October 18th: This Week in Esports
By: Taylor Hurst
Tags: Esports, League of Legends, Videogames, Call Of Duty, Venture Capital

October 18th: This Week in Esports

Call of Duty Takes the Reins on Twitch

Since Call of Duty’s release to the public, they have dominated Twitch viewership with 21.93M hours watched from October 12th-October 16th. Even with the League of Legends World Championship going on, COD takes first place. LoL managed to still amass over 18M hours watched but with some of the most notable personalities hopping on the newest battle royale game, LoL couldn’t keep up. Even Fortnite couldn’t beat out major tournaments of some of the most globally recognized games like COD has done. Call of Duty has nestled itself as a consistent console hit and almost a must buy for the majority of gamers. Now, with the emergence of the Battle Royale genre mixed with a classic hit that so many gamers grew up playing, we may be looking at the next major esports title. Another interesting tidbit: PUBG wasn’t even in the top 10 of twitch views during this timeframe. Many people like to debate over whether or not COD is the new blockbuster battle royale title, but I think the better debate, with the similarities in gameplay, is whether or not PUBG is officially dead.

Credit: Riot Games

League of Legends Worlds Group Stage

The group stage for the LoL Worlds did not disappoint. We saw three of the 1-seeds get eliminated two weeks into the six week tournament(Team Liquid, Flash Wolves, Phong Vu Buffalo) and three play-in teams advance to the knockout rounds(Cloud9, G2 Esports, and Edward Gaming). The knockout round will have some solid match-ups. The first match-up features two great teams with the South Korean 1-seed, kt Rolster, and the Chinese 2-seed, Invictus Gaming. Day two will feature two match-ups with the Chinese 1-seed, Royal Never Give Up, against European play-in team, G2 Esports, and South Korean 2-seed, Afreeca Freecs, against North American play-in team, Cloud9. Cloud9 is the only North American team to get out of the Group Stages as both the 1-seed and 2-seed were eliminated. The final match-up of the knockout stage will be with European 1-seed, Fnatic, against Chinese play-in team, Edward Gaming. Edward gaming currently holds the longest streak of making the knockout stage at Worlds with this being their 3rd year in a row.

Credit: Throwdown Esports

Australian Esports Teams are Making a Name For Themselves

Three Australian teams have made it to their respective finals. Tainted Minds won the Throwdown Esports Rocket League OCE championship which granted them a spot to the Rocket League Championship Series. The Chiefs, who lost to Tainted Minds in the OCE Championship finals will also be joining Tainted Minds at the Championship series due to their 2nd place finish. Finally, Team Immunity took the crown at the Predator PUBG OCE Open Series which secured them a spot at the Predator League Final. Both events these three teams will be competing at are sponsored by Throwdown Esports and will offer a total of $1.25 million in prize money.

Credit: US News and World Report

Esports is Getting it’s Own Publicly Traded ETF

VanEck has officially announced a new ETF, available on the NASDAQ exchange, that will track companies developing video games, software, streaming services, and will be active in esports events. This will be the first esports-based ETF debuted. When VanEck was asked about the potential upside, they said, “Just a few years ago, talk of sold out stadiums, viewership in the millions, high-profile sponsors, and notable marketing arrangements would have been centered on football, baseball, basketball or hockey. But today, that talk can just as easily be applied to the world of video games and esports. This is the future of sports and a growth story that is global in scope.” A lot of notable brands will be their top holdings, including: Tencent, Activision Blizzard, Zynga, Nvidia, snd Advanced Micro Devices. This will be a great way for investors interested in the space to diversify their investments through one holding.

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