01.16.24 - Esports Weekly Digest

?? Esports Weekly Digest - News Recap: 01.01.24 - 01.16.24

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?? Partnerships and Collaborations:

FanDuel Sportsbook partnered with gaming and lifestyle organization OpTic Gaming to become the official sportsbook partner. To launch the partnership, top personalities on OpTic Gaming, including Seth “Scump” Abner and Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez are promoting an activation on social channels where customers who sign up and bet $20 USD can get a free OpTic jersey. To date, this is FanDuel’s first partnership with any esports organization and its second major marketing play in gaming (worked with creators TimTheTatman and Dr. Disrespect in 2023 for a CSGO challenge stream/video). (Source)

League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) Partnerships and renewals:

• Gaming monitor sub-brand LG电子 UltraGear has renewed its partnership for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. LG UltraGear will sponsor in-game replays on broadcast and provide players with its monitors. (Source)
• Kia Europe will continue as an Official Main Partner of LEC for three more years (partner for last 5 years). Kia’s brand will gain visibility during LEC countdowns and breaks throughout the broadcast. Other branding assets include LEC awards (Player of the Game, All-Pro Team and the 2024 Season MVP) and being the presenting partner of the trophy ceremony at 2024 LEC Season Finals. (Source)
• 雀巢 -owned chocolate brand KitKat extrended its partnership with the LEC, EMEA Masters, and EMEA Regional Leagues for an additional three years (partner since 2020). The renewed collaboration includes branding elements during technical pauses and champion selection, providing visibility for KitKat in major Europe-focused League of Legends esports events and 13 national leagues. (Source)

Riot Games announced a global partnership with HP gaming brands OMEN and HyperX . As an official technology partner for Riot Games, OMEN and HyperX will provide its hardware and technology expertise to power Riot’s global events for LoL Esports, the VALORANT Champions Tour, and TFT Esports. (Source)

Astralis announced a multi-year partnership with Red Bull that will extend across all of Astralis' Counter-Strike teams, digital channels, and the team's new gaming center, Astralis Nexus. Red Bull branding will be featured on all Astralis player jerseys, including the upcoming Counter-Strike Major in Copenhagen's Royal Arena, with further rollout of the partnership planned in the coming months. (Source)

100 Thieves has revealed its official 2024 jersey and its a collaboration with 阿迪达斯 Originals. 100 Thieves has become renowned in gaming for their street wear apparel lines and this is their first collaboration with Adidas. 100 Thieves COO John Robinson stated their excited for what’s to come later this year in reference to the new jersey collaboration announcement, according to Dexerto. (Source)

Esports cryptocurrency betting platform Thunderpick announced a partnership with women-focused esports community platform the*gamehers . The collaboration includes various activations, such as a partnership launch event during Super Bowl week in Vegas, a weekly streaming segment on the Pink Pixels show, and a Pro-Am tournament. (Source)

Indian esports organization Revenant Esports has secured AMD as the title sponsor for its 2024 esports season, with AMD supplying processors for the organization's PC gaming rosters. Additionally, AMD's branding will prominently appear on Revenant Esports' jerseys throughout the season. (Source)

The 美国科罗拉多大学博尔德分校 and Dell Technologies are collaborating to launch the Alienware Buffalo Esports and Gaming Lounge on campus, set to open on January 25, 2024. As the first Alienware lounge in Colorado and the second in the nation, the facility will provide CU Boulder students with state-of-the-art gaming systems, offering a unique and immersive space for both novice and expert gamers, esports enthusiasts, and athletes to hone their skills. CU has both competitive and club-based rosters playing a number of gaming titles. (Source)

?? Org News:

Live streaming platform Twitch is laying off more than 500 employees, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy announced, reportedly accounting for around 35% of its staff. He stated during a community chat hosted on Twitch that they “aren’t profitable at this point.” (Source)

Discord CEO Jason Citron announced the company is laying off 17% of its staff, stating that the messaging platform grew headcount too quickly over the past few years. According to The Verge, the company has yet to become profitable and is still trying to revive user growth after a surge during the pandemic. (Source)

