FIFA and Electronic Arts reveals EA SPORTS FIFA 19 Global Series on the Road to the FIFA eWorld Cup 2019
FIFA eWorld Cup 2018 Grand Final Reaches Record Global Audience
Alibaba’s WESG Oceania Esports Event Comes to PAX Aus 2018
Msdossary Crowned FIFA eWorld Cup Champion
FIFA and Electronic Arts announce London as location for FIFA eWorld Cup Grand Final 2018
FIFA to hold eClub World Cup at AMP Studios Paris
Twitch Partners with SLIVER.tv to Launch Interactive “Tilted Trivia”
PUBG Pro Competition Stream.Me Invitational - Powered by Auzom Announced
SLIVER.tv Closes $20 Million Token Sale, Launches Esports Platform on Blockchain Powered by Theta
Partnership for the Integration and Establishment of eSports 'TOKYO'
-
Spencer “GORILLA” Ealing crowned new FIWC Champion
England’s Spencer “GORILLA” Ealing was crowned the new FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC) Champion this evening, after beating Germany’s Kai “DETO” Wollin in the Grand Final event at the Central Hall Westminster, London, with a score of 7-3 on aggregate. Spencer was presented with his trophy by European Champion and Dutch football legend Ruud Gullit, one of the EA SPORTS™ FIFA franchise’s most popular players and also part of Spencer’s winning squad. The Englishman also received a cheque for USD $200,000 and an invitation to attend FIFA’s annual awards ceremony The Best FIFA Football Awards in London on 23 October. Armed with the reputation as the best attacker in the history of FIFA, Spencer dominated the day to win England its first ever taste of gold-medal glory at the FIWC since 2005. The Englishman scored 46 goals over three days to win the world title. In a nail-biting final match Kai accumulated a 3-1 lead, but Spencer forced his way back, to ensure a 3-3 draw at the end of the PlayStation Leg. During the XBox leg, Spencer asserted his authority on his preferred console, racing into a two goal advantage before the interval. Despite a remarkable display of resilience from Kai, the Englishman (coached by Sean Allen who came second in last year’s FIWC Grand Final) created history and sealed a 7-3 aggregate victory in a match which saw the virtual Ruud Gullit score a crucial goal of the match, while the real Gullit sat in the audience watching with enthusiasm. “It’s absolutely unbelievable to have won this tournament. I think that to have won something of this magnitude is something that will change my life forever. Obviously the prize money is huge but for me it’s not about that, it’s about being the FIWC Champion and representing all of the people who have supported me to reach this point.” said Spencer. Over 7 million players over the course of an almost-year-long season attempted to qualify for the FIWC Grand Final but ultimately only one player was left holding the world trophy, local boy Spencer. Speaking about Spencer’s win Ruud Gullit said: “This has been a brilliant event for me to see the dedication and commitment that it takes to reach this level in eSports. For former players like myself, it’s very interesting to see ourselves in these games and to see how the gamers try to harness my style of play. As a football pundit whose job is to analyse matches, I saw how players are learning about strategies and tactics, and vice versa, through the FIFA series.“ The 2017 Grand Final is the thirteenth edition of the tournament. Over three days 32 of the best FIFA players in the world took part in group stages, quarter, semi-finals and finals on both PlayStation and XBox, culminating in the Grand Final between the two divisional champions. Following the event FIFA’s Director of Marketing Services Jean Francois Pathy said: “The FIWC is a phenomenal competition for FIFA as we can truly engage with a young, passionate and dynamic audience. It’s exciting for FIFA to play a leading role in developing the world of eSports and competitive gaming. We are looking forward to working with our partner EA SPORTS and the FIFA community to make our competition even bigger and better." The FIWC is an annual tournament organised by FIFA in cooperation with EA SPORTS. It is an official FIFA Tournament and the player crowned champion is considered by FIFA to be football’s virtual world champion. The tournament is hosted on the PlayStation and XBox networks and can be accessed via EA SPORTS FIFA 17. It has held a place in the Guinness Book of Records since 2010 as the largest gaming tournament in the world.
