Nashville-based esports merchandising company We Are Nations has announced the launch of Nations Ventures. 

The new esports investment firm plans to support early-stage companies that aren’t in competition with We Are Nations’ core business, looking to “provide opportunities for collaboration, product and marketing enhancement and other economies of scale.” 

Nations Ventures will be majority owned by We Are Nations, with the remainder owned by We Are Nations’ investors. The first investments are expected to be made during the third quarter of 2020. 

Discussing the news CEO of We Are Nations, Patrick Mahoney, said:

• “Nations Ventures seemed like a smart next step for We Are Nations. Like I’m sure everyone else has been doing since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, I’ve spent a lot more time on calls talking to people a bit more outside my normal orbit than usual. These connections have been great and have opened my eyes to a bunch of ideas that We Are Nations would love to be part of.”

While Managing Partner of Nations Ventures, Dan Cardell, added:

“This is an excellent time to launch the fund. We’re seeing tremendous opportunities in the esports space due to the relationships that We Are Nations has built.”

We Are Nations is currently official merchandiser for League of Legends Championship Series, G2 Esports, Optic Gaming, Origen, ECS, FaceIt, Method, Luminosity, MiBR, MVP, PLG, Esports Stadium, Misfits Gaming, NASR Esports, Mayhem Academy, Drop Bears, Dire Wolves and others.

AYO.NEWS says:

Given We Are Nations extensive existing relationships with esports organisations, leagues and leaders across the world, this seems like a natural development, and it couldn’t be timed better, with esports enjoying an explosion in popularity due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. 

‘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

The Epic Esports Events company has announced the Epic Staff Battle charity event, featuring staff from 12 CIS esports organisations. 

Staff from Natus Vincere, Virtus.pro, Gambit Esports, Team Spirit, forZe, Espada, Winstrike, Hell Raisers, Team Empire, Nemiga, Avangar, and EXTREMUM will be competing in Dota 2 and CS:GO as part of the series, with RuHub Studio providing live coverage. 

Epic Staff Battle rules allow professional CS:GO players to participate in the Dota 2 show-matches, and vice versa. 

Ex-pros and coaching staff will also be allowed to enter. This means viewers will get to see stars like NAVI’s Alexandr “s1mple” Kostylev and Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov, forZe’s coach Sergey “lmbt” Bezhanov, and NAVI’s journalist Yana “b2ru” Khimchenko battle each other in Dota 2. 

The base prize pool is $5,000, with prizes going to the charity chosen by the winners. The prize pool can be increased via donations from companies that would like to have staff or affiliated streamers participate in show-matches. Supporting companies can also benefit from team naming and advertising. More information can be found here. 

AYO.NEWS says:

It’s always great to see esports organisations supporting charity, especially during these troubled times, but a series for support staff and ex pros, rather than current professional players is something a bit different.

‘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

European esports organisation Team Secret has announced a partnership with Chinese streaming platform HUYA. 

The multi-year agreement will see Team Secret’s players stream on HUYA, and the Chinese company will also be jersey sponsor. For Team Secret, the partnership offers a way to strengthen its reach in the vast Chinese market.

HUYA is already partnered with Team Liquid and Team Griffin, while British organisation Method is partnered with rival DouYu. Team Secret also has commercial agreements in place with CORSAIR, Meta Threads, Mogul, NVIDIA, ookyo, Secretlab, and Uwin. 

We are proud to announce Huya as our streaming partner in China!

As we traveled the world to compete at the highest level, we’ve connected with fans in every region.

This new partnership will help us reach Chinese fans in a way we couldn’t before.

🔗 https://t.co/9yDFMyVP9z pic.twitter.com/vNpUzIyklK

— Team Secret (@teamsecret) May 22, 2020

Team Liquid fields teams in several titles including Dota 2, Rainbow Six Siege, Fortnite, CS:GO, Apex Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile, and Age of Empires II.

AYO.NEWS says:

The sheer size and growth rate of the Chinese esports and gaming market means it is commercially compelling for most major esports organisations, so it’s no surprise to see a deal like this. 

‘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

Statespace, the creator of Aim Lab, has secured $15 million in a Series A funding round.

Khosla Ventures led the round, with founding partner Samir Kaul joining Statespace’s board. Current investors FirstMark Capital, Expa, and Lux Capital also participated, along with new investor June Fund. 

According to the company, which combines gaming with cognitive science and artificial intelligence, it will use the new capital to expand its team, which has doubled since its last funding round in August 2019, when it raised $2.5m. 

