This week in Esports: Mountain Dew, KOTK, OpTic and Telefonica

In esports terms, it has been a fairly quiet week. There’s not been one story that has grabbed the headlines this week but nonetheless there’s been news aplenty. Mountain Dew, the PepsiCo owned brand has established partnerships with three large esports organisations. Additionally, Telefonica has opened a “sports center” in Madrid to be home to the Movistar Riders esports teams. In other news, OpTic’s “Green Wall” has a new live streaming home as the hugely popular esports org has exclusively partnered with Twitch and finally, Daybreak has made a move in the world of esports revealing a series of KOTK tournaments with up to $1 million in prize money. 

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Mountain Dew establish three esports partnerships

Mountain Dew has announced that it has established partnerships with three large esports organisations in Team Dignitas, Splyce and Team SK Gaming. It’s not PepsiCo’s first foray into esports and dare we say it won’t be the last either. 

The new partnerships will ‘provide gamers around the globe with exclusive content and access to some of the best gamers and esports celebrities in the world via the Mountain Dew Twitch channel.’

Manos Spanos, Global Senior Marketing Director, Mountain Dew commented: “We are excited to expand our support of esports through these partnerships with three world-class teams. Industry-first partnerships and authentic integrations that align with core Mountain Dew values and resonate with gamers and DEW Nation will continue to inspire us as a business.”

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Telefonica open esports centre in Madrid

Telefonica has opened an esports centre in Madrid which will be the official headquarters of its Movistar Riders club. The centre spans 1,000 square metres and is open to the community. It’s dubbed a “sports city” that has the purpose of becoming a hub for video games and esports. The centre houses four training rooms and an arena which will seat 70 people. 

Movistar Riders is home to rosters under seven different titles. League of Legends, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, FIFA, Hearthstone and Clash Royale are all titles in which Movistar compete. 

There’s no shortage of telecommunication companies busy in the Spanish space. Orange signed a deal last year to see the LVP (Liga de Videojuegos Profesional) renamed to Superliga Orange and Vodafone has held a partnership with the Spanish G2 team for a while now. 

This is yet further expansion from Telefonica and Movistar as the Spanish scene continues to grow. 

Read the full article here.

Daybreak announced KOTK circuit with $1 million prize money

Daybreak Game Company, the developer behind H1Z1: King of the Kill (“KOTK”) has announced an esports circuit with $1,000,000 on the line. 

It comes as Daybreak look to establish King of the Kill, a survivor based shooting game, as an esport. The tournament series, dubbed the “H1Z1 Elite Series” will bring together the top performing players around the world to create a large professional circuit. The Elite Series will be competed across four regions, with the first taking place at DreamHack Atlanta on July 21st. The four regions are North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America and each region will have $250,000 up for grabs.

Each tournament will have a solo bracket as well as a five versus five bracket, and the $250,000 prize money will be split across the two. Four teams: Obey Alliance, World Best Gaming, Denial Esports and CLG have been confirmed for the DreamHack Atlanta tournament whilst other teams will need to qualify in preliminary rounds which will be run on site out in Atlanta. 

 

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OpTic Gaming partner with Twitch

OpTic Gaming has signed an exclusive broadcasting deal with livestreaming platform Twitch. The esports organisation is best known for its prowess in FPS titles on console, and has one of the biggest social media followings in all of esports. The deal will see OpTic players stream on Twitch rather than any other alternative platforms. 

“First and third-person shooters are what jump-started competitive online gaming as a phenomenon and are a catalyst in making esports what it is today,” revealed John Howell, VP of Global Partnerships at Twitch in a press release. He continued: “In the last year alone, we have seen shooter-game tournaments set viewership records and contribute to the meteoric rise of new FPS/TPS games on Twitch. By partnering with OpTic Gaming, an acclaimed fixture in the competitive shooter scene, we are able to ensure our large community of shooter game fans don’t have to go far to see the best the genre has to offer.”

Read the full article here.