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In truth, eSports cities are just as likely to combine internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology as it progresses, but the first entire eSports town has already opened in Hangzhou, China.

After a $280 million investment by the Hangzhou government the eSports town, operated by the government and covering over three million square feet has now open to the public.

It’s the largest project of its kind in China to date but Hangzhou has also promised a further $1.26 billion to 14 further eSports projects including an eSports training academy and a hospital focusing on eSports players.

The town will be home to Allied Esports and LGD Gaming and the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) in China. The two firms agreed a partnership earlier this year to build their specialist venue and the LGD Gaming management team will be moving to the eSports town. LGD’s eSports team has already won over $10 million in prizes and are rated 4^th in the world globally.

Allied eSports also has venues in Tianjin, Shenzhen, and Beijing, as well as the HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas.

The Hangzhou government expects the new high-tech town to attract more than 10,000 eSports professionals and players as well as $140 million in estimated tax revenues.

Hangzhou will also play host to the 2022 Asian Games, likely to include eSports as a medal event alongside traditional sports for the first time.

eSports at the Olympics

The International Olympic Committee approved eSports as a real sport in November 2017, and it emerged in April 2018 that the Paris 2024 Olympics’ organizers were discussing the inclusion of eSports as a demonstration event for 2024.

The biggest concern over the inclusion of eSports in such as massive event as the Olympics is the potential promotion of violence. Most of the popular eSports titles do involve in-character fighting, killing, and aggression.

Paris too hopes to become an eSports hub for Europe. International Esports Federation acting secretary general Leopold Chung speaking in April also said:

“There are great engagement numbers, great fan numbers who live in France and especially in Paris, who would definitely want to come to an esports game.”

Largest Arena in North America

This weekend also sees the opening of the eSports Stadium Arlington, Texas, U.S, now the largest eSports facility in North America. The 100,000 square foot stadium is owned by the city of Arlington and cost $10 million to build at the Arlington Convention Center.

 

The site will be managed by NGAGE eSports, part of Infinite Esports & Entertainment. NGAGE founder Jonathon Oudthone said:

“Maybe we’ll take over the old [Texas] Rangers stadium one day.”

The stadium will see 30-50 eSports events per year with the eSports team from the University of Texas at Arlington, one of the top U.S college teams having its own room in the arena. The facility will also be open to the public daily for gamers to play on dedicated computers in the lobby.

California is also home to a number of key eSports destinations including in Los Angeles, there is a dedicated eSports arena planned for Orange County, and the state is home to Riot Games and Blizzard. The University of Southern California last week announced the launch of the USC Esports Union.

Elsewhere around the globe Seoul, South Korea, is home to a dedicated eSports stadium at iPark Mall and Sangam Stadium hosted the League of Legends World Championships. The latter event in 2014 saw 45,000 attendees.

Cologne in Germany hosts many tournaments and is one of the biggest sites for League of Legends events. Stockholm, Sweden, also hosts many events including the world’s largest LAN occasion, Dreamhack.

The global market for blockchain technology is predicted to reach $2.3 billion by 2021. For IoT the predicted value by 2021 is $1.1 trillion. For artificial intelligence, the market value could reach $3.3 billion by 2021.

The predicted value of the eSports industry, is an estimated $1.65 billion for 2021 with an estimated audience of 427 million consumers by 2019. eSports is already here, and although it will incorporate today’s emerging technologies, gaming technology is ready. With a focus on the consumer market, eSports towns and even cities for fans and players are already appearing.

The University of Southern California (USC) has announced the launch of the USC Esports Union (ESU), its official collegiate Esports program, during the USC Conquest Event, Variety reports.

The Conquest Event is held yearly as a means of celebrating the cross-town rivalry between the USC and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The event is slated to take place right before the football game between the UCLA Bruins and the USC Trojans on Saturday, November 16, 2018.

Danny Bilson and Elizabeth Daley, the Dean of USC Cinematic Arts and Chair of the Interactive Media & Games Division at the USC commented on the launch of the ESU.

According to both lecturers, the ESU will be focused on individual video games with a large following for a start. The end goal is to make gaming a part of the student’s consciousness. Publishers will sponsor teams and clubs to be developed at the ESU; the university will also organize events and provide the resources and staff to bring these events to life.

The USC Esports Union Isn’t Only About Games

The initiative won’t just be about actual game playing. It will also come with a special curriculum that includes design courses, as well as marketing, promotion, management, and other integral aspects of the general business of Esports.

