02.06.23 - Esports Weekly Digest

?? Esports Weekly Digest - News Recap: 01.30.23 - 02.06.23

This week again saw some amazing partnerships, collaborations, league news, and more. Below is a list of brands and leagues involved in the space this past week:

Brands: Ally, Herman Miller, Anheuser-Busch Stella Artois, Intuit, Great Clips Inc., Scotiabank, American Honda Motor Company, Inc., and more.

Leagues involved (traditional and esports): Electronic Arts (EA) Apex Legends Global Series, National Hockey League (NHL), National Football League (NFL), Activision Blizzard Call of Duty League, Riot Games Valorant Champions Tour, 343 Industries Halo Championship Series, NBA 2K League, and Psyonix Rocket League Championship Series

To stay up to date with the business of gaming, esports, and emerging marketing trends, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter (It's FREE?)

?? Partnerships, Activations, and Brand News:

American bank holding company?Ally?announced they're an official partner of the?Rocket League?Championship Series in North America (RLCS). Currently, there's no disclosed details regarding how RLCS will bring Ally to life in this partnership. (Source)

Herman Miller?renews its partnership with EA's?Apex Legends?Global Series (ALGS) and more specifically the Playoffs and Championships of ALGS season 3. Although exact details of this new partnership is released, last season saw Herman Miller provide its chairs at events as well as have a sweepstakes for the community. (Source)

Spanish esports organization?Giants Esports Team?has announced a 1-year partnership?with internet and telecom provider?Digi Spain Telecom. As part of the partnership, DIGI’s logo will be on the back of the Giants’ esports teams' jerseys as well as be featured in content with the League of Legends’ LVP Superliga and VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT). (Source)

Game data company?GRID esports?secured a strategic partnership with esports betting data provider?DATA.BET. GRID will provide DATA.BET with official data assets to help improve its offerings to operators and expansion into more events and titles. (Source)

• GRID has partnerships with Riot Games, Pinnacle, Parimatch, Bet365, GG.Bet, and more while DATA.BET has had a presence in Dota 2 The International and PGL Antwerp (CS:GO)

Russian esports organization?Team Spirit?partnered with Russian food delivery service?Yandex Eats?as an official partner of the orgs Dota 2, CS:GO, and Hearthstone divisions. The brand will be included on the team jerseys. (Source)

???Org News:

NBA's?Sacramento Kings?has launched a community esports tournament platform alongside?Rival, an enterprise services company?. Titled “The Realm,” this online community is meant for gamers around the world to connect, compete and engage with the team. (Source)

Formula One team?Oracle?Red Bull?Racing?is partnering with ecommerce technology company?Rokt. Both parties will work together to create greater diversity and inclusion within sim racing by hiring women in different capacities. The aim is to make sim racing a more welcoming space for female gamers. ROKT branding will appear on the liveries and apparel used by the team that will compete in the Porsche Esports Supercup (Source)

Halo Championship Series announced their roadmap for all majors and events that are happening in 2023. Several organizations are hosting events as the league tries to help them grow their business, create content for fans, and allow them to broadcast tournaments: (Source)

• F1 racer Landon Norris-owned?Quadrant?is hosting an online tournament April 22-23
• FaZe Clan?is hosting an online tournament May 12-13
• OpTic Gaming?is hosting the 2nd major in Arlington TX June 30- July 2
• Spacestation Gaming?is hosting the 3rd major in SLC, Utah Aug 4-6

???Metaverse News:

Anheuser-Busch?Stella Artois collaborates with?Electronic Arts (EA)?The Sims 4 in their first collaboration with the gaming world. The collaboration allows players to download and add the brand's advertising campaign for their new natural unfiltered beer product in their virtual world. (Source)

The?National Football League (NFL), Saweetie, and?Intuit?bring the first-ever Super Bowl concert to Roblox. Taking place in Warner Music Group's Rhythm City. The concert will also be paired with a collection of digital items that will be sold on the Roblox marketplace.

• NFL is additionally launching 'Super NFL Tycoon' presented by Intuit on Saturday, February 4. Super NFL Tycoon will allow millions of users to live the fantasy of being an NFL team owner and practice important financial and business skills with Intuit's help. (Source)

Ready Player Me?has launched a new experimental arm called?'Ready Player Me Labs,' an AI-powered avatar creator for that allows users to craft their own avatar outfits. They have a vision to give users more ways to express themselves and be the default provider of digital avatars in the metaverse. (Source)

????Tournament/League News:

The?National Basketball Association (NBA)?2K?League (NBA 2KL) announced that in partnership with?Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the 2023 season will be hosted at the new District E in Washington, D.C. This venue is a 14,000-square-foot live-event theater with immersive experiences that'll go on pre-and-post games.?The league unveiled its complete competition schedule as well, with the season running between Wednesday, March 8 and Saturday, August 5. The NBA 2K League will award $2.5 million in cash prizes across the 2 different series. (Source)

Electronic Arts (EA)?NHL 23?World Championship?announced partners for this years tournament:?Great Clips Inc.,?Scotiabank,?American Honda Motor Company, Inc.?All 3 brands, who are also league partners of the NHL, are renewing their contracts as this year's tournament is rebranded from NHL Gaming World Championship. There's also a $100,000 prize pool with?DreamHack Sports Games?producing the event. (Source)

Psyonix?Rocket League?is honoring Black History Month with three free Bundles?in the Item Shop throughout the month, with each bundle celebrating the work of talented Black artists.?The first artist their highlighting is Geneva Bowers, whose lush artwork blankets the?'Sunniya Decal'. (Read about her story?here)

BLAST?partners with?Challengermode?to become the official platform for the European and Oceanic qualifying process of the BLAST.tv Paris Major in CS:GO. This partnership builds on an existing relationship between the two companies, where BLAST has been using Challengermode’s automated tournament technology for past tournaments such as the North American and Nordic Qualifiers for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown in 2021. (Source)

Riot Games?Valorant unveiled a new way for?VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT)?partner teams to earn additional revenue through the "VCT LOCK//IN capsule." The capsule contains a variety of cosmetic items allowing fans to support regions and teams taking part in the first event of the 2023 season. 50% of net proceeds purchased between February 8th and March 7th will be shared among all VCT partner teams competing in the Americas, Pacific and EMEA regions. (Source)

Respawn Entertainment?and publisher?Electronic Arts (EA)?are shutting down Apex Legends Mobile due to the game falling short of the devs bar for "quality, quantity, and cadence." (Source)

• In other news surrounding Apex Legends Global Series,?TSM?won the Split 1 over this past weekend at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. It was the 3rd-most viewed Apex Legends events of all time with 542,959 peak viewers and an average of 203,011 viewers throughout. (Source)

?? Insight(s) of the week:

Esports Charts?revealed viewership statistics for this past weekends Call of Duty League (CDL) Major 2 at MGM Music Hall in Boston, MA. (Source 1)

This CDL event?was able to reach one of the most-watched events in CoD history as Atlanta FaZe beat LA Thieves 4-2 in the Grand Finals. (Source?2)

• Major 2 reached a peak viewer count of nearly 302,000 between the main stream and watch parties, with a large bulk of viewers coming from recently retired Scump (reached over 100,000 concurrent) as well as ZooMaa.
• Loser’s Semi-Final matchup between LA Thieves and OpTic Texas reached the highest peak concurrent viewers?301,953 peak concurrent viewers,?which is the?third-highest peak viewership recorded?in CDL or CWL history and the?highest?for a non-Call of Duty Championship tournament.
• However, with all of this progress being shown for the league along with watch parties being a resounding success, there's rumors that the league may be transitioning back to YouTube following this major (Source 3)