This week in Esports: EG and Alliance go indie, TSM & C9 partner with Axe, PSG reveal ECS roster

Ollie Ring
calendar-icon

It’s been a somewhat quiet week in esports as the world and industry moves towards the festive period. Saying that, two of the biggest esports organisations have become independent, player owned organisations – EG and AllianceTSM and C9 are starting to reap the benefits of their partnership with Twitch as they attract Axe and Paris Saint-Germain carried on their strong esports showing thus far with their grand reveal of their League of Legends roster to compete in the European Challenger Series.

cloud9-axe

C9 and TSM partner with Axe

Similar posts appeared on both the C9 and TSM websites earlier this week reading along the lines of:

“We at TSM are proud to announce our new partnership with Axe, the No.1 men’s fragrance brand in the world*. As of today, Axe will be an official partner of TSM. We’re excited to bring Axe into the world of Esports and welcome them to the TSM family!” 

Earlier this month, both esports brands partnered with Twitch in a bit to attract a wider range of non-endemic sponsorship and so far, so good. Axe (Lynx in the UK) is a large, well respected brand and they’ve done well to bring them in. There’s very little detail on the amount the deal is worth or what will come of it – only time will tell. 

Read the full article here. 

Alliance and Evil Geniuses become independent player owned organisations

Two very well established esports brands (EG and Alliance) became independent from Twitch this week and officially became player owned.

Whilst the Alliance ownership structure hasn’t yet been fully revealed, it has been established that Peter ‘ppd’ Dager, a winner of The International 5 in Dota 2 with EG will be CEO and Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis (another TI winner) will be a co-owner. 

Dager said “I’m excited, now that the company is in our control, that I can go out and pick up new teams and new talent to build up the EG organization to where it deserves to be.”

Read the full article here.

PSG reveal LoL team to compete in ECS

PSG produced quite the show when they announced their esports division and signing of two FIFA players after partnering with Webedia a while back. 

With Bora “YellOwStAr” Kim at the helm as Head of Esports, and having purchased a spot in the League of Legends European Challenger Series, the brand have been teasing their roster reveal for a while. 

When it came, it didn’t disappoint with the video every bit as emphatic and well planned as we have now come to expect from the French juggernaut. 

Read the full article and watch the video here. 

Ollie Ring

Contributing Editor
Ollie swapped the abacus for Sonic on the SEGA Mega Drive at neighbor Frank's house at an early age and has never looked back. With thousands of hours in Dota 2 (and no ability to show for it), he still clings on to the hope that one day, he will replicate Natus Vincere at gamescom 14 years ago and lift the Aegis of Champions. Ollie has been at the intersection of video games, esports, and gambling for over ten years and has also worked in consultancy in the gambling industry. Ollie's work can be found on the likes of: BBC, Red Bull Gaming, Esports Insider, CasinoBeats, PC Gamer, Green Man Gaming as well as his own thought-leadership substack "Esprouts" looking at specific studies and stories where games meet gambling.
Read Full Bio
Stay updated with the latest in Esports Follow Esports Insider for breaking news, features and guides
Add ESI as your preferred source on Google Add ESI as your preferred source on Google
ESI Ranking System
We’ve created a ranking system to help you quickly know how good each gambling platform is. As gamblers ourselves, we know which factors matter most to you, so we follow a best-in-class methodology to test each one with no stone unturned. Once done, we then rank each platform based on the following tiers:
  • A-Tier High-quality sites that deliver a top experience every time. They boast strong performance, nice features, and reliable support, but are just shy of perfection.
  • B-Tier Solid platforms that are worth a spin. They’re safe, fun, and functional, but may be lacking advanced features or have minor drawbacks.
  • S-Tier Reserved for elite operators only. These go well beyond the norm with lucrative bonuses, rewarding promotions, lightning-fast payouts, and a flawless experience overall.
To read more details about how we review casino and betting sites, check out How We Rate Gambling Operators.