03/24/22: Andbox upgrades to NYXL; Fortnite installs window to Rocket League; Immortals fuels Toyota deal

Epic Games’ Fortnite is showing the love to Rocket League, announcing plans for a new Rocket League integration that will allow fans to watch Rocket League esports through Fortnite, titled Rocket League Live, including the RLCS Winter Major. The event sees 15 of the best Rocket League teams in the world are squaring off in the Rocket League Championship Series 2021-22 Winter Major, running through March 27. The Winter Major will have three groups of four teams and one group of three teams that play in Round-Robin matches within their group. During March 26-27, the broadcast will have one main stream the Rocket League Twitch channel and Rocket League Esports YouTube channel and cover the remainder of the Playoff Bracket.

The Call of Duty League is teaming up with GameBattles for a major $100,000 online Warzone tournament on Rebirth Island. Play will run starting April 5 and run through April 24 where qualifiers will face off against CDL teams and players in the Resurgence game mode on Rebirth Island. All players must stream on YouTube to advance to the qualifier stage and must be located in North America.

Cxmmunity announced its second annual HBCU Esports League Verizon Celebrity Pro-Am. Students will compete in Uno and Fortnite alongside celebrities that include T-Pain, Brett Gray, Mike Evans, Erin Ashley Simon, Allisha Gray, Bas, Tarik Cohen, FaZe Swagg, Sonny Digital, and more. In partnership with Verizon and Twitch, the tournament is slated to start on Sunday with an eye to raise awareness and funds. Cxmmunity will also donate $200,000 to support esports labs at five HBCUs.

ESL, RTS (with an appearance by co-founder Pokimane), Twitch, Comcast Spectacor Gaming and Beyond Gaming have entered into this year’s Esports & Gaming Newfronts, hurry up and join the lineup before slots sell out! The event will be introducing hundreds of brands to upcoming sponsorship opportunities in the industry! Slots are already going to hurry and grab yours today, only a limited number are available! Click here for more info.

In partnership with CCA and eFuse, Epic Games is launching the Fortnite Collegiate Cup. The Fortnite Collegiate Cup will consist of two regions across which eligible college students will have two opportunities to qualify for a spot in the Fortnite Collegiate Cup Semi-Finals. The top 300 players from the Semi-Finals will move on to the Fortnite Collegiate Cup Finals, where they will be split up across three Divisions based on their performance in the Semi-Finals. Each Division will have its own unique prizing and Divisional champion. Play begins April 7.

Blizzard announced that the Overwatch 2 beta would be available on April 26. The beta comes after a decision to split the PvP and PvE modes of the game, allowing players to sample new hero reworks, as well as the new five-vs-five compositions, and new maps before the game releases.

Meanwhile, Season five of the Overwatch League will kick off with a renewed rivalry between the Houston Outlaws and Dallas Fuel with Beasley Esports announcing the first live, in-person Overwatch League event in North America since 2020 with The Battle for Texas rivalry. The two teams will begin their seasonal quest on May 6 in San Antonio at the new Tech Port Arena, and will be the first public Overwatch League match debuting on an early version of Overwatch 2 PvP.

The Red Bull Solo Q tournament is coming back in 2022 as the world’s top solo League of Legends players compete in an international one-on-one event. The 2022 event kicks off this month and will culminate in the Red Bull Solo Q World Finals later this year with tournaments running across 25 countries. The world finals that will feature 20 national qualifiers as well as select international competitors.

Esports tournament organizer PGL will host the last major of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit 2021-2022 in Arlington, becoming the first Dota 2 major in North America since 2016. The event will run Aug. 4-14 as 18 Dota 2 teams battle it out for a share of its $500,000 prize pool.

With the 2022 eMLS Cup in the books, the league reports that In-person attendance saw a 105% increase over the previous in-person eMLS Cup in 2019 with the event reaching over 815,000 unique viewers on MLS’s Twitch channel – an all-time high for eMLS. The stream also saw a 40% rise in average minute audience (AMA) year-over-year from 2021 eMLS Cup.

