The last month or so has been the most painful challenging time in my entire life. I have a lot to say about it, but I don’t have the energy to write it all out right now. Instead I figured it would be easier to share a visual update with everyone. I’m not quite there yet—right now i am dealing with a wound on my neck—and learning how to deal with Stoma (the hole that I breathe through) care and maintenance, eating food and other challenges caused by having this surgery.

Thank you to everyone who has said prayers for me, reached out, left messages of encouragement on social media, and helped out on TEA. Your love and support keeps me going.

Best,

James.

On the evening of March 16, 2026, I woke up after a six -seven hour surgery where a team of doctors removed my voice box and lymph nodes. They also took a two foot skin graft off my left leg, and created a skin graft on my neck. All of this was done so that I don’t die from cancer.

I [also] wanted to say hello in my own voice, which was officially removed on March 16, 2026, by a team of doctors at Mass General in Boston.

The voice box was riddled with cancer and would have killed me if it remained.

This voice was re-created from two hours of audio from interviews I conducted at The Esports Advocate, before on was diagnosed with cancer.

The point of this voiceover is to show that technology has the ability to bridge some gaps in the future if we really put some effort into using and developing it…

Also the photo above probably looks worse than it is right now; yeah there is a bit of pain presently but we’re working at it and trying to get back home… There is LOT of work left to do…

Also of note, I want to thank everyone helping The Esports Advocate out over the last several weeks including Trent Murray, Dom Sacco, Yushi Wang, Tobias Seck, Graham Ashton, and many others. Some are familiar, some are new, and others bring a fresh perspective that I hope you will find insightful and entertaining…

We’ll talk more in then future about where we are headed and what we can do in this new reality we all find ourselves in, but know that I love you, I miss you and I want to be back with you talking about this world we call esports...

Special thanks to Kayla and Caitlin, for taking care of my medical needs all night!

Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that the hardest thing for me to do is let go and step away. But that is exactly what I am going to try to do on March 1. With a major surgery coming up on March 10, I want to spend as much time as I can with my family, get some things in order, and get ready for this major life changing event…

I have a lot of good people committed to helping out with The Esports Advocate, and fingers crossed, I hope they are able to keep things chugging along until I’ve had some recovery time and can come back to take the reigns again.

I’m not going to name them—it’s really up to them if they want to say something publicly—but I greatly appreciate the commitment. Besides my faith and my family, TEA is the most important thing in my life right now and I don’t want it to die on the vine just because I’m sick. I want it to be in good hands, and I think it is.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has come along on this journey with me. I know that maybe it hasn’t been great for you reading all this dire news, but there just has to be a light at this seemingly endless and incredibly dark tunnel.

See you on the other side of all this, I hope.

Thank you again for reading. - James.

Sadly, a lot of these newsletters are going to be about my journey before and after my laryngectomy, because it the most pressing thing in my mind these days. In less than 17 days they will remove my voice box and put a hole in my neck to breathe through. This is going to require three surgeries simultaneously: the removal of the voice box, a skin graft, and reconstructive surgery on my windpipe. This will include the construction of a stoma, a hole in my neck to breathe through.

Things will never be the same for me after this; i’ll legally be categorized as disabled, I won’t be able to talk, sing, or whistle, and for awhile I won’t be able to eat normally. And this doesn’t even include the complications related to the surgery that could happen: paralysis in the tongue, fingers, grafting site issues, trouble with infections, etc.

Watching videos or talking to people about this stuff doesn’t give me any comfort or hope. There are dark days ahead and I’m not sure if I’m up to the task at hand.

On the work front I have asked a bunch of people to stand in for me, and I’m hoping for the best but everything is really out of my hands for two to three weeks. We’ll see.

Anyway that’s where I am at with this stuff. The insurance should pay for most of the surgery (we did a lot of legwork to make that happen), so now we can focus on coming out of this rather long, dark tunnel. But at the end of the day the James Fudge who spent 56 years talking, and singing will be gone forever in 17 days.

until the next one - James.

“Out of network” is what my insurance company Health New England told me in a letter this week about my visit to Mass General. That means “we won’t pay for this.” Of course, it is true that this hospital is outside my plan and normally they shouldn’t pay for it, but there are a couple of facts they are ignoring, perhaps on purpose. Let me tell you how I ended up in Boston for a week-long hospital visit.

In January I went to the local Emergency Room because I knew I had an infection. My suspicions were correct, and after my ENT doctor came to the ER and scoped me, he and the attending physician at the ER said I needed to go to Boston or Albany, Ny because what was going on with me was “beyond their capabilities.” They insisted I be sent to Boston.

After nearly 24 hours in the ER, they put me into an ambulance and I was off to Boston.

After several days fighting the infection and having a biopsy, a team of doctors determined that the cancer had returned. They decided that removing the voice box would be necessary to stop the spread.

The appointment was to check on the infection and schedule the surgery, the one my insurance decided it did not want to pay for…

So to recap, I never asked to go to Boston, my ENT doctor sent me there, and the doctors there said I needed this surgery or the cancer will definitely spread.

Definitely within the rules of my plan, which is a very long way of saying Health New England and I are about to have a fist fight. We have been paying premiums for more than 20 years, and I never used it until 2023., therefore it is time to pay the proper. I will fight them on this because I deserve the best possible care available and Mass General is well equipped to do it. But aside from what I want, my local doctor sent me there because he thought he couldn’t handle it.

Anyway thanks for reading, I appreciate being able to share both the ups and downs of this journey… ❤️

Heading to Boston to get a briefing on my surgery on Monday. Once we get that elevator pitch we should have a date. I suspect I might be down and out for awhile as I recover, but we’ll have to wait and see how everything goes… A full accounting can be found at the end of the newsletter if you have an interest. Now on to the news!

In Focus: NEOM in Trouble?

The Saudi Arabian government’s NEOM project is facing a less ambitious future as the Public Investment Fund’s mega-city gets considerably downsized, according to recent reporting from multiple media outlets.

The Saudi Arabian government has grown weary of the progress on mega city project NEOM and has greatly curtailed plans moving forward, according to multiple reports. Recent reports in The Sun, The Times, and the Financial Times claim that the project could be scrapped altogether, because Saudi leaders have launched a review of the project.

Very few aspects of the original plan remain intact, and the focus seems to have changed from creating a mega city to instead focusing on building a server farm for artificial intelligence due to the location’s close proximity to the Red Sea—an important element because such a facility would not be possible out in the brutal desert without some sort of source of water for cooling, as servers of these nature are susceptible to extreme climates.

The other plan that still seems to be moving forward is Trojena, planned as a year-round ski resort in the mountains of NEOM, though its scale and scope has also been curtailed a bit. Nevertheless the project is behind schedule and is embarrassing Saudi leadership; On Jan. 25, the Saudi Arabia’s Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia mutually agreed to indefinitely postpone the 2029 Asian Winter Games, per an Associated Press report. Saudi Arabia said that it would host a series of standalone winter sports events “in coming years.”

The writing was actually on the wall back in April 2024, when The Sun reported that the Saudi Arabian government made the decision to considerably downsize The Line, the mega city project (part of NEOM) described as a “106-mile long, 200-meter wide sideways skyscraper” that was supposed to contain a myriad of technologically advanced amenities and services capable of supporting 1.5 million people in a decade. The project was paired down to support 300,000 people and stretch to only 2.4 kilometers.

The scale down was due to a number of factors at the time including struggles to win over foreign investors, volatile oil prices, numerous construction delays, cost overruns, and controversies (including tens of thousands of workers allegedly dying while building the project).

Things got tougher in July 2025 when Bloomberg reported that the Kingdom had hired consultants to conduct a “strategic review” to figure out if the design of the Line was even possible. The results of that audit clearly have had an effect on current decision-making.

Also playing a pivotal role in this decision to curb plans for NEOM is HRH Crown Prince MBS. Speaking to the Shura Council in September 2025, MBS said: “We will not hesitate to cancel or make any radical amendment to any programs or targets if we find that the public interest so requires.”

Despite the immense amount of money spent on NEOM and its failures, the Saudi government claims that the Public Investment Fund is doing pretty well; the Saudis claim that the PIF deployed $36.2 billion USD in capital for investments and grew its assets under management to over $900 billion.

But a New York Times report in November 2025 suggested that future investments from the PIF might be stifled by past investments that the Kingdom felt were not bearing fruit. Citing multiple sources with knowledge of the inner workings of the fund, some of this constriction is due to investments that are not bearing financial fruit, or worse, are regularly losing money, according to NYT reporting. Those investments included the mega city project NEOM; an unnamed coffee chain with international distribution ambitions; a cruise line that currently only has one ship and is not generating revenue; and an electric car startup that hasn’t produced any vehicles.

While NEOM is not esports adjacent, it is part of Vision 2030 and is a drain on the PIF, which funds just about everything else, including the Kingdom’s plans to draw the industry and its fans into Saudi Arabia. The Esports World Cup Foundation, Esports World Cup, Savvy Games Group (ESL, FACEIT, DreamHack, Esports Engine, the EA acquisition, and all of the Kingdom’s game-related investments), Qiddiya, and more are all funded by the PIF.

More From The Esports Advocate

Global Esports Industry Week Coming to IEM Cologne - ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) to serve as the official host partner of the conference.

ESL FACEIT Group, FaZe, and CDL Team Up for 2026 Championship - 2026 Call of Duty League Championship tickets now on sale.

Portuguese Esports Federation Renews Deal With Moonton Games - Mobile Legends: Bang Bang to be a flagship title of the Portuguese Esports Cup 2026.

GameSquare Appoints Amaree Tanawong as Chief Operating Officer - Seasoned executive will help GameSquare cross-platform strategic planning and more.

Sentinels Teams With THETA Network to Deploy AI Agent - New AI agent will come to life on Sentinels’ website and Discord server.

Road to EWC 2026 Formally Launches - Esports World Cup Foundation reveals new pathways for players to qualify for Esports World Cup 2026.

Porsche Esports Carrera Cup North America Announced - Porsche Motorsport North America hopes to mirror its real-world race in iRacing.

FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves Joins Esports Nations Cup Lineup - When the dust settles, 32 players representing the national team will compete in Riyadh.

South African Regulator Approves EA Acquisition - This represents the first government approval for the Saudi takeover of a major global games publisher.

KOKA Noodles Partners with Grow uP Esports - Partnership will focus on promotion of various KOKA products to the gaming community and product sampling.

First Details on Valorant EMEA Clash 2026 - Riot pits Challengers teams against VCT EMEA teams for a chance to earn a spot at Masters Santiago.

Team Liquid Concludes 25th Anniversary Celebration With Documentary, New Book - Team Liquid also releases its new team jersey for 2026.

Michelob Ultra Arena to Host 2026 CDL Championship Weekend - FaZe Vegas also reveals ticketing details.

Saudi Esports Federation Teams With Yalla Group for Saudi eLeague 2026 - The Dubai-based tournament organizer named the official event partner.

