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Formula One's eSports racing league seeks the best 'F1 2017' driver
Traditional sports squads and eSports teams partnering has been happening pretty frequently recently. But now we're seeing it happen in a big way with motorsports. Specifically, Formula One is pairing with developer Codemasters and Gfinity to find the best F1 2017 driver. Per Reuters, the semi-final races will be held in London at the Gfinity Arena in October, and the best 20 racers will proceed to the last round of competition the next month.
BT Sport will air Gfinity esports, just like BBC Three
Gfinity is on a roll. The British esports organiser has partnered with BT Sport to broadcast its Elite Series tournament in the UK. The company inked a near-identical deal with BBC Three last week, ensuring the high-stakes competition — which spans Street Fighter V, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Rocket League — is shown live on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. BT will be covering the action on BT Sport 3, starting at 9:30pm tonight (August 1st). The partnership runs until September 3rd, when the finals wrap up at Gfinity's glitzy esports arena in London.
BBC Three to stream six weeks of Gfinity esports coverage
A couple of years ago, the BBC decided to stream the League of Legends World Championship quarterfinals in London. The live, online-only coverage was clearly an experiment designed to test the appetite of viewers and the feasibility of regular broadcasts. Now, the BBC is back with a weekly schedule of Gfinity esports coverage. Starting tonight (July 28th) at 9pm, BBC Three will stream Street Fighter V on Fridays, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Saturdays and Rocket League on Sundays. The partnership only runs for six weeks, however, which like before suggests this is a trial-run for a more permanent block of programming.
'Splatoon' celebrated with 'The Great British Splat-Off'
Splatoon is one of the most exciting games to come out of Nintendo in some time. The colourful team-based shooter, which follows squid-like "inklings" and their mission to cover the world (and each other) in paint, has garnered plenty of fans on Wii U. Now, Nintendo is celebrating that community with "The Great British Splat-Off," a series of online tournaments that form part of "The Summer of Splat." Matches will be held over four weekends, starting on July 16th, to find teams that can compete in "The Splatoon Fan Fest" at London's Gfinity Arena on August 27th.
Gfinity's eSports broadcasts now offer multiple perspectives
While Gfinity is known for its eSports stadium in London, the company is also committed to building an audience online. In addition to streaming on Twitch, the company has now launched a new GTV player in open beta. With this, you can have multiple feeds open and change each window depending on what's important to you. During a Counter-Strike tournament, for instance, I could switch between the "main stream" shown on Twitch, dedicated feeds for each team, and a few player facecams. In addition, I could change the audio between full broadcast style commentary and strictly in-game music and sound effects.
Make your own ladders and leagues with Gfinity's Xbox One app
Gfinity is backing eSports heavily: if it's not a gaming arena, its an app that lets you arrange your own tournament, ladder or league. It's a first for consoles (and it's just Xbox One for now), but it lets you create and manage tournaments from the Microsoft game box. The company is hoping it'll see use both at the professional level as well as to settle scores in the office and at home.
Gfinity needs more cash to build its UK eSports empire
Although demand for eSports continues to rise every day, helped by Twitch and YouTube, making money from competitive gaming can be hard (unless you're a successful player). It's a struggle that UK eSports events company Gfinity knows all too well after it revealed it lost £3.6 million in its first full year. Given that the company invested heavily in getting its business off the ground, which includes the launch of the UK's first dedicated arena, the loss doesn't come as a surprise, but it does highlight the need to quickly convert its growing audience into paying customers.
Inside the UK's first dedicated eSports arena
The sound of gunfire echoes across the room, followed by an approving roar from the crowd. A five-man team called "Ninjas in Pyjamas" has taken the lead and fans can hardly contain their excitement. Another counter-terrorist suddenly drops to the floor and the noise from the crowd rises again, as two suit-clad presenters babble feverishly into headsets about the tactics at play. There's no time for celebration though. The players remain fixated on their PC monitors, fingers dancing across keyboards and mice as they guide their virtual characters around an abandoned warehouse complex.
Why 2015 will be a groundbreaking year for UK eSports
A casual glance at the front page of Twitch or MLG is all it takes to remind you of eSports' growing popularity. Whether you're interested in League of Legends, Dota 2 or Hearthstone, it doesn't take long to find a stream where talented players are competing in ranked cups and tournaments. The professional gaming scene has grown rapidly in the last few years, and that success is slowly being reflected in the UK. The number of players and spectators has risen dramatically, and that's created new business opportunities for league organisers, game publishers and sponsors. Just like traditional sports, there's money to be made if you can get people excited about watching and following their favourite stars.
A Vue cinema will become the UK's first eSports arena next month
True to its word, Gfinity will soon open the UK's first physical venue for eSports enthusiasts. The company has struck a deal with Vue to convert part of its Fulham Broadway cinema into the 'Gfinity Arena,' which will accommodate 600 spectators across three custom-built stages. While it's not an entirely new building, organisers hope it'll stand apart with a dedicated ticketing hall, entrances and confectionary stands. The doors are set to open next month and Gfinity has already scheduled 25 competitions up until September, covering games such as Halo, Call of Duty and Starcraft II. Renting space from Vue is obviously cheaper than building a stadium from scratch, but for Gfinity that's not the only perk. The pair say they'll be working together to promote future eSports events and will look at expanding the model into other Vue locations. So if this little experiment is successful, we might see a flurry of Gfinity venues cropping up around the country.
