eSports Players

Esports is a term that you might not have heard in the 2000s but in the past decade, it has become a full-fledged billion-dollar industry with millions of gamers all over the world. Moreover, the industry has also been boosted with the help of coverage provided to it by mainstream and social media. This is why you can see a lot of gaming channels on analog and digital cable, YouTube, Twitch, and other streaming platforms.

If you don’t have a lot of knowledge about esports, let us put your mind at ease by telling you that it is another term for professional gaming. It involves games where players compete in tournaments, battles, and competitions to win money. It also involves live streaming gameplay and getting sponsorship offers from brands, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

What is Professional Gaming?

Professional gaming, or pro gaming, is like a sport, only it involves video games played by professionals, who are involved part-time or full-time into this industry.

One of the most exciting and inspiring trends in the past decade is eSports, which is closely tied in with the video game industry. They have been greatly facilitated with the help of innovation in hardware and cutting-edge graphics. Moreover, streaming technology has also played a major role in taking this industry forward. All these things strongly suggest that eSports will only continue to go up from here, and this article highlights the top eSports trends that you should look out for.

Competitive Console Gaming

When it comes to competitive gaming, your mind might instantly go to PC gaming. However, the past few years have proved that console gaming is also coming up to speed. This has become possible thanks to new gaming consoles like the PlayStation 4 and 5, as well as the Xbox Series X. These consoles feature next-gen and advanced hardware that are leaps and bounds over previous consoles. Thanks to their streaming and Wi-Fi capabilities, console gamers have also jumped

The biggest name in video games shared his opinion that he thinks video games will be an Olympic sport in the near future, this according to gossip site TMZ.

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was caught up with by a TMZ paparazzo this past week and was asked his opinion on the growth of the eSports industry. Blevins said that he thinks the industry is still growing, and it will only be a matter of time before video games are played on a competitive level internationally at the Olympics.

Speaking to TMZ, Ninja said, "For me, I just think it's going to be time," Ninja tells TMZ Sports. "I think that obviously, the younger generation enjoys eSports and enjoys watching video games. Eventually, that's what they're gonna want and that's what the TV people are gonna want to show and represent.”

"Just give a little bit of time and eSports will be there.”

Ninja recently made news when he switched from popular streaming site Twitch to Microsoft-owned Mixer. His move was met by hundreds

The former CEO of eSports group OpTic Gaming Hecz has announced that he’s leaving the company and joining the eSports group NRG as the company’s Co-CEO.

The move was announced in a September 15th YouTube video where Hecz posted his journey through working with OpTic and sharing what his future moves will be. This is the first team change for Hecz, whose real name is Hector Rodriguez. He had previously been with OpTic since 2007, but the group was purchased by Immortals Gaming Club, and Hecz thought it was time to move on.

He reportedly turned down an offer by OpTic to remain in his current role.

In the video Hecz says, “No matter what, just understand that I will continue to do everything in my power to try to repay you. By bringing you a story, keeping you excited, by continuing to share the moments that we have all grown to share in the last decade of work.”

It’s currently not known what role Hecz will have at NRG, but we can assume that he’ll be working in

Renowned streamer Ninja has announced that he’s decided to stop streaming on Twitch and will be moving to Microsoft owned Mixer on an exclusive basis.

Ninja posted a video where he had a faux press conference, announcing that he’s moving to Mixer, which has lagged behind competition like Twitch and YouTube since it launched four years ago with the name Beam. Microsoft bought into Mixer in 2017 and has been putting in the work to make it a formidable competitor to the above services.

Ninja had the title of largest streamer on Twitch, having 14 million followers and peaking at 130,000 peak visitors. He’s since been usurped by other players, but still was among the top names on the platform.

The first stream from Ninja did on Mixer was on August 2nd and took place live from Lollapalooza and had more than 80,000 viewers concurrently. He also has generated more than  300,000 followers as of press time. While these numbers don’t hold a candle to his Twitch numbers, they’re

PS4 racer Gran Turismo Sport is finally getting a wet weather course, allowing players to experience slick track conditions and we can’t wait to see how our controllers handle the action!

