This week in esports hasn’t let up, from Team Vitality receiving a significant investment to Mike Sepso’s latest esports venture being announced, Warcraft 3 esports getting a huge boost and esports is back on the medal table at the SouthEast Asian Games.
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Team Vitality receives €20M investment from Tej Kohli
French organisation Team Vitality has received a €20 million (£17.7 million) investment from tech entrepreneur Tej Kohli.
The investment will be used to develop “state of the art facilities” such as training and performance centres, as well as a store and office. Team Vitality recently invested in a CS:GO roster and became a franchise partner of Riot Games’ LEC.
Read the full article here.
Mike Sepso and Bobby Sharma form Electronic Sports Group
Mike Sepso, Co-founder of Major League Gaming has joined forces with former IMG executive Bobby Sharma to launch the Electronic Sports Group (ESG).
ESG will “deliver strategic business advice to senior management at clients across the advertising, finance, sports, and media industries”. The firm has entered strategic partnerships with Nielsen and Sports Media Advisors (SMA).
Read the full article here.
NetEase announce 2019 esports plan with Blizzard, including $720k for Warcraft III
Blizzard and Chinese tech company NetEase have revealed their plans for Blizzard’s Chinese esports scene in 2019, including Hearthstone, StarCraft 2, Warcraft 3, and Heroes of the Storm.
The new deal will be of particular interest to Warcraft 3 fans with ¥5M RMB (£670,000) on the line. The news comes after BlizzCon when it was announced the game will be remastered in 2019.
Read the full article here.
Southeast Asian Games to include esports as a medal event
The South East Asian (SEA) Games has announced it will feature six esports titles as official medal sports when it returns to the Philippines next year.
Esports featured at the 2018 Asian Games as a demonstration sport. It was expected to feature as a medal event in 2022, however, this has recently seen a setback due to esports lacking a governing body.
Read the full article here.