-
Interview of Game Developers, Whalen Rozelle esports general director
Riot Games is trying many changes for adjusting balance of ‘League of Legends’, its strategic game. Especially ahead of 2016, by heralding a wholesale change, it makes users hope to see how the result of a change will be shown. Hence, we visited the head office of Riot Games during the event ‘League of Legends All-Star 2015’, and heard the story from the game developers about what will be changed. As the third, we talked about achievements of esports in 2015, the flow of 2016 and etc to Whalen Rozelle esports general director, in charge of managing esports. ▲ Talked to Whalen Rozelle director about achievements and flow of esports. Q1. First, what is a general review of ‘League of Legends’ esports for this year? This year was very good for ‘League of Legends’. Esports also had many developments, held the first MSI in this year, and several teams won victories in various regions. This year is judged as a positive year in attendance rate or ratings. Q2. What degree is the reputation of esports at the US and Europe have? There might be diffierence from Asia where esports already established, but recently the number of viewers is increasing and it marks a steep growth. Q3. What do you view as vital to esports being accepted into mainstream sports? Compared to tranditional sports, it is the fact that esports is still immature, but its growth rate is very fast. To be accepted as an official sport, we are working on making users watch competition at the real site or increasing liveview, since we think these will change recognition. However, rather than simply following official sports, we are working hard in establishing eco-system for constructing environment of esports. Having virtuous cycle relationship between player and investor would be a driving force behind fundamental development. Q4. Like this year’s MSI, is there anything being prepared for esports in the next year? It’s too early to tell a new event in the next year, and we will make a new plan after looking back on the last events. Apart from it, we keep investing for development of each region’s league. May be a league by region is not as attractive as a global event, it is a great chance to meet fans at the real site. Q5. The number of holding global competitions in separated regions is increasing, and where do you want the competition to be held? As you know, a big global event was held in several regions including Seoul, Europe was host to League of Legends World Championship in this year, but MSI was held in the US. Likewise, we think that opening a competition in various regions is a good thing for fans. Apart from existing four regions, we are seeking for some methods such as creating a new competition to cover newly growing countries including Brazil, Turkey, and Southeast Asia. Though I can’t mention specific regions, I am able to tell you that we are seeking the direction to meet fans in the region by visiting various regions. Q6. What is the reason of registering LCK trademark rights at the head office recently? I think you asked it due to many issues recently related to LCK, but there is a little difficult part to answer here. We are cooperating between head office and branch office, but I think it’s better to talk to someone in charge of local region esports. Q7. Unlike North America, Riot Games, KeSPA, and OGN form the third party consultative group in Korea. What difference exists when compared to Riot Games taking the lead? We can say that Korea is rather unusual case. It is the region strong in esports, and also the third party is organically combined. Riot Games is in situation of running around alone in other regions, but I think a synergy happens through cooperation of the third party in Korea. What’s more, if another partner exists in other regions, it will be advantageous for delivering good experience. Of course there might be some pros and cons of two wyas, Riot Games taking the lead and a consultative group formation, but I would say forming a consultative group is better as various opinions can be made. Q8. Users have a lot of interest in Riot Games’s investing amount in LCK, and how much is the difference when compared to LCS? Though investing amount varies based on timing, when looked at as a whole, the amounts are similar. As the parts requiring money are similar anywhere, there is no much relationship with the fact of the partner’s existence and nonexsistence. Also, basically, we want to avoid the situation of making more investment in a specific region, not a new region. For your information, while in the case of North America and Europe, invested for the coaching staff, we invested in different parts in Korea as the coaching staff already took place. When fans see this, they might think why only invested in one side, but what we are avoiding is carrying out the same investment into the regions having different growing rate. Q9. What do you think about the best method of providing an optimal coverage environment like what fans hope? It is difficult to answer certainly, and also we keep learning it. We had made a coverage for maximum 11 hours in the past, but it had been pointed out for many times that it’s too long. Therefore, we tried hard to shorten by 6 hours as it is today. Planning various experiments in North America, but we couldn’t find a clear answer. So, we always review the competitions even if they got positive results. Also, now is a special time. A form of consuming TV keeps changing, and online viewers are increasing so that it became easy to select the channel that a consumer wants. We are going to provide service focused on the change of broadcasting environment, and we are also considering a broadcasting method for fans, as they enjoy to participate rather than to watch. Q10. How important is esports to ‘League of Legends’? They are inseparable. Popularity of ‘League of Legends’ raises its profile in esports, and popularity gained from esports again raise interests in items and contents in the game. Q11. Are you considering making profit through esports? Many ideas are came out as esports develops, but I think a long-term growth as esports is more significant than creating an immediate profit. We could have more opened think of the ideas in the far future, but one thing’s for certain, hurting users’ experience such as making them pay to watch in a better quality will never happen. Q12. In North America and Europe, Riot Games is directly participating in producing broadcasts, and is there any plan to directly participate in Korea and other regions? Though it’s hard to give an answer confined to a particular region, in case of Korea, cooperation with the partner is already proceeding, and satisfied with producing a high-quality broadcast. As I answered to the earlier question, if there is a partner to show sufficient quality, I believe it’s better to work with a partner. ▲ Apart from investment, Whallen Rozelle commented that it’ll be better to be with a partner if it exists.
