Ubisoft has revealed plans for the first-ever Rainbow Six World Cup, and announced former NBA pro Tony Parker as ambassador. 

Featuring teams from 45 countries and regions, the event is slated to start in Summer 20201, with Ubisoft saying it will highlight international rivalries and add an independent layer of competitions to the Rainbow Six Esports ecosystem. 

Announcing the event, Ubisoft said:

“We often see pro players and community showcase their national pride and enthusiasm throughout events. International rivalries emerged, and a question is raised, over and over again: which country or region truly is the best at Rainbow Six Esports? 2021 will be the year to settle this.”

On 14 September 2020, the Ubisoft esports team, local pro players and coaches, and the Rainbow Six Siege community will start the process of selecting National Committees for each of the 45 participating countries and regions.

Qualifiers will begin in the Winter, with 31 teams from Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and North Africa, competing across five groups. The qualifying teams will then meet the 14 invited national squads – including those from the USA, Canada, and Brazil, in the final leg.  

Former NBA pro Tony Parker will be using his 20 years of professional competitive experience to provide advice on how to deal with the pressure that comes with high-stake international competitions. 

AYO.NEWS says:

This is an exciting development for the Rainbow Six community, giving players a chance to represent their country in a major international competition – something relatively rare in an esports ecosystem dominated by localised teams and competitions. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Global esports and gaming media group, production house and solutions provider, Dexerto, has appointed Richard Lewis as its first Editor-at-Large. 

Lewis, a veteran journalist and livestream commentator, and two-time Esports Awards Journalist of the Year winner, will be joining the Dexerto team on a permanent basis, as Dexerto.com’s first ever ‘Editor-at-Large.’

Best known for his investigative journalism, including blowing the lid off match-fixing and corruption in CS:GO gambling, and exposing sexual abuse in the industry, Lewis is also a former desk host at ELEAGUE, the host of The Richard Lewis Show, and has written for many esports publications. 

After having worked for Dexerto.com as a freelancer since November 2018, he will now take on a permanent role with the outlet, focusing on creating esports themed video-led content and commissioning work from other content creators. 

Commenting on his new appointment, Lewis said:

“Dexerto is the leading media outlet for esports news in the world and a major voice in digital culture for tens of millions of Millennial and Gen Z fans, so i’m really happy to assume the role as Editor-at-Large at the outlet. I’m looking forward to focusing on video-led content for the company and working closely with Dexerto ahead of the unveiling of its very own production studio in London.”

While Co-Founder and CEO at Dexerto, Joshua Nino De Guzman, added:

“Richard is one of the most important people in esports and has been a leading journalist in the industry for over a decade, before the name esports was even coined as a term. 

“As well as supporting his critical work, this also reflects Dexerto’s decision to bring more video and event content together, allowing us to continue to break the stories that matter while reinforcing our world leading coverage of both esports and influencer entertainment”

Dexerto recently made two other key hires, in the form of Matt Hattrick as Brand Agency Director, and Ken Olsen as Director of Creative Strategy. 

The company now has more than 20M unique monthly visitors, and reaches tens of millions of Millennials and Gen-Z’s each month by publishing 24/7 content across owned social and digital platforms in three major languages. 

Headquartered in London, Dexerto also has offices in the United States and France, and has content creators located in eight countries. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Congratulations to Richard for landing what is surely one of the sweetest positions possible for an esports journalist! To many more years of breaking stories and righting wrongs… Spidey-style. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

German esports organisation FOKUS CLAN has teamed up with local gaming supplement brand ACTIVAT3D. 

The partnership will see FOKUS CLAN players use ACTIVAT3D’s products, including its ‘Cyber Skills’ gaming supplement, and likely its upcoming product ‘Bionic Shield’, and provide feedback to the company. 

Discussing the deal Founder and Managing Director of ACTIVAT3D, Klaus-Alexander Werner, said:

“Esports players have become athletes and full-time professionals and accordingly deserve high-quality and well-designed nutritional supplements. Winning FOKUS CLAN as our first major partner fills us with both pride and anticipation. 

