B/R Weekly Rushdown: Celtics' Jerebko Buys CS:GO Team, Call of Duty XP Event
For the first time in a long time, there was a relatively slow week in the world of eSports. While the last few months have seen events like Dota 2's The International 2016 and the massive Evo fighting game tournament, drama like the Riot vs. Regi debacle and the CS:GO skin-betting collapse, and major business shakeups like Tencent's continued spread into the gaming industry and Loto-Quebec's taking bets on DreamHack Montreal, this week was calm. Just calm.
Well, mostly...
There were still some interesting stories that popped up across the business, so why not look them over? Here's the B/R Rushdown of eSports news from the last week.
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Jonas Jerebko Buys Renegades
Basketball and football players continue to gain influence in the world of American eSports. The latest example? Boston Celtics forward Jonas Jerebko buying prominent eSports team Renegades.
The struggling organization has been mired in controversy in recent months, most notably being hammered by Riot Games for allegedly "knowingly [violating] the competitive ban against Chris Badawi," which resulted in their banishment from Riot-sanctioned leagues. According to Darren Rovell's report on ESPN.com, Jerebko intends to rebuild the team's League of Legends squadron while expanding into other titles such as Overwatch and Halo.
Jerebko is the latest individual from the mainstream sports world to jump into eSports. He joins the likes of Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman Rodger Saffold (owner of Call of Duty team Rise Nation), Sacramento Kings co-owner Andy Miller, NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal (who co-owns NRG eSports) and former Boston Celtic Rick Fox (owner of League team Echo Fox).
This is good news for an established outfit like Renegades, and adds a bit of security after an incredibly tumultuous time.
Dota 2 Teams in Total Chaos After Roster Upheaval
The International 2016 was a fun, enjoyable event. The fallout, however, has been anything but. In the weeks since TI6, the competitive Dota scene has seen a top-to-bottom roster upheaval and has witnessed some of its most iconic franchises lose their most popular players. There's way too much to talk about in the Rushdown, but fear not! We've got you covered with a full recap of all the wild goings-on.
NA LCS Sells Out Air Canada Centre
ESports are, just that. A sport. And an important part of sports? Actually being able to watch them live and in person.
More and more, eSports are proving to be a solid box-office draw, and the latest example is the League Championship Series' North America Finals. The LoL event drew a capacity crowd to the Air Canada Centre, home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Raptors, and alongside other events like Evo 2016 and TI6, showed that live eSports is both entertaining for fans and lucrative for venues.
"We see this as the first of many such events at Air Canada Centre," said VP of Live Entertainment at MLSE Wayne Zronik, per the Toronto Metro's Colin McNeil. "We've had overwhelming interest in this weekend’s events and certainly look forward to giving eSport fans more chances to watch their favorite teams compete against each other."
The event saw Team SoloMid capture the $50,000 USD top prize at the expense of Cloud9 with a 3-1 win in the finals' best-of-five series. This has TSM looking like a serious contender heading into the Worlds, which begin on September 29. Oh, and about that...
Buy into eSports, folks.
Call of Duty XP to Welcome Infinite Warfare, New eSports Era
Call of Duty: Black Ops III is going to go out with a bang. Activision is making sure of that with the grandiose Call of Duty XP event. While the last CoD XP was held all the way back in 2011, it was largely a promotional event for the soon-to-be-released Modern Warfare III. In 2016, however, CoD XP is an extravaganza for the series, with the festivities centering around the finals of the Call of Duty World League.
That should make for some intense action, too. CoD XP will feature 32 teams vying for the biggest slice of a $2 million USD prize pool, with series taking place across multiple game modes. The action begins this Thursday with the group stages and concludes with the grand finals on Sunday.
While that's sure to generate some excitement, CoD XP is more than just a tournament.
"We basically created a theme park that leaped out of a video game," said Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg in an interview with ESPN's Joe Bartel. "We've built full-size versions of maps in the game and will allow fans to play paintball in them...We are going to have zipline missions. It's really like you're living the game."
On top of that, it will heavily feature the upcoming Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and remaster of the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare which are set to drop in November.
CoD XP should be worth watching for any fan of the FPS genre, and it will be exciting to see what Activision does to make their true eSports debut special.
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