News From Around the World

• Australian Supreme Court: Lootboxes aren’t gambling.

• CDL Major 1 sets viewership records.

• Blizzard unveils a major Overwatch 2 revamp.

• Six Invitational 2026 co-streamers revealed.

• Chess Prize Pool for EWC revealed.

• PlayVS partners with desportz...

• Ohio-based Capital University recognizes esports as varsity sport.

• Team Liquid partners with Walrus for data storage.

• ReWired partners with PlayVS for a new collegiate invitational.

• Gamer sues Fortnite and Minecraft makers over addiction claims.

• More details on Champion of Champions Tour Global Finals 2026.

• Ampverse acquires Thailand’s Mith esports team.

• Heroes of Newerth Reborn esports plans…

• MLS inks deal with Polymarket.

• Krafton India reveals collegiate esports tour.

• Brawl Stars 2026 esports roadmap revealed.

• Delta Force plans an esports competition for China.

• Red Bull signs on to IEM Krakow.

• FlyQuest partners with Tradeify.

• Martin Lycka joins Oddin.gg in executive role.

• 2KKO 2026 esports roadmap detailed.

• Korea pushes anti-scalping laws.

• Mumbai 2025 Global Esports Games in 2026…

Health Update

On Monday I will be in Boston to get briefed on a laryngectomy, or the surgical removal of all of my larynx (voice box) to treat laryngeal cancer. I have already done a lot of research on the topic, and from what I understand, they will remove my voice box, then rebuild my windpipe, and build a hole in my neck to breathe (a stoma). For awhile I will have to use a feeding tube until I heal a little bit. It will be removed and I will start being allowed liquids, and then semi-solid food, until eventually I can eat real food. I’ll also have to learn to breathe through the stoma as my mouth and nose will technically be disconnected from my throat. Healing after getting out of the hospital could be anywhere from three to six months, if everything goes well and I can avoid complications such as infections…

This probably sounds as horrific to you as it does to me. Some life changing things are going to happen to me.

• I won’t be able to talk.

• I won’t be able to cough.

• Going to the bathroom will be more difficult.

• I will constantly have to keep my stoma clean.

• Getting a cold or a virus will be dangerous.

• My ability to taste and smell will change dramatically.

• I can no longer be on a boat or go swimming.

• The cancer could return at any time and attack other things such as my lymph nodes.

I’m sure there’s plenty of other issues I’m forgetting or haven’t learned about yet.

It’s a lot to handle all at once if I’m being honest, but there are really no options in a situation like this, you either do the thing or you die of cancer, or to quote the film Shawshank Redemption, You either “get busy living, or get busy dying.”

So I’m going to get busy living, as imperfect, inconvenient, and difficult as that might be.

Thanks for reading. - James.

Hey everyone, since Wednesday afternoon I have been in Boston at Mass General’s ENT hospital. Nearly a year ago in February 2024 I completed radiation treatment for cancer on my voice ox. Over the last month I thought I had an infraction in that area and went to the ER. After some scans they shipped up here via an ambulance.

After several steroid and intravenous antibiotic infusion the infection is down. Following a neck and chest scan, and a biopsy they determined that the cancer is back.

This is where the story gets really, really bad. The cancer is bad enough that they want to remove my voice box completely. I will have a hole in my throat, possibly forever. When I started this journey I went on in early 2024 I wanted to know why I was hoarse. Not one doctor ever told me there was a chance I could lose the ability to talk permanently…

There’s no options: it’s either take the voice box out or die from cancer eventually. This is where I am at, and there’s really no choice here.

it’s crazy but I want to share this with everyone because I like be my community and all have you have been a real rock to me during this whole lengthy ordeal. I feel like I’m letting you down right now.

Thanks for reading! - James.

I didn’t want to write a newsletter this week, but it’s been awhile and I can’t let personal stuff overshadow the work i’m doing, not matter how disheartening it has been this week (you can read more on that at the end of this newsletter if you care, if not, that’s fine too). Anyway, here’s some interesting goings-on in the world of esports. - James.

Top Stories

More Details on Esports Nations Cup

The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) released additional details on the nations vs. nations esports competition, the Esports Nations Cup (ENC), including regional structures, recognized participating counties, funding, and more.

Most notably more than 200 countries/territories have been recognized as being eligible to participate—provided someone from their country is 1)willing to apply to be a National Team Partner and 2) manages to get approval from EWCF.

The EWCF also said that it has earmarked $20 million USD to support those that ultimately receive approval to take part in the ENC.

You can read more about the ENC’s plans at The Esports Advocate.

IBuyPower Returns to Esports

iBUYPOWER announced its return to Counter-Strike through a new partnership with former professional Counter-Strike 2 player Erik “fl0m” Flom and his recently announced competition, the Monster Energy’s fl0m Mythical LAN 2026.

Financial terms of this new partnership were not disclosed.

Under the terms of this new deal, iBUYPOWER will serve as a sponsor for the LAN event alongside title sponsor Monster. iBUYPOWER will work with organizers on “digital branding opportunities, on-stream mentions, and giveaways of various prizing,” as well as direct product integration of a custom-made PC for use during the event.

"It wasn't long ago that competitive NA CS was seen as a waste of time. Year after year, I've seen this community rebuild itself to set a foundation for the next generation of NA CS. Even with most of NA CS missing from the Top 20, we keep showing up because we are hungry to support and elevate what we've built," said Erik "fl0m" Flom. "With the Mythical LAN already selling out hours after our reveal, I don't see this as just an individual tournament, but as a major building block for NA CS that will foster growth between NA teams for future majors, and unite fans to rally around one goal - bring NA CS back to the peaks of competitive play."

Taking place from Jan. 9 - 11 at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas, Monster Energy’s fl0m Mythical LAN 2026 features a total prize pool of $30,000 USD and will feature competition between such teams as M80, NRG, SkinRave Esports, Marsborne, BOSS, Team VOCA, regain, and Phoenix.

You can learn more about the event from our friends at Liquipedia. Those interested in watching the competition can do so by visiting fl0m’s Twitch channel at www.twitch.tv/fl0m.

It should be noted that iBUYPOWER left the scene in 2015 following a matchfixing scandal.

More From The Esports Advocate

LPL Set to Shrink to 14 Teams for 2026 - FPX exit is confirmed and league communications indicate RNG will not participate.

Important Dates for the 2026 League of Legends Esports Season - Riot reveals dates and other info as the 2026 LoL Esports gets underway later this month.

Theta Labs Partners With PlayVS College League - North American collegiate esports league will get its own custom AI Bot at the start of its Spring season.

ePremier League China Has Grand Finale Jan. 10 – 11, in Shanghai - EA Sports and the Premier League’s EA Sports FC Mobile competition takes center stage.

ESL FACEIT Group Teams With Brace For Impact - Non-profit tournament organizer to bring Counter-Strike competitions for women and marginalized genders to Europe and South America.

Malaysian Esports Federation Seeks RM 6M in Government Funding - Federation wants Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Ministry to fund esports efforts in 2026.

G2 Partners With NORD Esports for Tier-2 LoL Competition - New roster will compete in the official DACH EMEA Regional League Prime League.

IESF Appoints Nurassyl Medeu as Development Director - Medeu will focus on securing host cities and partnerships for future championship events.

Friendly Fire Plans Expansion Into the United States - Gaming cafe company plans to open up franchises in Texas and Florida.

Realme to Sponsor Additional Programs at M7 World Championship - Multinational Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer named sponsor of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Media Championship and the M7 Awards for Best Media.

NIP Group Adjusts Share Class Structure - Esports holding company reallocates authorized but unissued shares, expanding future high-vote capacity without issuing new stock.

FaZe Media Experiences Hard Reset - A majority of the organization’s top creators walk away from the FaZe Clan brand.

News From Around the World

• NEOM names selected gaming startups for accelerator program.

• Crazy Raccoons teams with 100 Thieves for ALGS.

• An old Envy partner returns.

• Discord’s not-so-secret IPO plans…

• Savvy’s Brian Ward on the last four years…

• ML:BB trading cards in the works?

• Riot’s 2XKO on the way in January.

• Karmine Corp scores Razer as a partner.

• All the games shown at the New Game Plus Showcase.

• Rumors swirl of a new StarCraft shooter at BlizzCon.

• Salvation cinematic for 2026 League of Legends Season 1.

• BLAST taps former Activision Blizzard exec.

• Porsche previews Carrera Cup.

• Team gets banned from ML:BB for life.

• CDL star SlasheR to retire.

• Stake.com partners with Oddin.

• Most viewed esports tournaments in December 2025.

• 100 Thieves appoints NiceWigg as a co-owner.

• Riot Reveals LCK 2026 opening season teams.

• StarLadder on future plans, broadcasting realities, and more.

• Aloha Pacific FCU makes a 10-year investment in UH Esports.

• HECZ claims Call of Duty League blocked a million dollar sponsorship deal.

• The official LCP 2026 Season Primer.

• BLAST Rivals Season 2 is headed to Hong Kong.

• Marvel Rivals PlayStation Cup 2026 kicks off with open registrations.

• PUBG Mobile announces promotion match and season series.

• City of Aurora opens two new esports centers.

A Personal Update

This week I learned two things that are pretty disheartening. First, one of my kidneys is just plain dead, and secondly one of my vocal chords is paralyzed and doctors don’t know if it will ever return to normal. Both require surgery, though the blockage in my abdomen is a more serious affair that could take anywhere from one to three months to recover from. Functionality in that one kidney will never return apparently, even if we dealt with the blockage.

It’s not great news, and all this talk of surgery is honestly a little too much to deal with all at once.

Also the doctor told me that they might do some damage to my other kidney when they do this surgery, which is a fun thought.

Anyway I’m not feeling great about any of this stuff and honestly I’m kind of mad that no one ever told me that I might not be able to talk normally again without a lot of surgery and therapy.

Don’t get upset with me for being negative; I can’t help it–I want to tell the world to fuck off this week… - James

2025 is almost over and for many it was a terrible year for so many different reasons. Layoffs, layoffs, layoffs galore in the esports, gaming, entertainment, and tech sectors; the rise of AI, which threatens to eliminate even more jobs; tariffs and and an uncertain policy on immigration in the United States; the narrowing pathway to capital for esports—with a focus on betting and sovereign wealth funds as key vehicles for the industry; and the continued volatility of global financial markets.

For me personally, 2025 was a year of keeping my head above water as health and financial challenges looked to put me in the ground and kill all things I’ve worked so hard for over the last four years.

But we’re here, we’re still breathing and we live to fight another day. Change is coming for all of us in the new year; we just have to figure out how to make it work for us, right?

Here’s some of the more interesting news this week. - James.

Top Stories

Valve Bans Skin Gambling Sponsors for Future Counter-Strike 2 Competitions

It’s officially over for third-party skin-trading and skin case opening platforms serving as sponsors for teams competing in legit Counter-Strike 2 competitions sanctioned by Valve. The Counter-Strike 2 maker revealed the change via an update to its Tournament Operating Requirements (TOR) and an amendment to its Limited Game Tournament License.