-
Interview of Game Developers, Whalen Rozelle esports general director
Riot Games is trying many changes for adjusting balance of ‘League of Legends’, its strategic game. Especially ahead of 2016, by heralding a wholesale change, it makes users hope to see how the result of a change will be shown. Hence, we visited the head office of Riot Games during the event ‘League of Legends All-Star 2015’, and heard the story from the game developers about what will be changed. As the third, we talked about achievements of esports in 2015, the flow of 2016 and etc to Whalen Rozelle esports general director, in charge of managing esports. ▲ Talked to Whalen Rozelle director about achievements and flow of esports. Q1. First, what is a general review of ‘League of Legends’ esports for this year? This year was very good for ‘League of Legends’. Esports also had many developments, held the first MSI in this year, and several teams won victories in various regions. This year is judged as a positive year in attendance rate or ratings. Q2. What degree is the reputation of esports at the US and Europe have? There might be diffierence from Asia where esports already established, but recently the number of viewers is increasing and it marks a steep growth. Q3. What do you view as vital to esports being accepted into mainstream sports? Compared to tranditional sports, it is the fact that esports is still immature, but its growth rate is very fast. To be accepted as an official sport, we are working on making users watch competition at the real site or increasing liveview, since we think these will change recognition. However, rather than simply following official sports, we are working hard in establishing eco-system for constructing environment of esports. Having virtuous cycle relationship between player and investor would be a driving force behind fundamental development. Q4. Like this year’s MSI, is there anything being prepared for esports in the next year? It’s too early to tell a new event in the next year, and we will make a new plan after looking back on the last events. Apart from it, we keep investing for development of each region’s league. May be a league by region is not as attractive as a global event, it is a great chance to meet fans at the real site. Q5. The number of holding global competitions in separated regions is increasing, and where do you want the competition to be held? As you know, a big global event was held in several regions including Seoul, Europe was host to League of Legends World Championship in this year, but MSI was held in the US. Likewise, we think that opening a competition in various regions is a good thing for fans. Apart from existing four regions, we are seeking for some methods such as creating a new competition to cover newly growing countries including Brazil, Turkey, and Southeast Asia. Though I can’t mention specific regions, I am able to tell you that we are seeking the direction to meet fans in the region by visiting various regions. Q6. What is the reason of registering LCK trademark rights at the head office recently? I think you asked it due to many issues recently related to LCK, but there is a little difficult part to answer here. We are cooperating between head office and branch office, but I think it’s better to talk to someone in charge of local region esports. Q7. Unlike North America, Riot Games, KeSPA, and OGN form the third party consultative group in Korea. What difference exists when compared to Riot Games taking the lead? We can say that Korea is rather unusual case. It is the region strong in esports, and also the third party is organically combined. Riot Games is in situation of running around alone in other regions, but I think a synergy happens through cooperation of the third party in Korea. What’s more, if another partner exists in other regions, it will be advantageous for delivering good experience. Of course there might be some pros and cons of two wyas, Riot Games taking the lead and a consultative group formation, but I would say forming a consultative group is better as various opinions can be made. Q8. Users have a lot of interest in Riot Games’s investing amount in LCK, and how much is the difference when compared to LCS? Though investing amount varies based on timing, when looked at as a whole, the amounts are similar. As the parts requiring money are similar anywhere, there is no much relationship with the fact of the partner’s existence and nonexsistence. Also, basically, we want to avoid the situation of making more investment in a specific region, not a new region. For your information, while in the case of North America and Europe, invested for the coaching staff, we invested in different