Taking over from the previous Gamers8 tournaments, the Esports World Cup will boast a staggering US$60 million prize pool, as it aims to be the largest esports event to date.

However, its location in Saudi Arabia, a country criticized for its human rights record, has sparked debate within the gaming community.

The tournament will feature 20 distinct tournaments across a variety of titles, and they include:

Each tournament will follow a unique format while contributing to the larger Club Championship.

This innovative competition will award US$20 million to the top 16 clubs based on their performance across multiple titles.

The prize pool distribution includes over US$33 million for individual game tournaments, US$20 million for the Club Championship, US$1.1 million for MVP awards, and US$7.6 million for qualifying rewards.

The significant investment reflects the organizers’ commitment to fostering the global esports industry and providing substantial opportunities for players and clubs.

Despite the financial allure, the event’s association with Saudi Arabia has drawn criticism.

The country’s track record on LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, and free speech clashes with the inclusive values often espoused by the gaming community.

However, for many esports organizations grappling with financial challenges, the opportunity to compete for such substantial prizes may outweigh ethical concerns.

The Esports World Cup represents a pivotal moment for esports, aiming to elevate the industry to the scale of traditional sports events like the Olympics.

With the backing of the Saudi Arabian government and a clear vision for growth, the tournament seeks to establish Riyadh as a global hub for gaming and esports.

As preparations for the event continue, details regarding specific tournament formats, dates, and prize pool distributions will be eagerly awaited by fans and participants alike.

While the debate over the tournament’s location may persist, the Esports World Cup signals a significant milestone in the continued evolution of competitive gaming on the world stage.

#EsportsWorldCup 2024 prize pool in a nutshell:
$30,000,000+ | Game Championships
$20,000,000 | Club Championship
$7,600,000 | Qualifiers
$1,100,000 | MVP Awards pic.twitter.com/LNGa1v8V8e

— Esports World Cup (@ESWCgg) April 16, 2024

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?Riot Games gave the Singaporean company the rights to publish League of Legends in 2010, with the rights for Teamfight Tactics following later. After 12 years, Riot is gearing up to take back control beginning in January 2023.? ?

The game developer shared this development via a press release on its official website. While League of Legends has grown into a favorite in Southeast Asia, Riot guarantees the player experience will remain unchanged across the world.? ?

“After a 12-year partnership with Garena, Riot Games will begin self-publishing League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics across Southeast Asia in January 2023,” the statement read.? ?

“In the years since Riot first released League in 2009, the game has become a favorite for players in Southeast Asia. By self-publishing, we will make sure players in Southeast Asia have the same League and TFT experience as people who play our games all around the world.”? ?

Riot currently self-publishes Valorant in the region, so its decision to do the same for LoL and TFT comes as no surprise. The organization has revealed its intent to increase its presence in the region, proposing the creation of offices in the Philippines and Indonesia.? ?

In the released statement, Riot Games thanked Garena for its contributions over the past 12 years. The game publisher also revealed that, aside from self-publishing Valorant in the region, it also controls the publishing of Legends of Runeterra and League of Legends: Wild Rift.?

?“Over the past decade, Garena has been instrumental in growing the League community and we’re thankful for their partnership,” the statement continued.?

?“With Riot’s growth and expansion into a multi-game studio, we are continuing to focus on serving more players around the world and especially in the Asia-Pacific regions.? ?

“With that in mind, we’ve decided to end our partnership with Garena and self-publish our games across Asia-Pacific. We have already been self-publishing VALORANT, Legends of Runeterra, and League of Legends: Wild Rift in the region, and soon, League and TFT will join them.”?

?The statement revealed that the migration of accounts from Garena to Riot will commence on November 19. The game developer promises to work closely with Garena during the transition in order to prevent any possible glitches or lags in the system.?

?Riot stated that everything, including players’ skins, ranks, Riot points, and levels, will remain intact during the transfer. Users who played at least one LoL or TFT game during the 2021 or 2022 seasons will be able to access Summoner Names. Also, friends who have yet to transfer their accounts might not be visible on their friends lists.? ?

Riot Games strongly believes that the decision will be to the benefit of the Southeast Asian esports scene, stating that “this transition will help provide League pro teams and fans with the most exciting and entertaining esports experience possible”.? ?