The news was first reported by Dust2.us on Wednesday. According to that report, the change means that teams competing in ranked and ranked (Valve Regional Standings, or VRS) competitions can not feature “logos, promotion, activations, or advertisements for game case opening sites, skins trading sites, or skins gambling sites.”

This news is another step in Valve taking power and money away from third-parties who are gaining exposure to their businesses and making a buck or two off of the company’s popular IPs. Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 update at the end of October (which introduced the “Trade Up” system) was a nuclear bomb dropped on these companies—it allegedly caused the game’s virtual skins economy to wipe out an estimated $2 billion USD almost overnight, according to some reports.

OverActive Media’s ActiveVoices Secures Major Deal

Publicly traded esports and gaming company OverActive Media Corp. (TSXV: OAM, OTC: OAMCF, WKN:A3CSPU, FSE:0RB) announced Wednesday that its subsidiary ActiveVoices has entered into an agreement with an unnamed UK-based global media rights and content distribution company.

Financial terms and the name of the company were not disclosed, but a spokesperson for the company told us that the name will eventually be revealed at a later date.

Through this deal, ActiveVoices will provide multi-language dubbing and globalization services to the company’s international catalogue. Services provided by ActiveVoices to this company will include “translation and script adaptation, multilingual voice production, and a comprehensive quality-control process, with delivery timelines structured for high-volume content pipelines,” according to the announcement.

“By securing this agreement with this major global rights-holder, we are demonstrating the immediate commercial relevance of ActiveVoices and its ability to solve real distribution challenges for global rights-holders,” said Adam Adamou, CEO of OverActive Media. “The agreement is aligned with our strategy to build ActiveVoices into a scalable, technology-enabled platform capable of supporting high-volume, recurring digital content pipelines.”

OverActive noted in its announcement that this particular partnership “provides early validation of ActiveVoices’ commercial model; one that benefits from the company’s high operating leverage, deep relationships within the industry and a growing market demand for multilingual content across streaming, gaming, and short-form video platforms.”

ActiveVoices is just one of a number of businesses operated by OverActive; the company also owns Call of Duty League team Toronto KOI (recently rebranded from Toronto Ultra); and a Valorant Champions Tour EMEA franchise, a FreeFire team, and a League of Legends through its European division, Movistar KOI. OverActive Media has partnerships with BELL, AMD, Blacklyte, and SCUF Gaming, among others through its various esports franchises.

Team Falcons Gets New Leadership

Jordan Savelli has been promoted to the role of global director of esports at Saudi Arabian-based esports organization Team Falcons. Savelli joined Team Falcons in January 2024 to take on the role of general manager, and takes over the leader mantle from Grant Rousseau, who left the organization in October to take on the role of chief operating officer of the esports division at NIP Group (NASDAQ: NIPG).

In a post on LinkedIn announcing the new role, Savelli said the following:

Savelli joined Team Falcons after spending nearly three years at Prodigy Agency and nearly two years at nicecatus in various executive roles.

More From The Esports Advocate

Evo Says Fans Will Help Shape Evo Japan and Evo Las Vegas in 2026 - Player registration numbers will determine which games get Arena Finals at events in 2026, among other things.

OZworld to Headline ALGS Year 5 Championship - Japanese hip-hop artist to open the Apex Legends end-of-season competition in Sapporo, Japan.

EA Reveals Details on EA Sports Presents Madden Bowl in 2026 - Madden NFL 26 aims for a strong presence during Super Bowl LX week.

Riot Games Reveals Charity Voting Results for Social Impact Fund - Fans like you have selected the 29 nonprofits that will receive a share of the $5 million USD charity fund for the 2025 campaign.

Fluxo and W7M Merge to Become Fluxo W7M - Top Brazilian esports organizations combine forces to compete across multiple disciplines.

OG Launches All-Filipino Dota 2 Team, Sponsored by Melbet - As the European esports organization expands into Southeast Asia, gambling company Melbet steps up to support this new roster.

BetBoom Named BLAST Broadcasting and Betting Partner for Latin America - iGaming company will cover BLAST Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 competitions in 2026.

Riot Replaces Talon With Full Sense for VCT Pacific - Thailand-based esports organization will take Talon’s spot, utilize its Valorant esports roster.

Former Chinese Government Esports Chief Receives Death Penalty - Gou Zhongwen, the man who was once in charge of overseeing esports in China, has been sentenced to death for taking over $33.4 million USD illegally.

Vlad Marinescu Elected as IESF President - After leaving the International Esports Federation at the end of 2023, Marinescu returns to serve as the organization’s 10th president.

PGL Singapore Major 2026 Announced - PGL’s fifth major esports event for Singapore tentatively scheduled for the end of 2026.

BLAST Austin Major Generated $102M in Total Economic Impact - Summer Counter-Strike 2 competition generated a modest amount of revenue for the Austin area.

2025 Delta Force Invitational: Warfare Kicks Off Dec. 11 - Eight teams to compete in 20 vs 20 battles for a share of a $200,000 prize pool.

News From Around the World

• Women boycott Dead by Daylight competition over trans ban. - Out Magazine.

• Valve bans skin gambling site sponsors from all CS2 competitions. - Dust2.us.

• OWCS 2025 World Finals viewership recap. - Esports Charts.

• TEKKEN mastermind Katsuhiro Harada exiting NAMCO BANDAI. Gamereactor.

• Porsche returns to PUBG Mobile. - Bleeding Cool.

• Riot to release 2XKO for consoles in January 2026. - Gematsu.

• Riot’s Chris Greeley on the need for LoL tier-2 esports reform. - DotEsports.

• A Teamfight Tactics Paris Open primmer. - Riot Games.

• A major legal battle ensues over Light of Motiram. - Comicbook.com

• Lulu Cheng Meservey receives major venture capital. - Axios.

• In the midst of war, Russia launches Moscow Gaming Hub. - Zawya.

• Alliances reveals partnership with Gamdom. - Esports Insider

• BOOM Esports exits the Dota 2 scene. - Esports Insider.

• PGL to host a Geoguessr competition. - PGL.

• Games of the Future Abu Dhabi details. - Press Release.

• Man City lean harder into esports. - Inside World of Football.

• Saudi National Team to debut in EA Sports FC 26. - PC Magazine.

• Riot reveals new Riftbound Spiritforged cards. - IGN.

• Tencent backs out of Paramount bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. - Arise.

• Brazil settles on a new tax rate for esports betting. - Esports.net.

• Developers stall Call of Duty releases due to poor reception. - Eurogamer.

• China’s esports revenues in 2025. - Sigma.

• Marvel Rivals takes a bite out of Overwatch 2. - MMO Bomb.

• Team BDS to rebrand as Shifters? - Siege.gg.

• Fewture Studios launches Internet Racing League. - Press Release.

• Teams confirmed for PUBG Mobile Global Championship. - Invenglobal.

• Motorola sponsors FIFAe World Cup in Saudi Arabia. - Motorola.

• Saudi Arabia set to host Kingdom of Gaming conference in 2026. - GI.biz.

• Valorant Mobile is the biggest mobile game of 2026 in China. - Mandatory.

• Red Bull Tetris World Final to conclude in Dubai. - Talkesport.

• Riftbound to get a French release in 2026. - Hardcore Gamer.

• Tencent grows a global games empire in 2025. - Japan Times.

• Magnus Carlsen wins the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. - World Chess.

• Call of Duty is the top Xbox game played in 2025. - Pure Xbox.

Personal Stuff

Friday marks an important milestone as the insurance company finally approved a scan of my abdomen to see if there is a major blockage affecting the blood floor to the lower half of my body. I first noticed numbness in my lower body at the end of 2018 as I was finishing up my last stint as a contractor’s helper—this was right before I went to work at The Esports Observer as an editor. So yeah, it’s been a long-time issue that I didn’t deal with.

It took the insurance company several months to come around, even after my primary care physician and a surgeon recommended the scan. We’ll see where this rabbit hole goes, but knowing is a big deal, and in knowing I think this problem can be solved and things can get back to normal…

On a related front the GoFundMe officially closed this week and Richard Lewis posted a final update—again, thanks to everyone who helped out! - James.

It was rather surprising to see that Berlin-based gaming and esports firm Freaks 4U Gaming had entered insolvency (bankruptcy) after India-based NODWIN Gaming invested millions of dollars in the firm to make it a success. I don’t think it is a stretch to believe that NODWIN is starting to see that there is probably more profitability in generic fan facing events such as Comic Con than there is in pure esports events, save big marquee hybrid affairs like DreamHack. Still, it’s got to be a real sobering moment for them as they realize that not even tens of millions of dollars could save the beleaguered European firm.

Some personal stuff at the end for those interested in an update on such things. Onto this week’s newsletter - James.

EA Shareholder Vote Set for Dec. 22

Shareholders of Electronic Arts will be able to vote on the proposed takeover of the global games publisher at a virtual only meeting Dec. 22, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing in November.

Shareholders will vote on the proposed merger announced on Sept. 28, that will allow EA to go private through several newly created Delaware companies. Ultimately, the surviving entity will be controlled by an investor consortium consisting of the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, The Public Investment Fund (PIF); private investment funds controlled by silver Lake Group, L.L.C.; and private investment funds affiliated with Affinity Partners. Shareholders would be entitled to $210.00 USD in cash per share, without interest, if the merger is approved.

On a related note, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the PIF would own 93% of Electronic Arts following the transaction, but would need to contribute around $29 billion of the $55 billion price tag—this is according to information provided by the company in a recent financial filing in Brazil with the country’s antitrust regulator (with the Administrative Council for Economic Defense, or CADE).

The transaction was already approved by EA’s Board of Directors, with an estimated close in Q1 FY27, assuming the company can get the required regulatory approvals and the greenlight from EA stockholders. The transaction has not been approved by antitrust regulators in any countries, as of this writing.

In case you are not familiar with the entities involved in this major transaction, the PIF is the sovereign wealth fund of the Saudi Arabian government. Miami-based Affinity Partners was launched in 2021 by Jared Kushner, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump in his first-term and his son-in-law. Silver Lake is a U.S.-based investment firm that has investments in such companies as Unity Technologies, Twitter/X, AMC, Jio, Motorola, Dell, Endeavor, and Broadcom, among others.

EA is one of the largest game publishers in the world. In terms of its esports footprint, the publisher facilitates professional-level competition across multiple titles including EA FC 26, Apex Legends, Madden NFL, and its recently released battle royale component for Battlefield 6 - REDSEC.

In addition to having minority stakes in a number of major game makers, the PIF owns gaming and esports firm Savvy Games Group and has an ownership stake in Evolution Championship Series organizer RTS through its city project Qiddiya. The fund also has minor stakes in some of the biggest publishers in the world including Nintendo and Activision Blizzard, and owns 100% of Japanese fighting games maker SNK Corporation and mobile developer Scopely through Savvy Games Group. Savvy Games Group is also home to the ESL FACEIT Group, which includes tournament organizer ESL, esports platform FACEIT, gaming and esports festival organizer DreamHack, and UK and U.S.-based esports production firm Esports Engine.

