Riot Games has unveiled its plans for the inaugural VALORANT Champions Tour 2021 season. 

A global competitive structure, featuring a range of different tournaments played across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia, the VALORANT Champions Tour, will take the action right through until the end of 2021. 

The new tour will be built around three stages; Challengers, Masters, and Champions. Open qualifiers will see teams battle for a place in the knockouts for regional Challengers tournaments, with the top teams securing positions in the international VALORANT Masters – of which three are scheduled for 2021. 

The best performing teams will then move on to battle in the VALORANT Champions -though there will also be a ‘last chance qualifier’ giving one more team a chance to move to the ultimate level, which will feature 16 teams. 

Regarding the plans Senior Director of Esports at Riot Games, Whalen Rozelle, said:

“The Champions Tour is our next step to grow VALORANT into a global esport worthy of the passion of our fans.

“We’ve spent a couple of years now talking to players, teams, fans, prospective partners, and other stakeholders, and we’re extremely excited to launch our first official season. 

“Our focus will be on elevating and showcasing the creative and talented players who are shaping this game across the globe. Fans and players both wanted high stakes competition, and that’s what the VALORANT Champions Tour is designed to do.”

Red Bull and Secretlab have both been confirmed as founding partners of the Champions Tour. 

AYO.NEWS says:

That’s a pretty solid setup for next year, with some major partners to boot, and reflects how VALORANT has already established itself as a respected esport – thanks in large part to the successful ‘First Strike’ competitive structure. 

Reflecting VALORANT’s popularity, earlier this month, Freaks 4U Gaming teamed up with marketing, media, and production agency Infront, to launch a new hub for the title, called Agent’s Range. 

‘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.

PUBG Corporation has teamed up with DreamHack to run a PUBG tournament for North America and Latin America this winter. 

With open qualifiers set to start for both regions on 28 November, the DreamHack PUBG Showdown Winter Americas will see the 16 best teams (6 from Latin America and 10 from North America) playing finals across 18 matches from 18-20 December. 

The $15K USD prize pool will be paid out to the six best teams, with $6.5K for 1st place, $4K for second, $2K for third, $1.1K for fourth, $800 for sixth, and $600 for sixth.

Matches will be streamed on PUBG Corp’s official YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook channels. 

AYO.NEWS says:

That’s a nice little boost for the PUBG scene as we wind down 2020, and get ready for what promises to be an epic year for PUBG and PUBG MOBILE esports in 2021.

As we reported only yesterday, PUBG Corporation has announced an 8-week in-person esports festival, featuring a $3.5M prize pool, set to take place from 2 February to 28 March. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that next year’s PUBG MOBILE Esports program will feature a $14M prize pool – the biggest in mobile esports history. 

‘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.

Czech esports organisation Entropiq has partnered with German sportswear brand PUMA, to launch a new merch and apparel line.

The collaboration, which makes PUMA Entropiq’s exclusive merchandising partner, will result in a line including a hoodie, T-shirt, jacket, sweatpants, and polo-style fan jersey. 

Commenting on the partnership Managing Director of Entropiq, Ondřej Drebota, said:

“In the last few months, we were in touch with several global brands, and after considerations and mutual agreement, we decided to sign with PUMA. I am delighted that we will be able to provide our players and fans with merchandising of the highest quality.

“While the fans’ interest in buying our merchandise has been imminent ever since our organization entered the esports realm, we understood the importance of the decision. It is a privilege to join forces with such a renowned brand, which provides sportswear for the Czech national football team and several first division clubs.”

While PUMA Area General Manager – Eastern Europe, Jan Sochor, added:

“PUMA follows the global trend of connection between sports and esports. We believe that, in today’s world, sports and esports are closely linked entities with many common features. I am very pleased that we can start our collaboration with esports organization Entropiq and together become a part of the gaming community on the Czech-Slovak as well as the international stage.”

Entropiq currently fields rosters in CS:GO, PUBG, FIFA 21, Hearthstone, and Valorant. In addition to PUMA, the organisation has partnerships with fast food giant McDonald’s, Fine Gusto jerky, Pure Coco coconut water, esports betting solutions provider ematiq, and herbal supplement Your Gate. 

AYO.NEWS says:

With apparel and merchandise now vital to the financial viability of esports organisations, it’s never been more important to choose partners wisely – after all, no one wants a repeat of the Team Singularity – DashThreads debacle. But, with PUMA, which already has an extensive esports presence, Entropiq should be in safe hands. 

‘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.

Adverty has been granted a United States patent for its in-game ad viewability technology BrainImpression™. 

The patent covers a groundbreaking method for determining ad viewability and impressions within complex gaming environments,for example, when an advert is considered as seen by the user, within complex computer-generated graphical environments such as two-dimensional and three-dimensional games. The patented invention is one of the core functionalities of Adverty’s in-game advertising platform. 