Since the Garena LoL account will no longer be in use after the migration, Riot advised players to immediately migrate their accounts. The game developer has also warned that accounts which are not migrated before December 31 will be deleted.

?Riot Games has also announced that it will be taking over the ownership and operation of the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS). Previously managed by both Riot and Garena, the VCS has been the top-tier division for League of Legends in Vietnam since 2018.

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The new Global Head of Esports, Sherman started his career with Riot Games in 2014. He was part of the League of Legends’ Collegiate program after which he climbed the career ladder to the position of Program Lead. In 2020, he became the marketing and communications head of the League of Legends Championship Series.

Sherman had taken to his LinkedIn account to share his excitement about the new role. He highlighted his passion for building esports alongside the community. He emphasized that this passion will be at the core of his activities in his new role.

“I’m super excited to announce that I’ve started a new role as the Global Head of Esports for TFT LoR, and Project L,” Sherman wrote. “I’m extremely passionate about building esports alongside the community, and that will remain one of my top priorities moving into this new role.”

Riot had recently shared its direction for TFT esports, which it plans to run through October 2022 in North America and EMEA. The organization’s plans include the expansion of the title’s scope, which includes the creation of more tournaments, teams, and more appealing prize pools.

Sherman had stated that his primary focus at the moment will be centered on TFT esports. While he debunked any thoughts of Project L being released soon, he revealed that when the upcoming fighting game does get closer to release, he will begin to ramp up operations on that end.

The role is segmented into three parts, such as auto-battlers, collectible card games, and fighting games. The new role will see Sherman handle the development of unique strategies to aid in the creation of content dedicated to each audience.

He will also be burdened with the responsibility of developing a unique identity for each title at its pivotal stage of creation. Sherman’s appointment was born of the need that Riot Games’ current esports programming caters to MOBA and tactical FPS fans.

“We don’t think that what we’ve done for games like League of Legends and VALORANT will apply here,” Sherman said.

While Project L still remains a mystery as regards the details surrounding the esports title. It is, however, clear that the game will not be released anytime before 2023, but could be released in 2023 at the earliest.

The Fighting Game Community has been keen on getting more details on Riot’s timetable for the title. They have also been interested in finding out if the organization will be looking to organize its own events or ride on existing FGC tournament organizers.

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Golden Guardians’ first appearance in the esports scene came in late 2017 when they joined the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) along with 100 Thieves, Clutch Gaming and OpTic Gaming. Their inaugural roster consisted of Samson “Lourlo” Jackson, Juan “Contractz” Arturo Garcia, Hai “Hai” Du Lam, Matthew “Deftly” Chen and Matthew “Matt” Elento, with Choi “Locodoco” Yoon-seop as head coach.

The newly established team failed to achieve much success in their LCS debut, finishing both 2018 splits dead-last with an aggregate score of 9-27. Those poor results led to several changes and a roster reshuffle, which saw GGS improve to finish fifth-sixth in the 2019 LCS Spring Split and seventh in the Summer Split.

After a rather underwhelming venture in the League of Legends esports scene, Golden Guardians announced on Wednesday they will be expanding their brand into Apex Legends, World of Warcraft and Teamfight Tactics.

Rebecca “Becca” Cho, Jeffrey “DeliciousMilkGG” Pan and Andrew “TidesofTime” Biessener will from now on play Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra and Hearthstone under the GGS banner.

GGS’s Apex Legends esports team will consist of Timothy “iiTzTimmy” An, Devon “Pfitter” Self and Deston “Bronzey” Nguyen. They will also make appearances in other battle royale games.

Last but not least, Jason “Pikaboo” Smith, Conner “Wizk” Torrence, Vincent “Jellybeans” Tran and Carlos “Absterge” Correa will form Golden Guardians’ World of Warcraft esports team. These four once played together at The Goshu Crew, where they clinched a silver medal at the 2018 Arena World Championship before leaving to form their own squad, The Move.

Golden Guardians are the esports arm of the Golden State Warriors NBA team. According to Kirk Lacob, GSW Sports Ventures Vice President, the franchise is eager to make a lasting impact beyond the boards.

