ELEAGUE eSports championship featuring pro video gamers playing Valve’s popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive game will broadcast today on TBS thanks to the sports tech collaboration between Turner and WME | IMG showcasing one of the world’s fastest growing sports, mainly watched by millennial and generation Z viewers, as well as Gen X old schooler’s like me and some of you. The Sports Techie community blog is excited to let our readers and social media followers know more about the culmination of season one of the professional eSports organization with a tense and entertaining matchup between Fnatic vs. Virtus.pro this afternoon, Saturday, July 30 at 4 p.m. ET produced by TBS Studios. Live streaming of the finals on Twitch and Twitter features the unique observer feed and a $1.4 million prize pool. Tickets are on sale now for a live fan experience. Business competition in the industry is fierce especially after the massive $150 million investment by Alibaba Sports Group (Alisports) in the International Esports Federation (IeSF) as they attempt to evolve esports into an Olympic sport. Betting on eSports is also taking the gaming world by storm. These top two CS:GO teams face off in a best-of-three series.
ELEAGUE
TBS, TNT and truTV are part of Turner, a Time Warner company, together are pioneering the US production and distribution of ELEAGUE eSports to fans all over the nation and globe thanks to their growing partnership with WME | IMG, a worldwide leader in entertainment, sports and fashion operating in more than 30 countries.
ELEAGUE has launched “ELEAGUE Live,” an innovative mosaic video player enabling fans to watch every second of the riveting and strategic feats via an interface that is a customizable. This new ELEAGUE Live video player launched during last night’s semifinal which I saw on TV from our Homewood Suites Hilton hotel room in Charleston, South Carolina. This sports technology delivers thousands of different viewing options that can be tailored made the way you want. Online fans can select from individual player mode views (up to four at a time); an entire team vantage point for either squad’s complete lineup of five players displayed; the unique observer feed; and a large version of the game map.
Fnatic defeated Na’Vi, 16-4 & 16-14, and Virtus.pro beat mousesports, 16-7 & 16-10 in close and relatively close semifinal matchups.
The ELEAGUE season one championship finishes today at Cobb Energy Centre here in Atlanta, Georgia. Tickets are still available for the general public.
Find out more championship details at http://www.e-league.com/finals/. For the latest ELEAGUE updates, visit http://www.e-league.com or follow ELEAGUE on Facebook (facebook.com/eleaguegaming) and Twitter (@EL).
ELEAGUE Championship Ticketing
General Admission seats are $45.
TICKETS INCLUDE:
- Assigned seat for two days of ELEAGUE Finals in your choice of Grand Tier, Mezzanine, or Orchestra section.
(price varies by section) - ELEAGUE branded premium credential and lanyard
- Free entry to ELEAGUE “Fanfest” at Cobb Energy Centre included with all Championship tickets!
- Play 5 vs. 5 laser tag with your friends!
- Pose for a shareable photo with our CS:GO Dust map backdrop!
- Check out the latest products from HyperX!
- Show off your CS:GO skills at the ELEAGUE gaming station!
- Enjoy your food and beverages inside of the Fanfest lounge!
- Don’t miss our free autograph signings on Friday and Saturday with ELEAGUE superstars!
VIP Seating cost $150.
TICKETS INCLUDE:
- Assigned premium seat in Orchestra or Mezzanine for two days of ELEAGUE Finals action!
- VIP Entrance
- VIP Parking
- VIP Giftbag
- Priority access to autograph signing with ELEAGUE stars
- Access to private VIP ELEAGUE Lounge
- Free ELEAGUE gear
- Discount shopping at ELEAGUE store
- Concessions discount
- ELEAGUE branded premium credential and lanyard
- Free entry to ELEAGUE “Fanfest” at Cobb Energy Centre included with all Championship tickets!
- Play 5 vs. 5 laser tag with your friends!
- Pose for a shareable photo with our CS:GO Dust map backdrop!
- Check out the latest products from HyperX!
