TALKESPORT

The WePlay Esports media holding company opens a sales office to support their products and services in one of the key regions for the company’s growth. It will focus on brand integration in the UK, as well as on attracting new partners.

The esports industry in the region is soaring. At the moment, the esports audience in the UK totals 5.37 million people, with gamers aged 21 to 50 with an average and high income making up its core. Women and men are equally passionate about video games.

“Having a sales office in London makes it easier for us to work with UK companies, local offices, and hubs. Of course, we are interested in cooperation with endemic brands, but we also see an interest in esports from outside the industry: from FMCG to car manufacturers and financial services. Many brands have had to adapt to working in a pandemic and are moving sales online, so they will benefit a lot from new advertising platforms such as esports tournaments,” notes Yevheniia Tymofieieva, head of business development at WePlay Esports.

Left on the covers of the article.

Warren Lincoln is a key representative of the sales office in the UK. Warren has vast experience in the esports and gaming industry and is ready to help brands get the most out of their partnership with WePlay Esports.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to support the ambitions that WePlay Esports has as a global company. The development of creative production solutions still remains its main goal. I am confident that together, we will create integration concepts that will prove efficient for our partners in the long run. This is how business should be done in the entertainment and gaming industry,”  says Warren Lincoln, Business Development Officer at WePlay Esports.

A sales office in the United Kingdom is yet another step on the holding company’s way to developing its own esports ecosystem to the benefit of viewers, players, and brands all over the world.

The Upper-Bracket Quarter Final in Group B of IEM Katowice 2021 pits two familiar foes together – FaZe CLAN and Team Liquid. The winner of the best-of-3 will advance to the Upper Bracket Semi-Final to face the winner from the match between Team Vitality and OG while the loser moves down to the Lower Bracket and will fight for their lives against the loser of the same aforementioned matchup.

Road to IEM Katowice 2021

FaZe CLAN somehow managed to eke into the top six of the Road to Katowice European Ranking List, thanks to mousesports’ runners-up finish in the DreamHack Masters Winter. However, the North American organization has since seen an upturn in fortunes and form, especially with the arrival of Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken from Team Liquid. FaZe CLAN have also welcomed back mercurial IGL Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen, who has left mousesports to join the new and exciting project.

For Team Liquid, it has been far from a rosy path. The heavyweights failed to book their slot through the North American Road to Katowice Rankings and were hence, thrown into the Play-In stage. While the 16-12 against mibr was a relatively comfortable affair, their 2-1 series win over OG pushed them to their limits. After trading their map picks with an identical scoreline, the decider, Nuke, saw the two teams level at 14-14 before Liquid managed to persevere through to book their place at the Main Event. With Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo taking over the reins of the IGL at Team Liquid now, an improvement in form is expected from the new-look lineup.

Recent Rumbles

Twistzz has made a huge impact since joining FaZe CLAN and his former teammates have been at the receiving end of it. The two teams faced off in the Blast Premier Spring 2021 Group Stage, with FaZe CLAN recording two clean 2-0 wins over Team Liquid, including a 16-1 rollicking on Nuke.

Map Pick Prediction (Nuke, Inferno, Dust2)

FaZe CLAN are unlikely to take any chances and continue to veto Vertigo out against Team Liquid. The latter will be aware of karrigan’s fondness of picking Train and are likely to remove it from the map pool. FaZe CLAN’s recent successes over Team Liquid would have instilled confidence in their Nuke pick and karrigan is likely to take it as their pick.

Team Liquid have been experimenting on their map pick choices, with Nuke, Inferno and even Dust2 picked frequently. However, the North American stack will likely prefer Inferno over Dust2 right now, especially with FalleN now in charge of calling duties.

FaZe CLAN will ban Overpass subsequently, with Team Liquid banning Mirage to automatically choose Dust2 as the decider.

Predicted Result (FaZE CLAN 2-0 Team Liquid)

Should the aforementioned map picks come to fruition, it will be an advantage of FaZe CLAN once again. While FaZe have already beaten Team Liquid on all of these maps in the last 2 best-of-3 series, karrigan’s arrival will mark the start of the honeymoon period, if you will, for FaZe CLAN.

