The B/R Weekly Rushdown: July 13, 2016
Business was slow in the eSports world after some incredibly active months (for better or worse). After weeks of scandal in the world of skin betting and some major eSports announcements from companies like Electronic Arts and ESPN, fans were treated to a nice, leisurely week filled with positivity!
So jump on in!
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Esports Integrity Coalition Founded
Sports and gambling go hand in hand, and gambling and corruption go hand in hand. You can connect the dots from there.
Over the last few years, eSports has been rocked by various scandals, and with eSports growing exponentially and the market for eSports gambling growing just as quickly...well, once again, connect those dots.
The risk of shady practices—from arranging brackets to doping all the way to match-fixing—is massive these days, and some people are making an effort to combat that.
Enter the ESIC (Esports Integrity Coalition). The organization's plan is a fairly straightforward one: Implement a code of conduct, anti-doping policy and anti-corruption policies across all games and all major tournament organizers.
It's an admirable endeavor, as the eSports world is a Wild West with digital revolvers, but can it come to fruition in such a scattered sport with so many insular layers? Can it get players, teams, tournament organizers and game publishers all on board? And how can it enforce any punishments?
Unfortunately, answers to those questions remain murky. Hopefully, though, it can gain traction and start cleaning up eSports.
Manchester City Sign a Competitive Gamer...?
Premier League soccer club Manchester City surprised many last Wednesday when they announced that they had signed hot free agent Kieran "Kez" Brown.
The surprising part? He's not actually a soccer player...he's one of the best at FIFA 16 and has been picked up by Manchester City to play the game under their banner. So why did a real-life soccer club sign a competitive gamer?
"This is a natural evolution for Manchester City. We’ve been very involved with our partner, EA Sports, and the FIFA franchise for some time," said Diego Gigliani, Manchester City's senior vice president of media and innovation in a press release (via the Score esports' Sasha Erfanian).
He continued:
"As eSports continues to gain momentum, it makes sense for our club to be part of the action and get closer to our fans, who love playing EA Sports FIFA as Manchester City. We will be a bigger presence at gaming tournaments, we will have more content through our digital channels and we will activate even more with our fans at matches and club events.
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It's an unexpected but welcome turn for eSports, given Manchester City's prominence and legitimacy in the sporting world. It adds yet another major sponsor to the pool (albeit for that one game) and sets a precedent that, hopefully, will trickle over to other teams around the world.
Na'Vi Will Soon Have a Mascot!
Whether it's a cowboy or an army of sausages, people wearing massive, clumsy, incredibly hot outfits and playing to the fans is a part of attending any sporting event, and eSports juggernaut Natus Vincere wants to get in on that action as well.
The team has posted a competition on its website asking for fans to help design a mascot.
While many will brush this off as silly, it's a wise move by the powerhouse team. Though nobody really likes mascots at sporting events, further differentiating one's team—especially as big events become the norm for eSports—is a worthwhile endeavor.
And of course, there are all those sweet merchandising opportunities...
'Team Fortress 2' Playing Catch-Up with 'Overwatch'
Valve has done amazing work turning Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive into some of the biggest titles in all of eSports, but the Steam-powered publisher hasn't always been at the forefront.
Over the last 15 years, competitive scenes have popped up around nearly every one of its titles and, for the most part, have been met with indifference from the company.
That makes Valve's renewed commitment to its teamwork-focused, objective-based first-person shooter Team Fortress 2 somewhat odd. On July 7, the "Meet Your Match" update was launched, adding a ranking system built around six-on-six games. This, of course, comes nearly nine years after the game's launch and after a mass exodus of players to Blizzard's Overwatch.
The TF2 team is acknowledging as much, too, with the image at the bottom of its update page spoofing Overwatch's victory scenes at the end of games.
Unfortunately, while it's an admirable effort, it will almost certainly be too little, too late to reinvigorate the TF2 competitive scene. While the game most certainly could have been taken in that direction years ago, Valve instead focused on pioneering its inventory system and using the game as a testing ground for what would become Steam's item trading and marketplace.
Though TF2 remains a very good game on the whole and Valve should be commended for steadily injecting new content...don't expect to see TF2 gain any traction with organizers.
'Overwatch' Is Getting a New Character!
Overwatch continues to overshadow nearly all of its competitors, but that's not stopping Blizzard from adding some new content! On Tuesday, videos featuring a new character, Ana, hit the internet and set the gaming world alight.
The rival of fellow sniper Widowmaker will have the ability to both heal allies and harm enemies, with some unique disables for close-range encounters.
A demonstration of her abilities can be seen above, and any fans who are invested in the game's lore can check out her origin story on Overwatch's YouTube channel.
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