- Show off your CS:GO skills at the ELEAGUE gaming station!
- Enjoy your food and beverages inside of the Fanfest lounge!
- Don’t miss free autograph signings on Friday and Saturday with ELEAGUE stars!
Twitter Live Sports
Twitter live sports streaming of ELEAGUE is poised to become the native platform for eSports after inking deals for the rights to stream NFL, NBA and MLB games, NBA pre-season shows and Pac-12 conference college football games.
“Twitter is the native social platform for eSports and this partnership provides our passionate fans with an additional opportunity to consume ELEAGUE content as we reach the pinnacle of our first season,” said Christina Alejandre, General Manager of ELEAGUE and Vice President of eSports, Turner Sports. “We’re excited for our first ELEAGUE championship and look forward to offering these content experiences to our high-engaged fan base.”
In addition to live event coverage, the @EL Twitter handle will provide real-time highlights, GIFs, memes, stats and score updates; Periscope content with ELEAGUE on-air talent; and behind-the-scenes footage with players.
“Esports fans go to Twitter to see and talk about what is happening now in competitive gaming,” said Anthony Noto, Twitter’s Chief Financial Officer. “Gamers are one of the largest and most engaged audiences on Twitter, and we are thrilled to partner with Turner and WME I IMG to bring them the live content from ELEAGUE and Twitter commentary they are already looking for, all on one screen.”
This fall, 10 NFL Thursday Night Football (TNF) games will live-stream over Twitter beginning in September. Premier League highlights and goals will be shown over Twitter next season via Sky Sports. Look for my favorite social network to provide streaming of a new sports-highlights show called The Rally each night, according to CNET.
International eSports Explosion By IeSF And Alibaba
To give you an example of the popularity and business opportunity of eSports for players, fans and sponsors, according to the eSports Betting Report, the Chinese web based retail company Alibaba recently invested $150 million in the International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) founded in 2008 in South Korea. At least 47 countries are members of this governing body for esports as members of the IeSF.
Last March, Alisports unveiled and endorsed the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) initiatives via an “Exclusive Strategic Partnership” with Alibaba. Because Alibaba has a market value of more than $207 billion, Alisports will pay an astonishing $5.5 billion prize money payout for the WESG as well as well as investing a billion Yuan ($149 million) for associated development. Alisports has calculated plans to design and develop esports stadiums throughout China to provide sports-specific venues for popular online competitions with a local campaign emphasis for Asian and Chinese esports players and fans.
The partnership has three goals:
- To establish a tournament in “which all amateur e-Sports players and professional e-Sports players can participate.”
- To work together to get esports recognized as sports.
- To create unique intellectual property
Sports Techie, I am on vacation but will sit myself in front of the TV as well as use Twitter on my iPhone and iPad mobile devices as a first and second screen depending on when our son wants to go to the swimming pool on a day that the heat index says will be close to 104 degrees F. Tell me global warming weather is not real because you are crazy if you really think so.
To say that eSports is going mainstream and big business is a valid statement thanks to the ELEAGUE partnership between Turner and WME | IMG, in addition to the massive financial push by Alibaba and IeSf to create a new Olympics sport by developing the WESG, and eSport specific stadia in China.
I consider Sports Techie to be a sports tech pioneer even though I was just rejected by the Twitter authentication process after nearly 100,000 tweets, hundreds of unique #sportstechie blog posts in nearly seven years time and over 30 years in the industry by me. It is a wonderful accomplishment by Twitter to embrace live sports and ELEAGUE as a tool for growth and a way to reach an audience that is not growing fast enough anymore for Wall Street, and neither are their dropping advertising dollars. I hope these sports and technology driven business development opportunities changes the future for Twitter because our global community is all in.
I love gaming and igaming, and can’t wait until my boy gets old enough to play eSports, perhaps one-day we will see him on the professional circuit and winning Olympic gold medals for Team USA.
Game on today with the ELEAGUE Championship on TBS, Twitter and Twitch.
See y’all later in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world.
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