The school will organize and send students out to conferences, where meaningful discussions around the promotion of diversity within the gaming industry will be discussed.

The ESU has chosen “League of Legends” as its inaugural title, due to the involvement of Riot Games founder and USC alumni Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck.

To participate, USC gamers will be expected to practice playing “League of Legends” four times a week, with each session lasting no less than three hours.

The USC Games is a design program for gaming offered by the University of Southern California, and Princeton Review rates it as one of the top gaming programs in the country.

Featured image from LA Times.

Forbes this week released its Forbes 30 Under 30 lists, the “Games” list for 2019 includes five eSports pro-gamers, a YouTuber, and a Twitch streamer, versus just two players and one eSports streamer last year.

Here are the eight eSports celebrities to make the Forbes Under 30 Games list for 2019, marking the increasing popularity of the eSports industry. Let’s take a look at them here.

1. Jason Zimmerman – Professional Gamer

Zimmerman has won multiple world championship titles playing Super Smash Bros Melee under his gamer name “Mew2King,” or “M2K.” At 29, he’s also the co-owner of Most Valuable Gaming. The US-born Zimmerman is known as one of the “Five Gods” of Super Smash Bros Melee and his methodical style of play also earned him the nickname “The Robot.”

Zimmerman began competing at the age of 16, in 2005 and joined professional eSports team Echo Fox, founded by ex L.A Laker Rick Fox, in 2016. He recently finished first in Melee singles at the Smash Summit 6 in May 2018 and is still a full-time player who also streams on Twitch.

Most Valuable Gaming (MVG), of which Zimmerman owns 10% as well as playing for them, organizes games events and manages players.

2. Jacky Yip – Professional Gamer

American Jacky, or Jake, Yip plays Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the Brazil-based eSports team MIBR. The team is made of players from both Brazil and around the world. Yip, or “Stewie2K,” aged 20, previously played for Cloud9. Cloud9 is the highest valued eSports team and company at $310 million.

Despite only competing since 2014, Yip is regarded as one of the best players in North America. His last big prize win of 2018 was for placing 1^st in the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 where he won $200,000 but he also won the ELEAGUE Major in Boston in January 2018, netting the young player $500,000. In total Yip has won over $1 million worth of eSports tournament prizes since 2016.

3. Aileena Xu – President of eSports for TSM

At 25, Xu leads eSports initiatives for the most successful North American League of Legends Team SoloMid (TSM).

Just after Cloud9, TSM is the second highest valued eSports team worth an estimated $250 million and is one of the best-known eSports brands.

In October 2018, TSM also signed their first female Fortnite player Maria “ChicaLive” Lopez who said:

“I have a deep respect and admiration for the individual members of TSM as well as the organization.”

4. Lauren Williams – Professional Gamer

Williams, aged 22, plays under the gaming name “Goddess” and is team captain for Cloud9’s Rainbow Six Siege team and is the first female professional gamer in the Rainbow Six Siege Pro League.

Her tournament wins date from July 2017, and she began competing for Cloud9 in July 2018. The team was placed first at DreamHack Montreal in July winning $25,000. Cloud9 tweeted to Williams on her success at making the Forbes 30 Under 30 Games list:

“Look who made it on the @Forbes 30 under 30: Games list! Congratulations @Goddess_R6! We can’t wait to see what’s to come in 2019!”

5. Yiliang Peng – Professional Gamer – Team Liquid

Peng, or “Doublelift,” is billed as one of the best American players of League of Legends. He plays as the marksman in the Team Liquid League of Legends squad. Peng has now won five North American championships and has over 500,000 YouTube, and 800,000 Twitter fans. He’s 25 and lives in California.

Peng’s professional gaming career began in 2011, he joined TSM in 2016, then Team Liquid in 2017. His team winnings for 2018 total over $300,000 to date.

Team Liquid is now the most successful eSports team in the world.

6. Sam Braithwaite – Senior Global eSports Franchise Lead

Braithwaite, just making the list at age 29, heads eSports for Blizzard and was part of two of Blizzard’s biggest eSports initiatives.

The first, a 2017 partnership with Disney brought 56 episodes of the Heroes Global Championship to mainstream TV. The second was a multimillion-dollar Twitch broadcast rights deal.

Blizzard is both a game developer and publisher, hosting a number of global conventions and behind games like World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft.

