TEA Dispatch: ProGuides Down, FaZe Leaner
Esports and gaming news for the week ending April 26, 2024.
It’s been a great week personally as my nephew, who has been on dialysis for a long time, finally got a kidney from a donor and is recovering in the hospital as I write this. This is nothing short of a miracle and I'm so thankful for all the kind words from social media—thank you for your support, it means the world to me. Also it is important to note that someone had to lose their life for this to happen, and their generosity is an amazing gift that cannot be measured.
While not as important as that, I am exploring the interesting convergence of Elden Ring and esports…okay not really, but this week BingoBrawlers Season 3 played out on YouTube and Twitch and it got me thinking about the popular action RPG as the subject of a regular competition series. If you aren’t familiar with this, teams of the top Elden Ring speedrunners in the world have been competing to complete objectives in a 5x5 bingo board. It’s fascinating stuff, and has the potential to become something more than just a bunch of friends competing for fun. Maybe I'll talk about that more this week…
As for esports, it was a relatively tame week, though the Esports World Cup announced official dates, the FTC banned non-competes, and we learned that ProGuides will shut down at the end of May. Let’s get into it! - James Fudge.
📰 Top Stories 📰
NECC Raises Fees for 2024-2025 Season
Collegiate esports circuit the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) announced this week a new pricing scheme for the 2024-2025 season that will see a modest increase in fees for schools within its program—jumping from $1000 to $1300.
For that new price, schools/clubs can run “unlimited number of teams” in such titles as Counter-Strike 2, League of Legends, Overwatch 2, Rainbow Six: Siege, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros., and Valorant. To operate an unlimited number of teams in a single title, schools will pay $650 during the 2024-25 season. READ MORE.
💡 Unrelated: These new fees are not in any way related to its new licensing deal with eFuse for Collegiate Carball Association (CCA) and College CoD League (CCL) competitions, according to what NECC Commissioner and CEO Jacob VanRyn told The Esports Observer this week.
FaZe Clan Streamlines Membership
FaZe CEO Richard “FaZe Banks” Bengtson announced via social media the new core roster of the organization. The current FaZe roster includes ADAPT, APEX, BANKS, JEV, KAYSAN, NICK MERCS, REPLAYS, RONALDO, RUG, SCOPE, SWAGG, TEMPERRR, YOUR RAGE, and ZOOMA.
"Everyone else is out," Bengtson said. "That is the roster."
FaZe Clan is undergoing a bit of a transformation, as the official member list gets culled down to a core group under its new management at GameSquare. While the announcement seemed blunt and sudden, members who were let go were informed 12 hours before the announcement went live, according to multiple social media posts from former members.
💡 Post Merger: the acquisition/merger of FaZe Clan by GameSquare was completed in March and the management structure was announced shortly thereafter. FaZe will keep its esports teams in place—it currently fields professional teams in Counter-Strike 2, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty League (Atlanta FaZe – through a deal with Atlanta Esports Ventures), Fortnite, Rocket League, Valorant and Valorant Game Changers, Apex Legends, Halo, and R1 Racing, among others. The new management structure post-merger is Bengtson as CEO, Thomas “FaZe Temperrr” Oliveira as president, and Yousef “FaZe Apex” Abdelfattah as COO.
Sources: ProGuides Closing at the End of May
Sources told TEA this week that esports and video game coaching platform ProGuides will wind down operations at the end of May. Parent company Statespace (who also own Aim Lab) did not respond to requests for comments. READ MORE.
💡 Big Money: Founded in 2015 by Sam Wang and Kristoph Oedman, ProGuides is an esports and game training platform that connects gamers directly with professional players and coaches for one-on-one, on-demand coaching services. Since its launch in 2015, ProGuides raised an estimated $7.4M across three funding rounds.
🔎 Other News From The Esports Advocate 🔎
Infinite Reality to Acquire Drone Racing League
Federal Trade Commission Bans Non Compete Clauses
S8UL to Promote Bullet Echo India
Doppelherz Sponsors JingDong Gaming
Esports World Cup Dates Announced
Zenni Optical Partners With Evo
✈ People on the Move ✈
Adam Rivera joins Complexity Gaming as a advisor for Web3 gaming.
Wei Khim Cheah named the new director of IP development & partnerships at GosuGamers.
Bobby Sophabmixay takes on the role of chief revenue officer at Next Talent League.
James Brown joins BLAST as its new commercial director.
Brett Marks leaves Columbia Records to join Epic Games as its new senior manager of music partnerships.
Tom Brady is promoted to SVP of content & strategy development at Endeavor.
David Fucillo is promoted to senior director of NFL, NBA, & sports betting at SB Nation.
James Law is named PR director of Raptor PR.
Nicola Piggott steps down as CEO of The Story Mob.
Ondrej Silhavy is promoted to sales director of gaming & Web3 at Value of We.
Mohammed Al-Majed is promoted to associate - project management at Qiddiya City project.
🌏 News From Around the World 🌏
OverActive Media in the sights of Coffezilla.
The Esports Advocate Invades Chinese TV.
Esports Illustrated hints at a triumphant return?
Team Falcons partners with Barns Coffee.
Microsoft making layoffs at Bethesda France?
Oddin in multi-year pact with PGL.
OverActive Media partners with Cupra.
DATA.BET provides video to Bayes Esports.
Gamlytics partners with Esportian Education.