The company is also working on a mobile version of Aim Lab, and says it will be adding support for Xbox and Playstation in the near future. An Academy, created in partnership with Masterclass and several top streamers, is also slated to launch in Q3 2020. 

According to Statespace CEO, Wayne Mackey, the platform now has 2 million registered users, with around 500K monthly active users – a 400% increase from January.

Aim Lab, Statespace’s flagship esports offering, recently signed a deal with Overwatch League franchise Philadelphia Fusion.

AYO.NEWS says:

With esport now big business, and millions of gamers dreaming of turning pro and building careers in the space, there’s clearly massive demand for services that help players improve their skills, so the future’s looking bright for companies like Statespace. 

‘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

The UK arm of multinational electronics giant LG has launched a dedicated esports and gaming channel, LG Gaming. 

Serving the esports and gaming communities with dedicated content and services, the new channel has been launched in partnership with UK-based esports agency Kairos Esports. The new channel will also serve as a platform to market LG’s hardware to gamers. 

Discussing the new channel Marketing Director at LG Electronics UK, Carolyn Anderson, said:

“The gaming and esports community is one of the most unique and exciting communities in the world, and as one of the leading providers of esports products, it’s incredibly important to us to have a real and authentic involvement with the culture.

“LG Gaming provides us with a new opportunity to connect and get involved in a way that we never have before, and we can’t wait to reveal some of the activities we have planned – starting with upgrading our fans’ set-ups at home.”

While CEO of Kairos Esports, Drew Townley, added:

“It’s a really exciting time for us at Kairos Esports as we go from strength to strength, having now launched many of the largest and most successful gaming and esports brand activations globally within the last year. This new launch with LG has been a big focus of the team recently and we can’t wait to show the gaming and esports community just how valuable LG Gaming can be to them.”

You may remember Kairos Esports from its KFC gaming initiative in February, with its “Esports Performance Burger” and entertaining mockumentary. 

Game time. pic.twitter.com/990oN9oBAh

— LG Gaming (@LGGaming) May 18, 2020

AYO.NEWS says:

Though it’s obviously a move in the right direction for LG, and Kairos has proven itself a very capable agency, we can’t help but think the offering so far is lackluster and really quite a let down. Maybe they should have waited until they had a distinctive visual identity and some real content before launching? 

‘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

Isle of Man-based esports betting operator Luckbox has welcomed US soccer player Luis Robles as an investor. 

Robles is goalkeeper for Inter Miami – the Major League Soccer (MLS) team co-owned by David Beckham. He also has a degree in finance from the University of Portland and is a keen investor. 

Regarding his investment, Robles said:

“On the road, I’ll be watching Netflix, while my room-mate is watching Twitch. My team-mates, they’re watching in the same way they watch an opponent for a football match. They like to see tactics and strategies, what people are using and what works so that they can use those things in their own game.

“That to me was mind-blowing. And yet, it’s what people are doing and it shows the importance of esports in our culture right now. With what’s going on in the world right now, a lot of the way we’ve been able to maintain a connection with our fanbase, is through FIFA – using FIFA as an avenue through which players can still compete, while entertaining and engaging fans.

“I love investing, I love diversifying my portfolio and looking at different decks and wishing I could get involved and Luckbox has given me a great opportunity to do that.”

While CEO of Luckbox, Quentin Martin, added:

“It’s well documented that esports is super-hot right now and many famous names from the world of sports and entertainment have recognised this by backing a host of projects. We’ve been live in 100 countries for just over a year now, so we’re still a very young company. To have the support of someone as highly respected as Luis is clearly a massive boost for our company.

“For sports fans, betting on outcomes is often an extra way to enjoy the match experience. Safe, legal and legitimate betting is increasingly important to esports and, over the coming years, it will be the dominant driver of revenue for the industry.”

Financial terms of the investment have not been disclosed. The news follows this week’s announcement that the operator is to list itself publicly on the TSX Venture Exchange. 

AYO.NEWS says:

Clearly there’s a useful publicity value when a major celebrity or sports star invests in an esports business, but it’s also an indication of how the perception of esports is evolving to those in the traditional sports and entertainment industries.

Michael Jordan, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Odell Beckham Jr have all invested in pro gaming in recent years. Just a couple of months ago we reported Tribe Gaming had secured over $1m in a seed funding round that included Boston Celtics player Gordon Hayward, and WWE pro wrestler Claudio “Cesaro” Castagnoli. 

‘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