The Esports Advocate has learned that global sports apparel company Nike will no longer be the official apparel partner of the League of Legends Pro League—Tencent and Riot Games’ (under the auspices of the co-owned tournament operator TJ Sports ) official league for League of Legends esports in China—and will be replaced by Li-Ning, China’s biggest sports apparel makers in the region. Li-Ning also owns an LPL team called LNG. The story was first reported by China-based esports journalist Hongyu...

Microsoft will have its first day in federal court to fight against the Federal Trade Commission’s opposition to its proposed $69B USD acquisition of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard.  A federal judge has given Microsoft and the FTC a Jan. 3, court date to hear pre-trial motions and arguments to decide if the case will go forward, according to a Reuters report. The FTC officially opposed the transaction on Dec. 8, claiming in a lawsuit...

Comcast Spectacor announced Friday that Philadelphia Fusion—the Overwatch League team it co-owns with South Korean esports organization T1—will be rebranded and officially relocate to Seoul, South Korea, where the team has been operating for the past two years following a relocation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team will now be called “Seoul Infernal” and will be more closely aligned with T1’s League of Legends Championship Korea (LCK) team, sharing facilities and resources. Comcast Spectacor emphasized in its announcement that the...

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced Tuesday that a “supermajority of workers” at Boston-based Activision Blizzard studio Proletariat have agreed to form a union and have filed the necessary paperwork for a representation election with the National Labor Relations Board. Should a vote to form a union be successful, the studio’s workers will be represented through the Proletariat Workers Alliance/CWA. Like other studios in the Activision Blizzard ecosystem, Proletariat workers have aligned with the CWA. Activision Blizzard has not...

Chile’s Fiscalia Nacional Economica (FNE), the regulatory agency that oversees mergers and acquisitions in the country, has approved Microsoft’s proposed $69B USD acquisition of Activision Blizzard.  In its ruling (found here and first reported by VGChartz), the agency determined that the acquisition would not reduce competition in a substantial way to warrant opposition to the deal. The approval was first revealed by Activision Blizzard EVP of Corporate Affairs and CCO Lulu Cheng Meservey, who wrote on social media: “Chile’s competition authority,...

Chinese regulators have granted publishing licenses for 44 imported games in a move that shows the government is easing up on its crackdown of titles coming into the country. The approval from The National Press and Publication Administration—as first reported by Reuters—signals that the government has backed away from its rigid policy that saw a halt in game approvals in the region over the last 18 months. This is a major milestone for Tencent and its wholly-owned subsidiary Riot Games...

The Indian government took an important step in recognizing the esports industry on Tuesday.  The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports announced that it has included esports under the category of “multisports events,” while the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has added a section related to “matters relating to online gaming.” The Department of Publication from the Directorate of Printing publicly announced that these changes have been added as the 370th Amendment of the "Allocation of Business Rules...

The Esports Advocate has learned that a number of employees were laid off last week at Washington-based esports organization Evil Geniuses. A majority of the layoffs are related to employees on the content creation side of the business and its marketing department, according to multiple posts on social media from affected employees (who we have decided not to name in this article to protect their privacy). While we can not confirm how many employees have been affected by this recent round...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Monday that Epic Games has agreed to pay $520M USD to settle two civil complaints filed by the agency that claimed it violated online privacy protection laws related to children and encouraged or tricked players into making purchases in its ultra-popular game Fortnite. The settlement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. One of those claims filed in court alleged that Epic violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) when it collected the...

Joseph Ziegler has left Riot Games to take on the role of game director at Sony Interactive Entertainment-owned game development studio Bungie. Ziegler announced on Dec. 7 that he was leaving Riot after more than 12 years to pursue new opportunities but didn’t indicate where he was headed next at the time. It is unclear what Ziegler’s focus will be at Bungie, but chances are it's related to the company’s biggest IP: Destiny.  Ziegler spent more than 12 years working on Riot’s biggest IPs, but...