“The boys are ambitious in sports, extremely respected in their community and what was important to us from the very beginning – they have a sense for product development, share their open feedback with us and so we drive each other to new heights of performance.”

While a spokesman for FOKUS CLAN, Hanspeter Tinners, added:

“The cooperation with ACTIVAT3D offers us new perspectives and special added values on the level of sports performance for our players and the team. It is our claim to set new points of attraction again and again, especially in the sporting area, to see a further development in the team.

”With ACTIVAT3D we have not only found a partner who also lives these values, much more we have worked together on the development of the first product lines, tested again and again, developed further, tested again until we reached the best possible result for us.”

#Werbung
Wir freuen uns euch unseren neuen Partner vorstellen zu dürfen – ACTIVAT3D 🎉🔥 Willkommen im Team! 🤩#GETACTIVAT3D

ACTIVAT3D Homepage: https://t.co/zykqiK2UVw pic.twitter.com/hbuEXNr1Jc

— FOKUS CLAN (@FOKUSCLANGG) September 9, 2020

FOKUS CLAN also has commercial partnerships in place with luxury car manufacturer Audi, snack brand, Funny-Frisch, insurance giant Zurich, and sports store Outfitter. 

AYO.NEWS says:

The gaming supplements market is extremely competitive, so for ACTIVAT3D to land an organisation with the reputation of FOKUS CLAN for their first partnership is pretty cool. Of course, all supplements claim to be the best, so we’ll have to see what it does for FOKUS CLAN’s players. 

Staying with esports supplements, last month Canadian esports and entertainment company, Tiidal Gaming Group, announced a sponsorship agreement with supplement brand XP Sports. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Juked.gg, the online esports content portal, has launched a crowd equity fundraising campaign via Republic.co. 

With the minimum investment amount being just $100 USD, the effort is aimed squarely at the esports community, and at the time of writing had already raised over $27K. Juked.gg hopes to raise up to $1.07M by 1 May 2021, with the maximum valuation of the company at which investments can convert being $8.5M. 

The crowdfunding campaign is using “SAFE” (simple agreement of future equity) security adjusted for such campaigns – meaning investors won’t be given voting, information, or inspection rights. However, they will get early access to upcoming features and internal roadmaps, and will also be able to access direct channels to work with the Juked team. 

Discussing the campaign Juked CEO, Benjamin Goldhaber, said:

“We faced significant challenges raising via VCs due to COVID-19 that made us much more bullish on the potential of crowd equity – the flow of capital nearly dried up for a few months, and in general, VCs were looking for surer bets (i.e. post-revenue companies). So this felt like a better alternative given the situation.”

However, Goldhaber also went on to say the company is still in talks with some traditional VC investors, and will still welcome the right opportunity. 

Juked aims to address the fragmented esports ecosystem, which it says makes following esports “difficult, time consuming, and inefficient.” It is creating a one-stop-shop that has everything esports fans need; notifications, esports streams, tournament information, news and content, social profiles, fantasy esports, gamification, commenting systems, and more.

In the first year since launch, Juked says its active user base has grown by 74.74% month-on-month by average, to over 50,000 monthly active users. The platform has already forged partnerships with major brands like Riot Games and DreamHack.

The company says it plans to use the new funding to continue to implement its business plan – which includes introducing a monthly subscription plan, fantasy esports integration, and gamification, along with forming more partnerships and attracting more advertisers. 

Juked raised $800K in a pre-seed round in February 2020. The round was led by 500 Startups, and also attracted participation from former Blizzard Entertainment executives Mike and Amy Morhaime, RotoGrinders.com co-founders Cameron MacMillan and Cal Spears, and MyFitnessPal co-founders Mike and Albert Lee, among others.

AYO.NEWS says:

Turning to crowdfunding right now might work for Juked, and could help strengthen its community by giving a real sense of ownership among users. However, crowdfunding can also be messy, with some very small investors feeling “over-entitled.” And, let’s not forget, given the sheer scale and ever-evolving nature of esports, Juked’s goal of simplifying the esports fan experience might prove fundamentally impossible.

