The legislatures of Iraq has casted a ballot to boycott the prevalent fight royale diversions Fortnite and Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds due to their inconvenient impact on the populace.
A Reuters report says the boycott was instituted “because of the negative impacts brought about by some electronic amusements on the wellbeing, culture, and security of Iraqi society, including societal and moral dangers to youngsters and youth.”
Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shi’ite priest and previous leader of the Mahdi Army volunteer army that combat government and US-drove occupation powers from 2004-2008, cautioned that PUBG is addictive and approached the legislature to boycott it a week ago. “What will you gain whether you murdered a couple of individuals in PUBG? It’s anything but an amusement for knowledge or a military diversion that furnishes you with the right method to battle,” al-Sadr wrote in an announcement discharged a week ago.
Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shi’ite cleric and former head of the Mahdi Army militia that battled government and US-led occupation forces from 2004-2008, warned that PUBG is addictive and called on the government to ban it last week.
“What will you gain if you killed one or two people in PUBG? It is not a game for intelligence or a military game that provides you with the correct way to fight,” al-Sadr wrote in a statement released last week.
The Iraqi boycott pursues in the blink of an eye behind a prohibition on PUBG in Nepal, in spite of the fact that Fortnite is still alright there supposedly. The police in the Indian city of Ahmedabad additionally forced a prohibition on PUBG Mobile, despite the fact that that has since been lifted.
Esports organisation Gen G., the parent company of Overwatch League team Seoul Dynasty and owner of several other esports teams have announced on Wednesday that it has raised $46million as investments from various sources which include some big-name celebrities.
The investors for the latest round of investments include some big name such as Will Smith and Japanese soccer player Keisuke Honda’s Dreamers Fund, Los Angeles Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong and Alibaba Group’s former chairman of U.S. investments, Michael Zeisser.
With the rise in popularity of esports across the globe, big-name stars and celebs have not remained shy of investing in esports. Many stars have already invested or have expressed interest to do so. With the latest trend of stars investing in esports, we may see more big names joining soon. All these investments would help to skyrocket the popularity of esports even more and help the organisations in training more talents for the future.
Gen.G CEO, Chris Park said that:
We are grateful for the support of a remarkable group of investors that is as diverse as the future of esports itself, Our partners in this round share Gen.G’s mission to reimagine sports entertainment as only an authentically global esports organization can.
With the latest round of investments, the new capital will go towards expanding international presence in more games and the development of Gen. G’s youth esports academy program, and the launch of Gen. G’s LA headquarters in July. Will Smith and Keisuke Honda will join Chris in supporting Gen. G’s creative and commercial endeavours, advising Gen. G’s players and content creators.
“I am excited that Dreamers Fund, the fund that I co-launched with Will Smith, is now investing in Gen.G,” said Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda.
Esports is not yet big in Japan, but we are seeing tremendous growth there and globally, which is very positive. We decided to invest in Gen. G because of their incredible team and grand vision to become a leader in the space. We truly look forward to working with Gen.G to boost the esports industry around the world.
Other investors in the round include MasterClass co-founder and CEO David Rogier, as well as Conductive Ventures, Canaan Partners and Stanford University. Silicon Valley Bank has been named Gen.G’s banking partner and will be working with the esports organization on future events and content through 2020.
In a Reddit post, the MoreMMR AI team posted the predictions for the upcoming ESL One Mumbai event. With the playoff already underway the AI made its predictions for the upcoming brackets. The Neural Network is fed with past match data using which it made predictions that “Team Team” will be winning the tournament with fan favourites Navi, Pango and complexity losing on early.
Although many can argue that the AI predictions shouldn’t be believed as the data being fed to AI is old and isn’t able to calculate the team chemistry and skills. With that said the creators of MoreMMR AI also believes that the AI isn’t 100% accurate and its accuracy is still hit or miss.
It is still too early to make any assumptions as to how a team will be performing, as many teams take time to analyse and change tactics after their past matches and data for that won’t be available unless they play another game. With that said the event isn’t that far off and we can see for ourselves if the AI predicted things right or not.
DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, has announced the debut of the ESL One Mumbai 2019 event as a part of its official partnership with the Electronic Sports League (ESL). ESL is one of the world’s largest esports company. They host and market esports leagues and events for many popular esports titles such as Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and StarCraft II.
The much anticipatedESL One Mumbai event will give Indian players and fans access to an entire weekend filled with Dota 2 action from April 19 to 21, live at the National Sports Club of India Dome (NSCI) in Mumbai. Eight of the world’s best Dota 2 teams will be competing for a prize pool of approximately INR 2 Crore (USD 300,000). In addition to matches onstage, there will also be exciting fan activities, autograph sessions with the teams, the famous cosplay contest and much more.
