Esports
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Premier League football stars face off in a weeklong virtual tournament
With both traditional and esports adjusting their schedules due to COVID-19, England’s Premier League announced a new, hybrid tournament, the ePremiere League Invitational, in which football stars and celebrity fans will test their esports abilities in a five-day, 20-team, single-elimination tournament. The winner will take home the ePremier League Invitational champion title, and all proceeds will go to the #PlayersTogether fund, supporting the National Health Service. Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold will face off with musician and lifelong Manchester United fan Tom Grennan, who will represent the Red Devils.
ESPN will stream a 'Valorant' tournament today at 3:30PM ET
ESPN is broadcasting a 'Valorant' invitational tourney between April 20th and April 22nd with top esports players involved.
Riot outlines its early plans for 'Valorant' esports
Riot is focusing on partnerships with tournament organizers and pro players in the early days of 'Valorant' esports.
Formula E drivers will compete in streamed ‘rFactor 2’ races
Like their counterparts in Formula 1 and NASCAR, Formula E drivers will compete online.
NASCAR driver fired after using a racial slur while streaming
A NASCAR driver lost his real-life racing job after using a racial slur during a live-streamed iRacing event on Sunday.
EA's FIFA 20 tournament pits real footballers against each other
EA Sports has launched a FIFA 20 esports soccer tournament to raise cash for coronavirus charities, featuring some of the biggest teams and players in Europe. The Stay and Play Cup will be streamed on EA’s Twitch channel and match up teams like Dortmund, Real Madrid, Paris St. Germaine and Manchester City.
ESPN will give its racing fans an esports fix
With all motorsports on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic — including Formula 1, Formula E and IndyCar — the only experiences available are virtual. Disney’s ESPN is set to elevate that a notch by launching a virtual racing series from Torque Esports.
ESPN will broadcast and stream 'League of Legends' spring playoffs
ESPN is diving deeper into live esports with League of Legends Championship Series broadcasts.
Facebook’s new tool lets gamers plan their own esports tournaments
Today, Facebook Gaming is launching Tournaments, a new feature that lets users create, join or follow virtual game tournaments. You can host single elimination, double elimination or round robin tournaments, and best of all, it’s open to anyone. Facebook says it’s meant to be a “one-stop shop for everything critically important for tournament organizers.”
NASCAR driver 'rage quits' esports race
With real-life race events canceled, drivers have taken their talents to esports and unsurprisingly, the usual conflicts have followed. A video game.
Call of Duty League resumes April 10th with online-only format
The Call of Duty League will return this weekend after several weeks of inaction. Much like the Overwatch League, its fellow Activision Blizzard esports series, matches will take place entirely online with players taking part remotely.
ESPN2 will air 12 hours of esports coverage on April 5th
TV networks are already trying to fill the void in sports coverage left by the COVID-19 pandemic, but ESPN is going all-out. The broadcaster's ESPN2 channel is airing a 12-hour ESPN Esports Day on April 5th starting at 12PM Eastern, and there will be some high-profile live events in the mix. The highlight may be the second F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix at 3PM, when racers (including some current Formula 1 drivers) will compete online in a digital version of Australia's Albert Park. The marathon will also represent Rocket League's debut on ESPN television (it was only streamed before) with the Season 8 World Championship's Grand Finals broadcasting live at 4:30PM.
Porsche's virtual race series starts tomorrow with pro drivers at the wheel
It's not just multi-manufacturer racing leagues like NASCAR going digital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Porsche is livestreaming its Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual Edition starting on April 4th at 10AM Eastern, when drivers take to a digital version of the Spanish Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for two races in 911 GT3 Cup cars. The iRacing-based series will have 31 drivers, 22 of which are full-time Supercup racers -- the nine others are factory and young professional drivers fielded by big-name sponsors like TAG Heuer and Vodafone.