parts in Korea as the coaching staff already took place. When fans see this, they might think why only invested in one side, but what we are avoiding is carrying out the same investment into the regions having different growing rate. Q9. What do you think about the best method of providing an optimal coverage environment like what fans hope? It is difficult to answer certainly, and also we keep learning it. We had made a coverage for maximum 11 hours in the past, but it had been pointed out for many times that it’s too long. Therefore, we tried hard to shorten by 6 hours as it is today. Planning various experiments in North America, but we couldn’t find a clear answer. So, we always review the competitions even if they got positive results. Also, now is a special time. A form of consuming TV keeps changing, and online viewers are increasing so that it became easy to select the channel that a consumer wants. We are going to provide service focused on the change of broadcasting environment, and we are also considering a broadcasting method for fans, as they enjoy to participate rather than to watch. Q10. How important is esports to ‘League of Legends’? They are inseparable. Popularity of ‘League of Legends’ raises its profile in esports, and popularity gained from esports again raise interests in items and contents in the game. Q11. Are you considering making profit through esports? Many ideas are came out as esports develops, but I think a long-term growth as esports is more significant than creating an immediate profit. We could have more opened think of the ideas in the far future, but one thing’s for certain, hurting users’ experience such as making them pay to watch in a better quality will never happen. Q12. In North America and Europe, Riot Games is directly participating in producing broadcasts, and is there any plan to directly participate in Korea and other regions? Though it’s hard to give an answer confined to a particular region, in case of Korea, cooperation with the partner is already proceeding, and satisfied with producing a high-quality broadcast. As I answered to the earlier question, if there is a partner to show sufficient quality, I believe it’s better to work with a partner. ▲ Apart from investment, Whallen Rozelle commented that it’ll be better to be with a partner if it exists.
-
Interview of Game Developers, Andrei Van Roon & Brian Feeney
Riot Games is trying many changes for adjusting balance of ‘League of Legends’, its strategic game. Especially ahead of 2016, by heralding a wholesale change, it makes users hope to see how the result of a change will be shown. Hence, we visited the head office of Riot Games during the event ‘League of Legends All-Star 2015’, and heard the story from the game developers about what will be changed. As the first, we talked about the change in the game by meeting lead game designer, Andrei Van Roon, and senior game balance designer, Brian Feeney. ▲ Listened to the story from two game developers about the change coming in 2016. Q1. Please introduce yourself. (Van Roon designer) I am a lead game designer, Anrei Van Roon, in charge of the game balancing of ‘League of Legends’. Now I am progressing various works related to preseason, and development parts to solve the problems of characteristic section or OP champions. Especially I take much care of speed of the game. (Feeney designer) I am a senior game balance designer, Brian Feeney. I am doing similar work, but also, as there are many experimental parts in this season, consistently checking how well the users adapt to the game. Q2. On which part do you focus among the feedbacks from users? (Van Roon designer) Which choice the users decide is the part that we read most interestingly. Especially we are focusing on what rarely used and beloved champions are, or if there is any item used rarely or beloved. (Feeney designer) For example, we interestingly watch the cases such as going to the middle line with ‘Quinn’. We are observing how successful our experiments so far are, and how the users develop them. Q3. It seems that more changes are made in this season compared to the last season. What’s the reason? (Van Roon designer) We pursued change, inducing more battles by letting towers destroyed in a shorter time. We consider preseason the only period for this experiment as there are no large scale event and ranked play. Q4. Recently, a remake of ‘Poppy’ has been getting good responses from users. Is there any predicting champion that might be remade in the future? (Van Roon designer) Lots of remakes are prepared in 2016. Shortly, ‘Shen’ will be remade, and probably ‘Taric’ is the champion that might be greatly changed like ‘Poppy’. In the long run, the