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Esports comedy show in the works. Let’s see if it can break viewership records for Fortnite’s black hole. Read more below.

Esports comedy in the works with Big Bang Theory star

NBC is reportedly in the works on a comedy TV series centered on the esports industry, to be titled “The Squad.” Johnny Galecki (Leonard of The Big Bang Theory) will star in this upcoming series. The show is to also be written by Big Bang Theory writer Anthony Del Broccolo.

Other details surrounding additional cast members have yet to be revealed.

An in-game black hole hits record viewership on YouTube and Twitter

Prior to the launch of Fortnite’s Chapter 2, a two-day long black hole took place. Titled simply, “The End,” this was intended as a send-off to the game’s longstanding world map. Viewership figures were released and indicated that many records have been broken just from this one event.

Online records: On Twitter, Epic indicated this was the “most viewed gaming event on Twitter, with 50.7 million minutes watched and 42.8 million views,” which peaked at 1.4 million concurrent viewers. On YouTube, viewership hit an incredible level of 4.3 million concurrent iewers.

In-game records: Figures for the amount of watchers spectating from in-game have yet to be released.

League of Legends: Wild Rift’s beta may be happening sooner than expected

For those of you excited about League of Legends: Wild Rift for mobile and console devices, the beta may be happening sooner than expected. The official website originally stated alphas and betas would be rolled out “through the end of the year.” But now it says, “We are going to run limited alphas and betas in select countries starting soon.”

Access incoming: Some speculation indicates that the beta will arrive in November in China. Select individuals may receive access to the game sooner than when the game becomes available for an entire region. Whatever the case, make sure you’re pre-registered for the game on the Google Play store. No news on an iOS pre-registration still, so you can sign up for beta invites from the official website.

Other Biz

Tourneys

Call of Duty: Mobile to have its first tournament

After having just released on October 1st, Call of Duty: Mobile is already set to have its first tournament. This tournament is hosted by Garena (its southeast Asian publisher), open to Thailand players only, and will offer a $6,000 prize pool. Registrations are open until October 29th with the tournament’s schedule to be announced on October 31st.

Other Tourney News

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Game On

Legends of Runeterra attempts new strategies for free-to-play model

One of the many projects announced by Riot Games last week was Legends of Runeterra, a collectible cards game (CCG) that’s been in the works for close to a decade. Given the success of Hearthstone, it isn’t a terribly surprising move.

What is surprising, however, is the model they’ve chosen to adopt in making this game truly free-to-play: getting rid of booster packs. While this is a divisive strategy, given the popularity of pack-opening videos, Riot thinks they’ve done a “good job of mixing it up.”

Some high-level details

  • The closest comparison to Legends of Runeterra is Valve’s Artifact–not Hearthstone.
  • Rather than using booster packs, Riot implemented a weekly content drop that gives random items with qualities based on how much XP a player has gained or how much time they put in that week.
  • Players may use real money to buy “Wild Cards,” which may be redeemed for any card in the game. There is currently a weekly limit on the number of Wild Cards that may be bought, so as to preserve the balance of the game.

Other Game News

  • 2019’s Fortnitemares is starting October 29 for those of you too old to go trick or treating.
  • With the release of Fortnite Chaper 2, Season 1, they’re kicking things off with a brand new bundle known as The Final Reckoning Pack
  • Shroud announces move from Twitch to Mixer, joining the 2018 most-watched streamer Ninja.

There is no “I” in team

Seoul Dynasty makes an impressive grab at two former world champs

Seoul Dynasty has pulled off an impressive transfer by picking up two former world championship players at once. After spending two years with the London Spitfire, Joon-yeong “Profit” Park and Jae-hee “Gesture” Hong are now making the move to Seoul Dynasty.

Switching things up: This comes after a mediocre 2019 season for London Spitfire, where rumors now fly that they may opt for a more Western roster lineup come January.

Misfits Gaming hires yet another executive

This latest addition to the Misfits Gaming brand is Matt Bailey, who will fill the role of senior director of sponsorship sales and services. He is the group’s first senior commercial team hire in Europe and will help in looking for partners to grow the Misfits brand and add value to fans.

Some context

  • Bailey most recently worked as chief commercial officer for UK-based InCrowd Sports.
  • This is the third executive hire since July, but the first senior commercial hire in Europe.

Other Team News

Immortals Gaming Club announces OpTic Gaming Los Angeles brand for the upcoming Call of Duty League.

Here’s the “I”

A tale of two top laners at Worlds

Both TheShy and Nuguri are perceived as the best in the business at their role (top lane). They also happen to come from South Korea and were born the same year. Their play styles, however, couldn’t be more different. Nuguri is a gambler, by nature. TheShy argues that his talent exists as more than just fast fingers and mouse precision.

A rivalry is born: When both faced off at League of Legends Worlds 2019, we saw first-hand the different play styles that each adopts. The two repeatedly faced off on one another with TheShy taking down Nuguri again and again. But despite this dominance, it ultimately wasn’t enough to win the battle though, as DAMWON Gaming finally took the match’s win over Invictus Gaming.

Blizzcon

Schedule available for BlizzCon 2019

This year’s BlizzCon is finally upon us, taking place November 1-2. You’ll be able to catch multiple panel discussions, presentations on upcoming game updates, and watch the global tournaments for StarCraft, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch. All of the events taking place may be seen from their official schedule.

To attend remotely: For those of you wanting to watch events via livestream, you may purchase a Virtual Ticket for $50. In addition to getting access to video streams of events, you’ll also receive in-game items for World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and StarCraft II, to name a few.

Tournament summaries

  • The Overwatch World Cup preliminaries take place October 31, with Finals on November 1.
  • World of Warcraft lower matches start November 1 at 1:15pm. The Upper Final is on November 2 at 1:30pm, followed by the Lower Quarterfinals, Semifinal, and Final.
  • Initial matches for the Hearthstone Global Finals start on November 1 at 1:15pm. The Semifinals start on November 2 at 1:45pm.
  • StarCraft’s WCS Global Finals start with the Quarterfinal at 1:00pm on November 1. The Grand Finals start at 8:30pm.