Event News

With a streaming audience 10% as big as its player count, CS:GO is a hit spectator sport thanks to ex-pros and betting

You don’t need us to tell you that in 2016, streaming is kind of a big deal in certain circles. But did you know that the amount of people watching Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is equal to more than 10% of the people actually playing it? We’re talking upwards of 60,000 …

Read More »

Life is tough on the Counter-Strike pro circuit

On April 2, more than 10,000 people took their seats in Columbus, Ohio’s Nationwide Arena to watch the Major League Gaming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive final match between European powerhouse Natus Vincere and Brazilian upstart Luminosity. Those fans were soon out of their seats, yelling and cheering at the unfolding drama. …

Read More »

Press accreditation now open for Gamescom 2016

Gamescom organiser Koelnmessehas opened press accreditation for this year’s show. This will be open online until two weeks before the event starts on Wednesday, August 17th. More information can be found here. Signing up as a member of the press grants you a press ticket for the Cologne trade show, …

Read More »

Riot bury massive statue of League of Legends champion Nautilus in sea bed to act as artificial reef

What to do if you run the most popular (and financially successful) game in the entire world? Well, either you sell it to Microsoft and start buying houses out from the under the nose of Beyonc, or you get busy building monolithic representations of your characters and coming up with …

Read More »

Player Salaries: Achieving Transparency

Transparency. This is the word that defines the lack of hidden agenda and conditions, accompanied by the availability of full information required for collaboration, cooperation, and collective decision making. It was also the word used by former Ember CEO, Jonathan Pan, when describing the core values of his North American …

Read More »

Territory Report: Spain

With annual games revenues reaching $1.5bn (1.08bn), Spain has become the ninth biggest market worldwide and the fourth in Europe last year, outperforming Italy for the first time, according to research firm Newzoo. The market has grown by eight per cent since 2015 and the beginning of 2016. This is …

Read More »

CS:GO map creator FMPONE talks design, exploits, and updates

Shawn FMPONE” Snelling is a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive level designer and community contributor. Snelling has had five levels in CS:GO, including his most recent project, Santorini, which was included in Operation: Wildfire. Snelling also collaborated with original authors Ted McIlwain on Season and Salvatore Volcano” Garozzo on Cache. Yahoo …

Read More »

Esports Employment Law : Considerations and Risks

A few weeks ago Dylan Walker of Yahoo eSports spoke a bit about the distinction between independent contractors and employees in eSports. As the world of eSports has slowly become more legitimate and professional, teams and companies have started to contract with their workers. Some teams have unwittingly been classifying …

Read More »

What to expect from World of Tanks’ Grand Finals

It’s that time of year again: the World of Tanks Grand Finals are almost upon us. The world’s best teams are rumbling down the streets of Warsaw, Poland, where they’ll face off against each other over the weekend of April 8-9 for a slice of the $300,000 prize pot. The …

Read More »

The Evolution of Hax$

The year is 2008. Baltimore is playing host to Pound 3, a major event boasting over 200 players. Legends of the day are doing their best to traverse through the bracket. Jonathan "Plank" Graybeal is running the event, making sure people report for their next match. Names such as PC …

Read More »