Plenty of big stories have surfaced this week in esports, and as always, we’ve rounded them up for you.
Epic Games has finally announced its big push into Fortnite becoming a legitimate esports title, Alienware has got involved with ESL, Dignitas has appointed a new CEO and brought in an impressive Rocket League team, and the Swedish eSports League is on the way.
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Epic Games will provide $100m in prize pools for the first year of Fortnite esports
Epic Games, the developer and publisher of Fortnite Battle Royale, has pledged to invest $100 million (£74.9 million) as prize pools for events across the 2018-2019 season.
This undoubtedly is the big push needed to propel Fortnite into esports. This investment is obviously a big deal, though Epic Games explained that its “approach will be more inclusive” than others – we’ll have to wait and see what that means beyond this huge sum of money.
Read the full article here.
ESL partner with Alienware for ESL One events
In the week, ESL announced that Alienware – a gaming subsidiary of Dell – has become the official partner for all ESL One events moving forward.
The gaming equipment and peripheral company will act as the official PC and monitor partner for the global circuit throughout 2018, starting with this weekend’s ESL One Birmingham (the first Dota 2 Major held in the UK.)
Read the full article here.
Dignitas appoint new CEO and sign Rocket League world champions
Team Dignitas has made a big change with the appointment of Michael Prindiville as its CEO.
The former Co-Executive Producer of NBC Sports has previous esports experience, acting as the Project Manager for the Universal Open in partnership with FACEIT. Alongside this internal change, the organisation has acquired the reigning Rocket League world champions to represent it going forward.
Read the full article here.
HeatoN and Potti launch Swedish eSports League
Emil “HeatoN” Christensen and Tommy “Potti” Ingemarsson have announced a joint venture to launch the Swedish eSports League, with the first season involving Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The aim and focus of this league is to develop local players and teams, as well as helping to reduce the skill-gap between professional and local competitors. The league hopes to add structure to the esports scene in Sweden, the likes of which already exists for traditional sports such as Hockey and Football.
Read the full article here.