okay, still not me…
Intel has dominated the CPU market for more than a decade. However, AMD has shouldered its way to the table by stealing market share as it moves into the esports industry. Esports players and tournaments alike need powerful processors for their gaming machines, and AMD’s Ryzen CPU and Radeon RX graphic cards seem to be scratching that itch.
Strategery: AMD has also partnered with esports organization Fnatic for the last three years. It likewise has close partnerships with Evil Geniuses, whose players participate in Call of Duty, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Fortnite tournaments, just to name a few.
Two can play that game: Intel too has its sights on esports. They will be hosting an Olympics-sanctioned esports tournament in 2020 in Tokyo during the buildup to the actual Olympics.
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