{"id":2833,"date":"2018-04-24T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/?p=2833\/"},"modified":"2018-04-27T14:51:34","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T12:51:34","slug":"press-round-up-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/2018\/04\/24\/press-round-up-15\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESS ROUND UP #15"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Sommaire<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#Is_Activision_Blizzard_under_pressure\">Is Activision Blizzard under pressure?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#_\"><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Paris_Saint-Germain_partners_up_with_LGD_on_Dota_2\">Paris Saint-Germain partners up with LGD on Dota 2<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#The_UEFA_to_end_partnership_with_Konami\">The UEFA to end partnership with Konami<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Birth_of_Hanwha_Life_Esports\">Birth of Hanwha Life Esports<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Ben_Brode_says_goodbye_to_Blizzard_Entertainment\">Ben Brode says goodbye to Blizzard Entertainment<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"Is_Activision_Blizzard_under_pressure\"><b>Is Activision Blizzard under pressure?<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Activision Blizzard usually controls their numbers. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsobserver.com\/activision-blizzard-nielsen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">their recent appeal<\/a> to Nielsen, a widely respected demographic tracking service for traditional sports and other media, may show otherwise. Why make such a choice ? A possible cause might be the worrying drop in Overwatch League\u2019s viewership. Whereas it was off to a rocket start with around 10 million viewers during the first week and 350 000 simultaneously, Stage 3 plummeted with only 150 000 simultaneous viewers. And this downfall could really concern the main actors that have invested a lot to be a part of the Overwatch League. Activision Blizzard is therefore looking for clues to a better understanding of their major competitions\u2019 impact. Using those clues, they will define an appropriate strategy to reassure their current partners and be as attractive as possible to potential future sponsors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CEO of Activision Blizzard esports leagues Pete Vlastelica said: \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As esports continues to mature and reach its potential as a stand-alone business, we\u2019re determined to lead the way and develop best practices for brands and advertisers. We\u2019re excited to partner with the most experienced and respected measurement service in Nielsen and continue building on our foundation of the best esports leagues in the world.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"_\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"Paris_Saint-Germain_partners_up_with_LGD_on_Dota_2\"><strong>Paris Saint-Germain partners up with LGD on Dota 2<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paris Saint-Germain was not thrown off by the failure of their League of Legends section. The club gives another shot to the MOBA scene by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esportsinsider.com\/2018\/04\/paris-saint-germain-enters-dota-2-with-lgd-gaming-partnership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announcing a partnership<\/a> with Chinese organisation LGD\u2019s Dota 2 team. The team will play under the name PSG.LGD. Through this cooperation, Paris Saint-Germain hopes to cultivate its Asian fanbase and possibly expand it. Paris Saint-Germain also becomes the first major European football actor to invest in Dota 2. Enough to give Dota 2\u2019s french community a new impulse ? Stay tuned !<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"The_UEFA_to_end_partnership_with_Konami\"><b>The UEFA to end partnership with Konami<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">European football\u2019s main organisation, the UEFA, announced <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsobserver.com\/uefa-konami-partnership-ends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the end of their ten-year-old partnership<\/a> with Japanese editor Konami. Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), Konami\u2019s football simulation game, will lose license to use the UEFA club competitions. Many observers predict a future partnership between the UEFA and the other major football video game license, FIFA. This announcement leaves PES in a concerning position, as it may strengthen FIFA\u2019s domination as a football simulation game, up to a hegemonic point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"Birth_of_Hanwha_Life_Esports\"><b>Birth of Hanwha Life Esports<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Korea, League of Legends team ROX Tigers (which reached World Championship\u2019s finals in 2015) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esportsinsider.com\/2018\/04\/hanwha-life-esports-rox-tigers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has been acquired<\/a> by insurance company Hanwha Life. The team will play under the name Hanwha Life Esports. The Korean company was already ROX Tigers\u2019 sponsor since January. ROX Tigers was meeting quite a few problems due to their small size. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span id=\"Ben_Brode_says_goodbye_to_Blizzard_Entertainment\"><b>Ben Brode says goodbye to Blizzard Entertainment<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He will remain in the Hall of Fame. Ben Brode, historical game director of Hearthstone, announced <a href=\"https:\/\/esportsobserver.com\/ben-brode-leaves-blizzard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the end of his Blizzard adventure<\/a>, after working 15 years within the company. He was famous among the Hearthstone community for appearing in promotional videos and presenting new contents (at BlizzCon, for exemple). Ben Brode remained quite evasive regarding his future, only saying he left to \u201cembark on a new journey\u201d, and that the company he\u2019s going to start would \u00a0\u201cprobably make games\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Photo credits : Hugo Brionne (c) JK Groupe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SommaireIs Activision Blizzard under pressure?Paris Saint-Germain partners up with LGD on Dota 2The UEFA to end partnership with KonamiBirth of Hanwha Life EsportsBen Brode says goodbye to Blizzard Entertainment Is Activision Blizzard under pressure? Activision Blizzard usually controls their numbers. However, their recent appeal to Nielsen, a widely respected demographic tracking service for traditional sports [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[92,13,121,728],"tags":[736,496,141,72,196,201,73,338,350,501,206,1080,209,1078,138,1081,700,656,1079,346,1082],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2844,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions\/2844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smartcast.ninja\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}