Immortals are taking another lap with the Southern California and San Diego Toyota Dealers Associations, renewing their partnership. Toyota’s brand will continue to receive prominent logo placement on the League of Legends (LCS) player jerseys for Immortals Progressive and will now also be featured on jerseys worn by Immortals’ Wild Rift team. “Our partnership with Toyota is underpinned by a shared desire to make gaming more accessible and show up for our community,” said Brett McGrew, Vice President of Partnerships & Activation for Immortals. “This new program will take us all over SoCal and San Diego this spring and summer, giving fans a chance to interact with our players and creators while enjoying unique gaming experiences.”

JBL teamed with100 Thieves to launch the JBL x 100 Thieves headset. According to the announcement, “100 Thieves has imprinted its signature geo print design on the JBL Quantum ONE headset built for exceptional in-game sound and performance.” A limited number of the headsets will be available beginning today at 1p exclusively on StockX via DropX. “Collaborating with JBL has been an incredible experience and highlights how game-changing quality sound can be,” said Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, 100 Thieves founder and CEO. “We strive to work with brands that share our commitment of embracing diversity at the intersection of gaming, culture, and lifestyle in a forward-thinking way.”

Global esports organization Gen.G Esports and FURSYS’ chair brand Sidiz secured a renewal of a multi-year partnership and expansion of joint marketing activities from Korea to global markets. Gen.G and Sidiz will be supporting the Seoul Dynasty team, representing Korea in the Overwatch League, in addition to Gen.G’s League of Legends and PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) teams. Throughout the sponsorship, all Gen.G players will wear their official jerseys with a Sidiz logo patch.

Astralis locked in a two-year extension of its partnerships with sportswear brand hummel with the deal reportedly set to include a move into general merchandise collections. In addition, hummel will now operate Astralis’ webshop and retail for B2B and B2C markets.

Rivalry Corp. added mobile esports to its sportsbook. Customers can now wager on competitive esports played on mobile devices. Titles currently include Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, League of Legends Wild Rift, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile and Free Fire, with additional games to be introduced in the future. “Mobile gaming is soaring in popularity around the world, and we believe mobile esports titles will be among the most played, viewed, and bet on within the coming years,” said Steven Salz, Co-Founder and CEO of Rivalry. “Not everyone has a desktop computer capable of playing top games, or a console at home, but nearly everyone now has a mobile phone. This makes the global ecosystem for mobile gaming incredibly deep and exciting. We think the future is massive for this platform.”

Skillz announced a multi-year partnership with UFC, for a licensing deal, which will enable Skillz’ developers to create UFC-branded competitive mobile games that are co-marketed by UFC and Skillz. The deal allows selected game creators from Skillz developer community to utilize certain UFC and UFC athlete intellectual property for mobile game creation and marketing. The new UFC-branded mobile games are slated to launch in 2023.

Allied Esports unveiled NFT plans with the sale of its first collection, EPICBEAST and offering a roadmap featuring access to Allied Esports-backed events and future metaverse experiences, royalties on collectible sales, customizable merchandise and monthly community live streams. Overall, EPICBEAST will feature 8,591 unique tokens that will be minted on the Ethereum Blockchain during a two-day presale starting on Friday.

Cyberathlete and ReadyUp, an interactive event platform, are launching an esports fundraiser, which aims to donate up to $250,000 to support those impacted by the Ukraine War through a partnership with World Central Kitchen. To amplify awareness for the “Esports for Ukraine” campaign, ReadyUp is promoting it through its platform. Streamers can add the campaign to their profile on Twitch, which enables fans to participate and engage in the campaign at scale.