Properties owned or tied to the Saudi Arabian government are frequently accused of helping the government engage in so-called “sports washing,” or using various forms of sport and entertainment to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGTBQ+ rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms are actively highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

More From The Esports Advocate

Freaks 4U Gaming Enters Insolvency, NODWIN Walks Away - Preliminary insolvency in Berlin is followed by NODWIN’s decision to stop funding the agency and fully write down its investment; NODWIN held 62% at the time of filing, not 100%.

Spanish Call of Duty Federation Reveals FECOD Circuit 2026 - New grassroots Call of Duty circuit for Spain detailed, launches on Dec. 10.

Perkz Joins Ownership Group of Friendly Fire - Popular LoL pro becomes a co-owner and ambassador of the Croatia-based internet cafe company.

Best Buy Taps Riot Games CEO for Board of Directors - Dylan Jadeja brings his 15 years of experience at Riot to help the electronics retailer’s board.

Savvy Signs Memorandum of Understanding with King Saud University - The new agreement will see students exposed to Savvy’s various businesses in the region.

FECOD Secures Rights to Broadcast Call of Duty League Matches for 2025-2026 Season - Spanish Call of Duty Federation will bring Call of Duty League action to Spanish-speaking fans via Twitch.

Major Layoffs Hit Splash Damage - UK-based developer announces a “studio-wide consultation process.”

Team Liquid Taps Duelbits for Counter-Strike 2 Team - New partnership made its formal debut at the StarLadder Major in Budapest.

MIBR Signs Milestone Betting Sponsorship With 1xBet for VCT Americas Team - Brazilian esports organization MIBR signed a partnership deal with crypto gambling company 1xBet.

Team Liquid Teams With UNICEF for EA SPORTS FC 26 Kit - Team Liquid and global children’s charity UNICEF unveiled a new collaboration in EA SPORTS FC 26.

DATA.BET Partners With Rei do Pitaco - Esports wagering solutions company DATA.BET announced teams up with Brazil-based sports-tech platform Rei do Pitaco.

News From Around the World

• Philippine Esports Organization plans national esports training facility.

• Qiddiya’s $1 billion MBS Stadium on track despite controversy.

• Coach Comms coming to the LCP.

• Coach Comms coming to the LCK.

• Riot Korea donates 10 billion won ($6.8 million) to the Korea Heritage Service.

• HoK International Championship 2025 sets new viewership record.

• League of Legends 2026 season detailed.

• What to expect from Call of Duty League 2026 season.

• Riot’s League of Legends Season 1 2026 video update.

• ULF Esports on why it hasn’t paid.

• Astralis blames takeover for late payments.

• Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois launches £1.6 million esports hub.

• Brawl Stars World Finals sees viewership drop.

• Twisted Minds crowned champions at Saudi eLeague Championship.

• Overwatch 2 Vendetta creator interview…

• Black Ops 7 Season 1 Battle Pass details.

• OWCS partnered teams for 2026 revealed.

• Mobile Global Esports continues to limp along.

• Latest on Halo Fest 2025.

• Valorant Champions Tour 2026 schedule and format details.

• Valorant Mobile is China’s biggest mobile game of 2025.

• Fortnite fans revolt over AI generated content.

• Hezbollah-friendly paper declares war on gamers.

• Online war over the Indian government’s launch of Shashi Sinha.

• Warner Bros. Discovery is the bell of the ball.

• Instagram chief wants people to return to the office.

• The ramifications of frugal Gen-Z consumer spending.

• Rivalry shrinks net losses in Q3.

• GCL gets $3 million investment for subsidiary.

• Gamer Wager partners with Shufti.

• Fast and Furious director tapped for Helldivers film.

• Xsolla teams with HP for education program.

• Riot, Virgin, and Kitbetter team up for Arcane Season 3 music.

• Staying away from free-to-play helped Arc Raiders.

• Who is Apple’s new heavyweight executive Amar Subramanya?

• Mutant Football League 2 will also get physical merchandise...

• GG.BET launches Bet Builder.

• First look at PUBG Black Budget.

• Overwatch 2 Season 20: Vendetta details.

• No Man’s Land update for Warhammer 40 000: Darktide released.

Personal News

Finally got approved for an abdominal CT scan later this month. It took my primary care physician a few weeks to convince the insurance company that I have an aortic occlusion that may be depriving some vital organs of blood in addition to the entire lower half of my body.

This is good news, as it means we can finally figure out a course of action to deal with numbness in my lower extremities, though it’s probably going to lead to the first major surgery in my entire life… no one is ever really ready for that kind of stuff. The scan is the first step in that journey.

This is a pretty big deal, so i’ll keep you in the loop, as it may put me offline for a week or so following the surgery. That’s something to worry about in 2026 at least…

Anyway, thanks for continuing to be a reader and supporting our work! See you next week. - James.

I posited this on X this morning, but i’ll share the thought here and expand on it a little:

If you think about it, the Esports Nations Cup is a direct shot across the bow of International Esports Federation’s and Global Esports Federation’s annual global championship events, in addition to providing an answer to a non-International Olympic Committee esports games (if you don’t know what it is, read this article from TEA).

It’s nothing short of a declaration of war against these organizations after year one in Riyadh, as the following cycles will move from location to location every two years. Only incredibly naive countries are going to sign up for these non-Saudi run events (IESF, GEF) because the bi-annual event will have the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) and all of its resources and connections (including ESL) with a proven track record of pulling off large scale events to back it up.

Meanwhile, sources have told me for months that both organizations are running on financial fumes, robbing Peter to pay Paul, as the old saying goes… while EWCF has millions of dollars at its disposal.

That means these organizations, which are already struggling to secure deals for annual events, are going to be fighting for off-year scraps. One thing both GEF and IESF have are organizations in place around the world that already call themselves members, but an enticing offer of some kind from the Saudis could see them jump ship pretty easily, in my view.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I guess we’ll see...

I can’t wait to see the structure of this whole thing to see how it works on the country/regional level.

A personal note on the holiday (Thanksgiving) and our ongoing GoFundMe stuff can be found at the end of the newsletter for those interested in those sorts of things. Onto the latest news. - James.

Top Story: The Next IESF President

Sources tell me that the International Esports Federation will provide a question & answer session of sorts (see our note on this, added after publication, for a clarification - ed.) for candidates running for president of the organization, with a vote to take place at its annual meeting, the 17th IESF General Assembly, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December—in tandem with its only event in 2025, the World Esports Championships 2025 in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (you can read more about that in this TEA report).

The two candidates vying for the role of International Esports Federation (IESF) president are Vlad Marinescu and Samart Benjamin Assarasakorn.

Assarasakorn is currently an IESF executive board member, a former acting general secretary of the Southeast Asian Esports Federation, former senior advisor to the president Asian Electronic Esports, and a former IESF external affairs commission chairman.

Marinescu is no stranger to the IESF faithful; he served as vice president of the organization from July 2019 - May 2020, before being promoted to president—a role he stayed in from May 2020 - September 2023. He was also a longtime leader at the International Judo Federation, where he spent more than six years in various roles including director general and chief media and marketing officer. His tenure at the IESF was not without controversy; Marinescu was implicated in an alleged financial scandal at the end of 2023 related to the IESF World Championships that took place in Romania that year (he denies all wrongdoing, as does IESF leadership).

This week both candidates published interesting videos appealing to federations to choose them for the role, with both raising eyebrows for different reasons among the faithful.

Assarasakorn released what appears to be an AI-generated video called “Manifesto” which cast him in the light of a leader who can, according to a LinkedIn post, “deliver meaningful progress for players, fans, and the global community” via five guiding principles:

1. Governance and Transparency

2. Member Nation Empowerment

3. Competition Integrity and Global Standards

4. Education, Careers, and Sustainability

5. Global Partnerships and Community Voice

We’ll let the video speak for itself.

Meanwhile, on YouTube Marinescu lays out the case for why he should be elected to help lead the organization in 2026 and beyond. He makes a number of interesting claims about the media value of IESF and the revenue it has generated in the past in his video.

Since most of us will not be in attendance at the annual meeting, we have put together a few questions the candidates might want to answer so that federations have an idea of what the IESF might be capable of doing in 2026 and beyond:

1. What is the path forward now that the Olympic Esports Games aren’t happening?

2. What will you do to compete with the Esports Nation Cup and Global Esports Federation Events in the future?

3. How will generate significant revenue to keep the organization alive in 2026?

4. How will you pay down any existing debt for the organization?

5. How will you curtail the spending of other executive officers at the top of the IESF that aren’t elected?

6. Will there be more transparency and spending restraints in the future?

7. Finally, why has the IESF never been led by a former professional esports player?

8. Why aren’t leaders in professional esports organizations in leadership roles at the IESF?

9. The IOC is set to introduce a total ban on trans athletes in its sanctioned competitions. What is the IESF’s position on this as it relates to esports?

10. No professional level esports competition globally currently uses IESF policies or standards. Is there any intent to change this?

Feel free to use them!

Editor’s note: We’ve learned that the Q&A session will actually take place on Friday (Nov. 28) via a Zoom meeting.

More From The Esports Advocate

Layoffs Hit theScore Esports - A large number of employees dedicated to video content have been laid off, according to several affected former employees.

CECC May Madness 2026 Heads to Waco, Texas - One of the largest intercollegiate competitive gaming tournaments in the United States finds a new home in 2026.

ESIC Adds Stake as an Anti-Corruption Partner - As a tier one partner, the crypto gambling platform will help ESIC monitor esports competitions for corruption.

Esports Nations Cup Adds More Game Makers - Esports World Cup Foundation signs agreements with Chess.com, Moonton Games, and SNK Corporation.

Report: Public Investment Fund Low on Cash for Future Investments - A NYT report suggests that future investments from the PIF may be stifled by past investments that are not bearing fruit.

GameSquare Teams With Clout for FaZe Esports Pass - Fan-engagement platform offers prizes for FaZe Esports’ most avid fans.

Esports World Cup Foundation 2026 Club Partner Program Detailed - Saudi Arabia’s government-funded program will offer $20 million USD in incentives for 2026.

Riot Removes TALON From VCT Pacific, LCP Leagues - Riot has terminated TALON’s VCT Pacific and LCP partnerships.

National Association of Collegiate Esports Partners With InTouch Credit Union - ITCU named the “official” financial services partner of NACE.

News From Around the World

🏆 ODDIN wins Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe…

🤝🏼 Visa partners with the M7 World Championship.

✍🏼 India Supreme Court to hear Online Gaming Act challenge.

🏆 Team Spirit makes MLBB esports history with its latest championship win.

👎🏼AI plans encourage HP global layoffs.

💪🏼 Kick hits milestone with Starladder Budapest Major.

📢 Riot Games reveals the new set of cards for Riftbound: Spiritforged.

