|
Discord's new juicy vision
More investment towards voice, love it. Discord's CEO, Jason Citron, explained their strategy looking into the future, based on what the people wanted: a place to talk.
If you're wondering about "the people" part. Since their launch in 2015, growth is all they are familiar with:
- 100 million active monthly users.
- 4 billion minutes in conversion daily.
- 6.7 million active servers.
Naughty numbers Jason, very dirty indeed.
Time for the tech community to jump in
The folks at Discord managed to get the entire gaming community using their app on a daily basis. But they understand the power of voice in 2020. So the new aim is to cover all voice activities, with every person in the world. This is a good shot to finally get the tech community to detach Discord from gaming and realize how big of a company it could be.
It's ok though, Discord has never been alone on this one. To eliminate the misconception, they raised a lot more dough from the same believer. Index Ventures’ Danny Rimer, invested $150 million in 2018, reaching out in Feb 2020 again, to put another $100 million to the mix. Valuation: $3.5 billion.
First steps in motion:
- Website rebrand.
- Massive copywrite change.
- Added server video. Easier to get together.
- Increased voice and video capacity. Reduced bugs.
The evolution of voice
This is the perfect time for an expansion jump. Coronavirus forced people into communicating via Zoom, athletes and influencers to entertain through Twitch + podcasts exploding + people choosing to send note voices over texts + asking Alexa, Google Home or Siri for shit we don't know or things we are too lazy to do.
Voice is top commodity right now, and Discord is about to truly tackle it.
|
|
|
BR's they come they go
Saturday, through Sunday, Monday, Monday through Sunday, yo. I'm so sorry, I had too much coffee by now... but you get the point. It's comedic to see publishers pushing the Battle Royale genre non stop until they magically reach the 2018-19 Fortnite scenario.
Haven't they stop for a second to think that maybe the niche reached out max interest? More testing and talking to users needs to be done. Let's keep you up with whats going on real quick:
Ubisoft released a new BR: Hyper Scape. More info about it here.
Amazon released the game Crucible, but they shelved it on beta again. They didn't say that having less than 2K CCV on release day was the reason but...
Call of Duty: Warzone will soon offer a 200-person match mode.
A lil' bit of history
Fortnite hyped BR to the moon, but it was Brendan Greene and PUBG's Hunger Games styled vision that changed gaming forever. Check out how it was made.
|
|
|
Restructuring the future
The other day I was randomly thinking, can we make Rocket League a real life sport in the future? You might think I was randomly high, well I was... but anyways, I can picture RL being one of the best VR experiences out there once tech develops.
This games combines a simplistic competition with complex mechanics encapsulated with technology. It gives a solid shot for viewership and engagement added to the fact that is the perfect example to on-board new people into esports, without squishing their brains like League of Legends does.
It could be the next automotive competition. Big brands like Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes should start thinking on sponsoring and building a team in Rocket League.
It just needs time. Meanwhile, changes are coming for RLCS X:
- $4.5M year-long Championship Series prize pool.
- Open event-based circuit format, by region and majors.
- Regional: $100K per event, Majors: $250K per split, World Champs: $1M
- 15 teams will go to Worlds.
Everything you need to know is nicely organized here.
|
|
🧂 Investing in Gaming. If you only have time for one podcast this weekend, trust, here's a gem. Listen to Blake Robbins talk about the industry.
🧊 The Fortnite Clubhouse. NRG added Clix to their Fortnite roster. The first stream reached 190K viewers and Shaq, one of their investors, literally announced him. Watching NRG's growth in the last couple years has been a complete brainf^ck. The CEO duo formula Andy-Hecz is changing how the game is played.
🤝 True partnership. If you wonder how successful gaming partnerships look like, take a look at Fnatic x OnePlus.
🔦 Spotlight: Fuser. From Harmonix. A new way to mix music and gaming.
📜 Breach of contract. FLASHPOINT takes on CSPPA, CS:GO's players union.
🙌 Landing a job in esports. Jason Lake, gave advice on how to get a job. This guy has done so much for the industry, and it looks that he'll never stop. You're the role-model-father-figure we all need in our lives, sir.
🔵 Ye's hype. After watching Kanye play Sonic, I'm pretty sure you want to learn more about its history. A 25 year Sonic Adventure.
👉 Read this. On being a woman in esports, by Frankie Ward.
🧨 Big LATAM steps. Meyern, CS:GO prodigy, has been signed by 9z Team. The Argentinean young talent left MIRB to play for his country. His press conference is today. We know what Meyern can do, but I don't think people really understand what 9z is capable of. Get ready.
|
|
💰 Investments & Partnerships
|
|
|
MORE
- Niantic partners with Sleep No More for AR theater experiences.
- PlayBrain raises $6M in Series A to build up esports in Japan.
- Vancouver Titans collabs with Pizza Hut Canada.
- GOSU.AI partners with Overwolf.
- One More Game raises $5.7M.
- Pittsburgh Knights expands partnership with Sheetz.
- ControlZee raises $3M.
- GINX Esports TV partners with Venatus.
- SCUF Gaming completes CDL teams collab.
- Movistar Liga Pro Gaming partners with Huya.
- Pinnacle enters new partnership with Abios.
- Respawn by Razer partners with Dignitas.
- OverActive Media join forces with Teamworks.
|
|
League of Legends
Spring Split / Rank 1 Teams
➖ Cloud9 (LCS)
🔺 MAD Lions (LEC)
➖ DragonX (LCK)
➖ Top Esports (LPL)
➖ All Knights (LLA)
|
Valorant
T1 x NSG Showdown / North America
🥇TSM | 3 - 0 | T1 | HLs
|
|
Call of Duty League
Week 9 / Rank 1 Team
➖ Atlanta FaZe
|
NBA 2K League
Week 8 / Rank 1 Team
➖ Raptors Uprising GC
|
|
Overwatch League
Week 21 / Rank 1 Teams
➖ Shanghai Dragons (Pacific)
➖ Philadelphia Fusion (Atlantic)
Eyes on
SF Shock, 2nd in the Pacific Conference, beat Fusion 3-0.
|
|
NBA 2K21: All Covers
Big W for the content team behind the covers' videos man. Emotional content with Kobe, comedy-meme-hype with Damian and motion-art-reality-hype with Zion.
|
|
On July 8th, The Esports Gaming Forum will showcase wide knowledge on gaming and esports, along with their growth potential to brands or companies. Badass industry speakers are already confirmed.
Register here
MORE
|
|
The best way to support is to share the newsletter with your people.
Let's hear from you fam.
👇 Any feedback, questions or quick introduction.
|
|
|
|
