Misfits Gaming Group’s Call of Duty League (CDL) team the Florida Mutineers has been rebranded as the Miami Heretics as part of a deal with Spanish esports organization Team Heretics.  Financial terms of this deal were not disclosed, but the "transaction to rebrand the Florida Mutineers to the Miami Heretics," also sees Heretics become an equity partner in the franchise, according to a release. Heretics will handle content and marketing for the team, while Misfits will continue to run the...

Riot Games announced Thursday that this year's Valorant Champions skin bundle has managed to generate $40M USD since its launch on Aug. 4, with four more days left until it is no longer available to the public.  The in-game bundle is a way for Riot to give back to the 16 partnered organizations in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT), with approximately 50%, or $20M, being split evenly amongst teams. That equates to roughly $1.25M in revenue (as of this writing)...

ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) announced Thursday that its Dota 2 competition series, DreamLeague, will make a return for its 21st season. Celebrating its tenth year, DreamLeague Season 21 will feature 12 of the world’s top Dota 2 teams competing for a piece of a $1M USD prize pool from Sept. 18-24. DreamLeague Season 21 is part of the ESL Pro Tour (EPT) for Dota 2 and combines all of EFG’s Dota 2 tournaments. Intel remains the title sponsor this year....

The Esports Advocate has learned that Victor Davila was arrested in Logan City, Utah, on Aug. 18 (Friday), for allegedly soliciting an undercover police officer posing as an 13-year-old girl for sex.  Davila, who is currently serving as a sales manager under contract with gaming-focused group Tampa Never Sleeps, was let go from MSI last month, and is well-known in the collegiate esports, event production, and influencer spaces, as well as the fighting game community in the United States. Logan...

South Africa-based video game publisher Carry1st and Riot Games announced this week that they have partnered and will soon be launching local Valorant servers in the region.  Financial terms and the duration of this new partnership were not disclosed. Carry1st said in a release that the new servers will go live on Aug. 31, and as part of the deal the company will run campaigns in cities throughout the region to promote the game and the new servers.  In addition,...

Online sports and esports betting provider Pinnacle announced Wednesday that it has partnered with Shikenso Analytics to analyze the effectiveness of sponsorships and partnerships during live streams during its upcoming tournament series, the Pinnacle Cup. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Pinnacle's upcoming competition, Pinnacle Cup V, features Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Through this new partnership, Pinnacle gains access to Shikenso's partnership performance measurement tools to monitor brand presence across multiple streaming channels as well as...

HP-owned gaming accessories brand HyperX announced the launch of the “HyperX x Valorant Champions Tour Spark Limited Edition Keycap. The new “tournament-exclusive” keycap created in collaboration with Riot Games, features a gold color, and showcases the VCT Spark logo, tournament year, and features the tagline “One More.”   The HyperX x Valorant Champions Tour Spark Limited Edition Keycap will be available in the U.S. through HyperX.com on Aug. 22 starting at 12:00 p.m. PST until Aug. 26 at 11:59 p.m. PST. ...

Publicly-traded, Canada-based esports betting company Rivalry(TSXV: RVLY, OTCQX: RVLC, FSE: 9VK) announced Wednesday that it is launching what it calls “an industry-first same-game parlay product for esports called “Same Game Combos.”  The new product will be available on Rivalry platforms, and supports top League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), and Dota 2 esports matches, with plans to offer support for other titles in the future such as Valorant.  The new esports same-game parlay product will allow users to “combine...

A new regionally-focused game company called Midwest Games officially launched on Tuesday and one of its co-founders is former XSET co-owner and Chief Experience Officer Rob Martin III. The new studio headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is co-founded by Martin and industry veteran and former Netflix senior management Ben Kvalo.  Martin left esports organization XSET in January, citing personal and family issues. During his time at XSET, Martin brought his expertise from running Beverly Hills-based talent and marketing agency Astoic...

UK government regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced Tuesday that it has set a new deadline of Oct. 18 for decision on what it calls a “phase 1” investigation of a new proposal by Microsoft to finalize its proposed $69B USd acquisition of Activision Blizzard. When the CMA made a decision to block the acquisition earlier this year, it focused on  the impact of cloud streaming/gaming as the core reason, but a new proposal from Microsoft would see...