Social distancing is pushing esports into the mainstream
Industries around the globe have ground to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic. Bars, restaurants, stadiums and factories have shuttered, and entire countries are on lockdown as citizens are ordered to stay home for weeks at a time in an attempt to control the disease's spread. With the streets empty, people are turning to their screens more than ever before. Viewership of streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, Mixer and Hulu has risen weekly since shelter-in-place orders began rolling out, and people are on the hunt for new forms of entertainment, ideally with a social twist. Something with a chat room, or dozens of forum posts to read through, or an active Twitter and Instagram presence. Something with stats and high stakes. Something live. Enter: Esports. As economic activity spirals downward around the world, the esports industry has been spun into overdrive. Leagues are ditching plans for in-person tournaments and pivoting to online-only matches, where they're finding a hungry audience.
'Apex Legends' tournaments get a new online-only schedule
Respawn and EA's dreams of establishing Apex Legends as an esports staple aren't going according to plan. The Apex Legends Global Series team is moving its events online "for the time being" due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that means both more remote events overall as well as greater reward for those who participate. There are now three more Online Tournaments (#4, #5 and #6) due to start on April 18th, May 2nd and May 30th, while the already-scheduled Online Tournament #3 starting April 4th is now poised to offer $100,000 in prize money on top of series points. Its finals will broadcast on Twitch and YouTube on April 6th.
NBA 2K tournament starts Friday with Kevin Durant, Trae Young and more
Confirming yesterday's leak, the NBA announced an esports tournament that will kick off this Friday, with games broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2. The NBA 2K Players Tournament will pit 16 current NBA players against one another, with finals scheduled to take place April 11th and air on ESPN. The winner will select a charity beneficiary to receive $100,000 in support of coronavirus relief efforts.
The entire Overwatch League regular season will be online-only
The Overwatch League has canceled all of its live events for the remainder of the 2020 regular season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Matches will take place in an entirely online format until August at the very least.
NBA reportedly plans 'players-only' 2K tournament that will air on ESPN
The NBA already has an official esports league with various teams represented, but with the live basketball season on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, it's reportedly about to put real NBA players on the sticks. Yahoo Sports reporter Chris Haynes cites league sources indicating that a 16-player NBA 2K tournament lasting 10 days will begin on Friday, with ESPN set to broadcast it. With sports pretty much shut down around the world, networks are desperate for live content and athletes have nothing to do. So far, NASCAR has made the most noticeable shift to esports with races that it airs on Fox, and now the NBA is apparently ready to follow. Fox also aired a Madden tournament this past weekend, and can likely shift scheduled events around to do even more. Ever since the NBA season was put on hold and the NBA 2K League postponed its activities, teams like the Suns have been livestreaming some games already. But bringing in league stars could put an even bigger spotlight on videogame basketball as a spectator sport. According to Haynes, Demarcus Cousins, who missed almost all of the last two seasons due to injuries, is scheduled to participate, but there's no word on who else may be in, even with a league full of known gamers who occasionally hop on live stream. Players Like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Paul George, LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been on the 2K cover in recent years, but now we might find out who can actually play at a high level.
The aggravation of game-breaking bugs in esports
It was late one Sunday in September in Krakow, Poland, and Eric "Snip3down" Wrona was heated. He was a handful of points away from making the championship series of the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational and his only shot at progressing towards the grand prize of more than $100,000. Wrona is a notable battle royale and Halo competitor, who had placed second at the X-Games -- the only other major competitive Apex Legends event. Tucked away in Alvernia Studios, a series of dome production studios turned into an esports venue with a small audience of already-eliminated players, he was prepped to wreak havoc in his final game in the loser's bracket.
Fox Sports will air a 'Madden NFL 20' tournament on March 29th
Fox Sports' NASCAR esports race was a success, and it's betting that it can repeat that achievement with football. FS1 is planning to air its first ever Fox Esports Madden NFL Invitational on March 29th at 7PM Eastern. The two-hour event will pit players (remotely, of course) against each other in a single-elimination, three-round Madden NFL 20 tournament. There are only eight players, but they include a mix of analysts and pros such as Derwin James (above), Matt Leinart and Michael Vick.