📢RLCS Boston Major details revealed.

📢 First details on the Krafton India Awards.

🚀 SypherPK on Red Bull Tetris, future esports plans.

✅ Tencent completes investment in Ubisoft studio.

✅ Confirmed LCK rosters for the 2026 season.

😮 U.S. retails sales sluggish as consumers shop carefully.

😮 Gordon Hayward once claimed he could beat LeBron James in LoL?

😮 T1 to take on the Elon Musk GROK LoL challenge?

🤔 OverActive Media Q3 2025 financial results a mixed bag.

Personal Notes: Happy Thanksgiving

To my friends in America, I hope you have a happy and safe Thanksgiving. I’m thankful for all my readers and followers who continue to engage with my content, share it, and generally consume it every day. Thanks for the support.

On the GoFundMe campaign front, it wrapped up last week and generated a lot of funds to deal with medical expenses and debt I’ve managed to accumulate over the last several years. Thanks to anyone who was kind enough to contribute. I haven’t received the funds yet but that’s a tale for another time.

That’s it for this week—so you in the next iteration of this newsletter, and thanks as always for making it to the end!

A busy week for Riot Games as its heads into the Worlds 25 Grand Finals and lays out some of the roadmap for LoL esports in 2026. Also of note this week is that esports will return for BlizzCon 2026, Worlds 26 will take place in the United States, and Vertiqal decides it is is probably going to sell of Luminosity—the company it just bought a few months ago.

All this and more in this week’s newsletter, along with a health update from me at the end of this monstrous edition. Let’s dive in.

Top Stories

Esports Front-and-Center at BlizzCon 2026

Blizzard Entertainment announced that esports competitions will make a triumphant return at BlizzCon 2026, the company’s fan-focused fan event set to take place from Sept. 12 – 13, 2026, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California.

While details are fairly thin on these competitions, Blizzard revealed that it plans to host “major” events related to its game properties including the Overwatch World Cup, World of Warcraft Arena World Championship, World of Warcraft Mythic Dungeon International, Hearthstone Masters Tour World Championship, and the inaugural Blizzard Classic Cup, which will feature competitions for Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft: Remastered, StarCraft 2, and WarCraft III. Details on these competitions will be released at a later date.

In addition to esports competitions, BlizzCon 2026 will feature an opening ceremony, a BlizzCon Charity Night to benefit Make-a-Wish Foundation, a gameplay area allowing fans to play various Blizzard games (World of Warcraft, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, Hearthstone, and Diablo Immortal), another area to play classic games called the Blizzard Arcade (games featured include Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft, and more), a community night for fans to meet top content creators, the return of the Darkmoon Faire, and plenty of panel discussions, meet-and-greets, cosplay contests, and game reveals and updates. Some of these activities may require some additional purchases, detailed in this Blizzard post.

Blizzard also announced that early bird passes would go on sale Friday at 9 a.m. PST through Nov, 9, 11:59 p.m. PST, for $249.99 USD each, while supplies last. That price tag will include all taxes and fees. Fans can purchase maximum of four passes per account, according to Blizzard. Standard rate passes go on sale Nov. 18, at 9 a.m. PST for the all-in price of $289.99 each, while supplies last. These passes give fans access to the two-day weekend event from Sept. 12-13, 2026, including all Halls and Arena, as well as in-game goodies and exclusive BlizzCon commemorative items.

More information on tickets can be found here.

Worlds 2026 Coming to Texas and New York

Riot Games announced Friday that the 2026 League of Legends esports season will end in Texas and New York. Allen Texas, a northern suburb in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, will serve as the home of the Play-In, Swiss stage, and the Playoffs for the 2026 season, with the New York City serving as the last stop for the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds 2026) Grand Finals. Much of this information was revealed during a press conference in China, detailed in this Sheep Esports report.

In addition to announcing these locations, Riot also announced LoL Esports will make a triumphant return to South Korea next year. The Mid-Season Invitational 2026 will be hosted at a location to be announced in Daejeon, South Korea. Riot also revealed that the first international event of the 20926 season, First Stand 2026, will take place in São Paulo, Brazil, from March 16 - 22.

Finally, Riot revealed that Fearless Draft will continue to be an important aspect of the 2026 season.

On a related note, Riot revealed format changes for several regions including League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), League of Legends Pro League (LPL - representing China), and League Championship Series (LCS - for NA).

The format changes for 2026 in these regional leagues follows news on Oct. 26, when Riot revealed plans for the 2026 League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) season, including format changes, a replacement event, and more. This reveal followed news in late-September that Riot would dump its North and South American league, the LTA, in favor of returning to League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) for North America and Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLoL) for Brazil, with teams in the former Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) region being divvied up into the returning leagues based on geography.

Riot Details Worlds 25 Grand Finals Watch Party Locations

Riot Games announced this week a number of physical locations around the world where fans can watch the Grand Finals of the League of Legends World Championship Worlds 25), taking place Nov. 8 (or Nov. 9, depending on your local timezone) at the Dong’an Lake Sports Park Multifunctional Gymnasium in Chengdu, China.

The grand final will feature two South Korean teams, T1 and KT Rolster, battling in a best-of-five (Bo5) series to see who is crowned champion of the 2025 season and earns a $1 million USD prize pool.

The locations revealed by Riot are mostly community-run events and chances are there is a location that is close to you–or at least in your region. Those watch parties are taking place in multiple locations in such countries and regions as Australia, China, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand; United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Albania, Greece, France, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland.

More details about watch parties in your area can be found in this Riot Games blog post.

Luminosity Gaming Content Creators Get Break-Up Letter

This week multiple Luminosity Gaming content creators revealed via social media that they recieved a break-up letter of sorts from Vertical Studios (TSX: VRTS), signed by CEO Jon Dwyer. The letter said the following, according to multiple sources:

We would like to extend our sincerest gratitude for your efforts to Luminosity during our tenure here. That being said, we don’t want you to have to operate your career on our timeline. With that in mind we will be releasing you from your Luminosity contract effective immediately. By doing this we’re excited that you’re now able to pursue economic opportunities and creative ventures straight away rather than continuing to wait for the changes being made here.

I speak for the entire Vertiqal Studio and Luminosity staff when I say we truly can’t wait to see where you go from here, and we’ll be cheering on all of your forthcoming sucessesses along the way.

Best,

Jon & the Veriqal Team

It should be noted that several reports (including this X thread from Zach Bussey ) suggest that Dwyer did try to call several content creators prior to sending this email around.

As of this writing, the official website for Luminosity lists more than 30 content creators as well as a handful of professional players competing in Pokemon Go, Pokemon Unite, Super Smash Bros., and League of Legends. It is unclear who has not been paid at this point, though multiple now-former content creators claim being owed between one to three months worth of back-pay.

In an Esports Radar report, Dwyer told the publication that the plan is to simply find a buyer for Luminosity to wipe out some of the debt the division currently has and that the ultimate goal of the acquisition was to secure a “globally unique GAM license.” From the report:

“We purchased [the assets from] Enthusiast in a blind process because we were seeking the Google ad monetisation license,” Dwyer said. “Enthusiast paid [approximately $11 million USD in cash, 18.25 million shares, and a ~$4.3 million vendor-take-back note] for Omnia Media, which gave them the globally unique GAM license. Vertiqal purchased the licence alongside all the other assets for C$900,000 [~$648,000 USD].”

The Esports Advocate first reported on the post-acquisition issues with Luminosity at the end of September.

More From The Esports Advocate

Riot Names Globant Digital Transformation Partner - Globant will use its AI-based technology offerings to improve fan experiences for Valorant and League of Legends esports through multi-year deal.

GRID Partners With Sportstensor - New deal will see GRID provide data to the official market maker and liquidity provider for Polymarket.

XDOTG to Operate Vancouver Surge in 2026 - XDOTG and company founder Alex Gonzalez sign a deal with Canucks Sports and Entertainment to operate its Call of Duty League in 2026.

ESL FACEIT Group Opens Regional Office in Riyadh - Company will use the new headquarters to do business in the region, foster local talent, and host regional and international competitions.

DreamHack Atlanta 2026 to Include IEM Atlanta, CDL Major III - ESL FACEIT Group’s DreamHack details plans for Atlanta in 2026.

ESIC Adds Rollbit as an Anti-Corruption Partner - Crypto gambling platform will help ESIC monitor esports competitions for corruption and betting-related malpractice.

PUBG Mobile Third-Party Tournament Program Launched - Krafton launches new program to allow third-party organizers to set up competitions for PUBG Mobile with ease.

NIP Group Expands Crypto Mining Operations - NIP Group claims expanded crypto mining operation will generate 160 Bitcoins per month.

Global Esports Federation Hits Another Government Roadblock - The government of Peru has put a hold on GEF events in the country, according to sources.

G2 Esports Launches WEBTOON Series Red Aura - New weekly Webtoon celebrates G2’s 10-year anniversary.

Esports Breakup: Why the IOC Backed Out of Saudi Esports Deal - What was fine with former IOC President Thomas Bach did not sit well with new President Kirsty Coventry, according to our sources.

Call of Duty League 2026 Season Details Revealed - The Call of Duty League will make stops in Dallas, Birmingham, Atlanta, Paris, Las Vegas, and Riyadh in 2026.

News From Around the World

🤝🏼Olympic Council of Asia and Tencent strengthen Asian Games ties.

🚪 Team Liquid enters the competitive world of Apex Legends.

👋🏼 TSM says goodbye to Valorant.

👋🏼Report: Royal Never Give Up, Funplus Phoenix leaving LPL?

👋🏼 Sentinels exit Marvel Rivals.

👋🏼 Godlike Esports exits Call of Duty Mobile.

👓 OpTic reveals release date for new documentary.

🤝🏼HUL signs Chennai Global Championship deal.

🤝🏼Texas Tech President joins VOICE presidents’ advisory council.

🤝🏼NACE signs Raven as a merchandise partner.

😮 Square Enix to cut hundreds of jobs.

🤷🏼‍♂️Activision ask judge to release it from Uvalde school shooting lawsuit.

🤖Savvy Games, Humain sign AI deal.

☁PlayStation Portal finally gets cloud gaming support.

👊🏼 Street Fighter’s Chun-Li cameos in FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves.

😮Rockstar delays GTA 6 to November 2026.

🤔 Grand Theft Auto maker Rockstar Games accused of “union busting.”

🤔 GTA developer says people were fired for leaking info.

🎲 DATA Bet brings esports data to Entain brands.

🎲 More details emerge on NBA betting scandal…

🎲 Minnesota Attorney General cracking down on illegal gambling operations.

🛑 ESPN Bet shuts down.

💰 Elon Musk, the trillion dollar man.

🚀 MrBeast plans a theme park… for Saudi Arabia.