Canada-based OverActive Media , owners of Call of Duty League franchise Toronto Ultra, are set to expand their reach into the EMEA markets by acquiring KOI and Movistar eSports Riders. OverActive will now operate the slot in the VALORANT Champions Tour EMEA League previously operated by KOI, as well as enter into service agreements with top-tier global influencer Ibai Llanos and former professional footballer and entrepreneur Gerard Piqué as a result of acquiring KOI’s esports related assets, agreements, licenses, intellectual property, and social media profiles. OverActive Media executed a letter of intent to acquire both esports organizations on January 4th. (Source)

Asian esports organization TALON has joined the PUBG Corporation Mobile Super League – Southeast Asia as the latest partner team for the 2024 season. TALON, known for its success in various games including League of Legends, Rainbow Six: Siege, VALORANT, Pokemon UNITE, and Arena of Valor, will be one of the 20 teams competing in the regular season with the opportunity to qualify for the PUBG Mobile Global Championship. (Source)

?? Web3 News:

bubly Sparkling Water ( 百事 ) has launched a mini-game called 'Paint the town bubly' with Roblox ’s Pixel Playground game called “GAMESHOW”. In this virtual experience, visitors morph into the brand's bubly can and roll around to "paint the town" the color of their can. As part of the campaign, bubly is also giving away a limited number of free UGC head accessories featuring the bubly lime can. In partnership with software development company Flaunt, PepsiCo is also launching the “Avatar Adventure Sweepstakes,” a limited-time giveaway in support of PepsiCo’s first launch on Roblox. (Source)

The National Basketball Association (NBA) in partnership with Saber Interactive launched NBA Playground on Roblox . NBA Playgrounds is a preexisting game that is being remade on Roblox in which users can play 2-on-2 or 1-on-1 basketball challenges in settings inspired by real public courts. Players can unlock customized characters and earn card packs that come with rewards like experience, item boosts, outfits, or new avatars. There’s also NBA-licensed gear in the experience, allowing players to rep their favorite teams. (Source)

??? League/Publisher News:

Tournament platform FACEIT Ltd announced it will be the new home for the Challenger & Elite Qualifiers competition for the upcoming 2024 Call of Duty Challengers Season. The tournaments will not utilize the full FACEIT technology as the platform doesn’t have a deeper integration within the game that it does with other game titles. Thus, the tournament experience won’t be supported by the FACEIT Anti-Cheat system. (Source)

BLAST has announced a multi-year deal and collaboration with Epic Games to run their competitive tournaments for the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) and Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), starting in 2024. BLAST will run all operations of competitions, event production, and marketing of the RLCS and FNCS. BLAST will also be responsible for the commercial rights of both games’ competitive broadcasts and events, a first for the FNCS. ? The announcement is an expansion of BLAST’s previous partnership with Competitive Fortnite, where the esports entertainment company delivered a number of FNCS events across the last three years. (Source)

?? Insight of the week:

2 weekends ago, Valve corporation ’s online video game marketplace Steam reached a record breaking 33,675,229 concurrent users. 10,837,140 players were logged into games during that time, breaking another Steam record. Below is a breakdown of the top games played: (Source)

• Counter-Strike 2 was the top game played, with a 24-hour peak of 1.2 million concurrent players, and Dota 2 in second place, with over 730,000 players logging in today.
• Another top performer was PUBG: Battlegrounds with over half a million players jumping in at its peak this weekend.
• Maybe a surprise to some, Baldur's Gate 3 was in the top 4 of games played with almost 300,000 concurrent players, a game that has remained popular since its record-smashing debut last year.??
• The rest of the top ten included: indie horror Lethal Company, hero shooter Team Fortress 2, crime epic GTA V, multiplayer survival mainstay Rust, and Call of Duty - all of which passed 140,000 concurrent players over the first weekend of January.

It makes sense that it reached peak numbers around this time considering some are diving into their new holiday gifts and the school/work break going on.