7. Tyler Blevins “Ninja” – Twitch Streamer

Blevins, known to fans as “Ninja” is one of the most popular faces in eSports. He has 12 million followers on Twitch and broke the platform’s record for the most concurrent viewers for a single user with 600,000 people watching.

He won 1^st place at Epic Games first official Fortnite Tournament earning him a lucrative sponsorship with Red Bull.

Blevins earns more from streaming than he does from playing and winning tournaments and has reportedly earned nearly $6 million to date. Fortnite’s five top players have won a combined $1.2 million so far but are each set to win around $1 million each in Fortnite’s tournaments this season.

8. Alastair Aiken – Fortnite YouTuber

Aiken, aged 25 and from the UK, alias “Ali-A,” is one of the most popular YouTube content creators for Fortnite with a massive 15 million subscribers and 5 billion views on YouTube. He’s won two Guinness World Records for subscribers and has his own CBBC car show titled “Ali-A’s Superchargers.”

Aiken lives in London and is worth an estimated $4 million.

The media production side of eSports is as valuable as the eSports gaming industry itself. The estimated eSports audience is likely to top 427 million in 2019 and eSports revenues for 2018 will likely reach $906 billion up 38% on last year.

eSports players, promoters, and influencers are likely to make up more and more of the Forbes Under 30 in future years as the gaming generation build an industry that is beginning to rival traditional sports.

Image credits from Forbes. Featured image from Shutterstock.

In a bid to become the first fan-owned team, Australian based esports team Order has floated an equity crowdfunding campaign to members of the public, according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR).

The team had been planning the campaign, which was approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, for the first quarter of 2019.

Order is offering 577,407 shares at an issue price of $1.74 per share for its seed fund investment, and it hopes to raise $100,000 minimum to a $1,000,000 maximum. At press time, it had been 246% oversubscribed leading to a total of $246,925.14 invested so far.

Jake Tiberi, who is a founder of Order, was quoted in the report:

“A lot of the messages that [Gerard] had around improving players, ensuring we’re investing in their future, trying to create longevity and jobs for them was the kind of professionalism the industry needed.”

Order is owned by Gerard Murphy, the Leading Teams co-founder, and Jake ‘Spawn’ Tiberi, the team’s General Manager and co-founder. Last year, the team joined the League of Legends Oceanic Pro League.

Sitting on Order’s board, is former Hitwise boss, Adrian Giles, as the chairman of Order and he credits the:

“timing of the legalization of crowdfunding”

as being key to their choice of this capital fundraising medium.

Giles was referring to the equity crowdfunding legislation that was passed by the Australian legislative upper house in September, which opened up the funding method to a larger pool of startups.

“The regulations that were put in around crowdfunding removed some of the requirements that normal public companies had around reporting and governance and so on to the nature of earlier stage organizations that were crowdfunded.”

The seed funding raised from the campaign will be used to develop the team, and while the medium used by Order is entirely new in the industry, Giles sees it as being effective. He went further to argue that the success of the industry in the long-term will come down to how quickly it can attract sponsors. He noted:

“Most esports organizations see around 70 percent of their revenue from sponsorship, and we’re predicting that it would sit at a similar number in the future. Endemic brands don’t require as much education, but there are non-endemic brands that we want to be associated with too… So one of the challenges is to continue that education process and hope that our brand and our place within the esports industry resonates.”

Featured image from SportTechie.

Megacity and capital of Shaanxi Province Xi’an has announced plans to build an Esports cluster dedicated to developing the industry, per reports in a local news outlet. The framework was signed between the Dalian Morningstar Network Technology and the Xi’an Economic and Technological Development Zone.

Based on the report, the new location will be used to facilitate esports training for games, as well as a major source for investments into the industry. The local Xi’an development commission will supply the workforce and the real estate needed to build the esports cluster.

It will be contracting Shaanxi Hanyun Real Estate as the general contractor to build it, while mobile hardware gaming company Morningstar Network Technology through its subsidiary Halcyon Network, will run the project and the installation of gaming hardware in the facility.

While the news outlet didn’t offer specifics, we can expect a much bigger space, more substantial than the new arena built in Denver, featuring hundreds of custom-made gaming hardware connected to super-fast internet fiber connections.

Xi’an as an Esports Center

Known for its rich heritage, Xi’an has quickened its pace in the esports industry. In September, it signed an MOU with the World Cyber Games (WCG) to hold the WCG 2019 finals in the city of Xi’an.