Health Update

A little bit of a health update for those interested in keeping up with what’s going on with me. Our insurance company is still saying no to a scan I need to determine the extent of an aortic occlusion that was found during a stress test a few months ago. As I may have mentioned previously, in layman’s terms it means that the lower half of my body isn’t getting the required blood flow in order to work properly, which means that walking 300 feet or so makes my whole lower half go number and nearly impossible to move until it returns to normal after a bit of a rest.

I can’t really get any kind of surgery to correct the problem until I get some kind of scan. We’ll just have to see if my doctors have what it takes to convince the insurance company that this scan is crucial and necessary to move forward.

My wife, who works in healthcare, has caught COVID and is now quarantined in her bedroom. This happens from time to time as she works with elderly patients, and the state has minimized its once strict policies related to COVID, which means that when someone in a facility catches it, it spreads like wildfire now. She’ll be fine, but now I have to do my best not to catch it, as it would take me out of circulation right now given my weakened state (dealing with swollen lymph nodes and a sore throat already—a side effect from cancer treatment—and can’t imagine what would happen if I stacked COVID or the flu on top of that right now…).

On the GoFundMe front, we have managed to raise a little under £25,000, just shy of the secondary goal by £354. The outpouring to this campaign has been incredible from this community. I just can’t believe it. Thanks to everyone who continue to contribute to it!

If you want to donate find out more at my GoFundMe.com page. See you next week - James. ❤

I’m trying to get back on track in providing one edition of the newsletter a week, as so many have people signed up and want to receive something from me on a regular basis. Today we have a couple of interesting stories - one on the rising number of executions in Saudi Arabia and another on Made in Brazil recently getting acquired. A personal note can be found at the end if you are interested in reading it. - James.

Saudi Arabia on Track to Break 2024 Execution Record

International watchdog group Middle East Democracy Center released a new report highlighting the number of executions that have occurred so far in Saudi Arabia in 2025, and that the government is on track to have a record-breaking year in terms of putting people to death. Saudi Arabia’s death penalty is of particular note because the country is trying to bring in revenue from things such as esports, sports, entertainment, amusements, tourism, and more through major investments.

These investments to shift its revenue from fossil fuels (oil, gas) to other types of businesses are part of its Vision 2023 plan. Esports and gaming are to play a strong role in Vision 2023, including in developing local talent to work in these industries that the Saudi Arabian government is investing billions of dollars in. Those billion dollar investments include the acquisition of ESL FACEIT Group (DreamHack, ESL, FACEIT, Esports Engine), its deal with the International Olympic Committee for the Esports Olympic Games, its acquisition of Evolution Championship Series owner RTS, its investments managed by wholly owned games company Savvy Games Group, a planned acquisition of Electronic Arts, the acquisition of SNK Corporation, the Esports World Cup, mega city project Qiddiya, and strategic minor investments in various gaming companies around the world.

But while the government tries to put a friendly face on its culture and acceptance, it has executed more around 302 people in 2025, and is on track to surpass the number put to death in 2024 (345). According to the report, foreign nationals represent 42% of the population in the country, and of those executed, 169 or 56% were foreign nationals. Currently 12 Indian nationals are on death row, as well as an undetermined number of Egyptians, Ethiopians, Kenyans, Nigerians, and Pakistani men. Women from the Philippines and Indonesia are also on death row. Ninety (90) of those executions were for trafficking hashish (marijuana). One underage (under the age of 18) defendant, Jalal al Labbad, was executed in August for taking part in a protest. On June 14, Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser was executed after a secret trial and seven years of imprisonment.

The watchdog group highlighted that, despite the Saudi Arabian government’s promise for less executions, things have not changed in 2025:

Despite promises by Saudi authorities to reduce the use of the death penalty and reserve it for only the most serious crimes, executions in the country have surged in 2025. Saudi Arabia has significantly increased executions for non-lethal offenses, particularly drug-related offenses committed by foreign nationals. Saudi authorities also executed Jalal al-Labbad and Abdullah alDerazi, who were prosecuted for alleged crimes committed when they were children. In an alarming escalation, the kingdom executed prominent journalist Turki al-Jasser in June. This ongoing execution crisis raises serious concerns for the lives of detainees in Saudi Arabia, including political prisoners, many of whom have not been afforded due process and have faced abuses behind bars.

You can read the full report here.

Spun Mídia Acquires MIBR

Prominent Brazilian esports organization Made in Brazil (MIBR) has been acquired by Brazilian media and technology company Spun Mídia for an undisclosed amount. The organization will be housed under a newly created esports and gaming division called EZOR, which will also serve as the home of another esports organization acquired by Spun Mídia—LOS.

Spun Mídia said in its announcement that it has established a R$100 million (roughly $18 million USD) investment plan for the next five years that will focus on “expanding both brands, acquiring new businesses, and creating proprietary projects.”

MIBR CEO Roberta Coelho and LOS CEO Alexandre “Kakavel” Peres will help guide EZOR, and define new investment strategies and goals for each brand, according to the announcement. Spun Mídia CEO João Pedro Manetti will lead the division with overall governance and decision making.

“Spun’s purpose is to build the largest esports media hub and ecosystem in Latin America, with global ambitions. We operate under a multi-brand model, with a structured back office, solid governance, and ambitious goals. We are behind LOS and MIBR, brands that continue to operate independently, but are driven by the entire structure and know-how of our media model,” explains João Pedro Manetti, CEO of Spun Mídia. “Our main skill is scaling businesses quickly, capable of achieving great things in a short period of time.”

MIBR currently competes in Counter-Strike 2 (men’s women’s teams,and academy) and Valorant (pro and academy teams). Sponsors include 1XBET, GamersClub, Pirate Swap, CDG Skins, and Natura.

More From The Esports Advocate

• Why Esports Illustrated Ceased Operations

• IESF to Host 2025 Elections in Kuala Lumpur

• Team Vitality Teams With Counter-Strike 2 Skin Trading Platform Skin.Land

• Spanish Call of Duty Federation, Torneum Partner for Black Ops 7 Circuit

• Halo Coming to DreamHack Birmingham in 2026

• Ninjas in Pajamas Celebrate 25 Year Anniversary With Showmatch

• Call of Duty League Team Toronto Ultra Becomes Toronto KOI

• G2 Esports Rebrands Call of Duty League Team Minnesota ROKKR

• Saudi Esports Federation Partners With Burger King

• Riot Lays Out Roadmap for the 2026 LEC Season

• Upwards Agency Partners With Evil Geniuses

• StarCraft II Returns to China Soon

• Walmart Experience Makes a Stop at DreamHack Atlanta

• FURIA Signs Deal With Chocolate Brand BIS

News From Around the World

👋🏼 The Sims creators say goodbye to EA as Saudi-backed buyout looms.

📢 ZQSD Productions teams with Riot for Nova Series: Prelude.

📢 Team Vitality hires a new head of esports operations.

📢Heroes of Newerth offers modest prize pool for return esports tournament.

📢Krafton India details structured player transfer window for BGMI teams.

📢Atlantic City schools add district-wide esports program.

📢Counter-Strike Asia Championship 2027 announced.

📢BLAST R6 APAC Regional Finals coming to Sydney in December.

📢Razer releases fancy new esports-focused peripherals.

💰 PUBG maker Krafton invests $70 million in AI plans.

💰 Qiddiya awards $1.4 billion construction contract to Nesma & Partners.

💰 PwC report claims Saudi Arabia leads the Middle East as spending rises in tourism.

💰 HMBLE joins the Brawl Stars esports partner program.

🕵🏼‍♀️ Valve will require Counter-Strike 2 teams to disclose financial relationships.

🕵🏼‍♀️Strange developments in Sony’s legal fight with fired Halo lead.

🕵🏼‍♀️A closer look at Team Liquid X Intel tour.

✅ Envy opens an esports performance lab.

✅ Pakistan plans esports policy, national federation.

👊🏼Activision Blizzard’s platform & technology workers join the CWA.

👊🏼Hearthstone and Warcraft Rumble developers greenlight joining CWA.

🎲 Oddin teams up with Gamegram.

🎲 Wisconsin lawmakers want to legalize online sports betting.

🎲 Illinois lawmakers stop Chicago from enforcing gambling tax.

🎲 YouTube cracks down on gambling content, skin trading.

🎲 Bilibili Gaming LoL team allegedly caught at an illegal gambling den.

🎲 GamerLegion partners with online casino and sportsbook LEON.Bet.

🤝🏼Hacksaw Gaming partners with Esportes da Sorte.

🤝🏼Popular streamer Esfand joins the Red Bull family.

🤝🏼Gen.G partners with 13 universities for practicum abroad program

🤝🏼MSI powers Red Bull a League of Our Own.

🤝🏼Opera GX partners with Stream Hatchet to launch a streaming mode.

Person Update

For those interested, here’s a personal update from me. The GoFundMe that Richard Lewis launched on my behalf at the end of last week has managed to generate £23,459, as of this writing. If you donated to this, thank you - now let me tell you how I plan on spending it. First and foremost, I am going to pay down all the current outstanding medical bills that insurance wouldn’t pay for, followed by paying down all the debt we generated from cancer treatments, hospital visits, doctor’s visits, etc. etc. I don’t take the goodwill given to me lightly and will not spend the money on anything other than what is intended for. This is not some sort of windfall or lottery check for me; I’m not going to go out and waste it on frivolity or stupidity.

You can take a look at the campaign on GoFundMe here. Again, thanks to everyone that contributed, you’re awesome human beings and I love you.

Until next time!

Best,

James

This week my friend and colleague Richard Lewis was kind enough to launch a GoFundMe campaign to support me as battle through some ongoing medical issues. I won’t bore you on the details of that again (I’ve talked about in other editions of this newsletter), but suffice to say, in less than 24 hours our initial goal was met and it was fully funded. I was humbled by the response, because you don’t really know how people feel about you until you really put it all out there.

The money will be used to pay down some outstanding medical bills and some debt I have accrued over the last three years, as well as any future medical bills that might come up in the future. I’ll talk about that for a second; Recently I found that, on top of everything else, I have what’s called an Aortic Occlusion in my abdomen, or a blockage to the main supply for blood that feeds the lower half of my body. In 2018 when I started working for The Esports Observer, the first signs of this began happening; numbness in my legs and feet after long period of physical labor or walking great distances. Getting a job at TEO was a godsend, because I was really struggling to do physical labor at that point… Anyway, I didn’t figure until September of this year that all of this was happening. It’s not life threatening, but it’s something that has to be dealt with in the next several months, and is a major surgery that may take me out of commission for a week or two.

Anyway, i’m rambling a little here, but the point of this little note is really to say thank you to everyone that contributed to this campaign, from the people that gave $5 to the generous person who gave $5,000. There were so many friends, colleagues, and industry leaders that donated—even some people who I have written tough stories about.

Seeing the response from this community really touched me.

If you haven’t contributed hit the link above, and if you already have thank you so much for the help. Also thank you to Richard Lewis, a really nice guy that went out of his way to help me.

-James

A little bit of a personal note for subscribers wondering where the heck the newsletter has been.

