🔫 Esports’ Biggest Hope
Even though there's a nice amount of hype surrounding esports, we have not been able to truly break through. And by this I mean a way in which esports could constantly hit worldwide recognition and balanced high level competition.
If you’re thinking “Franco you dumb fuck, esports is already big”. Not really. Not even close to what it could be. As gaming fans, we see 20K people stadiums getting filled and 250K watching online and yeah, it is bigger than most sports or events but we’re still hidden in the shadows. Why?
We can’t find THE one.
To me, League of Legends is the closest we have to a perfectly organized esports structure. It’s yet to be profitable, but who is profitable nowadays? It is my favourite game, but we have to be honest and realize that the learning curve to truly get involved with League is high af for newcomers, and that won’t change.
Shooter games though. I’ll give you an example: In 2018, I went to my first CS:GO live event. I played Counter-Strike just a couple of times when I was 12 and during this event...
- I understood the game immediately.
- It was insanely captivating.
- The crowd was intense, involved. There were chants and shit talking.
- I was nervous and invested right after the first couple of minutes.
We need to accept the fact that shooting games will be esports’ best hope.
What’s the problem then?
The shooting stigma is around us. People outside gaming truly believe that shooting games are affecting kid’s psychology. Shooting action is in movies, books, poems, songs, design. It’s everywhere, it's part of us. Robin Hood shoots arrows. My nephew is 10 years old, he loves shooting games, and he was voted best classmate of 2021 with 22 out of 24 votes. There are cases and cases, it depends how that case is shaped in the first place.
But is difficult to convince people with words. We ain’t psychologists either, we just live experiences. So now that we know that shooting games are the easiest way for newcomers to get involved in esports, let’s create a solid game that can persist in time and the world will eventually buy in.
The Current State of FPS
CS:GO showed us the path for success, but if you have a dark past, questionable leadership and no interest in adapting for the future, then obviously forget about this title representing us.
All the other FPS titles are juggling between being an esports force, a content creation platform, or both. Fighting hackers and constantly fixing mistakes. That’s just the truth, it’s not right or wrong, but it won’t take us to that golden spot that we are looking for.
However, we have one contestant with a solid formula. VALORANT.
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Riot Games, as we mentioned before, built an impressive esports platform for League, so when VALORANT came out, we knew the potential. It's like when Quentin Tarantino releases a new movie, we know that shit will work.
The interesting points to have in mind here are:
- Esports influencers stuck to this game and haven’t let go. They are willing to sacrifice content numbers in order to compete.
- The game has a balance between reality and fantasy that makes it easier for people outside the realm of gaming to be like “Ah, maybe my kid won't go to the streets and kill others because of playing this game”. If they allow Marvel, they will allow VALORANT.
- This game was released in June 2020. We’re in December 2021 and the title is already every single esports’ org priority, numbers are growing fast (430K av. viewers on Dec 6) and salaries are juicy.
- Smaller-region teams are competing at the same level of wealthy and well-known teams. Competition storylines and shit talking are building up. For example: The worldwide reactions to KRU Esports eliminating Sentinels from VALORANT Champions… this is one of the biggest achievements done by LATAM in esports, colta. Vamos hoy con todo KRU la puta madre!!
This title is giving me reasons to be hopeful, so we'll see, time will tell.
Next to that spotlight, there’s another light getting bigger. Halo. But that’s a beer talk for another time.
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💣 New Games & Trailers
FORTNITE CHAPTER 3 — Spotlight
GODFALL: CHALLENGER EDITION — Trailer
HALO INFINITE — Available with Game Pass
FORGING THE HORN, DESTINY 2 — Behind the Scenes
🎞️ Gaming x Matrix x Keanu
Epic Games will be releasing The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, which tells me two things:
- If you're still underestimating the influence of gaming culture and gaming studios on the future of film, please stop doing that.
- Keanu could literally kill a puppy and people would be like "I'm sure he had his reasons". Gaming's golden boy free-pass.
In other gaming x film news: a Mass Effect TV series is being targeted by Amazon Studios, and here’s a first look at Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One).
📊 Stats of the Week
Gaming x Asia, by Niko Partners.
🏠 IKEA, come on now man
When IKEA announced that they were going to incorporate gaming setups in their stores we thought “alright, we kinda made it”. The website shows this, but reality is this.
It’s the quotes, the hanging controllers, the light straight into the monitor and spine surgery you will need after using that chair for me.
🚿 Shower Thoughts
You probably have a better understanding of how far you can jump in a game than how far you can jump in real life.
🏆 Esports Highlights
👗 Matching Wedding Dresses
The folks at PlayStation were looking at the corner, hearing the Xbox folks talking about the Game Pass and ignored it for some time. However, one of the new employees at PS was like “Hmm, I wonder if we could do the same thing”. To his surprise, the others said “We have been copying their shit for a long time, and vice versa, we’re just in the hard-to-get phase right now”.
That phase is gone, PS is planning to launch their own subscription service with the codename Spartacus.
🐦 Tweet of the Week
Fortnite being good at everything, by Yassin.
😶 Yikes
- The celebrity lawyer Lisa Bloom will represent against Blizzard.
- Activision Blizzard won’t be part of The Game Awards this year.
- Blizzard's recent studio layoff, led to more than 200 employees protested.
Blizzard right now. A steep downhill that is making people crash real quick.
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- A touching story.
- Digital Keanu Reeves from 2005 to 2021.
- Razer released a Phone Cooler Chroma.
- A multiplayer Pac-Man game is coming to Facebook Gaming.
- Apple AR headset rumors.
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HALO INFINITE PAINTING BY IVA TROJ AND MICROSOFT
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- 100 Thieves raises $60M.
- YGG and BITKRAFT lead a $4M seed round for BAYZ.
- FaZe Clan partners with Moonpay.
- MyGames invests $2M in two new studios.
- Envy Gaming partners with Children’s Health.
- SK Gaming signs deal with nutrition brand REWE.
- ESL and Dreamhack partner with Rocket League Championship Series.
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Footage of Call of Duty kids explaining how they fucked your mother:
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Dec 9 / The Game Awards
Dec 2 - 12 / IEM Winter
Dec 10 - 12 / PAX Unplugged
Dec 10 - 12 / C2E2 2021
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👇 Reach out for feedback, questions or quick a intro!
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