Two reactions to Riot Games’ announcement today that it’s revamping its approach to Valorant esports:
- Enthusiasm. By dropping entry and franchise fees, esports organizations around the world have a better chance at fielding a team in Valorant’s new world.
- Curiosity. Will other regions be introduced? Right now, “Americas, Europe, and Asia” leaves out Africa and the Middle East. I’d think the lack of entry and franchise fees would make Valorant more appealing to teams and players in those regions. I hope Riot will have more information on its esports plans for those regions soon.
SBJ's Trent Murray has more details on Riot’s plans, as you can read below.
Meanwhile, I wonder if Team Liquid’s new training plan can help me with the “Pandemic 30” I’ve put on. -- Jason Wilson
Riot Games has rolled out a massive overhaul of its Valorant esports structure for 2023 and beyond -- significantly expanding its regional competition offerings, as well as a women-focused Game Changers program.
But the most important change is the implementation of three new international premier leagues, which will operate in a long-term partnership model similar to the Riot-run competitions around League of Legends. Riot did not announce any sponsor information as part of this new structure.
The leagues will include teams from their respective regions (the Americas, Europe, and Asia), but Riot has yet to finalize the number of teams or any other country/region limitations. Notably, the Asian league will not include China, as the government hasn’t yet approved Valorant. This league structure is largely unprecedented.
Perhaps the most noteworthy component of this announcement is the lack of an entry or franchise fee for teams. The first league to offer a long-term partnership model in the modern era was Activision Blizzard's Overwatch League, which reportedly charged $20 million for team slots. Riot Games would later charge between $8 million and $10 million for its own long-term partnership structure in League of Legends. Activision's Call of Duty League set a new high in 2019 at $25 million.
These high costs, particularly for the Activision leagues, effectively squeezed out many esports organizations that were endemic to their respective games. -- Trent Murray
Team Liquid and Alienware are launching a new global training program for esports players called Pro Lab. The aim is gather data to quantify and analyze cognitive skills that characterize an esports player while creating new pro training experiences and establishing new industry-wide practices.
The two sides have a plan to release the findings of the data to democratize data and insights. Pro Lab will not just be about pro gaming and esports, as they have plans to make these tools available to select students and schools. The Pro Lab will be available and integrated into its Alienware Training Facilities inUtrecht, Netherlands, and Santa Monica, Calif. Those two facilities are undergoing extensive upgrades and renovations.
"Team Liquid remains steadfast in our pledge to put our players and their well-being first. We initially created our (North American) and EU Alienware Training Facilities to enable just that, and The Pro Lab is the next iteration of how we are giving our teams and athletes access to transformative training innovation,” said Team Liquid co-CEO and co-owner Steve Arhancet. “Through testing, research and education, The Pro Lab is poised to provide our players with the resources to thrive and reach maximum performance. Beyond that, The Pro Lab also validates the seriousness of the esports industry’s competitive standards during this time of tremendous growth and expansion.” -- Kevin Hitt
Team Liquid aims to gather data to quantify and analyze cognitive skills that characterize an esports player
Activision Blizzard stockholders today approved Microsoft's proposal to acquire the game publisher in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $69 billion. While some parts of Wall Street doubted that Activision’s shareholders would approve the deal, as the FTC might still unravel the acquisition, the vote turned out to be unambiguous, with 98% of the shares voting in favor of the proposed transaction.
Earlier this week, Activision published its Q1 results, revealing a net income of $395 million. However, due to the pending acquisition by Microsoft, Activision did not host a conference call, issue an earnings presentation or provide a financial guideline as part of its Q1 2022 earnings release.
The beginning of 2022 proved to be economically challenging for the publisher. Quarterly revenues dropped by $507 million from $2.28 billion in Q1 last year to $1.77 billion this year. Out of Activision’s three business segments, only its mobile game developer King was able to increase revenues -- slightly -- to $682 million. On the other hand, Activision Publishing’s revenues almost bisected from $891 million in Q1 2021 to $453 million now, and Blizzard Entertainment’s revenues took a similarly significant tumble from $483 million to $274 million.
At the same time, Activision (150 million) and Blizzard (27 million) increased monthly active users by a combined 57 million year-over-year. While the company saw a positive development in its user base, its revenues were reduced because of lower results for Call of Duty and product cycle timing of Blizzard Warcraft franchise.
Additionally, Activision Blizzard incurred an increase in legal and other professional fees, primarily driven by costs associated with the proposed transaction with Microsoft. -- Tobias Seck
Nielsen and esports event organizer ESL Gaming have a new three-year extension of their ongoing pact that began in 2019. The renewed deal also expanded its scope to include ESL’s recent push into mobile esports.
Nielsen Commercial Director Esports & Gaming Timo Krueger told SBJ that part of the company’s work in the expanded deal will be to help ESL gain a better understanding of the mobile gaming audience. While PC esports remain dominant in the industry's major regions like North America, Europe, and South Korea, most of the growth in emerging markets are overwhelmingly led by mobile titles.
According to Newzoo’s 2022 Global Esports & Live Streaming Market Report, Southeast Asia and Latin America are among the fastest-growing regions in esports and are both mobile-first markets.
Earlier this year, ESL rolled out the Snapdragon Pro Series, a multi-title, global mobile esports competition brand created in partnership with Qualcomm which will award roughly $2 million in prizes. -- Trent Murray
- Team Liquid is launching The Next Wave. This “national scouting combine” will last five episodes on Twitch and YouTube, and Team Liquid says it’s the first time it’s courted amateurs in such a manner. Coinbase is the presenting sponsor, with Aim Lab, HyperX, IMC Trading, Kingston, Mike & Ike and Secretlab aboard as supporting sponsors.
- French Open tennis organizers moved its eSeries event from PC to mobile for the fifth iteration this year, and switched from Tennis World Tour 2 to the Tennis Clash game this time around. Why? Roland Garros exec Aymeric Labaste tells SBJ the idea is to get more women involved.
- Populous, the architectural firm behind such venues as Yankee Stadium and Esports Stadium Arlington, has partnered with the esports organization Kansas City Pioneers to create The Arena, a five-part NFT collection featuring digital art that enables viewers to join a fan community on a journey through a future esports experience.
- Video game controller brand Scuf Gaming has renewed its 10-year relationship with legacy Call of Duty brand OpTic Gaming and Texas-based esports organization Envy in an expanded, six-figure sponsorship deal.
- Juked, an esports community platform, has added MIT professor T.L. Taylor to its board of advisers to advise on community building and DEI issues. She also has advised Riot Games and Twitch in the past.
- Grubhub saw good returns on its recent sponsor activation at the Spring Finals for Riot Games' League Championship Series.
- Todak and Orange Esports will represent Malaysia in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Southeast Asia Cup, which takes place June 11-June 19 in Kuala Lumpur. Mobile Legends may not be big in North America, but it’s huge in Asia and other regions, with 488 million downloads and $1.2 billion in player spending — $556.7 million (46.4%) coming from Southeast Asia.
- Gameloft has partnered with ESL Gaming for the first season of the Snapdragon Mobile Open. Players from North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa can compete in Gameloft’s Asphalt 9: Legends racing game.
- Snackclub (a sister company of the Brazil-based Loud esports organization) raised $9 million in seed funding for a decentralized autonomous organization.
