B/R Weekly Rushdown: Bucks Owner Buys into Esports, EG Now Player-Owned
While it seemed like this was supposed to be a relatively quiet week in the way of esports news, things picked up in a hurry. The Dota 2 Boston Major kicked off a long week of roster changes, announcements and major shifts in the business end of the industry.
So here's your weekly rushdown of esports news.
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Alliance, EG Split From Twitch.TV
While it has done a great job of avoiding favoritism to this point, Twitch.TV has always had to perform an awkward balancing act between fairness in its esports broadcasting and its treatment of the teams under its ownership umbrella; Evil Geniuses and Alliance. To this point, things have always seemed to be on the up-and-up, but on Tuesday, Twitch made the commendable decision of allowing EG and Alliance to become independent, player-owned organizations.
In a press release on EG's official site, Twitch COO Kevin Lin stated that the company "had an obligation to ensure the teams operated independently and received no preferential treatment on Twitch." He added after, "While they'll still be streaming on Twitch and we'll continue providing support services, both teams’ brands, player contracts, and futures are now in the hands of the players and player-selected management. They will have complete independence and we will work with them as we would any other esports team."
Alliance echoed that sentiment in a release of their own. "Today, we begin a new chapter. We’re pleased to announce Alliance will be owned by us, the players," the team stated. "Twitch will have no ownership stake going forward. Alliance has been centered around its players since inception, and this focus will continue as we venture into a new era. We will continue as a responsible and driven Nordic-focused esports brand."
EG and Alliance have dabbled in a number of different esports but are best known today for their TI-winning Dota 2 teams and the elite fighting game players under their umbrellas, most notably Justin Wong and Adam "Armada" Lindgren, respectively. Now, those players have direct control of their organizations.
In the immediate future, fans won't notice much of a change in either organization. Long term, though? This will be an interesting test case for player-owned organizations.
Dota 2 Gets Shaken Up in Every Way
The Boston Major wrapped up on Saturday, and it was a great finale to an excellent show. Europe's OG bounced back from an ugly TI6 to reclaim their spot at the top of the game's food chain by taking its third first-place finish in a Valve-sponsored Major tournament.
It was a huge coup on the pro scene, but pub players didn't get the chance to rest on their laurels, either. The Boston Major concluded with the surprise announcement of Dota 2 version 7.00, a huge top-to-bottom update that includes massive tweaks to the game at every level. The update, surprisingly, dropped just days later, and pros and pubbers alike are still trying to sort out the changes.
To top it all off, Valve's next big Dota 2 event was announced. The Kiev Major will begin on March 6, 2016 with the open qualifiers, which will be followed by the regional qualifiers on March 10. The main event begins a month later, on April 20, in its titular city in Ukraine.
Make sure to check out Bleacher Report's full coverage of the Boston Major, and our piece on the early reactions to the patch by pros.
Milwaukee Bucks Co-Owner Getting in on Esports Business
The Philadelphia 76ers have some company. According to a report by ESPN's Jacob Wolf, Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Wesley Edens is currently seeking to purchase Cloud9 Challenger's LCS spot, as well as the contracts of four of its five players.
The deal, which is waiting on Riot's approval, is reportedly worth $2.5 million with the spot in the LCS being worth $1.8 million and the contracts being worth $700,000. Jungler Juan Arturo "Contractz" Garcia will be pulled from the team and will remain with the Cloud9 organization. What sort of rebranding is in store for Cloud9 Challenger team is currently unknown, and involved parties declined comment to ESPN.
While not fully realized, this is the latest example of a mass movement from the NBA into esports. Starting with former Los Angeles Laker Rick Fox buying out Gravity Gaming in 2015, there has been a substantial influx of both NBA players and owners into competitive gaming, which has seen Jonas Jerebko purchase Renegades, Memphis Grizzlies co-owner Stephen Kaplan buy a stake in Team 8 (which later became Immortals) and the Philadelphia 76ers organization acquire Team Dignitas.
This trend is likely to continue, too, as the esports industry continues to grow.
League of Legends Teams Shuffled
Two weeks back, the winningest League of Legends team ever, SK Telecom T1, underwent a massive roster shuffle. They weren't alone.
Over the last week, a massive number of roster changes have occurred among top League squads that will shake up the competitive scene. Here's just a quick list of the signings and releases over the last seven days:
- Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer and Chae "Piglet" Gwang-Jin join Team Liquid.
- Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett joins Immortals.
- Kim "FeniX" Jae-Hun released from Liquid.
- Oskar "VandeR" Bogdan, Yoo "Ryu" Sang-Ook and Konstantinos "FORG1VEN" Tzortziou leave H2K Gaming.
- Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-Hwan joins Afreeca Freecs.
The full list of transactions this offseason is, of course, significantly longer. This will continue until the roster-change period closes later this winter.
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