The new course is coming, but the game’s developer was coy about when a specific launch date would be coming. GT Sport debuted on PS4 in October 2017 but has been relatively bare in regards to the different weather features that previous titles have seen.

The wet weather course is being teased in a YouTube video, which features professional eSports racer Coque Lopez taking his turn around the track. You can see that video below:

Gran Turismo Sport is seen as a bit of an outlier for the popular racing franchise, as it doesn’t feature a huge library of cars that you can add to your garage as well as fewer tracks. With that said, the game

California-based video game developer Visual Concepts is reporting that more NBA 2K19 players are using the Portland Trailblazers after the team’s stunning series win against the Oklahoma Thunder last week.

Damian Lillard sank the Thunder on a last second 3-pointer in Overtime during Game 5 of the first round of the NBA playoffs. The shot was seen live on national television and has done wonders for the popularity of the Oregon-based team.

According to 2K19’s official Twitter page, there’s been a 62% increase in players electing to play as the Trailblazers following the win. Lillard and teammate C.J. McCollum are rising stars in the NBA, and gaining national exposure with big playoff performances is helping. It’s unknown whether or not the selection increase only applies to online games, but we reckon that there’s a surge in offline modes as well.

NBA 2K9 is the long-standing champ when it comes to video game basketball, easily

During late October, the Call of Duty Blackout Doritos Bowl tournament took place at TwitchCon. It was more of a promotional event than a full blown esports tournament, but it still attracted a number of big names in the esports and gaming communities.

For those interested, the event saw a total of 4 invited teams take part in the event. There was $250,000 on the line, and the winning team got to take home a huge $100k.

The event had the following teams take part:

● Team Shroud - Shroud, Just9n, Chocotaco, Chad
● Team OpTic - Courage, Karma, TeePee, Hysteria
● Team Ninja - Ninja, JoshOG, FearItself, GoldGlobe
● Team DrLupo - DrLupo, Mad Ruski, AnneMunition, Ninja with no L

The overall scoring system gave one point per kill, a 0.5x multiplier for top 10, a 0.75x multiplier for top 5, and a 1.25x multiplier for top 3.

The tournament had four separate heats. In each heat, the teams had one hour to win as many Blackout games as possible.

Thinking about going pro in Fortnite on the PS4 or Xbox One? The good news is that it is still possible, despite what other people may say.

Many individuals think that professional gaming, especially for shooter games like Fortnite, requires a mouse and keyboard for you to be able to compete at a high level.

Whilst it is true that a mouse will give you more precision and accuracy than a controller, there’s nothing stopping you from playing Fortnite competitively with a controller if that is what you are comfortable with.

To go pro in Fortnite, the easiest route is to build a strong following on YouTube or Twitch first. Live streamers are the first to get invited to Fortnite events these days. Once you’re invited, you’ll get recognition and the chance to fight for prize money just for working on your personality and stream quality.

Obviously, it’s not going to be an easy journey. Building up a stream big enough to gain the attention of Epic Games or other tournament

ROX has taken their first steps into the world of fighting games by signing legendary Tekken 7 player Knee.

Knee is a South Korean Tekken 7 player that's currently considered to be amongst the very best. Knee is a very respected Tekken player, and many in the Tekken community will often look up to him and his fighter tier lists.

After Knee's recent performance at the 2017 Evolution Championship Series, in which Knee placed third, ROX approached Knee with a deal. As expected, Knee happily took the deal and he's now a part of the ever-growing ROX family.

Knee has pulled in wins and trophies from around the world in Tekken tournaments since 2007. 10 years later, Knee is still going strong and he's still considered to be one of the best players, if not the best, in the scene.

ROX made a statement on the recent acquisition of Knee. "We were impressed with Knee's consistent level of play and his ability to perform at the highest level for over a decade now," said Eliot