TriplePoints of Interest – Week of July 25

Three weeks later, Pokémon GO continues to generate massive headlines! This week we’ve highlighted notable coverage about Pokémon GO’s San Diego Comic-Con takeover, Mark Zuckerberg’s love for Pokémon GO, and an recent report on Pokémon GO app downloads. Also worth a look: Twitter is streaming esports, Dota 2 adds VR spectator mode, and Doom: The Board Game is coming to a tabletop near you.

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TriplePoints of Interest – Week of August 24

The eSports gods have spoken: watching the tournaments on streams is a hit and more! Check out the awesome statistics from the eSports tournaments of the past weekend as well as some interesting insight of how much time Americans REALLY spend on their phones and playing games.

Counter-Strike: Global Phenomenon

The stream numbers are in and VentureBeat reports over 27 million people tuned in to watch the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament at ESL One and noted that while Evo 2015 only received 248,000 peak concurrent viewers, it still saw a 75% increase from last year’s numbers. Writer, Jeff Grubb, notes that this signals a diversification of eSports content seeing brands other than Dota 2 and League of Legends grow at such a high rate.

Pass the blood samples

Two major eSports tournaments wrapped up this weekend: League of Legends North American LCS Summer Finals in New York City and ESL One in Cologne, Germany. PC World takes a look at the first tournament where ESL began testing players for drug use. Writer, John Gaudiosi, discusses the mixed reactions from fans and notes that other organizations like Major League Gaming and Riot Games have yet to implement such procedures.

Conventions got snug and cozy this year

GamesIndustry.biz takes a look at the move of Gamescom to earlier in the month of August, setting it less than 2 months after E3, and causing Nintendo to cancel their press conference and Sony moving their presence to Paris Games Week. While this meant press schedules becoming more compressed, writer, Dan Pearson, notes that this gave an opportunity for Microsoft to garner most of the press attention during Gamescom thanks to maintaining their presence at the show despite tight scheduling.

Smartphone addictions continue!

Yahoo analytics firm, Flurry, released data relating to US smartphone use and how it relates to the time spent gaming. GamesIndustry.biz reports that although time spent on smartphones has risen 35%, the amount of time spent gaming has halved. Writer, Dan Pearson says, “Flurry attributes this shift to three major factors: a lack of new hit games, with the top grossing charts remaining static; the rise of spectator gaming, as gamers spend more time learning by watching streaming services rather than playing; and the unwillingness of players to spend time grinding their way through games, instead paying their way to content via free-to-play mechanisms.”

Photo from ESL

TriplePoints of Interest – Week of June 29

Here is an earlier edition of TriplePoints of Interest as it’s almost time for us to head out on our merry way for the 4th of July long weekend! Anyone here pre-ordered a Steam Machine? Purchased a Compendium in Dota 2 and helped Valve create the biggest prize pool in the history of eSports?

A rare $7 million unicorn

Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank host, Mark Cuban, announced he has invested $7 million in eSports betting platform, Unikrn. According to Inc, Mr. Cuban stated he is attracted to the eSports space as it presents a new category of competition.

Full Steam ahead for Steam Machines

After going up for pre-order on June 4, Valve announced all their hardware has been sold out, according to GamesIndustry International. This suggests the Steam Machines will be popular with gamers come launch on November 10.

A super rare $15 million crowd

The largest prize pool in the history of competitive video games is officially Dota 2: The International’s $15 million purse, according to IGN. The funds were generated mostly by fans purchasing the Compendium, a digital program available within the game client. Valve’s approach in generating funds for eSports prize pools is unique in that it relies mostly on crowdfunding.

In other (crowd)funding news…

After publicly supporting the crowdfunding initiatives for Shenmue 3, Sony announced First Flight, its proprietary internal crowdfunding service where employees may seek funding for new business and product ideas from people both inside and outside the company. According to GamesIndustry International, the first project on First Flight will be Huis, and e-paper based adaptive remote controller.

Photo from Variety

Five Things You Should Know About Playing Professional Dota

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The original “Dota” was a mod created for Warcraft III, and after the games immense success other MOBA style games debuted and stuck to the addictive formula, including League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth. Valve, best known for their online distribution platform and the Half-Life series, acquired the rights to Dota in 2009 which they subsequently used to release Dota 2. In 2011 they hosted The International, a three day Dota 2 tournament held in Cologne Germany with a $1.6 Million Dollar Prize Pool and a grand prize of one million dollars. It was at this moment that eSports (electronic sports) had finally arrived in the eyes of players and fans.ftp_cover.jpg

To celebrate that original tournament, Valve recently debuted the Free to Play, a feature-length documentary that follows three players who competed on different teams in the 2011 tournament. The documentary is definitely worth checking out, as it give a great insights into the trials and tribulations such an event has on one’s like. That being said, here are five things you should know about being a professional Dota player.

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