Monthly Update July '22

Hi Reader,

July flew by and as we look back on what we achieved it’s fair to say that the main highlight was our League of Legends (LoL) First Team securing a place in the promotion/relegation series for a position in next year’s NLC 1st Division.

Top of the list is our LoL Summer Split Play-Offs which started last night, after starting off well we ended up losing to Rate Gaming 3-2 but it doesn't end there. Here's the upcoming LoL First Team games that are confirmed:

📆 16 August, 5pm GMT+1 - NLC 2nd Div Summer Split Lower Bracket Final (Best of 5)

📆 18 August, 5pm GMT+1 - NLC 2nd Div Summer Split Final (Best of 5)

📆 14 September, time TBC - NLC Promotion/Relegation Series

Full details are available on the NLC site here and we'll be pulling a pack together for nativz.gg to help take people through what is happening.

INDUSTRY

👉🏼 Early stage web3 esports platform FITCHIN raised $3.5m in their seed round from a number of crypto angels with a core focus for the investment on three key areas of (1) esports community hubs, (2) tournaments platform and (3) NFT marketplace, encouraging news!

👉🏼 Great to see a powerful brand like Rakuten stepping into esports by launching their own branded Rakuten Esports Cup, with such a powerful network it will be exciting to see how they leverage their services such as Rakuten TV, Rakuten Ticket and Rakuten NFT among others.

👉🏼 Here’s a good round up of the NLC from our friends over at Esports News UK, Bifrost who boast former Nativz player ‘Cboi’ topped the 1st Division table and Nativz also covered having led the 2nd Division heading into the playoffs.

SUCCESS

🚀 Our LoL First Team finished first place in the NLC 2nd Division Summer Split regular season – qualifying us for the 2nd Division Playoffs and securing our place as top qualifier in September’s NLC 1st Division Promotion & Relegation Series (1st Div bottom two play 2nd Div top two orgs).

🚀 Throughout July, our Valorant Team have shown immense progress. Most notably finishing Top 5 in the Guild Academy Tournament, securing qualification for the 2nd Division Main Circuit. We’re building a pack to help explain how the Valorant ecosystem works.

CHALLENGES

🎮 Rate of community growth is good as a %, we just need a bigger base to grow from – promotion to 1st Division would help (ave Twitch viewership increases from 228 ave viewers in 2nd Div to 2,286 ave views in 1st Div) plus the growing traction of our Valorant First Team.

🎮 We’re now looking to accelerate our integration into the Web3 gaming community and the gaming/esports segment of the NFT community, this coincides with the public launch of our Nativz Key membership – in particular introducing our free annual Citizen Key for the everyday gamer.

🎮 Launching our Academy was really important to us but unfortunately we have to put the project on hold due personnel changes, we’re in contact with the players who have registered and will ensure they remain engaged for when we reboot this in the new year.

NEEDS

👀 We are actively working through a Pre-Seed Round at present and are building our investment pipeline. If you know of anyone that we should be approaching please let me know via [email protected].

👀 Looking for talent in a couple of areas, notably Community Intern and a Video Editing Intern to help scale our content output. Also looking for someone who wants to make a name for themselves in Business Development within Esports, please send any potential candidates my way.

COMING UP

📣 New Nativz range from Umbro are going live in the coming days, looking ahead to a change in the weather!

📣 Nativz Key relaunch preparations with BigFan are nearly complete, we’ll be reaching out to existing Founder Key Holders about sending them their updated NFT in the next week or so.

📣 Esports Insider's Annual Conference in London is on from 5-7 September, we'll have our Advisor Sam Molloy and I there to wave the Nativz flag so, let us know if you'll be there and want to get some time together.

📣 We’re exploring an event for mid-September and are headlining this with BigFan, Epic Global and a few other partners will be supporting us. More information to follow on this one in the coming weeks.

Enjoy the tail end of the summer sun and we’ll be in touch again soon.

Regards,

Kurt & the Nativz Team