Are You Ready for Some Football?

EA Sports FC 25 esports, IESA's Gaming Fund, Nerd Street's latest investment, and much, more in this week's newsletter for the week ending, Sept. 21, 2024.

Sep 21, 2024

I’m going to try to push out a couple of interesting stories in the first half of next week before I go under the knife on Thursday because I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back to work and I know my wife is not going to allow me to work on Friday and probably the weekend. That’s going to be extremely difficult for me because I love what I do and always enjoy a good day’s work.

I guess what I am saying is, see you on the other side of this thing. Wish me luck, and thank you for supporting me, this newsletter, and The Esports Advocate. We can’t do this work without your continued support and encouragement. Rock on. - James Fudge.

Top Stories

EA Gears Up for EA Sports FC 25 Esports

Electronic Arts announced new details on its esports plans for its upcoming football title EA Sports FC 25. Year two of EA Sports FC Pro will officially kick off in October and will include FC Pro’s global competitive circuit and FC Pro Leagues, while also introducing new opportunities for players to earn a spot at the FC Pro World Championship through an expanded FC Pro Open program and new monthly FC Pro Open Cups.

FC Pro Open will kick off with the launch of EA Sports FC 25 (releasing on Sept. 25 on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch) until early February 2025, and will offer total prizing of $1M USD.

The competition begins with the FC Pro Open Ladder from Oct. 1-7, with top competitors advancing to the Regional Qualifiers (Oct. 12-13), followed by a Global Qualifier (Nov. 1-3). The Global Qualifier will be held in London, and be broadcast live on Twitch and YouTube.

The top 17 players will join seven competitors who have already secured their spot at the FC Pro Open, including last year’s top four players PHzin, Vejrgang, Levi de Weerd, and Emre Yilmaz—as well as FC Pro World Championship finalists xcharif, Yuval, and Jafonso. Twenty-four (24) players advance to weekly FC Pro Open competitions, which kick off on Nov. 25.

In addition, FC Pro Open Cups will award spots at the FC Pro World Championship Play-Ins. More details on that are “coming soon,” according to EA.

Finally, EA said that the FC Pro World Championship will bring 32 of the world’s best EA Sports FC 25 players together, with the top eight players from the FC Pro Open automatically qualifying, alongside top competitors from the FC Pro Leagues and Play-Ins.

More information and registration information on EA Sports FC 25 esports can be found at FCPro.com.

Under The Hood: IESA’s Gaming Fund

The Israeli Esports Association (IESA) recently revealed some behind-the-scenes details on the Gaming Fund—launched in April of this year to promote grassroot esports initiatives and programs in Israel. The fund is backed financially by Maccabi Israel—in partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Sport and gaming and office supply retailer Kravitz.

The Gaming Fund’s main goal is to provide financial support for grassroot esports programs and initiatives in Israel by paying for prizes. Those grassroots organizers include gaming communities formed primarily on Discord servers, academic institutions within the country, or small for-profit tournament organizers.

The idea is that the IESA provides support for these efforts without facilitating or producing tournaments. This support also includes giving selected organizers the rights to host qualifier competitions for events in which IESA sends Israeli National teams such as International Esports Federation, Global Esports Federation, and eFIBA events.

In general, the fund provides prizes ranging from $100-$250 per tournament, paid by the IESA directly to winning players. The organization also gives what it calls “persistence prizes” to any player in the country that completes in at least four tournaments within a season supported by the fund. These four tournaments can be with different organizers, so long as they fulfill the IESA criteria (being affiliated with the group), and are tied to the player ID in the association. Once the player competes in four tournaments, they get an additional persistence prize worth up to $100, regardless of where they land at the end of any competitions. This is done to encourage active participation in tournaments and reward those who are actively committed to competitive play, not just the best players.

The IESA Gaming Fund is a trial period in 2024, and partly funded by the Ministry of Sport, with the hope of recognition and support for esports as an official sport. At the end of 2024, an evaluation will take place.

From what we understand, the Gaming Fund has seen around 1500 registered players and 25 registered organizers participate.

It is important to note that the Gaming Fund is backed by the government of Israel, which is currently engaged in a bloody war with terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and in other nearby regions in the Middle East. The military action by Israel followed a terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, at a music festival where approximately 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were taken hostage. Since the launch of the war, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military actions. On Friday, the Israeli government submitted formal challenges to the International Criminal Court over its jurisdiction and the legality of arrest warrant requests against Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, according to a Reuters report. It should also be noted that the United States, a longtime ally of the Israeli government, supplies much of the military equipment currently being used in Gaza.