China is seen as one of the largest markets for the global esports industry. According to recent data from Newzoo, China currently has 619.5 million players, who are expected to spend $37.9 billion in 2018 alone.

The WCG finals have been held previously in China in 2009, 2012, and 2013. This is the first time they will be held in Xi’an.

At the WCG finals announcement, an official of the Xi’an municipal government stated:

“I am very pleased to announce that Xi’an will partner with WCG to host one of the most successful global esports festivals next year. Xi’an will spare no effort for the success of WCG 2019 finals.”

The popularity of Esports has continued to grow globally. Last year, ESPN signed a multi-year deal to broadcast the Overwatch Esports League on its network of channels including ABC and Disney XD. League of Legends championships were also viewed by a global audience of over 60 million people, way more than the 2017 NBA Finals.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

To boost adoption in the European esports market, a London-based billionaire has floated an investment arm to grow the industry. British billionaire Tej Kohli has allocated €50 million (56 million) to invest in the Esports market in the United Kingdom.

60-year old Tej Kohli, who runs Kohli Ventures, said his latest move into the esports market was inspired by his son, who spends his time watching the North American leagues and playing Fortnite and League of Legends.

Based on a news report, the new fund will be called Rewired GG, a subsidiary of Rewired, a venture backed by Kohli with investments in robotics and AI. The billionaire, who made his mark in the real estate and online software development industry, plans to use the funding to develop individual gamers and games in the esports business. In addition, he’s looking at developing his esports team with the investment.

While Esports has been hugely successful in America and Asia, the market is still largely nascent in Europe. Describing it as a “disruptive innovation” in the world of sports, Kholi went further to enthuse about the sport and how happy he was to drive its growth in Europe.

When asked about the impact Esports could have in the UK, Kohli stated:

“I have seen first-hand through my son the passion many young people have for the sport and the growing professionalism of the teams, players and commercial partnerships. I believe that with the right mentoring and investment, Europe will soon play host to the best players, teams and commercial opportunities in global esports.”

Tej Kohli Will Grow Esports in the UK

In the UK, investors have been dragging their heels where investments in Esports are concerned. Kohli believes the growing celebrity endorsements and the ever increasing number of young consumers will alert UK investors of the opportunity right under their nose.

Sam Cooke, Co-founder at Esports Insider, an industry news outlet that currently advises Rewired GG, hailed the investment from Kohli, noting that he was happy investments in the industry had started to:

“catch up with those already seen in America and across Asia… There is so much European potential in this developing sector, from individual players to whole teams, and the establishment of an investment arm like Rewired GG goes to show that there is now real confidence in this potential.”

Featured image from Flickr.

Min-Liang Tan, CEO of gaming hardware maker and eSports pioneer Razer, invests heavily into eSports both in his native Singapore and in Malaysia.

Recently, Tan has had to defend a $3.3 million investment into Malaysian eSports, over criticism that the billionaire wasn’t doing enough for his own country of Singapore.

Malaysia’s Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng committed the equivalent to $3.3 million to the “Malaysian Digital Economy for eSports” in Malaysia’s 2019 budget speech. Razer, and Tan, followed by also promising $3.3 million to the Malaysian eSports industry.

In a tweet on Friday, November 2, 2018, Tan described the Malaysian budget as progressive, saying he was also committed to bringing eSports to the next level. The next day on Facebook Tan said:

“After my commitment to invest MYR10M into Malaysian esports in 2019, I got a slew of abusive messages saying we don’t do anything for esports in Singapore.”

In his defense, Tan pointed out that Razer sponsors eSports contests in Singapore like Hyperplay, the SEA Majors, and the PVP eSports Championships.

Razer has also sponsored individual athletes like professional Street Fighter player Ho Kun Xian and employs hundreds of staff in Singapore focused on the eSports market. Tan wrote:

“My investment in Malaysian eSports is a good thing for the entire community, and Singaporeans should be happy that the entire region is going to grow in eSports.”

Tan believes that instead of criticism:

“We should be celebrating the fact that we will be seeing the growth of esports in the region and we, at Razer, are committed to spearheading it.”

Asia made up half of the global gaming market by the end of 2017 according to researcher Newzoo.

Min-Liang Tan and Razer

Tan, an entrepreneur from Singapore and colleague Robert Krakoff founded Razer in 2005, now one of the leading brands in gaming device and accessory manufacturing.

Razer went public on the Hong Kong Stock exchange in November 2017. As it did so, Tan became an instant billionaire at the age of 40 with a net worth of $1.6 billion. He also became the youngest self-made Singaporean billionaire.

