Image via Daily Esports

/CS:GO PLAYER SENTENCED TO 116 YEARS IN PRISON

Shayene “shAy” Victorio, a Brazilian CS:GO player, has officially been sentenced to 116 years in prison. Her charges? Embezzlement and larceny. She is a retired professional player with an 11-year career competing in CS:GO and Counter-Strike 1.6. Her most recent stint was with the Keyd Stars Female, an all-female team for esports organization Keyd Stars.

The charges in question:According to ESPN Brazil, shAy was found guilty of embezzlement and larceny. Purportedly, shAy and a former partner ran an online retail business between the years 2013 and 2017. After an investigation led by the Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime (GAECO), it was determined that bank statements and tax information from the company revealed that the company failed to provide customer goods to more than 115 victims.

What she said: According to shAy’s lawyer, her father and a former partner (ex-husband) owned the company, which makes her guilt and involvement indirect at best. Basically it was not shAy that failed to deliver said products to paying customers, but those individuals that actually ran the business directly. As a result, shAy is appealing the sentence because they find the ruling “absurd.” Until the appeal is overturned, she will not be arrested and taken to jail. And even if overturned, the maximum time shAy can expect to serve in the Brazilian justice system is 30 years, regardless of the original sentencing.

Talk about keeping a business honest.

/OVERWATCH LEAGUE’S INTERNATIONAL ORG STRUCTURE BEING TESTED

The third season of Overwatch League kicked off in February, an esports competition with 20 franchised teams representing cities around the world. Competitions will be hosted continuously throughout North America, Europe, China, and South Korea over the course of its seven-month season. And so far things have been going quite well with thousands of fans attending sold-out events in New York City and Dallas, with hundreds of thousands also tuning in online to watch.

How things have gone international: This year is different from previous years in that before, traveling only occurred when going to Blizzard’s Burbank, California studio for competitions. Now teams are expected to regularly travel to franchise locations where local fans can easily show up and watch matches between competitors. This is something many teams have been preparing and waiting for over the first two seasons of the League.

One team’s efforts: In an interview with Business Insider, Excelsior cofounder Rohit Grupta said, “We’ve been bringing our team into the market to do meet-and-greets with our fans. We’ve been supporting the collegiate [esports] circuit as well as the high school circuit. Those are just are some of the ways we we’ve been engaging the local community specifically around Overwatch.” Now teams have an event better chance to connect with local fans and build up the community around a game that is as entertaining to watch as it is to play.

How the League has turned profitable: In January, Activision announced a deal with Google to bring Overwatch League and other esports offerings exclusively to YouTube. The deal was valued at $160 million over three years, with additional incentives for viewership goals and ad sales. Before this deal, Twitch was the OWL’s primary broadcast partner and brought in 1.12 million average viewers during 2019, an increase of 16% over the previous year.

A positive outlook: The League is already facing hurdles with rescheduling numerous canceled matches planned for China and South Korea due to the Coronavirus outbreak. But still, the League has created a firm foundation for its future with thousands of fans turning out for live events, online viewership showing significant growth, and this multi-year deal with YouTube.

/VERITAS RAISES $10 MILLION TO OPEN AN ESPORTS ARENA IN BERLIN

VERITAS Entertainment is now set to open LVL, a 26,000 sq. ft. gaming and esports community center in Berlin. This comes on the heels of a funding round that raised more than $10 million. LVL is set to officially open to the public on March 26, and is expected to welcome at least 250,000 visitors per year, in addition to hosting 130 live events annually.

The layout of the facility: The ground floor features console, arcade, and VR gaming stations, alongside a merchandise shop. It is also set to serve as the new central venue and training ground for team organization G2 Esports, with players in League of Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, and other games. This should allow them to bootcamp, create content, and interact with fans. The facility will also house a burger restaurant and cafe in addition to a dedicated esports arena. Live esports events will provide players with white-noise blasting headphones, boxed soundproof booths, a noise-canceling dome structure, bar, cinema area, and LAN-zone with 50 gaming PCs.

Investment stuff: The $10 million funding round had participations from BITKRAFT Esports Ventures in addition to other angel investors. Exact investment amounts were undisclosed. The capital primarily funded the construction and operation of VERITAS’ first Berlin facility, but will also be used for exploration into other markets.

The facility is located in Checkpoint Charlie, a former border crossing between East and West Berlin, which has become one of the city’s most-visited tourist attractions.

We just had our latest MAINGEAR gaming backpack giveaway drawing! The lucky winner is Robert from Union, NJ. Congrats for winning and we’re grateful for everyone’s support!

Sad you missed out? Don’t worry. We’re doing more drawings every Tuesday! So if you aren’t a previous winner, you’ve already been thrown back into the drawing for our next backpack giveaway. Stay strong, your time will come!

Image via StreamHatchet

/STREAMHATCHET’S 2019 LIVE STREAMING REPORT

The latest streaming report is out courtesy of StreamHatchet. Streaming trends between Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, and Facebook are analyzed, compared, and quantified in this 20+ page report. According to their findings, there are a number of specific behaviors to take note of among streaming viewership trends.

Summary of the report

  • YouTube is viewed as the destination of choice for videos on demand (VOD), while also becoming a more dominating choice among gamers in the livestreaming space. The service already dominates as a repository for VODs, which makes its encroachment into the livestreaming space a sensible move.
  • Facebook is focusing efforts as a destination for mobile streaming, while letting the other contenders fight over PC viewership. Their top three streamed games are mobile titles and two of their top three streamers are PUBG mobile streamers.
  • Even though Mixer stole two of Twitch’s top streamers (Shroud and Ninja), Mixer’s total hours have actually decreased. This acts as a testament to viewership loyalty when it comes to Twitch.
  • Fortnite is the most-streamed game on the market, regardless of how individual streamers’ ranking change. This game has garnered a very loyal following, similar to titles like CS:GO and League of Legends.
  • League of Legends viewership remains the most consistent when it comes to casual, league, and tournament viewership.
  • PUBG Mobile is viewed as one title that will become extremely successful in the future. More publishers are moving to support mobile projects, whether its new titles or remakes of popular PC/console games. Continued momentum in this sector will only lead to increased viewership on mobile game livestreaming.
  • League of Legends and Fortnite have both gained in popularity differently. League of Legends puts forward high-quality tournaments to keep the game popular, whereas Fortnite allows streamers to become content creators to establish a more viral aspect to the game.
  • Of the top 10 most-watched games, only one is mobile. More mobile titles are expected to break into the top 10 over 2020.

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/FAKER REACHES 2,000 KILLS IN LCK

A new record has been broken in the League of Legends scene. Living legend, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has reached 2,000 kills in the LCK competition. This comes after years of work and fierce competition, so it’s no achievement to be taken lightly. It was finally during T1’s match against Afreeca Freecs in the 2020 League of Legends Champions Korea Spring Split when Faker successfully made 12 kills that tallied his total up to 2,000. This makes him the first-ever player in LCK history to reach 2,000 kills.

A little history: This nigh-unkillable fighting machine has been a part of SK Telecom T1 since 2013, and has created countless highlights in various competitions. He’s won the LCK championship eight times, the World Championship three times, and is among the most decorated of League of Legends players ever seen. Recently, Faker re-signed with T1 on a three-year contract that goes until 2022, which also makes him a part-owner of the team. Now that his 2,000th kill is down, he’s still obviously got more things he wants to achieve.

This kind of blows my laziness records out of the water.

Congratulations again to Robert from Union, NJ for winning our backpack drawing!


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