welcome-banner
All News
article-headline
General7 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

GosuGamers Weekly Business Review, 17/3 - 24/3

One of the biggest names in American eSports kicks us off this week, with Cloud9 and Jack Etienne the subject of the day. The legendary US organisation was reported in The ESports Observer (TEO) as having secured a giant wedge of Series A funding from various investors including but not limited to Joe Montana, the former NFL star, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, as well as other luminaries from the worlds of sport, business and technology.

The names of Montana and Ohanian obviously dominated the headlines, but the list also includes Tesla board members, a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors and Daniel Fiden of FunPlus Ventures. The headlines are what people will remember, but those are some very serious investors in the likes of Fiden and the big board members, and it shows the level eSports is beginning to reach in 2017.

Interestingly, when they first applied for funding, the figures being thrown around were in the ballpark of $3m, which would line up with the middle of the road for the cost of one of Blizzard’s Overwatch franchises, if you aren’t in Los Angeles. Sadly for C9, they are in LA, where the cost was speculated to be closer to $15m, but it may be that Blizzard themselves have taken a step back and adjusted their expectation, and that C9 are looking to fill their coffers prior to that bidding process.

It is also worth saying that C9 are one of the bigger brands to have retained control of their own fate in the NA scene, while others like Misfit, Liquid and even UK-based Dignitas entering into partnerships or other deals with larger firms. With full control of their own destiny and a fairly stellar reputation already, this move comes just at a time when people were wondering if C9 would be left behind, and sets them up beautifully for the Blizzard circus coming soon.

 

We’ve already talked about the Overwatch League planned for later this year, so too much focus would be a waste, but it’s worth making a small point about one of the planned aspects of the competition. There has been a lot of discussion about location and locality being a key aspect, with franchises bidding for geographical areas in which the plan is currently to build arenas that fans can travel to and watch the action in.

The eagle eyed among you will have already spotted that this model basically parallels the sporting one, where for years the fans have also have the privilege of shouting ‘I pay your wages’ at any underperforming player on the home team. However, in sport, all but the biggest teams in the top leagues make a much higher proportion of their revenue from broadcasting rights these days, with many Premier League clubs taking £8 from Sky for every £1 they take on the turnstiles.

With sport, a large part of the viewer experience is obviously tied to the in-stadium atmosphere, provided you go to a stadium with an atmosphere, but eSports didn’t develop that way. For this reason, it may be a lot simpler for Blizzard to invest in studios, rather than stadia, if they do put a physical circuit together, and push toward monetising TV rights as hard as possible. This would not only save on the investment in infrastructure, but reflect what most view as the optimal way to view eSports, rather than trying to ape sport again.

 

There is always some article or the other floating around telling us how much eSports will be worth in the year 20XX, but this week we got a real look at one of today’s success stories as Riot’s parent company Tencent published their 2016 final quarter review and full year highlights. Top of the billing is the news that the Chinese firm made nearly $1bn profit last year, a 42% year on year increase, and also mentioned plans in 2017 for new, ‘genre-driven’ eSports titles.

Obviously with the company owning far more than just the League of Legends publishers it is hard to draw a direct line between their overall profits and the success of LoL, but with Tencent having  control over the largest eSport in the world it is still useful information. As the report stated, ‘[they] broadened  user  engagement  with  our  major  PC  game  titles  via eSports, game, video streaming, and game interest groups, and show no signs of slowing in 2017. You can find a more detailed breakdown of the report on TEO here, but it seems like good times for the Chinese firm.

 

 

It’s no secret that everyone wants a piece of Twitch’s purple pie right now, and with YouTube signing up Counter-Strike events left and right they’ve rather dominated the news. However, one of the other giants is trying to muscle in with Facebook offering a new desktop streaming service, so you can now broadcast whatever you’re doing on the site your mum uses to keep up with her aqua-aerobics class.

You’ll still need software and all that jazz, but with the company only previously offering the service to mobile users this is a big step and in theory puts them right alongside the others as competition. Were either YouTube or Facebook to follow the model firms like Azubu tried, and splash the cash on some premium streaming talent though, it would be very interesting, as they already have the reach to grow at an incredible pace as well as the funds to pretty much blow anyone out of the water.

 

Roundup

Chinese Hearthstone heavyweights join new superteam

PENTA acquire Ad Finem

North receive the last direct invite to IEM Sydney

Take our Gosu Survey for a chance to win some fantastic prizes

 

Matches of the Weekend

Meta Athena take on Lunatic Hai in a cracking Overwatch contest

Stats and soO face off in the GSL Finals

Vega Squadron take on Team Spirit in the WellPlay Invitational Grand Finals

 

Events to catch

iBP announce $16k Spring invitational

EPICENTER Dota returns for season two

DreamLeague season seven announced with NA division

 

ESports Careers

Blitz want a video editor with graphics experience

iPwn Gaming want someone to create Call of Duty strategy content

Pinnacle need freelance eSport content creators

 

Giggles

Not everyone is cut out for a life of crime, or terrorism...

 

All Esports

Entertainment

GosuBattles

Account