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Nazara Technologies Limited (Nazara) today announced that ESL, the world’s largest esports company has invested for a minority stake in the Indian company.

Founded in 2000, ESL runs amateur to professional leagues, ranging from online tournaments through major global mega stadium events in venues around the world, distributing its content and original programming across digital and linear channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, Sony Vue, Disney XP, and Hulu.

Additionally, ESL has signed a license agreement with NODWIN Gaming, the pioneer of esports in India
(Source: F&S Report), which was recently acquired by Nazara Technologies.

As part of this, NODWIN Gaming secures multi-year exclusive licensing rights for the ESL system and ESL community platform for organizing and operating ESL competitions in India. NODWIN Gaming also secures media distribution rights of ESL global content to local linear and digital platforms in the Indian subcontinent.

ESL hosts competitions around the globe to facilitate thousands of gaming competitions annually.

Some of their more notable competitions include the following- ESL National Championship, ESL Pro League, ESL One and Intel® Extreme Masters.

Speaking on the advent of esports in India, Ralf Reichert, Co-Founder, and CEO of ESL quoted “Our goal is to bring esports to the players and fans all around the world. We believe that Nazara, one of the leading mobile games companies will help us in expanding our ESL operations through strategic local partnerships.”

According to Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies, “We at Nazara welcome ESL to Nazara’s family of shareholders and look forward to partner with ESL to bring global games to India and other emerging markets.”

He further adds, “We believe that the partnership with ESL and NODWIN Gaming, will enable us to leverage the strength of global experience of ESL, the execution experience of NODWIN Gaming and on ground networks of Nazara across different countries in emerging markets.”

According to, NODWIN Gaming with the license for ESL for 5 years, CEO and Managing Director, Akshat Rathee, “Ralf & ESL team have been important supporters of Nodwin since many years and have witnessed the growth of Nodwin Gaming and esports in India. I hope that with Nazara and ESL, NODWIN will be able to successfully develop the esports business in the emerging markets where esports is one of the fastest growing sports.”

Nazara Technologies Limited has recently filed DRHP and has received investments from IIFL Asset Management recently. Nazara, with its existing investments in mobile gaming companies like NextWave MultiMedia, Mastermind Sports, Moong Labs and HalaPlay is in line with building a network of synergistic companies for operations in India and other emerging markets across the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia.

Now with ESL’s investment in Nazara and NODWIN’s securing exclusive rights of using the ESL system and platform for the next 5 years, Nazara is poised to exploit the expected opportunity in the esports business.

Canadian Venture capital firm Blackhawk Resource Corporation announced a $26.4 million deal to acquire esports platform UMG Media Corp., which will now be rebranded as UMG Media Ltd.

Blackhawk already owned 19.2 percent of UMG and has now agreed to buy the remaining 80.8 percent from UMG’s shareholders, as part of a reverse merger takeover. UMG shareholders will be issued approximately 220 million Blackhawk shares, 84 percent of the total, at a deemed price of $0.12 per share, tallying up to $26.4 million. This brings Blackhawk’s valuation to nearly $31.5 million.

UMG recorded a net comprehensive loss of $2.7 million in 2017, reported assets worth $11.2 million, and had estimated working capital of $3.38 million, as of Jan. 31, 2018.

Blackhawk is now valuated at $31.5 million.

Founded in 2012, UMG is best known as a console shooter tournament organizer. Specialized mainly on Call of Duty, the company used to run the title’s biggest tournaments, until the CoD World League was founded and replaced UMG’s tournaments as the top CoD series. Ever since, UMG’s main business operation is UMG Gaming, a platform for online tournaments and matchmaking, which, according to the company, has 1.9 million registered members. It focuses mainly on Call of Dutyand sports simulators, like FIFA, Madden, and NBA 2K.

UMG’s upper management will remain the same, with CEO Dave Anthony, president Jeff Covington, and COO Martin Brown, while according to the new proposal, OpTic Gaming’s CEO, Hector Rodriguez, has been offered a seat in the board of directors. Rodriguez, a professional Call of Duty player in the past who competed in UMG’s tournaments, was a UMG shareholder.

Originally appeared on EsportsObserver.

Renegades CSGO Roster 2018 has been revealed by the team on Twitter a few hours ago. According to the management, the final space will be filled by Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad for the upcoming CS:GO season.

Will be stand-in for Team @Renegades for the upcoming months and tournaments! Really excited for this opportunity! This is my chance to prove that I'm good enough to compete with the best! Super motivated!

— Apeks x jkaem (@jkaem) February 8, 2018

Renegades CSGO roster 2018

• jks
• AZR
• ustilo
• jkaem
• nifty
• kassad (coach)

After allegations of supposedly sexual exploitation of the then 16-year-old, Jess Cliffe was earlier suspended from Valve. Further confirming his tenure with Valve, the company’s website which once named Jess Cliffe as the part of the company has now separated Jess.

Valve’s People list on the company website features the talented team at Valve Corporation.

As it projects, Valve talks about the ‘BOSS FREE’ work environment at the company headquarters, which in a way enables the company to function efficiently with parity.

Cliffe has no prior criminal history but was previously arrested in an assault case in 2013 in Seattle. The case was eventually dismissed.

This is important at the time when Jess Cliffe is a suspect in an alleged sexual assault case, where he might face serious charges. The company in an interview to Kotaku had earlier said, “Reports suggest he has been arrested for a felony offense. As such, we have suspended his employment until we know more.”

