There are many types of press releases for journalists to deal with.
Good ones, bad ones, super interesting announcements, irrelevant news, releases with ridiculous embargoes – and the just plain bonkers.
Then there are press releases that raise your eyebrows for other reasons.
Press releases like the one we received a few days ago, titled: ‘THE E-SPORTS INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION – ESIF launches the first E-SPORTS WORLD GAMES® in history.’
Firstly, we’ve never heard of the ESIF before (not to be confused with the IESF, or the International e-Sports Federation), and there doesn’t seem to be any trace of them on the internet other than a badly formatted website.
Secondly, they’re claiming to host a tournament with ‘more than 20 million potential competitors’ and a prize pool of ‘more than $100m’.
It’s not April 1st, is it?
Thirdly, the press release states they’re based in Syria, but their website says Switzerland.
Furthermore, they spell esports with a hyphen (gasp).
There are loads of participating countries apparently, including Togo, Mauritius, Brazil, the UK and many more.
We’re pasting the press release in full below, because we just can’t take it seriously.
Lausanne, April 28th 2017,
THE E-SPORTS INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION – ESIF launches the first E-SPORTS WORLD GAMES® in history.
More than 20,000,000 potential competitors for the first season! (2,832 players x 24 weeks x 300 countries / areas)
A global prize pool of more than $ 100,000,000 *
$ 1,000,000 * for the World Champion of each game,
$ 5,000 for the National Champion of each country + travel and accommodation for the World Final,
$ 500 per week, per country and per game, for the weekly tournament champion,
And with just 64 players / 32 teams expected per week, per country and per game!
More than 70% of the amount paid for the tournament registration is CONSIGNED and paid to the winners.
THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT QUALIFICATIONS NEVER ORGANIZED:
24 weeks of competition / 30 official tournaments per week on 24 games / more than 120 countries
From May 27th to November 10th 2017: registration from May 15th on www.eswg.vegas
ESWG – E-SPORTS WORLD GAMES® 2017 at LAS VEGAS MANDALAY BAY: December 1st to 10th, 2017
10,000 ATHLETES representing more than 120 delegations / + 300,000 sq ft dedicated to the world finals
It should be noted that anti-doping tests will be carried out by the USADA on the 92 World Champions.
The awards ceremony will take place on DECEMBER 16th, 2017 AT THE OLYMPIC MUSEUM OF LAUSANNE.
GOOD GAME – ESIF
* If 100% of the slots / games / country / week are filled
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