I have not done a newsletter in awhile because I continue to have health issues related to a stroke I had in early June, which followed months of cancer treatment. It has not been smooth sailing, and the financial burden of all this, trying to operate a startup for three years that has been mostly self funded, and the debt from mounting medical bills and zero revenue generation, has been a mental and physical drain.

A few weeks ago I had a medical situation that took me out of circulation for nearly a week and I continue to have what appears to be long-term side effects from the cancer treatment including throat problems, swollen lymph nodes, and more.

Last month I also learned that the reason I have been having trouble walking is because there are some unknown circulation issues with the lower half of my body. Fun stuff. Is it blood clots? Generally bad circulation from other issues? Or something else? I have no earthly idea, but I begin another round of testing to figure it out on Friday.

All of this medical stuff just hit me all at once and it continues to bring up even more issues that I have to deal with. It’s kind of a treadmill of doom.

Being sick on and off over the last three years really killed any plans I had to monetize/find funding for The Esports Advocate. I had so many plans, and now it’s all gone awry because I have to focus on this medical stuff and the burden of debt.

It’s all very disheartening at times, but to give up on this work and my health is a death sentence and I refuse to do it.

Some friends have suggested that it’s okay to ask for help. I know that’s true, but I’m still trying to figure out what that looks like and how to go about doing it, or if I even want to.

Despite all these challenges I’m proud of what we have built at TEA. We built a real audience that doesn’t come to our site to read SEO nonsense. It’s not a great amount of readership but it’s real, organic, and more engaged. While everyone else is taking money from gambling firms, SEO cannibal companies, or the Saudi government, we have stayed true to ourselves and kept our hands clean. That might not have any financial value but I’m proud of it.

I’ll continue to hang in there as long as I can.

Thanks for reading.

- James

It was a busy and sometimes contentious news cycle this week as we learned that the Saudi Arabian government snapped up another major chunk of the esports ecosystem, one of the top stars in the FGC made a proclamation about it, the leader of Saudi Arabia took a leadership role at the Esports World Cup Foundation, and Riot shook up Valorant esports in Europe with a major decision. You can find a personal note at the end of this newsletter about me, if you’re interested as well. Let’s dive in!

HRH Crown Prince MBS Named Board of Trustees Chair for Esports World Cup Foundation

Perhaps the biggest story of the week was news that the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister (HRH Crown Prince MBS) took on a major leadership role at the Esports World Cup Foundation. At a Cabinet meeting on Sept. 2, the Saudi Arabian government moved to create a board of trustees for the Esports World Cup and named HRH Crown Prince MBS as its chair.

Generally speaking, a board of trustees is an appointed or elected group of individuals that has overall responsibility for the management of an organization, usually universities or non-profits. They make decisions about the ethical operation of the organization and its fiduciary responsibilities to its stakeholders.

The Esports World Cup Foundation has long asserted that it is a non-profit funded by a sports grant from the Saudi Arabian government. While this is likely still true, it’s very difficult for the organization to claim that it is separated from the government when its ruler takes a leadership role on a board that controls spending.

Read more about this story at The Esports Advocate.

Saudi-Owned Qiddiya Fully Acquires Evo Organizer RTS

Saudi Arabian government-backed mega city project Qiddiya announced this week that it had fully acquired tournament organizer RTS, which is the principle operator of international fighting game competition, Evolution Championship Series. The news was mostly meant with a negative reaction from the Evo community in the West.

Qiddiya is a mega city project aimed at bringing in tourism dollars through a variety of activities including amusement parks, race tracks, sports and esports arenas to support competitions, and more. The project is fully funded by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).

This development follows news in August that India-based tournament organizer NODWIN Gaming had acquired Sony Interactive Entertainment’s stake in Evo, which was jointly operated by RTS and SIE. Interestingly, Qiddiya thanked NODWIN Founder Akshat Rathee for his aid in closing the deal with RTS.

Read more about this story at The Esports Advocate.

Eight-Time Evo Champion SonicFox Responds to Evo News

In response to the news that Qiddiya had acquired RTS, eight-time Evo champion Dominique “SonicFox” McLean said that he will stand up for LGBTQ+ rights by attending Evolution Championship (Evo) events going forward, representing his community by being vocal and proud. Following some public pushback, SonicFox said that he would do this at events outside Saudi Arabia, and not in the country, for his own safety.

SonicFox is a self-identified “black nonbinary furry queer,” and has never shied away from his identity as a gay person/furry.

The deal will certainly test the belief systems of many in the FGC community, who have claimed to be inclusive to all genders, races, and sexual identities over the years. Will the lure of big money overshadow these beliefs as it has in the broader esports ecosystem with competitions like the Esports World Cup? Only time will tell.

Read more about this story at The Esports Advocate.

Riot Terminates Movistar KOI’s VCT EMEA Partnership Agreement

Riot Games surprised and shocked the Valorant esports scene in Europe on Saturday morning when it announced that it had terminated Spanish esports organization Movistar KOI’s partnership agreement with the Valorant Champions Tour EMEA. News rocked the online esports community, as many wondered why the decision was made, and it didn’t help that Riot declined to provide any public clarity on the matter, beyond saying the Overactive Media-owned organization did not deliver on its contractual obligations.

TEA learned that the breach related to a co-streaming deal in the contract that required popular Spanish content creator (and Movistar KOI owner) Ibai Llanos. In a statement posted on X (which has since been removed) Ibai explained why he needed to take a mental health break from streaming, and how Movistar KOI ultimately moved on to use Sergio Ferra instead. This move was apparently not good enough for Riot Games and any attempts to cure the problem were ultimately rejected, according to Movistar KOI.

OverActive CEO & Co-Founder Adam Adamou also issued a lengthy statement on X acknowledging the news but also adding that his organization was moving on from Valorant esports.

Read more about this story on The Esports Advocate.

More News from The Esports Advocate

• Luminosity Gaming Sold to Vertiqal Studios; Ex-CEO’s Bid Passed Over

• Raidiant Launches Rainbow Six Siege Competition, Rally Point

• Nadeshot Signs Sponsorship Deal With Roobet

• BIG Partners With Medical Cannabis Company GreenMedical

• BLAST Premier Open Rotterdam Details Revealed

• 2025 Esports World Cup Numbers Revealed

• NRG Partners With Thrustmaster for Rocket League Team

• GameSquare Partners With Barnes & Noble College

• Berlin International Gaming Extends Acer Predator Partnership

• HEROIC Partners With Razed

News From Around the World

• OG Esports realizes $3 million loss in fiscal year 2024.

• Newegg launches state-of-the-art gaming arena at California HQ.

• Valorant Championship Tour Global Rankings launched.

• Riot Games reveals new details for Champions Paris 2025.

• New TeamFight Tactics player vs. environment mode revealed.

• Ukrainian esports legend Kyrylo “ANGE1” Karasov plans on retiring.

• Money 20/20 Middle East comes to Riyadh, Sept. 15 - 17, 2025.

• Nhat Minh defends Duck Chess Champion title.

• NBA 2K6 released to mixed reactions.

• Top Twitch genres in August 2025.

• Top Twitch categories for August 2025.

• Top YouTube channels for August 2025 by peak viewers.

• Roblox tries out a new video-sharing app.

• BGMI Challengers Series 2025 standings.

• Blockchain game investment list, August 2025.

• Allied Gaming & Entertainment regains Nasdaq compliance.

• Allied Gaming & Entertainment fights off hostile takeover.

Personal News

If you made it this far and you care about what's going on in my personal life here’s an update. I had a stress test on Thursday to try and figure out why when I walk more than 200 yards the lower half of my body goes numb. A number of scans in June and July found no damage in my hip, back, or legs, so this is a continuation of that testing. I’ll let you know what the results are when I have them, but solving this puzzle would change my life at this point because it has really slowed me down from doing any major physical activity without being in extreme agony.

While the cancer on my voice box is gone, I am still having trouble losing my voice from time to time due to swelling. My lymph nodes continue to be swollen, and since there is no treatment beyond massages and compression sleeves for my neck, I’m still feeling like trash. I’m pushing through it and trying to get back to work, but it’s a challenge.

Perhaps the biggest challenge right now is trying to get back on track at work and the financial burden of a lot of medical bills and debt from having to deal with cancer for two years and then having a stroke in June. I’m doing my best, keeping my head up, and trying to keep moving forward. That’s all any of us can do, right?

Thanks for your moral support and for reading this message. Most of all, thanks for sticking it out with this newsletter and The Esports Advocate. Honestly, the most important things in my life are my faith, my family and my community of readers. Thank you–believe me when I say that I don’t take these things for granted. Until next time! - James

In May 2024, The Esports Advocate (TEA) investigated whether esports organizations participating in the 2024 Esports World Cup Partner Program were violating advertising disclosure laws in multiple jurisdictions by not transparently labeling financially incentivized social media promotions.

TEA consulted regulatory bodies including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, Canada’s Competition Bureau, the European Advertising Standards Alliance, and the EU’s European Commission, as well as Eversheds Sutherland Senior Associate Leonid Shmatenko on German and Swiss regulations. The consensus was clear: by not marking posts with identifiers such as “#ad,” these esports organizations were likely breaching online advertising standards.

At the time, TEA contacted the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) for comment regarding potential violations, but received no response.

Since the inaugural event in 2024, several sources have confirmed to TEA that the lack of disclosures was an intentional strategy by the organizers. This approach appears to have paid off, as no partnered organizations or the EWCF faced fines or sanctions for these omissions throughout 2024.

Proponents of the Esports World Cup might argue “no harm, no foul.” After all, if violations occurred, wouldn’t regulators have intervened by now?

The Organic Illusion

However, perception matters greatly. The Esports World Cup, its participants, and its organizers benefit from posts that appear authentic rather than sponsored. Tagging every promotional post with “#ad” risks appearing insincere or forced. While some posts may genuinely reflect a team’s organic enthusiasm, it is difficult to justify treating every promotional post as authentic, given clear financial incentives to increase social media following and promote the Esports World Cup.

Whether or not this practice violates explicit advertising laws, esports stakeholders ideally should prioritize transparency in their monetization strategies. Unfortunately, ethical expectations often clash with commercial interests. Either teams are following organizer instructions to omit disclosures or willingly do so to maximize their financial gains from participating.

Further complicating transparency is the non-disparagement agreement embedded in contracts for partners, players, coaches, and public-facing personnel working with EWCF. Such agreements ensure that only positive narratives dominate public discourse.

Ethical Implications and Sportswashing

This year is unlikely to differ. Partners benefiting from Saudi investment are expected to continue projecting positivity, despite troubling human rights issues in Saudi Arabia. Notably, while the EWC events unfold, Saudi Arabia continues controversial practices, including executions (345 in 2024, with over 180 so far in 2025), imprisonment of political activists like Manahel al-Otaibi, and criminalization of LGBTQ+ identities.

Critics argue this constitutes “sportswashing”—using entertainment to divert attention from human rights abuses. International watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly raised these concerns.