FaZe Clan being the favorites, they are expected to win the battle 2-0. The odds on sites such as ComeOn are compelling, to say the least.

We can expect some form of improvement from Team Liquid, who might be able to push it to a third map. But, it would be a surprise and nothing less if Team Liquid manage to beat FaZe CLAN. We are going for a 2-0 win for FaZE CLAN.

Gfinity (AIM: GFIN), a world-leading esports solutions provider, today announces a commercial agreement has been signed with IQONIQ, a new and unique fan engagement platform, to become its official esports and gaming partner for the next three years.

Gfinity will leverage its existing expertise, industry knowledge, relationships, tournament platform technology, and the Gfinity Media Group community to support the planning and building of a market leading content and online gaming hub that will be hosted on the IQONIQ fan engagement platform.

Gfinity will receive a monthly provision of service fee to provide a range of services, including online content production, influencer management services, marketing and promotion via Gfinity Digital Media, online gaming and tournament play and commercial and creative support.

Part of the initial focus will be to deliver an exciting new fan-focused tournament on the popular soccer simulation title, eFootball PES 2021 – following the announcement of IQONIQ’s new partnership with gaming publisher, Konami. John Clarke, Gfinity Chief Executive said: “The IQONIQ team has built a unique concept that provides fans with a highly personal experience, and we are excited to commence what we hope will be a long-term relationship with IQONIQ, aiding its expansion into esports and gaming.

The partnership demonstrates Gfinity’s strategic focus of working with game changing organisations that have a need for our core capabilities and who are prepared to share commercial upside based on our combined performance. Commercially this is one of the largest deals in Gfinity’s history and the team is ready to deliver outstanding results.”

Kazim Atilla, IQONIQ Founder and Chief Executive said: “This marks the beginning of a fundamental strategic partnership for us, strengthening our position within the esports market. With Gfinity, we have one of the strongest partners possible to further support IQOINQ’s growth in the industry. Furthermore, it will also support the IQONIQ App in providing a host of digital assets and services for all its users. Thanks to this agreement, when launched, the App will play a pivotal role in how fans are able to not only engage with their favourite content, teams, brands, and idols, but also advances the ways in which they’ll be rewarded for their continued loyalty on the platform.”

Esport Organization Envy Gaming have raised $40 Million through investment, the majority from TV company Gray Television. Currently, they serve as a parent company to three teams which include Team Envy followed by Dallas Empire and Dallas Fuel.

From the pool of $40 Million, Gray Television have invested a total of $28.5 Million in the North American Esports Organization and will be allocating two directors to Envy’s Management board. Envy Gaming is currently ventured in Valorant, Call Of Duty, Overwatch along Rocket League. Along with these teams, they have a wide reach among content creators and streamers on Twitch.

This brand new investment reportedly comes after the Dallas-based rapper Post Malone joined as a co-owner of Call of Duty team Dallas Empire, and Overwatch League’s Dallas Fuel back in August 2020. Alongside, the signings of the Botez twins, BobbyPoff and Sebas Beron have also fueled Envy’s content creation program ultimately leading their fundings to skyrocket.

Gray Television is a television broadcast company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Gray is the largest owner of top-rated local television stations and digital assets in the United States (“U.S.”). Gray currently owns and/or operates television stations and leading digital properties in 94 television markets that collectively reach approximately 24% of U.S. television households.

Like Cloud9’s Stratus, Envy Gaming also launched a membership program for its fan-base in November 2020, with perks including exclusive merchandise, team news, giveaways.

Hilton H. Howell, Jr., Gray’s Executive Chairman and CEO stated,

““We’re excited to lead this investment in Envy Gaming, an organization known for breaking ground and pushing the limits of what the future holds for gaming and entertainment”

Also, Mike ‘Hastr0’ Rufial, founder and Chief Gaming Officer at Envy, added

“From the first time we talked to Gray, it became evident to me that our leadership team and winning culture at Envy had found a perfect partner to help continue our great success. The ownership group of Envy also includes Ken Hersh, the minority owner of the Texas Rangers, and additional partners include “prominent Texas families and select national investors.”

To know more about Gray Television, do visit here. 

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