Optic Gaming who was in news recently for opting out of a couple of tournaments has finally announced their new roster. The organization didn’t retain their two players, allu, and Friberg from the former roster. And instead, have announced a completely fresh CSGO squad.

Members of this new Danish roster will move to North America for future events.

Optic Gaming International Roster 2018

• Stanislaw
• ShahZam
• k0nfig
• gade
• cajunB

Optic recently released two players from its former organization being Mixwell and Magisk, the latter was yesterday announced to be a part of Astralis’ new squad. The organization’s coach also announced on Twitter that they will be pulling out of CS_Summit 2 and IEM.

Can't wait to eat a huge bucket of KFC in Texas.

— Kristian Wienecke (@k0nfig) February 7, 2018

I´m excited to join @OpTicGaming and we will move to the NA. I am really looking forward to this new challenge. #GreenWall

— René Borg (@cajunbCS) February 7, 2018

They picked k0nfig, who was recently kicked from North, to make way for Kjaerbye into the organization.

The remaining two players, Allu & Friberg from the former roster were left untouched and no formal update on them was made by the management of Optic Gaming.

Team Vitality’s founders Fabien Devide and Nicolas Maurer have announced a 2.5 million Euros investment from Korelya Capital, Kima Ventures and H26.

This fund will be utilizied to recruit players and in the support of the players travelling to attend events. The team will also create an academy of League of Legend players to guide the new players.

Team Vitality’s CEO statement

Nicolas Maurer, CEO of Team Vitality: “Vitality’s ambition is to become an undisputed European leader whose teams participate in all the major professional e-sports leagues. The fundraising, along with our partners, will let us accelerate our growth and consolidate our position among the biggest e-sports brands in Europe.”

Astralis has finally announced on Twitter, it has signed Magisk. The reveal came in much after numerous treasures in a unique form of emojis.

The event progressed after Astralis’ Kjaerbye quit the team following undisclosed reasons. While Kjaerbye moved his way to North, k0nfig was kicked to make space.

Astralis sign MagisK

More

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) February 6, 2018

3️⃣

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) February 7, 2018

🎩🤔

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) February 7, 2018

Magisk has been a part of Dignitas for a longer period before moving to the emerging Danish organization North. Eventually, due to the underperformance of Magisk, North was quick to replace Magisk with Valde.

Magisk was currently a part of OptiC Gaming, where he was freed officially by the organization.

We must announce another departure. We wish Emil "Magisk" Reif the best in his future endeavors and thank him for being a valuable part of our organization. pic.twitter.com/KYBqKKTjlm

— OpTic Gaming™ (@OpTic) February 7, 2018

We had earlier predicted that the player which Astralis chose to sign could be one among Friberg, k0nfig, pimp & Magisk. The new lineup will be first seen during the IEM Katowice 2018, scheduled a few weeks from now.

OptiC Gaming a few hours ago announced the departure of MagisK which further strengthened this speculation.

Other than the Danish roster change, the most twitched of all was Virtus.pro benching TaZ from the Polish organization. The next player to depart from the organization could be NEO, if his performance doesn’t improve in the recent time.

OptiC Gaming has announced that they’re now left with a three-man roster after MagisK quit the organization. The news broke out after the speculations which suggested that Astralis could sign the player.

We must announce another departure. We wish Emil "Magisk" Reif the best in his future endeavors and thank him for being a valuable part of our organization. pic.twitter.com/KYBqKKTjlm

— OpTic Gaming™ (@OpTic) February 7, 2018

The departure of MagisK comes in after mixwell left the North American organization the previous night. OptiC now only have:

• allu
• friberg
• HS

🎩🤔

— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) February 7, 2018

This could also mean that the player is making his way to join Astralis very shortly.

The French superstar and G2 Esports captain Richard “shox” Papillon recently found out that he’ll need surgery, and it’s now been confirmed that he’ll be taking some time off.

After returning home to France from the ELEAGUE Major: Boston, Shox learned that he has a 2 cm cyst on his right wrist, which could need surgery to be dealt with. If he undergoes surgery it would put him out of CS:GO competition for an unknown amount of time.

ALSO SEE: Shox may need surgery

The star will be undergoing wrist surgery in March to treat a 2cm long cyst beneath his wrist tendons confirmed by an official update from Shoxie’s team.

After meeting the specialists it was determined that a surgical procedure to remove the cyst is finally required. Such surgeries are not considered to be difficult and there is little to no chance for any complications. shox’s operation is scheduled for the 23rd of March.

Not the best news i had coming back at home. Right hand/wrist IRM result : Got a 2cm Kyst, probably going to need an opération, will know more about it friday (specialist meeting)

— Richard Papillon (@shoxCSGO) January 30, 2018

The procedure will be followed by a two-week period when Richard’s right wrist will be immobilized with a splint. After that, he will have special rehabilitation sessions. Specialists have estimated that Richard’s dexterity will completely recover from one to 8 weeks after removing the splint.

G2 official statement

G2 Esports said – Shox has made a decision that he will participate in the tournaments and play with the team until his scheduled surgery. The team’s training and official games schedule will remain unchanged. Currently, we are in process of friendly requesting ESL and FACEIT to allow us to reschedule some of our games that are planned to happen from March 23rd until 8th of April, while Richard will be wearing a splint. We will inform you of ESL and FACEIT’s decisions.

Shox’s planned return to the G2 roster is expected to be April 9, but if he doesn’t recover fully within the eight week rehabilitation time the date may change. If that’s the case, the team will be using coach Edouard “SmithZz” Debourdeax as a substitute until shox can return.

However, SmithZz will likely be his substitute in the team’s online matches.