Welcome to the Weekly Recap, where we gather the top stories that happened in the past week to help you catch up with the busy world of eSports!
General News
Esports revenue still on the rise
Esports will boom for the next three years, according to Newzoo’s 2017 Global Esport Market Report.
According to the report, esports revenue will reach $696 million in 2017, for a 41.3% increase in year-on-year growth.
Brand investment is estimated to increase to $1.5 billion in 2020, with at least 40% of investments coming from the North America region.
Dota 2
Ready your pockets, as Valve has released the new details for the upcoming Kiev Major.
According to the post, “the Main Event has been rescheduled to take place from April 27-30 at the National Palace of Arts in Ukraine”.
Tickets for the event will be available next Wednesday morning (Ukraine time), and will be ₴130 each for the first three days and ₴400 each for the Grand Final on the last day.
DAC lineup complete
After a grueling qualifying phase, the list of teams competing in the Dota 2 Asia Championships 2017 in Shanghai, China is now complete.
Team NP outclassed more famous teams like Digital Chaos and compLexity Gaming to win the American qualifier, while Team Faceless endured a rocky road but emerged as Southeast Asia representatives. Team Liquid dominated the European qualifiers to beat out sides like Na’Vi and Secret, while Team Empire punched the CIS ticket.
TI6 winners Wings Gaming, Boston Major winner OG, Dota Pit League 5 champion Evil Geniuses and Chinese giant Newbee are invited to the event, while Invictus Gaming, Team VG.J, LGD Forever Young and iG Vitality won the China qualifiers.
TI7 not in America
There is a real possibility that the International 2017 will be held outside the United States of America as the country’s new president Donald Trump is fighting to ban visitors from seven countries.
In the interview with online magazine PC Gamer, Valve top honcho Gabe Newell already have people who can’t go home because they might not make it back to the office.
But Valve official Erik Johnson said: “We’re gonna run [TI7] no matter what.”
LoL
Spring Split Update
SKT T1 moved to the apex of the 2017 LCK Spring Split after beating Samsung Galaxy for their seventh win in eight series. KT Rolster, who has a game in hand, suffered their first loss of the season after bowing down to MVP 0-2 in their series.
In NA LCS, Cloud 9 separated itself from FlyQuest in the top of the table as the former outlasted the latter in their series last week. C9 remain unbeaten eight series, while FQ is now tied with Team Solo Mid with six series wins apiece.
LPL saw a shakeup in its two groups as Invictus Gaming now leads Group A and Qiao Gu Reapers headline Group B. Former Group A leaders IMay lost its last two games, while former Group B leaders EDward Gaming lost to NewBee.
G2 Esports was able to flex its muscle as the best team in the 2017 EU LCS Spring Split, as the Group A leaders swept Group B leaders Unicorns of Love 2-0 in a cross-group battle to remain as the only unbeaten side in the league.
Neymar in the market for LoL team
Barcelona attacker Neymar is reportedly in the market for a League of Legends team, according to translated report from Portuguese site Veja.com.
Adam Newell, who translated the report, stated that the famous footballer wants to follow compatriot and fellow football icon Ronaldo de Lima, who is now part owner of an esports team.
Neymar, who started his career with Brazilian soccer club Santos, is currently earning 9.18 million euros per season, according to sillyseason.com.
CS:GO
Team Preparation back in CS:GO
Team Preparation has signed a Swedish roster and has returned to CS:GO.
Former ArchAngels duo of Joachim “darti” Fornstedt and Simon “downie” Storm are joined by former AA teammate Erik “zende” Sundeqvist, Iwku Gaming’s Rasmus “Zitte” Gustafsson and Metapods’ Samuel “decent” Oldenburg.
C9 invited to cs_summit
Cloud 9 is the third team to be invited in Beyond The Summit’s cs_summit.
The US-based C9 joins Brazilian SK Gaming and NA’s OpTic Gaming, who are both already invited in the event, which will be held in April 19 to 23 in Los Angeles.
The event will have a $100,000 prize pool and still has five slots left.
Overwatch
Fnatic relocates to LA
Fnatic’s Overwatch team is relocating to Los Angeles, to get closer to the United States’ “capital of esports”.
Founder Sam Mathews made the statement to Yahoo Esports: “Our Overwatch team is American and currently they’re in Korea and esports is based in L.A.
“Really in the U.S. there’s a lot of esports brands out here, game developers, so makes quite a lot of sense to have our U.S.-based esports team in the U.S. capital of esports.”
iddqd signs with NRG
Andre “iddqd” Dahlstrom said he took the NRG invite “as fast as I could” and further described the move as a “no-brainer”.
In his interview with the Score, Dahlstrom was all praise for his new team, saying the move was beneficial for both sides.
“When Brandon [Brandon “Seagull” Larned] came along and threw out the suggestion that NRG was looking to bolster their roster and they want me, I didn’t really give it a second thought,” said iddqd.”I literally took the opportunity as fast as I could and it’s been working out, it’s been working out so far and it was a no-brainer for me to take a step back in to the competitive scene and definitely play for NRG.”
Rogue transfers to Las Vegas
Rogue has now changed their competitive region after relocating from Europe to North America in Las Vegas in United States.
Team CEO Frank Villareal is optimistic with the move, saying they spent the last six weeks preparing for the move and are targeting to win championships.
“I think you’re going to be really pleasantly surprised by our form. The whole team has worked really hard to get into championship shape so they can win their first one with the new lineup as soon as a tournament is available,” said Villareal.