Viewability is one of the most important metrics in brand advertising and several renowned brands tend to exclude websites and other advertising media with low viewability in their media plans. To help advertisers understand and publishers define how to count an ad as seen, the media industry has established standards on how to measure web-based ad viewability. 

In regards to in-game advertising viewability, the industry is still at its infancy, with Adverty taking an active role in helping both IAB and third party ad verification leaders define these industry-wide, sought-after standards.  

Niklas Bakos, CEO and founder of Adverty, explained:

“Our patented in-game viewability algorithm outlines one of the core functionalities in our cutting-edge ad platform. We use our knowledge and innovation to help define appropriate viewability standards for in-game advertising – something that will benefit the media industry and heighten the acceptance of this new ad format amongst advertisers.”

The BrainImpression™ patent covers and protects a method of deciding if an advertisement, displayed in a gaming environment and shown on a display, has been seen by a user. The method of decision is based on the ad size, time in view and position on display for the user. Depending on the size of the ad on display, the ad is classified as seen after various time intervals, triggering an ad impression by the system.

Furthermore, the patent covers specific methods for adverts in the three-dimensional gaming space, where viewing angles and incidence angles towards the ad and the user display determine how well the ad is visible at any given time. For example, an ad unit viewed from the side is not detected as quickly, if at all, depending on its viewing angle, compared to an ad unit seen from a straight angle. Moreover, an advert placed in the center of the field of view is classified as seen faster than an ad closer to the periphery with a higher angle of incidence. 

The BrainImpression™ patent application was filed in March 2017 at a time when Adverty focused on future gaming platforms such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality. Over the years, the focus has shifted towards mobile games, the largest and fastest growing gaming platform globally. Altogether, Adverty has established a leading cross-platform framework for unobtrusive, in-game brand and performance advertising, allowing brands to connect with new audiences in unique ways.

With the company’s fundamental mission in mind, the patent US 16/499.258 / US20200110262A1 covers head-mounted displays, such as Virtual Reality headsets, Augmented Reality headsets and smart glasses. A continuing application to protect the invention for other displays such as mobile phone, tablet and TV screens has been submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Staying with Adverty, earlier this month the company announced the appointment of Johanna Nymberg as Global Director of Business Development. 

The latest iteration of Call of Duty reaches new audiences through In-Play™ advertising with unparalleled contextual, geographical, visual, and cultural fit#callofduty #adverty #ingameads #FPSgames #gaming #consolegaming #esports #digitaladvertising #advertising pic.twitter.com/rSySk1QK0k

— Adverty (@adverty) November 12, 2020

AYO.NEWS says:

In-game advertising offers incredible potential for brands to connect with audiences, but without accurate metrics many may be put off from trying the waters. Adverty’s BrainImpression is a novel, and potentially very effective, solution which could seriously catalyse the whole in-game advertising space. 

In September, AYO.NEW’s very own Simona Pinterova caught up with Adverty CEO & Co-Founder, Niklas Bakos, to find out more about the platform and the intriguing world of in-game advertising. 

‘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.

Simona catches up with Ultimate Gamer CEO, Steve Suarez, to find out what inspired the world’s first and only multi-genre esports and gaming proving ground, and where its going.

Ultimate Gamer is unique in that it is a building the world’s largest community of gamers, of all skill levels and walks of life, across multiple genres and titles, while on a mission to find the world’s Best Gamer™.

Join the Ultimate Gamer community at ultimategamer.com

Staying with Ultimate Gamer, yesterday the company announced a partnership with global gaming marketplace Kinguin, which will give its community of over 1.6M esports and gaming fans access to more than 45K gaming titles, and provide opportunities for players to compete in the Ultimate Gamer Arena for discounts on Kinguin products.

Epic Games and the National Football League (NFL) are expanding their partnership, and Rocket League integration is set to follow.

The development will see more NFL content integrated into Epic’s popular Fortnite title. From tomorrow, Fortnite will offer updated “Gridiron Gang Outfits” from all 32 official NFL teams. Each will be available in two styles and customisable. 

Epic Games-owned Psyonix will also be integrating official NFL content into Rocket League later this year, though specific details are yet to be announced. 

Commenting on the news NFL Vice President and Head of Gaming and eSports, Rachel Hoagland, said:

“We are thrilled to expand on our partnership with Epic to bring more NFL integration into Fortnite and Rocket League.

“The response we saw from our initial integration within Fortnite coupled with the popularity of Fortnite among NFL players and fans has been incredible, and we’re excited for another opportunity to give gamers a chance to express their NFL fandom within Rocket League.”

AYO.NEWS says:

With Fortnite now claiming over 350 million players across Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Android, and dominating Twitch, the expansion of its partnership with the NFL is a pretty big deal for Epic and America’s biggest league. As for the Rocket League content, we’re looking forward to seeing some pretty sweet designs on the pitch. 

‘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.