Here we are once again with another Esports World Update! We will be going through some exciting updates regarding events, specifically IEM Katowice and PUBG’s Invitational as well as taking a look at probably the biggest esports company acquisition to date.
IEM Katowice
The Intel Extreme Masters series, specifically the one in Katowice has been home to some of the biggest games in the industry and has homes some of the biggest plays ever made, one of the most renowned being xPeke’s famous backdoor against SK Gaming which is still known as one of the best plays in League of Legends history.
The Spodek Arena however, has hosted other games such as CS:GO and Dota 2. However, this year it will host a new title which has been rising in the world of Esports gradually over the last year, Playerunknown’s Battleground. This game in short is known as PUBG, and has been making headlines throughout 2017, first breaking the online player base on steam as well as hitting massive numbers over viewers on twitch, not only for the game itself, but also for some streamers, such as Cloud 9’s Shroud hitting personal numbers of over 60k viewers at a specific time.
The Game returned to headlines this week, with the IEM Qualifiers still ongoing. The shocking thing about these qualifiers, was that although North America saw a ‘normal’ number of teams, with 198 teams hopping into the action, Europe saw a boom, with over a thousand teams initially applying, but 908 checking in to participate. Still an extremely unexpected number.
The Qualifiers will see seven more teams join the invitees at the offline final in Katowice, Poland and are expected to generate a more than just heated series of matches, following the successful venture obtained last year in IEM Oakland, with many teams showing up to bring exhilarating action to screens worldwide.
The event will take place on the 24th through to the 25th February and is expected to see fans flood in from all parts of the globe to cheer their favorite teams on.
CS:GO and the big bucks
Counter Strike: Global Offensive is a game that has always been known to rake in big crowds and generate massive revenue, not only due to its entertainment factor, but also its microtransactions in skins as well as trades and bets. This year though marked a new threshold of cash flow, as a parent company has just changed hands for an unsurmountable sum.
Virtus Pro and SK Gaming parent company ESForce was recently sold to a Russian Company, Mail.Ru, for the massive sum of $150 million. ESForce also owns multiple Esports related companies such as CS:GO and Dota 2 Lounge, Cybersport, RuHub and Yota Arena.
This will be marked as one of the largest ever purchase of Esports related entities so far. Furthermore a fact the new owners will need to face soon is which team they decide to keep as their own, since following the new WESA ruling, from next September no company is allowed to own more than one team, otherwise one will be ineligible to participate in WESA regulated events.
It will be a tough decision to make considering both teams are known powerhouses in the CS:GO competitive scene.
Stay posted for more Esports updates, on esportsonly.com, and make sure to not miss any of the upcoming action!
