MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The first of ESL’s season of Dota tournaments begins next month with ESL One Frankfurt taking over the Commerzbank-Arena. A total of $1m is on the line across at least three events this year, with two more to be announced shortly, and the first $250,000 up for grabs on the …
Read More »MTG has reportedly acquired ESL
Reports online suggest that Swedish media organisation Modern Times Group (MTG) has acquired Germany’s Turtle Entertainment, owner of the Electronic Sports League (ESL). The Daily Dot reports that the claims stem from IT news channel Golem.de. The value of the deal is not known and while ESL has so far …
Read More »Blizzards hands out free cards to EU Hearthstone players
European players of Blizzard’s card game Hearthstone have been offered a sweetener to apologise for recent disruptions to the service. Many players on the EU servers encountered trouble at the end of last month, coinciding with the climax of Season 13 and the release of the final set of single …
Read More »WarGaming’s Mohamed Fadl on revolutionising eSports income
After last month’s second successful World of Tanks Grand Final, we talked to WarGaming.net’s head of eSports to find out how the company plans to revolutionise player income. Mohamed Fadl, Director of eSports at the Cypriot MMO publisher, detailed a new system of leagues at the event, which saw thousands …
Read More »‘eSports’, ‘permadeath’ and ‘dox’ added to the dictionary
Dictionary.com has added a number of gaming and technology centric words to its listings. Chief among them is ‘esports’, which the site describes simply as competitive tournaments of video games”. Also on the list are ‘permadeath’ (the permanent death of a defeated character, after which the player of the game …
Read More »Valve reveals invited teams for TI5 and opens qualifiers to public
Valve has revealed the ten teams to receive direct invites to the prestigious annual Dota 2 tournament, The International, with a current prize pool of $6.3m. Alongside the ten professional teams heading straight to KeyArena in Seattle, WA, this August 3-8, Valve has opened the doors for any team to …
Read More »ESL’s Mortal Kombat X Fatal 8 event attracts big viewer numbers
Mortal Kombat has made its mark in the competitive eSports scene following the success of the ESL’s Fatal 8 tournament. The four-hour tournament totalled over 200k hours watched with peak concurrent viewers of 85,449. There were also official viewing parties in both London and Paris, while #Fatal8 trended on Twitter …
Read More »Legal ruling could boost eSports validity, but that might not help ESPN ratings
The brain is a muscle, right? Whether or not a court agrees with this could decide whether eSports takes another big step towards a perceived legitimacy as a sport. The Daily Dot reports that the English Bridge Union is currently contesting a Sport England’s decision to exclude bridge as a …
Read More »Athletics and eSports governing bodies unite in effort to combat ‘lazy stereotypes’
Pro-gaming’s desire to be classified as a ‘real’ sport may be one step closer to fruition, following a deal struck between an eSports body and a global athletics organisation. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has joined forces with its competitive gaming counterpart, the International eSports Federation (IeSF). Specifically, …
Read More »eSports betting agency Unikrn launches
Former Microsoft exec Rahul Sood’s new company Unikrn is an eSports betting platform. Unikrn has partnered up with Australian wagering firm Tabcorp – specifically its Luxbet platform – to allow gamers to place bets on eSports games. The company says that fans will only be able to place bets in …
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