B/R Weekly Rushdown: Jeremy Lin in the 'Dota 2' Business, ELEAGUE Overwatch Open
Another week, another series of shakeups in the world of esports. The League of Legends Championship Series, ELEAGUE Season 2 and other major tournaments are all approaching, but there is plenty to hold fans' attention in the meantime.
Here's the Weekly Rushdown of esports news.
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Jeremy Lin Makes Surprising Appearance in 'Dota 2' Roster Shuffle
The dust finally settled on Saturday after a tumultuous month of Dota 2 defined by massive roster changes. Old teams were disbanded. New teams were formed. And when the names were sorted and the lineups were finalized, one question stood out in front of all others...
What the heck is Vici Gaming J?
The Chinese gaming organization, best known for its second-place finish at The International 4, dissolved its most successful group, VG.Reborn, and replaced it with a hodgepodge group that included seemingly random members of its other teams, alongside two new recruits.
But why dissolve Reborn? Why build a new brand? Why were the players shuffled between the two teams?
These questions went unanswered for a few days, until ESPN.com's Eric Van Allen reported that the new team was actually affiliated with Brooklyn Nets point guard Jeremy Lin.
According to the report, Lin "has signed an agreement with China Digital Group (CDC) and Vici Gaming, a Chinese esports club, to create a new Dota 2 team, Team VGJ."
What that agreement entails, and what role Lin will have with the team, is unknown.
Lin is the latest person to come from the NBA and become involved in the business end of esports. He joins a group that includes former Los Angeles Laker Rick Fox, current Boston Celtic Jonas Jerebko and Sacramento Kings co-owner Andy Miller.
For more information on the Dota 2 roster shuffle, make sure to check out Bleacher Report's full breakdown of the changes.
ELEAGUE Overwatch Open Finals Details Released
ELEAGUE showed that esports translates well to the television and showed how deep and rich the Counter-Strike scene is right now. The next game that will get that treatment is Overwatch, with the ELEAGUE Overwatch Open finals set to begin on Sunday.
In anticipation of that, details of the broadcast and tournament were released, including the broadcast team for the event (see above) and the assignments for the group stages (see below):
| NA Group A | NA Group B | EU Group A | EU Group B |
| EnVyUs | Cloud9 | REUNITED | Rogue |
| NRG eSports | Fnatic | FaZe Clan | Misfits |
| Team Liquid | Method | Ninjas in Pyjamas | ANOX |
| Splyce | Immortals | Team Dignitas | Luminosity |
The tournament will be broadcasted live on Twitch with the grand finals getting the full TBS broadcast treatment on Sept. 30.
'Pokken Tournament' Already on Its Way Out?
Now for a bit of disappointing news...
The Pokemon Company, the outfit that controls the various merchandise surrounding the titular game series, ran a press release on Tuesday discussing the 2017 Pokemon World Championships. Therein is described the new ways to earn points for the PWC through regional qualifiers, details on the usable expansions for the trading card game, information on the International Championships and more.
Noticeably absent? Any mention of Pokken Tournament, the Bandai Namco-made fighting game based on the Pokemon series that was featured in the 2016 PWC. While not yet confirmed, this has many speculating that both Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are dropping their support of the title.
If true, that's a devastating blow for a title that is less than a year old.
Despite being a "new kid on the block" game, Pokken Tournament has quickly become one of the more popular titles on the fighting game scene and has been included in a number of major events. Most notably, the game was featured at Evo 2016 and drew over 1,100 participants for its open tournament.
While games can persist for extended periods of time through grassroots enthusiasm (the greatest example of this being Super Smash Bros. Melee), dropping proper support for the title could be a deathblow for it at the competitive level.
Despite having strong sales worldwide, Pokken Tournament doesn't have the enormous player base that Smash or the handheld Pokemon titles enjoy and likely won't be able to grow without direct handling from its creators.
In an esports environment where publishers are taking a more hands-on approach with their titles, Pokken Tournament being bumped from the PWC can only be looked at as a fledgling being thrown from its nest.
While it may be able to scavenge, survival in any lasting way is unlikely.
Numbers Released for CPT-Boosting 'Street Fighter V' DLC
The International has become the biggest annual esports event on the calendar.
How did it do that? By consistently cultivating an absurdly large prize pool that most recently peaked at over $20 million USD. And how did it do that? Crowdfunding.
Since debuting the Compendium—a DLC package sold on equal parts its content and the promise that a portion of the sales gets directly added to the TI prize pool—Valve has been able to generate tens of millions in profit while simultaneously ingraining it as a part of the culture surrounding the game.
It's a brilliant system, and it's one that Capcom attempted to emulate earlier this year with Street Fighter V and the Capcom Cup tournament.
While details were initially scant on how much was actually going to the players, Capcom (via PlayStation.com) recently put forward the nitty gritty.
"A minimum of 30 percent of the revenue will go to the Capcom Cup 2016 prize pool, and an additional 50 percent of the revenue is invested into Capcom Pro Tour production," wrote Neidel Crisan, director of digital media and esports at Capcom. "That means that Capcom contributes more than 80 percent of all CPT DLC revenue directly to support Capcom Pro Tour initiatives."
As for how much has been added, specifically? "Since we announced the Capcom Pro Tour DLC at Evo, there has been an increase of more than $90,000 thanks to your efforts," Crisan wrote.
While that's still a far cry from Dota 2's payouts, it's a positive sign for Capcom, the pro players and the whole community. As it stands, the DLC has raised the prize pool for the Capcom Cup from about $250,000 USD to roughly $340,000.
That's a good first step. The question from here is whether or not Capcom can better integrate the DLC into the entirety of Street Fighter V and give further incentive to players to pony up the cash.
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