“Expanding our esports portfolio is an integral part of growing the Warriors brand from just a basketball team to a sports and entertainment company,” he said.

“We are always looking for innovative ways to strengthen the footprint of our organization, and growing the Golden Guardians brand is a major aspect of that growth.”

Golden Guardians also revealed a new logo, which will move away from the yellow and blue colour scheme of the Warriors to a more modern-looking black and gold logo. The new branding has received fairly positive feedback so far, which is quite the opposite of what Evil Geniuses experienced after unveiling their new logo earlier this week.

With that move, Golden Guardians will spread their reach into three growing esports titles. Auto-battler games are slowly but surely finding their feet in the competitive gaming scene, while EA and Respawn recently announced the Apex Legends Global Series – a new multi-tournament esports event which is set to kick off in January 2020.

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On Friday, November 1, G2 Esports’ official Twitter page announced the return of Making The Squad, once again in partnership with Nicecactus, which is an online competitive gaming platform formerly known as Esport Management.

According to the announcement, the talent show will feature seven players of League of Legends auto-battler game title, Teamfight Tactics, from all over the globe, who will compete in a variety of challenges over the course of a week.

On their official website, G2 urged anyone to apply for the talent show, no matter his/her rank, as it won’t play a part in the selecting process. Instead, they will be looking for people with the right personality and ability to become one of G2’s content creators.

The seven selected contestants will then travel to Berlin, where they will compete against each other in a series of challenges, which will showcase their ability to entertain, captivate and persevere.

The nature of the challenges remains a mystery, as there were no announcement what those might be. That being said, G2 has revealed a US $10,000 grand prize will be awarded to the winner in addition to a paid trip to a G2 Esports event and a chance to become one of G2 Esports’ official content creator.

But this won’t be the first time G2 partners with Nicecactus. The two companies worked together to create the first instalment of Making the Squad in October 2018, when Nicecactus worked under the brand name Esports Management.

The last season of the show ended with Kevin “Tohaj” Batic, Justin “NoWonder” Pulley, Maxime “MaximeMXM” Bijmans and Ricardo “ForsaKen” Dixon all earning contracts with G2 Esports, and with that became a part of G2’s streamer roster and their newest ambassadors.

“Making The Squad was so successful that we couldn’t wait to start producing the second edition. TFT has an incredibly engaged and passionate community, and since this amazing game came out, we’ve been trying to cater to it as much as possible. Hafu, Thijs, Lothar and other competitors and creators of ours have been able to develop a community around this game and we can’t wait to give them back some value,” said G2 Esports CEO Carlos “ocelote” Rodriguez.

The applications for Making the Squad 2 are open November 1, 2019, through November 8, 2019, on G2’s official website where anyone can submit a short video showcasing their personality and reasons why they wish to participate at Making the Squad 2. Additionally, the applicants must submit a written description of their history with G2 and their experience as a content creator.
Picking the seven participants will be the Rodriguez, nicecactus.gg director Jordan Savelli and other special guests.

As of now, no date has been confirmed for Making the Squad 2, with further information said to be released after the application process closes on Friday, November 8.

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Teamfight Tactics has officially entered the public beta environment, giving fans a chance to test it out – provided they are willing to wait a couple of hours to get through the queue time. Fans and streamers have expressed their satisfaction with the new mode, which has brought a breeze of fresh air into a 10-year-old game.

As revealed by Riot, Teamfight Tactics is a game that falls into the autobattler genre. Eight players are pitted against each other in a free-for-all where each gets to choose the best combinations of items, champions and battle formations to defeat their opponents.

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While it is still in beta, many LoL fans and gaming experts believe Teamfight Tactics has the potential to become a major esport in its own right.

For a video game to become an esport, it needs a couple of things. One of those is popularity, which should not be an issue in this case when you consider the size and scope of the LoL community, the promising early reviews of the game and the hype coming from Riot.

Esports games also need to be highly competitive and must have a big learning curve in order to attract pro gamers. Again, Teamfight Tactics ticks all the boxes and has a ready-made pool of LoL players on hand.

The game mode is only in the testing phase, however, so there is a long way to go before the LoL community can start talking in earnest about the possibility of Teamfight Tactics esports.

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