Tan still oversees the design and development of all Razer products, despite being a lawyer before getting into gaming. In 2015 Tan was named one of the “Top 10 Most Influential Leaders in Tech,” by Juniper Research. He’s also been ranked one of the most powerful people in gaming by Kotaku.

Ex-competitive gamer Tan, speaking to Bloomberg in October 2018, described the growth of eSports as “explosive” and “exponential” in both American and Asian markets.

The top ten eSports teams are worth a combined $1.5 billion and the eSports market as a whole should reach revenue of over $900 billion in 2018.

Featured image from Twitter.

Free mobile application Taunt lets users play, win, and interact with friends while watching their favorite eSports competitions.

The Taunt application launched officially on Friday on iOS and Android in the US and Canada. It’s designed to enhance the eSports viewing experience for fans, in a market that’s growing exponentially.

Like similar applications for traditional sports, it allows fans to interact socially and make predictions about game-play and outcomes. Jon David, CEO at Taunt says:

“For too long, it’s only been traditional sports fans that have been able to enjoy rich, engaging social interactions while viewing their favorite sports. At Taunt, we believe esports fans deserve exactly the same.”

The fan engagement application is targeted at League of Legends fans, to begin with, and has been released ahead of this weekend’s World Championships. The application streams eSports matches while users interact with and “taunt” other users with challenges and even “flashbulbs” to distract peers. David says:

“Fans are looking for a new way to enhance their gameday experience, and that’s exactly what Taunt delivers.”

Taunt users compete with each other during live eSports matches by supporting their favorite players. Taunt players have their own scoreboards and if the player they back do well the Taunt player earns points. More points are available for challenges and power-ups.

https://twitter.com/PlayTaunt/status/1037031175116615680

Up to now, Taunt was only in closed beta while it gained feedback and made improvements. Now Taunt is ready for anyone to use, beginning with League of Legends matches, and rolling out to other popular eSports games later.

Seattle-based Taunt already has a team of 15 and has raised investment of $3 million, including capital from technology investors Foundry Group.

Foundry Group, led by American entrepreneur Brad Feld, was an early investor in Fitbit and recently raised $750 million itself to invest in early-stage technology startups like Taunt.

eSports is predicted to have an audience 437 million strong by 2019 and an overall industry value of an estimated $906 billion for 2018.

As the industry grows, it’s taking on more and more of the features of traditional sports, with fan engagement applications like the new Taunt, million-dollar teams, and even creating new careers for young eSports coaches.

Featured image from Playtaunt.com

NBA icon Michael Jordan is delving into eSports, as he invests in aXiomatic, Team Liquid’s parent company. His foray into the emerging eSports industry should bring more clout into professional gaming which currently generates over US$325 million worth of revenue.

The six-time NBA champion regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time is the principal owner and chairman of the league’s Charlotte Hornets.

The entertainment and sports management company aXiomatic on Thursday announced the entrant of Michael Jordan and Declaration Capital; the family office of the Executive Chairman of The Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein.

The entrant of these two big players helped aXiomatic in raising $26 million in a Series C funding round according to Forbes.

Michaell Jordan remarked:

“I’m excited to expand my sports equity portfolio through my investment in aXiomatic, eSports is a fast growing, international industry and I’m glad to partner with this great group of investors.”

Team Liquid sold a chunk of its controlling interest to investors under the ownership group aXiomatic in 2016. Profound among these investors is the NBA Hall of Famer and co-owner of the Dodgers, Magic Johnson.

Other hoops stars who have staked investment in esports franchises include Rick Fox, Shaquille O’Neal, and Jonas Jerebko.

An enthusiastic Leonsis told ESPN in a statement:

“The next generation of sports fans are esports fans… Esports is the fastest-growing sector in sports and entertainment, and aXiomatic is at the forefront of the growth.”

Victor “Nazgul” Goossens founded the multi-regional professional esports enterprise, Team Liquid, in 2000 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. It premiered the multi-genre management in 2012 after it recruited a North American Dota2 team.

Its merger with Team Curse in 2015 under the helm of Liquid banner further reinforced its staff strength with the likes of Steve Arhancet, former Curse League of Legends, Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros teams.

The team currently thrives in a number of divisions including Clash Royale, Fortnite, Brawl Stars, Dota 2, and PUBG to mention a few.

Featured image from Sportsnet.ca.