Some may counter by highlighting domestic issues in other countries, including the United States’ immigration policies, mass incarceration, military support for the war in Gaza, and capital punishment. However, the critical distinction is governmental ownership. The U.S. government does not directly own esports enterprises such as the ESL FACEIT Group. Similarly, while the Chinese government exercises significant influence over companies like Tencent and TJ Sports, it does not officially own them. Direct governmental ownership places the Saudi-backed Esports World Cup uniquely under scrutiny.

About the Esports World Cup

The 2025 Esports World Cup is a seven-week multi-title competition held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, featuring a prize pool exceeding $70 million USD. It’s funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and operated by ESL FACEIT Group, owned by Saudi government entity Savvy Games Group. This year’s edition runs from July 7 to August 24, concluding with the New Global Sport Conference (NGSC2025) at the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh.

For further information on partnered esports organizations for the 2025 Esports World Cup, read TEA’s detailed report.

More From The Esports Advocate

Paris-Saint Germain Esports Continues Partnership with Talon Esports

Hilton, Saudi Tourism Authority Partner With 2025 Esports World Cup

Cenomi Centers, Saudia Become 2025 Esports World Cup Partners

BLAST Names Charlie Cowdrey as CEO of JioBLAST

BIG Extends BACKFORCE Partnership for Three More Years

iQOO Battlegrounds Series Announced

GRID Partners With Clavision for Major Dota 2 Competition

BIG Extends Partnership With Philips OneBlade

Mastercard Continues as Esports World Cup Partner for 2025

In Other News

🛑 Carolina Royal Ravens out of Esports World Cup.

🤝🏼T1 secures partnership with Red Sea Global.

🤝🏼Bigo secures broadcast deal with Esports World Cup.

🤝🏼 MSI joins forces with Red Bull Expanding.

🤝🏼Take This gets Riot Games support.

💰 Coda moves beyond payments for gaming with new acquisition.

🤡 When fans push back on Esports World Cup pushback.

🤡 German esports journalist becomes poster boy for promoting Saudi Arabia.

✅ Bangladesh recognizes esports as a sport.

🏆 Asian Champions League 2025 details revealed.

🎲 Bety Sportsbook launches July esports season.

🤝🏼Carry1st and Spotify partner for Africa Cup grand finals.

💡 Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 to be revealed at gamescom 2025.

🚀Gosugamers launches tournament incentives for homegrown affairs.

🚌Dubai warns travelers of increasing U.S. government fees for visas.

📺 GKIDS details home release of Arcane Season 2.

😲 PUBG Mobile player loses “Hitler” moniker after public backlash…

I have been thinking a lot about the Esports World Cup over the last week or so and how its organizers have been so incredibly brilliant in changing the narrative. While it has been amazing to watch, it has been done with all the precision of sledgehammer. It turns out that the best way to change the narrative on hosting a multi-week competition in a country such as Saudi Arabia is to simply spend billions of dollars.

Investing billions in acquiring key companies (ESL, DreamHack, FACEIT, Esports Engine), and spending hundreds of millions of dollars more to bring the top IP holders (Riot Games, Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, EA, Microsoft, Tencent, Ubisoft, KRAFTON), stakeholders (BLAST, NODWIN, Hero Esports, and even the Esports Awards) and esports organizations (FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, T1, etc.) into the fold, the Saudi Arabian government managed to make an entire industry bend to its will. It is not a tall tale to say that the global esports industry has been subjugated by the government of Saudi Arabia.

With the 2025 Esports World Cup kicking off this week, there appears to be no resistance left—not from fans, esports organizations, game makers, tournament organizers, etc.

The smartest thing the Saudis did was create the Esports World Cup Partner Program, which gives a financial incentive to esports organizations to promote the event to its fans. Once esports organizations and popular content creators started promoting the event, fans began accepting it without question; after all if there favorite team is competing there, how bad could it be? And at the end of the day, fans don’t care about how the sausage is made as they don’t have to pay for it.

Perhaps the most complict of all is the media, the very people you would hope to give you frank, honest truth. If you read a news story about the Esports World Cup this week and beyond, chances are there will be no more mention of the Saudi Arabian government’s questionable human rights record, its treatment of women and members of the LGBTQ+ community, or the fact that during the 2024 competitions, dozens of people were publicly executed while the top competitive teams in the world vied for a chunk of the massive prize pool. That’s because everyone is either taking money from the government or outlets have adopted the attitude of “go along to get along.”

Let’s understand why all of this matters: we tie the things the government of Saudi Arabia does to the Esports World Cup because it directly funds it through a grant and it owns the companies that operate it including Savvy Games Group subsidiary ESL FACEIT Group (which is home to ESL, FACEIT, DreamHack, and Esports Engine). If it didn’t own these things/fund them, we really wouldn’t have much to say about it.

So congratulations are in order to the Saudi Arabian government and HRH Prince MBS: You made an entire industry willingly bow at your feet. - James Fudge.

In Other News

🗺Saudis keeping spending local for summer.

🤝🏼Turtle Beach partners with FAV Gaming.

💰Fragbite Group secures $530K for Bitcoin treasury business.

🤝🏼iQOO sponsors S8UL’s Esports World Cup journey.

🤝🏼9INE secures title sponsorship with Pusulabet.

🥤Pepsi returns as Esports World Cup sponsor.

🏆Esports World Cup launches Hero program.

📱HONOR returns to support mobile esports at Esports World Cup.

It’s been quite awhile since I put out a newsletter.

If I am being completely honest, I have been sick for the better part of two years and I have tried to power through all of it. It started out with COVID in Summer 2023, followed by some sort of Flu that I never really recovered from in 2023.

In early 2024, I noticed I was losing my voice for no apparent reason following that extended illness, or cold, or whatever. Ultimately, I went to urgent care and they sent me to an Ear, Nose & Throat guy, who found a small growth on my voice box, which turned out to be cancerous. After two surgeries to remove it and a little recovery time, I started cancer treatment—five days a week for nearly eight weeks at the end of 2024.

During all this time, I never took time off The Esports Advocate, and I guess it finally caught up with me; in late May (about two weeks ago) I had a mild stroke. I was sitting down to write a story for the website when I noticed that the right side of my body was going numb. I took a couple of baby aspirin as a precaution—because I had an inkling of what was happening—and called 911. By the time I got to the hospital the symptoms of the stroke were gone, but my blood pressure was through the roof and I ended up staying there for four days.

I’m going to spare you details of what the doctors found for now, but at least I didn’t have any permanent damage occur. Because of what happened, I missed the final PET scan for the cancer last month, but my voice is not back to normal and I fear the worst there too.

All of this is to say that the reason this newsletter fell off over the last several months is because I was trying to recover, but something new came along and kicked me in the face. We’ll see where things go healthwise, but there are other considerations that are having an impact behind the scenes that I a super uncomfortable talking about.

I’m not here crying about this situation or anything; I just felt like people who have an interest in what I do in this newsletter and on TEA have at least some right to know what’s going on. So there it is. I would love nothing better than to get back to work and have things return to normal, but I need to take things slow for a little bit.

Thanks for reading all this. - James.

Hey everyone, happy Monday to you. First and foremost, happy to announce that we finally got around to launching an account for The Esports Advocate on Bluesky. If you are on that platform, give us a follow and keep up to date on all our news and insights!

On a more personal note, I’m doing very well as of late—my voice is almost back to normal following seven weeks of radiation treatment for cancer and now I'm almost feeling like I can get back into the groove of things and start chasing some stories again.

If you haven’t been paying attention, we did publish a couple of exclusive stories recently—one about layoffs at Esports Engine’s California offices and another about Valorant events that took place in 2023 and 2024 (in the MENA region–run by third-party organizer Calyx) that haven’t paid players or on-air talent for their work. You can find both below.

Thanks to everyone who has signed up over the last several months–we appreciate you joining our little community here and look forward to expanding into more free and paid offerings in the future.

Now onto the news! - James Fudge

Esports World Cup Announces EWC Club Partner Program Teams

The Saudi Arabian government Public Investment Fund-backed Esports World Cup Foundation announced Monday the 40 esports organizations that were chosen for its 2025 Club Partner Program. The program, which has a cap of $20M USD in 2025, will give partnered organizations up to $1M USD each to “expand their brand[s] and grow their global audience through innovative content and marketing campaigns leading up to and throughout the Esports World Cup 2025.”

Of course, these stipends are tied to achievements. The program encourages partnered teams to grow their followings and to promote the eight-week Esports World Cup competition in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia through their social media and content creation channels, leading up to and during the competition.

Teams leaving the program this year include Spacestation Gaming, Talon Esports, OG, Blacklist International, Guild Esports, NRG Esports, TSM, Tundra Esports, LGD Gaming.

The program has been expanded from 30 teams to 40 for 2025, and offers (as far as we know) the same incentives for this year, as detailed in our previous reporting on the 2024 program and this follow-up story.

Read more on The Esports Advocate.

GRID Launches GRID Play

Gambling and esports focused data company GRID announced the launch of GRID Play, a new “end-to-end play data infrastructure” product that provides “data extraction, advanced analytics, and community engagement.” The new product is aimed at developers and stakeholders in the esports ecosystem.

GRID currently works with companies such as Riot Games (Teamfight Tactics, Valorant, and League of Legends), KRAFTON (PUBG, PUBG Mobile), and Ubisoft (Rainbow Six siege) to manage live data.

GRID claims that its new product can help game developers “extract, manage, and distribute pre-structured play data, gaining deeper insights into player performance and meta trends. It also provides engagement tools such as leaderboards, ranking systems, public managed APIs, and player stats.

GRID Play has also been integrated into the GRID Data Platform alongside GRID Esports, GRID Bet, and GRID Fan.

GRID is at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco showing off its new product offerings to interested stakeholders.

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News From Around the World

💰Savvy Games Group’s Scopely now owns Pokemon Go developer.

🛑Spectre Divide and developer Mountaintop Studios shutting down.

🛑Sudhir Kamath resigns as Nazara COO.

💡BlizzCon returning in 2026.

❓Errol Musk claims Elon’s half brother is wanted by China for esports.

👎🏼Ubisoft faces reckoning for sexual harassment in France.

👍🏼LoL Esports First Stand Day 1 viewership.

👍🏼Gaming startup Felicity raises millions.

🟢Esports center opens in Ireland.

🤔Team Falcons signs Team BDS roster.

🎲Betby launches fantasy CS2 league.

💰Nazara eyes short-form video market with acquisition.

🗺A look at the PUBG Esports roadmap.

🚀Vietnamese television supports esports in the region.

💰Liminal raises big money from major names in gaming.

✅Drafted.gg earns ESIC accreditation.

💰Transperfect Gaming acquires Beardown Gaming.

🤝🏼BLAST partners with Krafton for PUBG Esports.

🤷🏼‍♂️Overwatch 2 devs talk esports skins, LE SSERAFIM collab.

🟢PUBG developer Krafton launches creator network.

🤝🏼PUBG Mobile partners with BUGATTI.