FaZe Clan formally announced its anticipated Board of Directors to take effect upon consummation of FaZe Clan’s planned merger with B.Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp. The merger is expected to close in the first half of 2022. Participants will include: Lee Trink, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, FaZe Clan and Chairman of the Board; Angela Dalton, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Signum Growth Capital; Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Cordozar Broadus Jr., American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, DJ, media personality and business entrepreneur; Daniel Shribman, Chief Investment Officer of B. Riley Financial; Mickie Rosen, Director of several US and Australian companies and Principal of Mickie Rosen Consulting; Nick Lewin, General Partner of Crown Predator Holdings; Paul Hamilton, Co-Owner and Chief Executive Officer of Atlanta Esports Ventures, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Greenspun Corporation and Principal of Province Inc.; Ross Levinsohn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Arena Group; Stephanie McMahon, Chief Brand Officer, World Wrestling Entertainment; and Zach Katz, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Carte Blanche

FaZe Clan also announced plans to once again work with Manchester City, creating a merchandise pop-up event in Manchester.The FaZe Clan x Manchester City pop-up event marks the first international FaZe Clan pop-up and will feature new co-branded merchandise products including a hoodie, jersey, shorts, snapback hat as well as special appearances from FaZe Clan talent FaZe Nate Hill, FaZe Teeqo, FaZe Swagg, FaZe JSmooth, FaZe Santana, FaZe Mew, FaZe Virus, FaZe Bizzle, FaZe Replays and Manchester City talent to be announced. The pop-up event, which is located at City Square at Etihad Stadium, will open from 2p on April 9 and will feature a range of gaming activations, prize giveaways, meet & greets and more.

Israeli esports org Finest acquired Monaco Esports Fédération-owned team Monaco Esports for $10 million, per Esports Insider. According to the report, Monaco Esports operations and branding will cease to exist and will be absorbed into Finest with the exception of the club’s upcoming Sim Racing event, which will “carry on with Monaco Esports branding.”

Riot Games invested in Fortiche Production, the Paris-based animation studio behind Netflix’s killer show Arcane. Riot takes on a non-controlling stake of the company while also being allowed to appoint two executives to Fortiche’s board of directors. “Fortiche has been an integral partner for a long time, but this agreement ensures we’ll be working closely for decades to come,” said Nicolo Laurent, the CEO of Riot, in a press statement. “In working with Fortiche, we collaborate to push the boundaries of what’s possible and raise expectations for how games can be represented in media. As proud as we are of Arcane, we know the best is yet to come.”

Activision Blizzard announced that the company would invest $250 million to accelerate opportunities in gaming and technology for under-represented communities with the first key initiative being Level Up U. The endeavor is a unique, three-month paid training program designed to level the playing field for engineering candidates from all backgrounds and “help more people jump start their careers in gaming – regardless of previous game industry experience.” The program is designed to teach participants the basics of game development and ultimately prepare them for engineering roles within the company. After completing the program, participants will work with the company’s recruiting team to identify a full-time engineering role that matches both their personal interests and the needs of the company.

KRAFTON, Inc. announced the signing of a business agreement with Solana Labs to support the design and marketing of blockchain-based games and services. Through this agreement, according to the announcement, KRAFTON and Solana Labs are “poised to build a long-term cooperative relationship for the development and operation of blockchain- and NFT-based games and services. “The two companies will cooperate in the marketing and design of blockchain games and various blockchain technologies, as well as jointly cooperate on investment opportunities.

ROSTER MOVES

Fnatic announced the addition of four new members of staff to its senior leadership team. The new hires join as Fnatic looks to expand its Web3 business strategy and build upon the success of recent partnerships. Taking the role as Fnatic’s new Chief Commercial Officer is Craig Edmondson, who joins the senior leadership team following a recent stint at tech unicorn Zwift. Nicola Packer joins as General Counsel following her tenure of entertainment and sports media titan EXTREME and Laura Ashworth-Cape joins as Head of Legal following four years as Legal Counsel at Arsenal F.C. Joshua Brill, previously Head of Creative & Commercial at Viacom CBS joins as Head of Marketing.

Fnatic announced the addition of four new members of staff to its senior leadership team. The new hires join as Fnatic looks to expand its Web3 business strategy and build upon the success of recent partnerships. Taking the role as Fnatic’s new Chief Commercial Officer is Craig Edmondson, who joins the senior leadership team following a recent stint at tech unicorn Zwift. Nicola Packer joins as General Counsel following her tenure of entertainment and sports media titan EXTREME and Laura Ashworth-Cape joins as Head of Legal following four years as Legal Counsel at Arsenal F.C. Joshua Brill, previously Head of Creative & Commercial at Viacom CBS joins as Head of Marketing.