The Final Week of the Esports World Cup

This and other interesting tidbits in esports and gaming for the week ending Aug. 17, 2024.

Aug 19, 2024

While the gaming industry gathers at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, this week, I head to a medical professional. Today’s the day that I finally go to the doctor to figure out why my voice has been absolute trash since January. Will the prayers of my enemies be answered? Is it cancer or long-COVID? Will I ever be able to sing in the choir again?

These and other burning questions will probably not be answered today as I fill out five pages of paper work and likely get referred to a specialist as the American healthcare system I have paid into for more than two decades shows how inefficient and broken it really is to start out the week. Wish me luck, and if you’re betting against me, good luck with that too—I'm a survivor and will spit in adversity's face once again. - James Fudge.

Top Story: 2024 Esports World Cup’s Final Week

This week marks the eighth and final week of the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, though home team Team Falcons has already been determined to be the overall winner of the Esports World Cup Club Championship (taking home $7M USD of the $60M prize pool), with North American Esports organization coming in at a distant second place.

The week will end with the Esports Awards, the New Global Sports Conference, and an over-the-top closing ceremony to crown Team Falcons the overall champions. We suspect that the Esports World Cup Foundation will release overall viewership numbers for the entirety of the event, as well as social media impressions, and other interesting stats. We also expect to hear some news out of its two-day industry conference about its plans for the Esports Olympic Games in 2025, as well as more details on the Qiddiya Club Program (an incentive program to get gaming and esports companies to move to the city project when construction is completed),

Overall, organizers are probably pretty satisfied with the results, and the lack of resistance to the event, despite its intimate ties to the Saudi government, and the claims that it is using sports and esports as a cover (“sports washing”) for its conflict with neighbor Yemen, its human rights violations, and its mistreatment of women and the LGBTQ+ community.

The country’s de facto ruler, HRH Crown Prince MBS, is non-pulsed by the label, noting in a 2023 interview with Fox News: “If sportswashing (is) going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we'll continue doing sportswashing.”

Speaking of HRH Crown Prince MBS, the BBC will air a documentary about the ruler on Monday evening—you can learn more about that here.

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🚌 People on the Move 🚌

Steen Laursen leaves Astralis.
Caroline Flesch joins BlueBottle GmbH as senior business developer.
Lennart Trapp takes on the role of project manager at eSport Innovation Hub.
Edward Hillman named junior strategic planner at G2 Esports.
Krafton names Jin Oh as its new chief global publishing officer.
Erin Serletic appointed head of growth, gaming & entertainment at We Are Royale.
NCSOFT appoints Jeonghee Jin as the new CEO of NC America.
Supercell appoints Gerard Griffin as its new chief financial officer.
Ivan Zuiev takes on the role of growth partner at effie>.
Tiffany Spatafore joins Infinite Reality as VP of brand and entertainment marketing.
Irené Waldman joins Infinite Reality as VP of product marketing.
Nima Zeighami joins Infinite Reality as VP of product.
Kent Malwitz joins the advisory board of Gold Star Gamers.
Evan Dornbush joins the advisory board of Gold Star Gamers.
John R. joins the Ampverse Group advisory board.
Marcus John joins the Ampverse Group advisory board.
Rohit Sharma joins the Ampverse Group advisory board.
Oliver Woodley joins the Ampverse Group advisory board.
Chirag Shah joins the Ampverse Group advisory board.
Gita Ramakrishnan joins the Ampverse Group advisory board.