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Das Race has launched a completely new entertainment format, blending traditional RC racing with the virtual world. 

Taking place on a full-scale, real-world track in Los Angeles, and featuring racers from across the United States competing remotely, Season 1 of Das Race will premiere on Twitch on 12 September. Episodes will stream at 5 PM PT/8 ET until 17 October, sponsored by göt2b®.

The races will feature 12 competitors, including  Madden content creator ‘Bengal’, MLB content creator Marc Luino a.k.a. “Giraffeneckmarc”, Silky Nutmeg Ganache (a contestant from Season 11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race), and Priyanka (Season 1 winner of Canada’s Drag Race). 

Das Race is the result of a collaboration between Berlin-based gaming and esports entertainment company Veritas Entertainment and Los Angeles-based creative experience agency Optimist Inc.. L.A.-based fabrication studio 60 Grit Studios, was also brought in to help bring the track to life. 

The project was initially inspired by the need for new entertainment formats when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Veritas was forced to postpone the grand opening of LVL – its state-of-the-art gaming and esports venue in Berlin. 

Discussing the project, CEO of iconmobile group and Veritas, Thomas Fellger, said:

“It’s amazing to see what can happen when you bring innovation to a new area of entertainment, and how the merging of physical and digital elements can result in an entirely new type of experience. The amount of excitement that has been generated through this initiative, especially among the Twitch community has been really inspiring to see.”

While CEO of Optimist Inc., Juergen Dold, added:

“We had our team in L.A. on the ground actually building out the racetrack, iconmobile’s teams in L.A. and Berlin programming the cars to work remotely, and Veritas’s team using its expertise in the gaming and esports industries to bring it all together. The fact that we were able to pull this off under those circumstances and in such a short time makes the premiere even more exciting.”

AYO.NEWS says:

No one would argue that the COVID-19 crisis has been a good thing, but Das Race illustrates perfectly that sometimes adversity leads to incredible innovation. Though sim racing is great, blending the elements of a real-world physical event with the benefits of remote play, could be a game changer. 

Staying with Veritas Entertainment, last month the company announced a partnership with in-game advertising platform Anzu. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Online casino games distributor QTech Games has strengthened its cross-vertical spread through a deal with EsportsConstruct. 

The partnership makes EsportsConstruct’s full portfolio, including FIFA 2000, NBA 2K20, Tennis World Tour, and Mortal Kombat, available to QTech Games clients and their players in developing territories.

QTech Games and EsportsConstruct say they have collaborated to optimise the esports experience for traditional bettors with a raft of recognisable titles, whose format and betting markets scale in synergy with the head-to-head competition of ball sports or big fights. This approach is designed to help establish esports betting as a long-term vertical, rather than simply a short-term alternative.

Discussing the partnership QTech Games CCO, Ulf Norder, said:

“It’s rewarding to team up with EsportsConstruct, whose brand shares our own core values around premium content and innovation. Whatever the state of play, the QTech platform is committed to identifying player demand and delivering it, via a game lobby whose machine learning techniques speak straight to wide-ranging markets and varied player preference.

“Esports, virtuals and Augmented Reality represent the next frontier for igaming – and this period of adaptation is now fast-tracking that process for esports which is here to stay. QTech are again leading the way forward in growth markets with an array of breakthrough deals.”

While CCO of EsportsConstruct, Dan Gibas, added:

“As part of the wider entertainment industry, operators are learning to adapt their offerings to accommodate changing appetites.

“As strategies shift, our esports portfolio is winning the day, realising the vertical’s potential by either engaging dormant sports audiences or cross-selling casino players with an organic diversion of attention. QTech Games’ expansive platform was naturally the perfect vehicle with which to distribute our content across emerging markets, particularly on mobile.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Increasingly we’re seeing both suppliers and operators realise that iGaming needs to start seeing itself as part of a complex digital entertainment ecosystem, of which the combined video gaming/esports space is already the dominant part. Of course, this new reality was already forming before the COVID-19 crisis, but there’s no doubt it is acting as a catalyst for even faster change.

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020