Moderating Partner
European Esports Federation set to be formed with 12 countries
Representatives from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK
Real-money Competition
Indian esports platform Mobile Premier League raises $35.5 million
Series A to fuel product and user growth
Competitive Investment
Will Smith headlines $46 million funding round for esports group Gen.G
Funding to go toward global expansion, youth development and new LA HQ
Critical Moment
How Critical Force's new CEO is fending off the battle royale threat
“After the dust had settled we managed to maintain a stable player base and eventually recovered to our normal DAU numbers"
Clash With Ash
Clash Royale YouTuber Ash CWA on the ever-changing mobile esports scene and dealing with influencers
"The biggest misconception I've seen from companies when it comes to making competitive games is that they need to act immediately"
Royale
PUBG Mobile celebrates its first anniversary with a $2.5 million live event
Live music premier provides a soundtrack to PUBG Mobile's big esports plans
New Tech
GDC 2019: Denuvo launches anti-cheat solution for games and esports
"It’s time to level the playing field"
Esports Academy
6 videos from Pocket Gamer Connects London's Esports Academy track
Track sponsored by Game Insight
Esports
Konami's new high-rise esports centre wants to bring Japan's competitive gaming scene up to par
"Compared to esports pioneers America and Europe, Japan has still a long way to go"
Funding
GFR Fund has put together a $20 million pot for esports, streaming and new technologies
"We are looking beyond traditional game developers to invest in disruptive entertainment technologies"
The Crowd Goes Wild
China officially recognises esports as a profession
Esports professional and operator roles recognised as of January 25th
Analytics
FanAI acquires esports analytics and middleware firm Waypoint Media
FanAI gains access to Waypoint Media’s range of trackers, data and APIs
Game On
Gamemaker Studio 2 gets Amazon GameOn support enabling cross-platform competitions
YoYo Games and Amazon have released an asset to get GameMaker devs onto the GameOn service
Bad Game
Esports organisations could be in trouble as experts fear market correction due to over-evaluation
There is a reported disparity between the valuation of esports organisations and their revenue
Breaking Out
Patents, platforms and IPO: How mobile-first esports platform Skillz is planning for bigger things
CEO Andrew Paradise explains
Into The Swing
Playdemic CEO Paul Gouge explains how Golf Clash is getting more competitive with clans and potentially esports too
Two years on, plenty to come
Royale
PUBG Mobile hits 30 million daily active players and 200 million downloads in eight months
Handheld battlegrounds held the second highest MAU count among all mobile games this quarter
Chill
$1 million is on the line in Fortnite’s Winter Royale Online Tournament
Star players will be chosen to take part in the Fortnite World Cup in 2019
Clash
Clash Royale players to fight over esports gig in the first EE Mobile Series
Fnatic is offering a place on its professional Clash Royale team to the overall winner
Best Of Both Worlds
How Super Bit Machine hopes Armajet will ride Fortnite’s coat-tails to cross-platform success
Fighting on both fronts
Pgc Videos
4 videos from Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2018's Esports Academy track
All the talks from the Esports Academy track
Expansion
How the esports landscape will change in Australia and New Zealand over the coming 12 months
ESL managing director and EGAA chairman Nick Zanzetti gave a talk on the topic at the Melbourne International Games Week
Esports
Arena of Valor 2018 International Championship sports a $600,000 prize pool
Grand finals will take place in Thailand on December 15th to 16th
On Cloud 9
Esports outfit Cloud9 scoops up $50m Series B funding round
Valor Equity Partners leads investment
Heading East
Supercell takes Clash Royale League World Finals 2018 to Japan
Event leaves London behind in favour of Asia
Gearing Up
Amazon partners with Eden for $20k GameOn Masters: Gear.Club esports tournament
Competition gets sports car manufacturer Pagani as sponsor
Drop In
PUBG Mobile’s first Star Challenge Champions series launches with a $600,000 prize pool
Mobile esports series kicks off with a focus on putting big names centre-stage
Skin In The Game
How real-money competition platform Skillz is riding the wave of mobile esports for all
Hits $400 million annualised run-rate
Of Kings And Valour
From esports to Nintendo Switch: Tencent on its ambitions to grow Arena of Valor in the West
“The console space is an exciting one for us, and there really hasn’t been a big mobile game on the Switch device yet”
Pubg
Tencent is holding its first PUBG Mobile tournament in India
PUBG Mobile Campus Championship 2018 will pit teams from 1000 colleges against each other
Olympic Values
Esports 'too violent' for Olympics
Popular titles focused on combat “cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values"
On Tour
Critical Force partners up with ElisaViihde and OnePlus for Critical Ops esports push
The OnePlus Masters tour will be held in eight different locations throughout Finland
Esports Royale
Supercell ‘committed to Clash Royale esports for a long period of time’
Game designer Seth Allison discusses the challenges of balancing the game and making it esports ready
Winner
South Korea takes home $200,000 Prize from inaugural Arena of Valor World Cup
The event was held at the TCL Chinese Theatre and had a total prize pool of $550,000
Glorious
Apple flaunts iPhone X gaming capabilities with Vainglory demonstration
Bionic chip commercial provides a marketing platform for Super Evil Megacorp’s MOBA
Gold Chest
Fortnite’s first major esports tournament boasts an $8m prize pool
Epic begin digging into the $100m set aside for this season’s competitions
Beep Beep
McLaren expands its esports program to include mobile racing games
Motor manufacturer wants Shadow Project to become more “open and inclusive”
Live Drop
Live.me’s new streaming app Fluxr will promote Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds esports
Streaming platform’s new app is looking to grow the mobile esports market
On Your Marks
International Olympic Committee to host esports-focused forum
IOC to start discussing the future of relationships between games and sports
Beyond Games
5 things we learned about influencers, hyper-casual and esports at the Beyond Games Mini-Summit
Leading industry experts deal out their knowledge and advice
Mobile Masters
Amazon names the winners of its $100,000 Mobile Masters Seattle esports event
Participants competed in World of Tanks: Blitz, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, Critical Ops and Survival Arena
Critical
Critical Force snags $6.3 million in funding to scale esports operations for Critical Ops
The FPS has also been downloaded over 40 million times since launching in 2015
World Cup
Epic lays out Fortnite World Cup 2019 plans as battle royale hit surpasses 125m players
$100 million prize pool to support numerous competitions
Funding News
Australian developer iCandy receives $1 million investment from esports.com
Blockchain and esports firm to take 19.5 per cent stake in studio
Tournament
Tencent makes E3 debut, partners with ESL and Razer to host Arena of Valor tournament
The Valor Series playoffs will take place at the E3 ESL Arena from June 12th to 13th in Los Angeles
Competitive Investment
Tencent invests in Chinese esports tournament operator VSPN
Company already runs Honour of Kings and Clash Royale competitions
Well Now
Epic puts up $100 million for Fortnite esports tournament prize pools
And that’s just for the first season
Funding News
Riot Games amongst investors in new mobile esports-focused studio Gamelynx
Studio raises $1.2 million
Boom
Game Insight and ESL put up $200,000 for Guns of Boom’s inaugural esports season
Online qualifiers begin June 9th with international events planned for Poland and LA
East To West
Chinese livestreaming platform Huya raises $180 million in US IPO
15 million shares sold at $12 each