There weren't many tournaments in esports this week. There weren't many major signings. Nobody got banned from anything. No teams were sold.
There were, however, some major business-end news stories that are worth talking about. Here's your weekly rushdown of esports news.
A League of Their Own?
Esports organizations are in dire straits these days. Reports of late payments to players are common and owners know they're always one grumpy Riot Games executive away from having their investment burned into ashes.
With that in mind, seven major teams are pooling their resources to form their own Counter-Strike: Global Offensive league, named the Professional eSports Association (PEA). PEA—made up of Team Liquid, compLexity Gaming, Team SoloMid, Counter Logic Gaming, Cloud9, Immortals and NRG eSports—will seek to maintain teams' presence in the current esports landscape, which has seen other leagues and publishers take control, leaving teams hurting for both control and cash.
PEA Commissioner Jason Katz and TSM owner Andy "Regi" Dinh touted the PEA as a player-friendly alternative to the current system, touting health insurance and retirement planning for players. PEA's plan as it stands is to have a clean 50-50 revenue split between the players and teams.
The league will take an NFL-style approach to its format with a 10-week season that features two matches per week. There are plans for two seasons, which will have a combined $1 million prize pool. What lies past that, both in terms of future seasons and what titles will be included, remains to be seen.
The seven teams involved are among the biggest in the industry, and have the network in place to make a lot of noise as a result. There is, of course, reason to be skeptical, between the potential for disruptive internal politics and the sheer competitiveness of the field.
Still, this could pan out as the biggest esports story of the year if PEA gains any traction.
League of Legends World Championship Quickly Approaching
The esports world is just two weeks away from one of the grandest events on its calendar: the League of Legends World Championship. The group stage schedule was revealed on Saturday and, unsurprisingly, there are a whole lot of interesting matchups right from the start.
The group stages begin on September 29. You can find the full schedule on League's website.
Evo Japan Details Surface
The mysterious Evo Japan tournament isn't so mysterious anymore. Details about the Asian spinoff to the world's biggest fighting game tournament hit the Japanese gaming media earlier this week and they are, in a word, interesting.
According to Japan's 4Gamer.net (via fighting game personality Ryan Harvey, h/t DailyDot.com's Steven Jurek), Evo Japan, LLC is a joint venture between Shochiku Broadcasting Co. (a "film and anime producer"), the Hearts United Group and its parent company, Aetas. The three companies have invested over $1 million into Evo Japan, LLC, which gives it a fair bit of capital to work with for its inaugural tournament.
Spinoff tournaments aren't a new phenomenon for Evo. For a long while, Evo consisted of numerous regional tournaments across the United States, with Evo East and West (which took place in Connecticut and California, respectively) leading the way to Evo North and South (Illinois and Texas). In 2008, however, those other tournaments were nixed, leaving only the "prime" Evo in Las Vegas.
As noted by DailyDot.com, this isn't Evo's first attempt at expanding overseas, either. An Evo Japan tournament was announced in 2010. Unfortunately, those plans never came to fruition due to the devastating earthquakes and tsunamis that hit the country in 2011.
According to Evo's Mark Julio, more details will be announced at the Tokyo Game Show, which begins on Thursday, September 15.
Dota 2 Rosters Settling After Massive Upheaval
A couple of weeks back, this writer discussed the massive shakeup to the competitive Dota 2 scene following The International 2016. As of now, things have finally started to settle down...more or less.
With the drop period done and the add period officially underway, players are starting to settle into their new homes. As a result, there are lots of exciting new teams all coming together at once. Bleacher Report will bring you a full breakdown of the action once the rosters lock next week. In the meantime, fans can get a taste of what's to come next season on the Dota 2 majors registration page.
Fun Interview on Collegiate Esports
Sports are a big part of the college experience, and esports is starting to make its presence felt on campuses around North America. The Collegiate StarLeague is delivering on that and, unlike the NCAA, is actually letting players win money for their competitive success!
The Vancouver Metro's Colin McNeil has a fun interview with Vivian Chung, who manages the University of British Columbia's Dota 2 team. It's definitely worth checking out.