R.S.Subramanian, Country Manager of DHL Express India, said, “As the world’s most international logistics company, we are delighted to support ESL One to deliver an enriching live experience to India’s esports community. ESL is one of the most revered tournaments in the world of esports, and we are excited that we celebrate the same values of speed, passion, teamwork, skill and can-do spirit. Through this landmark event, we hope to deliver a unique experience and play a part in the growing esports community in India.”
DHL will leverage its extensive global network and expertise to provide core logistics services for the event. Through this collaboration, DHL is pledging its support for esports, a sport that is rapidly growing in popularity around the world due to its top-tier entertainment value and active engagement of fans. In addition to the ESL One series, DHL is also an official partner of the Formula 1 esports Series.
“We are looking forward to bringing our flagship event series like ESL One to a completely new location as we see great potential in the Indian esports market,” said Ulrich Schulze, Senior Vice President of Product at ESL. “We are glad to have found such a reliable and open-minded partner in DHL, with whom we already experienced some authentic yet exciting activations at previous events. Together, we are eager to further foster the growth of local esports all over the world, providing teams, talents and fans with unforgettable moments.”
ESL’s numerous esports tournaments fill major sporting arenas all around the world as tens of thousands of fans watch live, while several million online spectators follow the action on social media and live streams. In 2018 alone, the ESL One series garnered more than 630 million live streaming views, almost 400 million social media impressions, and recorded an onsite audience of approximately 80,000 people. This number is only expected to grow further through an estimated global audience growth of 499 million by 2020.
India is currently home to approximately 263 million gamers, a number which is expected to rise to 628 million by 2020. The market is doubling every year and is expected to be worth $1.1 billion by 2020. This alone highlights the increasing trend and popularity of esports in India, especially among the age group of 16 to 35. Reports indicate that esports is also gaining popularity on primetime television as the gaming community is most active between 7 pm to midnight.
US media giant Disney is offering assistance for the reconstruction of the Paris Cathedral Notre Dame.
The announcement of $5mn from Disney comes after several other conglomerates offered their support to help rebuild the cathedral, which was demolished in an unprecedented fire on 15th April, Monday.
.@notredameparis is a beacon of faith, hope & beauty, inspiring awe and reverence. The Walt Disney Company stands with our friends & neighbors in Paris, with heartfelt support and a $5 million donation for the restoration of this masterpiece.
As several media outlets reported, Disney have had a strong connection with Notre Dame. It had produced an animated film of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” in 1996.
Just a day ago, Ubisoft, the developer of Assassin’s Creed: Unity, which featured the historical cathedral had announced a €500,000 donation for its restoration. Not just companies, wealthiest families of Paris have come forward to offer financial assistance. The donation threshold, have now crossed a billion and a half mark.
Ubisoft today announced that they will be donating € 500,000 for a restoration project underway for Notre Dame restoration work. Notre Dame was nearly destroyed in a fire accident leaving only the stone structure intact. With the fire now controlled and put off restoration work for this 900-year-old building is underway. Many French companies and others from around the world, have already made donations to help the restoration effort and now Ubisoft has also pledged to donate a sum of €500,000.
In a blog release titled supporting Notre-Dame De Paris, Ubisoft said:
As the smoke clears on the events that unfolded on Monday at the Notre-Dame de Paris, we stand in solidarity with our fellow Parisians and everyone around the world moved by the devastation the fire caused. Notre-Dame is an integral part of Paris, a city to which we are deeply connected. Seeing the monument in peril like this affected us all. In light of Monday’s events, we will be donating €500k to help with the restoration and reconstruction of the Cathedral. We encourage all of you who are interested to donate as well. In addition, we want to give everyone the chance to experience the majesty and beauty of Notre-Dame the best way we know how. For one week, we will be giving Assassin’s Creed Unity away free on PC, for anyone who wants to enjoy it. You can download it now for Uplay PC here. When we created Assassin’s Creed Unity, we developed an even closer connection with this incredible city and its landmarks – one of the most notable elements of the game was the extraordinary recreation of Notre-Dame. Video games can enable us to explore places in ways we never could have otherwise imagined. We hope, with this small gesture, we can provide everyone with an opportunity to appreciate our virtual homage to this monumental piece of architecture.