While the IESA Gaming Fund is backed by the Ministry of Sport, leaders at the top of the government such as Netanyahu, Gallant, or the Likud party have no direct control over who the Ministry supports with its funding because it is a parliamentary democracy, consisting of legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

The IESA is a non-profit, member-owned association founded by esports industry veterans and professional players (such as Spinx and Shushan, among others). While it is government supported, it is not owned, operated, or controlled by the government.

The Fate of League of Legends Oceania

On Friday, Riot Games announced that it would be pausing the League of Legends Circuit: Oceania (LCO), with plans for a revamp. The LCO was launched in 2021 in cooperation with ESL Australia and Guinevere Capital, replacing the Oceanic Pro League that was run by Riot Games Oceania from 2015 - 2020.

“This wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s one we believe is necessary to adapt to the evolving landscape and resource intensive demands that comes with operating an esports league,” Riot said in its announcement, adding a thank-you to all the people who participated in building and maintaining the league: “To EFG, Guinevere Capital, players, teams, staff, and everyone who’s had a part to play in the LCO ecosystem, thank you for your contributions, collaboration, and trust. Your support has been instrumental in growing the LCO to what it is today.”

While details were pretty thin on what the ecosystem for Oceania will look like in 2025 and beyond, Riot said that it is "actively exploring solutions for a new OCE competitive circuit," with a focus on how a new streamlined ecosystem will feed into its APAC League esports ecosystem in 2025.

The move makes sense, given Riot's consolidation of other regions such as North America where LCS, LLA, and CBLoL will be combined into the Americas League in 2025—split between North and South Conferences.

Nerd Street Raises $6M in New Investment Round

Esports infrastructure and event company Nerd Street announced Friday that it has raised $6M in funding led by a $5M investment from Denver-based venture capital firm Konvoy Ventures and an additional $1M from undisclosed strategic investors.

The new round of funding will be used by Nerd Street to grow its collegiate venues and infrastructure business and partner with additional colleges and more universities in the United States, the company said in a release.

“There’s no sugar coating it, we went through a brutal two years in survival mode to get here,” Nerd Street Founder and CEO John Fazio said in a release. “I’m incredibly proud of our team and the grit they’ve shown as we weathered storm after storm while staying true to our core mission and delivering industry-leading experiences to our consumers. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner in Konvoy given their experience, network, and most importantly their passion for the industry. Together, we’re going to build something that amplifies the entire industry.”

This new infusion of cash represents Nerd Street’s biggest funding round since raising $11.5M led by Founder’s Fund in 2021.

This funding round also represents an important milestone for the company, who spent the last two years mired in controversies following the loss of important investors including retailer Five Below and bankrupted cryptocurrency exchange FTX—as chronicled in this in-depth TEA feature article published earlier this month.

Gen.G’s Gussies Up Worlds 2024

Global esports organization Gen.G Esports has partnered with global sports brand Descente to create and launch a new team uniform for the 2024 League of Legends World Championships (Worlds 2024).

Financial terms of this deal were not disclosed.

The Gen.G Worlds 2024 uniform consists of a jersey and a jacket, dubbed the "Worlds White." The brand name is highlighted in the center of the jersey, featuring “a scratch by a tiger, which is Gen.G's mascot, expressing the fight needed to achieve victory,” according to a release.

The Worlds 2024 uniform will be unveiled on ton Sept. 25, at the start of the road to Worlds 2024 in Berlin. Beginning Sept. 30, it will be available for purchase on the official Gen.G online store. Gen.G also noted in its announcement that it will “offer exclusive membership content and host viewing parties throughout the Worlds event.”

The road to Worlds 2024 officially kicks off in Berlin, Germany, on Sept.25, at the Riot Games Arena, where teams will compete in the Play-Ins (Sept. 25-29) and Swiss Stages (Oct. 3-7 and Oct. 10-13). Those that emerge as winners will move on to the adidas arena in Paris, France, for both Quarterfinals (Oct. 17-20) and Semifinals (Oct. 26-27). Finally, the top teams from League of Legends esports leagues that managed to survive will head to the O2 Arena in London on Nov.2 for the grand finals. More details on Worlds can be found in this official primer from Riot Games.