Here’s our latest weekly Newsflash roundup, where we cover a host of brief esports and gaming news in a quick and bitesize nature for you to digest.
Former Riot devs raise $3m+ for new studio
A new game development studio with experienced developers from Riot Games, PUBG and more, has secured $3.2m in funding.
Hidden Leaf Games is developing a 3v3 MOBA game, reports VentureBeat.
Talent at the studio includes CEO David Li, president Bao Lam and lead designer Steve ‘Guinsoo’ Feak, who helped found the MOBA genre and has items named after him in League of Legends and Dota 2.
Another studio, Vela Games, a Dublin-based studio founded by former Riot and EA veterans, opened sign-ups for alpha testing of its MMO/MOBA hybrid Project-V last December.
Excel make changes to LEC roster
UK-based esports organisation Excel have released two of their LEC players: mid-laner Czekolad and support player Tore.
Excel are set to sign Misfits Gaming support denyk and former Astralis mid-laner Nukeduck for the 2021 LEC Summer Season, according to Dot Esports.
The news comes after Excel finished eighth in the LEC Spring 2021 Season and missed out on playoffs again.
Tribe Gaming sign UK player and former HotS champion
British streamer Joshua ‘Snitch’ Bennett – one of the best Heroes of the Storm players and champion of multiple tournaments with Dignitas – has joined a new team.
He will be playing Wild Rift for Tribe Gaming.
Check out the org’s announcement tweet and video here:
Team Liquid release UK Valorant player
Adam ‘ec1s’ Eccles, one of the UK’s most notable Valorant players, has been moved to Team Liquid’s inactive roster.
He joined Liquid along with the rest of the Fish123 Valorant roster last summer.
Liquid’s and Fnatic’s Valorant rosters, featuring UK players, qualified for the Valorant Masters LAN taking place in Iceland later this month.
Luckbox cuts losses
The parent company of esports betting platform Luckbox, based in the Isle of Man, has posted a $5.4m annual loss.
This is down from Real Luck Group’s $20.5m loss in 2019, reports Dexerto.
The amount of money spent on esports betting skyrocketed in the UK last year following the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
UK absent from Farming Simulator League
This weekend, the teams in the Farming Simulator League (FSL) fought for more league points. The third FSL season entered its second half with the sixth event.
Developer and publisher Giants Software organises the FSL, which has a prize pool of €250,000, with the competitive esports mode of Farming Simulator.
However, while agriculture in the UK apparently uses 69% of the country’s land area, employs 1.5% of its workforce and contributes 0.6% of its gross value added (£9.9 billion), there is no UK team in the Farming Simulator League! Come on UK, let’s ‘field’ a team (see what we did there?)
A spokesperson for the FSL told Esports News UK: “While there are several teams from all over Europe and even the US, there is unfortunately currently no UK team participating. But that’s maybe even more a reason for your readers to form one and take part. 😉”
First chess-focused sports agency has Twitch plans
World Chess, the organiser of the recent Chess Championship matches in New York and London, has launched a chess-focused sports marketing agency which claims to be the world’s first sports agency focused exclusively on chess.
Esports News UK asked the agency if it has any plans to focus on the esports side of chess, what with traditional esports orgs signing chess players over the past year and Twitch broadcasting chess tournaments to viewers online.
“We plan to work with all players and not limit ourselves to the top 20,” World Chess said in a statement. “Twitch is one of the most interesting and developing platforms. Also we are already preparing a number of sponsorship activities with chess streamers.”
UK agency Hudl announces Challengers Uprising partnership
UK-based esports solution agency HudL.gg has joined forces with Challengers Uprising to help support their growth in the amatuer to pro competitive scene.
“It’s hard for me to put into words how excited we are to be partnering with HudL. Together we are going to bring new and exciting grassroots opportunities to brands all across the world.” said COO Jordan Trabue at Challengers Uprising.
Craig Wood, founder of HudL, added: “I’m very excited for us to be working with the team at Challengers Uprising, their passion and success in the path-to-pro esports sector is incredible.”
Those interested in becoming one of Challengers Uprising’s partners can email [email protected].
Get more news and updates on the Esports News UK Twitter and YouTube
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.