The Native American Quinault Nation in the province of Washington has documented a claim against Valve, expressing that it “doesn’t have a permit to work, encourage or generally participate in any type of betting.”
While the Quinault Nation works its own gambling club in Washington which is liable to substantial guidelines from state and neighborhood government, its claim affirms that Valve, which is additionally Washington-based, has an out of line advantage.
The lawsuit accuses Valve of willingly allowing illegal gambling and benefiting from it.
CSGO Skin cases, gambling & lawsuits have been hand-in-hand for Valve for quite sometime now. This is not the first time Valve has been sued over gambling charges. Earlier, Valve had pledged about acting on illegal gambling sites.
One of the world’s largest esports event organizer DreamHack has announced a partnership with streaming platform Caffeine, the company said in a press release.
The agreement will allow Caffeine to broadcast DreamHack events live on its platform of both DotA 2 & CS:GO games. The deal will also feature a show titled ‘Overtime’ which will make its way at DreamHack Open Rio.
DreamHack and Caffeine share the same vision to make esports viewer experience more social and interactive. Their broadcasting platform creates new ways to consume esports content, and DreamHack can reach new fans and gamers globally with our distribution.”
– marcus lindmark, ceo, dreamhack
The partnership is non-exclusive, but the flagship show ‘Overtime’ will feature exclusive content like behind-the-scenes, interviews with the guests & the interactions with audiences.
The second DreamHack Masters of the year will be hosted at Malmo, the first being DreamHack Masters Dallas which is set to begin on the 28th of May, will see 16 teams competing for the prize pool of $250,000. The event will begin on the 4th of October and end on the 6th of October. The tickets will be revealed on the 24th of May, Friday.
This will be the third DreamHack Masters played at the Malmo. The first two tournaments were played in 2016 and 2017. The 2016 version of the tournament was won by the Swedish Legends, Ninjas In Pyjamas. However, G2 were crowned champions at the 2017 installment of the tournament.
The group stage will be held at the MalmöMässan exhibition, will be free for all, while the playoffs will be played in front of a crowd at the Malmö Arena.
Michael Van Driel, Chief Product Officer at DreamHack AB said,”Malmö was the first city to ever host DreamHack Masters and so it holds a special place in all of our hearts, including a legendary win from NiP on home soil. We are tremendously excited to bring CORSAIR DreamHack Masters back to Malmö Arena and fans can expect the best experience yet as we expand to feature matches for 3 days in the arena and continue with more improvements for the visitor experience.”
Linn Möller-Laketic, project manager at Event in Skåne said, “We are very happy to be able to welcome DreamHack back and look forward to a great partnership. DreamHack is an extremely important part of our goal to make Malmö, and the whole region, a part of the international esports scene.”
Linn Möller-Laketic, project manager at Event in Skåne said, “We are very happy to be able to welcome DreamHack back and look forward to a great partnership. DreamHack is an extremely important part of our goal to make Malmö, and the whole region, a part of the international esports scene.”
Tencent, Chinese mobile gaming giant is set to launch its own line of gaming smartphones. Tencent is in touch with several mobile manufacturers to develop this gaming phone, according to an unconfirmed report by Chinese media 36Kr.
According to sources, the phone will utilize the latest Qualcomm hardware. Tencent is already in contact with Asus, Razer and Xiamoi’s Blackshark to design and manufacture the phone. The gaming phone will either be sold under Tencent’s brand or include both brands of Tencent and the manufacturer. Although the report didn’t include any date and pricing of the phone, but one can expect a late 2019 release window for the phone.
Mobile gaming alone is already a big business and its future potential seems higher as new hardware is becoming more powerful and is able to handle demanding titles with ease. With 5G on the horizon, the mobile gaming community will see some exponential growth.
Tencent already has a huge presence in the gaming market, with them owning major stakes in Activision-Blizzard and Epic. Tencent also developed the popular game PUBG-Mobile, which till date is the most played mobile battle royale game. However, Tencent at its core has only made games and making hardware is different. With the smartphone market already having such fierce competition, it will be difficult for them to gain any foothold. In china, alone many local and international brands are fighting to gain market hold, with many giving up on it midway.
This may be why Tencent is looking for partnerships with other companies. So that they can reduce as much risk as possible and have a smooth launch of its smartphone brand.
In China alone, 1/3rd of the population plays a mobile game and Tencent seems to be pretty confident that mobile gaming will continue to be China’s preferred mode of gaming. Tencent is already working with Razer on optimizing its Razer Phone for Tencent games and is developing mobile controllers and Razer’s Cortex mobile app.
