eSports draw record viewership numbers at Gamescom

Last year, 254,000 individuals attended Gamescom. This year that figure grew to 275,000 and amongst those attendees, 223,000 stopped by the ESL (Electronic Sports League) arena to check out competitive gaming live in both StarCraft 2 and League of Legends, as well as several console titles. Perhaps more impressive was the ESL's live feed, which was visited by 500 percent more people than last year.

Turtle Entertainment, the organizer of ESL at Gamescom, is clearly happy with the turnout of what was the first stop on the ESL Pro Series Winter season 2011, Germany's national video game league. "The response of the visitors in our hall was overwhelmingly positive," said Turtle Entertainment's managing director Ralf Reichert. "Gamescom has proven once again that eSports has thousands of enthusiastic followers, not only in the world but also in Germany."

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gamescom 2011: World's best professional gamers attract a record number of viewers

First participants of the Intel Extreme Masters 2012 World Championship determined – League of Legends and StarCraft 2 professional matches as the main public attraction in the Energie³ ESL Arena - ESL breaks last year's records

Cologne, August 26, 2011 – First live event of the global league of the video game champions (Intel Extreme Masters) and the kick-off of the new season of the German Championship in computer games (ESL Pro Series) were the main attractions of the Energie³ ESL Arena (hall 9) at gamescom 2011 – world's largest entertainment trade fair taking place in Cologne, Germany. Once again, Electronic Sports League (ESL) presented in Cologne competitive gaming on the highest level attracting to the hall throughout the whole trade fair hundreds of thousands of visitors. The number of viewers following the matches live in the Energie³ ESL Arena throughout five days of trade fairs doubled those from the last year. Also the number of streaming sessions on ESL's web TV service, ESL TV, surpassed last year's record by a factor of five. In addition to the world class tournaments the enthusiasts of games could witness in hall 9 the debuts of such upcoming titles like TrackMania 2 (Ubisoft), Guild Wars 2 (NCsoft) und Transformers Universe (Hasbro).

In the Energie³ ESL Arena at gamescom world's best gamers from Europe, Asia and America met to compete in the Global Challenge Cologne – the first live event of the Intel Extreme Masters season 2011/2012. PuMa from Korea placed first in the StarCraft II competition after defeating his fellow citizen, MC, in the final. In League of Legends team Counter Logic Gaming won against Team Solo Mid. Both StarCraft 2 players, as well as both League of Legends teams advanced to the grand finale of the tournament - the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship, which will take place in 2012 in Germany. The prize money of the gamescom competition was 53,000 US Dollar, which is a share of 635,000 US Dollars – a total prize purse of the league in season 2011/2012.

Gamescom was also the first stop of the ESL Pro Series Winter season 2011, the German national league in video games. At the first Intel Friday Night Game the best gamers from all over the country were fighting for the first important points on their way to the league finals, which will take place in December this year. The event featured competition in three disciplines: FIFA11, TrackMania Nations Forever and Counter-Strike: Source.

The Energie³ ESL Arena hosted also the finals of the ESL Major Series VIII in League of Legends, the ESL Brink Championship, AirRivals European Championship, Sennheiser StarCraft 2 Cup and 'Deutschlands bester Gamer' competition – a tournament organized in co-operation with the BILD Computer Spiele, one of the biggest gaming magazines in Germany. The tournament involved a three-way battle in FIFA11, Shift 2 Unleashed and HALO: Reach. Hundreds of players took part in online qualifiers that determined the best twelve players, which took part in the grand final played on the main stage of the Arena. The winner of the competition is Danny 'kuSKy' Engels from team SK Gaming.

Photos of the events in the Energie³ ESL Arena at gamescom 2011 available at www.turtle-entertainment.de/Dateien/Photos_gamescom2011.zip

"Hundreds of thousands of eSports enthusiasts came to the Energie³ ESL Arena to experience eSports on the highest level with its spine-tingling moments," said Ralf Reichert, the Managing Director of Turtle Entertainment, the organiser of ESL. "The response of the visitors in our hall was overwhelmingly possitive. Gamescom has proven once again that eSports has thousands of enthusiastic followers, not only in the world but also in Germany," he added.

This year's gamescom was visited by about 270,000 people, including thousands of eSports fans. Energie³ ESL Arena attracted over 223,000 visitors who were able to watch world's best gamers in action and enjoy the latest blockbuster video games presented by our partners. Those unable to come to Cologne could follow us live every day on ESL TV, the eSports web TV channel. During our events at gamescom, the program managed to attract an audience five times bigger than last year.

Final results of the Intel Extreme Masters 2011/12 Global Challenge Cologne:

StarCraft® 2 ($21.000)

1. Place: Lee Ho 'PuMa' Joon (KOR)
2. Place: Jang Min 'MC' Chul (KOR)
3. Place: Grzegorz 'MaNa' Komincz (PL)


League of Legends ($32.000)

1. Place: Counter Logic Gaming (US)
2. Place: Team Solomid (US)
3. Place: Fnatic MSI (EU)

Final results of the Intel Friday Night Games:

TrackMania Nations Forever: gaLLo vs. g00x 2:0

Counter-Strike: Source: n!faculty vs. ESC ICY BOX 15:15

FIFA11: MYM vs. Acer 4:0


The winners of the remaining competitions in the ESL Arena:

- ESL Major Series VIII (League of Legends): SK Gaming vs. TSM 2:0

- ESL Brink Championship: team Epsilon vs. sGs 4:2

- Deutschlands bester Gamer: Danny 'kuSKy' Engels

- AirRivals: Mando

- Sennheiser StarCraft 2 Cup: Eugin 'Strelok' Oparyshev



Turtle Entertainment GmbH
Turtle Entertainment was founded in 2000. The company quickly grew to be the European leader in the sector of electronic sports (eSports). The Electronic Sports League (ESL), operated by Turtle Entertainment, is active in 37 different countries worldwide. The league portal www.esl.eu reaches above ten million visits a month generated by more th an 2,5 million registered users. Turtle Entertainment broadcasts ESL events via IPTV channel ESL TV since 2007. The headquarter has 160 employees and is located in Cologne, Germany. Turtle Entertainment owns the majority of the Chinese eSports league PGL (Pro Gamer League) since 2007. Important business partners of Turtle Entertainment are global corporations such as Intel, Alienware, ASUS, adidas, Volkswagen, Nokia, Trend Micro, Sennheiser, Windows 7, Sidewinder, SteelSeries and gamed.de.
Further information is available at www.turtle-entertainment.com