champion ‘Yorick’ also needs change. As we consider both balance and the champion’s theme during remake, ‘Sion’ would be the good example. We also base on how old the champion is, and ‘Taric’ could be the one. Q5. What do you think about the opinions that the game is getting harder because of many reasons such as increasing items? (Feeney designer) The main reason why we made various items is to let users use a wide range of strategies. Of course, it seems complicated, but we might say that it is simplified as the users can show their color. Q6. I wonder how feedbacks are different by regions. Such as, how the items preferred by Korean and Chinese are different? (Feeney designer) Considering region by region, rather than items, there were many cases that preferences of champions are different. Especially, we could know a specific champion becomes popular by looking at progamer’s build. (Van Roon designer) In Riot Games, there are people in charge by regions, so they check the differences consistently, I believe. Q7. What do you base on for the standard during balancing work? (Feeney designer) One of the reasons why balancing work is so difficult is what should be taken as a standard. We look at various data, and many figures by calculating what the winning rate will be by champions or when building dragon 3-stacks. Also, we actively accept community’s feedbacks. (Van Roon designer) Though we are trying to lower the barrier to entry, the focus for balancing work is actually users good at the game. In addition, it is also an important part to time the work. Q8. How long do the developers consider as an ideal game time? Also, what do you think about the case that mainly used champions in LCK are nerffed right before League of Legends World Championship? (Van Roon designer) Though there is no answer in playing time, 30-35 minutes should be ideal. One thing for sure is to prevent the game time way beyond the average. Even so, that all the games are ended in the same time is also sublated. We are working on drawing a fine line. (Feeney designer) That doing balancing work aimed at a specific region is absolutely not. It is of course to balancing OP(Over Power) champions, but I think one of the reasons why we think in that way is that Korean gamers are the fastest in finding OP champions and use them. ▲ They revealed that ’Shen’ and ‘Taric’ might have many changes.
-
First View of Riot Games New Office Buildings in Los Angeles
Riot Games introduced its new office building to the journalists covering events at the same time as ‘2015 League of Legends All-Star Event’, taken place from December 10-13 at the LCS Studio in Los Angeles, California. With the size of 360,000 square feet, Riot Games’ new office building has office room, park and resting facilities, and about 1,600 employees are working. Originally, the building used to be a storehouse, parking lot, space for personal video and etc by Hollywood film officials. Riot Games moved into the bulding in the first half of 2015 after making over the bulding to its use. The office area consists of working space where employees can freely move, and more than 200 small conference rooms and etc, dividing into specific areas such as ‘Demacia’ and ‘Piltover’. The names of conference room are consisting of the names of characters belonging to each camp, and the interior design also has characters’ features so that employees or visitors can easily find the conference room. Network Operation Center(NOC) where control games is the space where game servers from all over the world are being counted, so it can monitor the game conditions in real time 24-hours to the cooperation of NOC in Dublin, Ireland. Moreover, in the only closed office ‘Music Department’, about 20 employees are creating various musics. In addition, it is able to see ‘Riot Internet Café’, similar to ‘PC room’ in Korea, the biggest employee cafeteria among the game companies in West Los Angeles, the buildings designed in the shape of the most using keys in the game such as ‘Q’, ‘W’, ‘E’, and ‘R’, and the art works made by artists or game users from all over the world. ▲ Company logo at the entrance of Riot Games’ new office ▲ Artist Kim Jung Ki’s work of Riot Games employees working is at the entrance. ▲ ’Annie’ and ‘Tibbers’ are welcoming visitors. ▲ Concept arts and fan arts are hung all over. ▲ Tiles of central garden are installed in summoner canyon concept. ▲ ’Riot Internet Café’ written in Korean ▲ Internet Café is available to 151 people at the same time. ▲ ’Bilgewater Brew’, a café for employees ▲ Cannon in front of the café is real that can be fired. ▲ We can find the trace of Riot Games even at the bench in bus station in front of the new office.
-
-
-
