Esports has dished out serious cash. Esports venues are opening worldwide. Legends of Runeterra to launch open beta. Read more.
We’re in the money… or at least a bunch of pro gamers are. BroadbandChoices conducted a study revealing that the total prize winnings given out over the course of recent history for esports tournaments amounted to $700 million. The top five esports by prize total are as follows:
Dota 2 sits at the top due to the crowdfunded International tournament structure; CS:GO comes in a distant second thanks to an open circuit and deep production pockets. Overwatch comes in 7th more so due to the closed tournament ecosystem hosted by Blizzard, outranked by a more liberal (and older) Starcraft II scene. The top five earners in esports are all Dota 2 players:
The industry generated $135 billion in 2018 according to the same study.
Allied Esports, the entertainment company behind the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas, recently announced another property opening in 2020 at the Mall of Georgia. The company is creating an esports venue in the Atlanta metropolitan area to address a perceived lack of resources for an otherwise vibrant Southeastern esports scene.
The 13,000 square foot property will cover two floors, providing production equipment, playing spaces, as well as retail and food/beverage options.
Jud Hannigan said, “We’ve long felt that the gaming and esports communities in the Southeast, especially the greater Atlanta metropolitan area, are vibrant and growing and believe we have a location at Mall of Georgia that will serve as a dynamic hub for esports experiences in the region.”
Do you wax nostalgic for the good ol’ Warcraft 3 days? You can wax off soon enough because Warcraft 3 Reforged is coming out, and Blizzard will be teaming up with ESL to build an esports scene around it. With a $200k prize pool and three years of partnership planned out, it’s clear that the title will see enough activity to sustain interest for some time.
The first ESL Warcraft III Pro Tour season will consist of four top-tier tournaments, three hosted at DreamHack and one separate ESL tournament. The best pro tour players of the tour will compete for the Warcraft III World Championship. Everything will be tracked on the upcoming ESL Pro Tour Ranking.
There will also be smaller prize pool community events (ESL Open Cups) for amateurs to compete in along the way, so start exercising your RTS skills!
Another esports facility will grace the esports world in Lincolnshire, England in just a few weeks. Arcade Warehouse will be the first facility in the region to offer players the ability to play with or against each other in a live setting. Owner Caton Airey started his own tech company, PCSCuk Techonology Centre, selling computers and gadgets in 2012 and will now be expanding to a new venture.
As a native of the area, Airey said that Arcade Warehouse will keep people local: “I have three kids, and whenever we want to go on a family day out we usually find ourselves leaving the town – which is a shame. This is a great town, and we just want to bring something that it doesn’t really have.
Arcade Warehouse will also have retro/arcade games, as well as games for kids.
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CS:GO is starting the year off strong with a peak player count of 804,589 over the last 30 days. This is a big deal, especially given our previous reporting that concurrent Dota 2 player count has been dropping. CS:GO reached its previous concurrent peak in April 2016 with 850,485 players. Counter-Strike has a unique ability over its history to retain interest and an active player base, so at this pace it’s likely that the game will return or surpass the 800k number shortly.
Invictus Gaming announced their 2020 LPL roster with one glaring absence: Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo is no where to be seen. The young AD Carry was a key factor in the team’s success last spring, with his star playmaking getting IG out of a rut and straight into Worlds Semifinals. With this being said, it is curious that the team has replaced him with rookie Ding “Puff” Wang instead.
Rumors have it that JackeyLove will be debuting on team Royal Never Give Up this year — let’s see if he can share the spotlight with both Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao and Lu “Betty” Yu-Hung.
Legends of Runeterra will be finally be available as a PC open beta title on Jan. 24 according to Riot Games. Those who had early access in previous betas can play one day earlier, along with those who pre-register before Jan. 20.
Open beta will feature a ranked season, friends list, challenge-a-friend functionality, and over 20 updated cards.
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