Monthly Update June '23

Hi Reader,

In June our focus moved from the success of our first Ireland Collegiate Series to the restart of our 2023 League of Legends campaign in the Northern European Championship (NLC). So far in this split it's been a complete change in fortunes as the team are battling for first place and qualify for the EMEA Masters (will explain below).

On a personal note, up until now I’ve been splitting my time across Nativz and also my role as Co-Founder & CEO for BigFan, our sister company. After 2.5 years with BigFan (recent 11 months as CEO), I have now resigned my position so that I can put my full attention into Nativz and allow the businesses to develop their own respective directions (see post on LinkedIn here). Our partnership with BigFan will also end at this time, we wish them the best of luck.

Here's your update on what we've been up to along with some industry news that is well worth a read;

INDUSTRY

👉🏼 Feature - we want to take a look at the recent news from Florida based Misfits Gaming, a well known name in North American and European esports. They're shifting their direction to an enhanced focus on gaming, media and culture and less on esports. The conundrum of generating revenue in esports isn't new, we bring it up consistently but Misfits are zeroing in on the creator economy. This is one we advocate and are building towards as a potential solution to unlock further revenue.

Here's a few other topical articles to take a look into which focus on the state of play for the esports industry;

👉🏼 Sports vs. Esports? Take a look at this piece from our friends at Esports Insider that dives into this question, there's some really interesting takes from their evaluation

👉🏼 On the topic of sporting performance, the importance of sleep and nutrition for the cognitive performance of esports athletes is highlighted in this research

👉🏼 Talk about jumping in, Man City have partnered with Challengermode as their Official Esports Platform to offer their fans a range of weekly esports tournaments. Its the tool we use for our Ireland Collegiate Series and our extension into community focused tournaments (see upcoming events below 👇🏼)

SUCCESS

🚀 First Team performance has put us into contention for the EMEA Masters, what is this I hear you say! Think of football’s Europa League and you’ve got the right idea, top two teams from each of the European Regional Leagues (ERLs) across Europe in a finals series 🔥

🚀Welcomed in Fergal Murray as our latest Angel Investor, Fergal is synonymous with Ireland’s brewing industry having spent 31 years as Master Brewer for Guinness, he even poured the perfect pint for the Queen back in May 2011! 👑 

🚀 Initiated a research piece across our Collegiate Series, the first time this has been done in Ireland and it’s unlocked some compelling insights which we'll be sharing in a thought leadership piece soon. We also held our first Student Rep Collegiate Series Mini-Conference virtually, certainly something to build on 🚀

CHALLENGES

🎮 On 28 June we faced Verdant in a top of the table NLC clash, unfortunately there was a technical issue which was out of our control. We were forced to play 4v5 and lost, certainly wasn't a level playing field. Despite putting what we felt was a good case to get the game replayed, much to our dismay some at Freaks4U (Tournament operator) disagreed. We're appealing directly to Riot Games....much more to follow.

NEEDS

👀 Sponsorship introductions! These deals take time whether its in sport or esports. We're simply after help from our growing community to get some warm intros to people in positions of influence in UK & Irish brands - you can be sure it's not about setting up a sales call!

👀 Also looking for intros to anyone you might know working at any level in the tech industry here in Dublin, those that are gamers/interested in esports, please drop me an email if you can help [email protected]

METRICS

The following metrics are for the period of 1 - 30 June 2023:

💯 Social audience on official channels = 18% continued growth (TikTok now activated)

💯 Unique web visitors = Up 3.5% on June 2022

💯 Opted in marketing database = 3.7% increase in the month

COMING UP

Take a look at what we've got coming up over the next month:

📣 Rocket League Community Tournament (July) - our first Community Tournament campaign is live and we're pushing for 32 teams from anywhere in the world to register for the event on 23 July. Full info here.

📣 NLC Play-Offs (July) - our ambitions have us challenging for the Summer Split play-offs so chalk this one down in your diary. Don't forget to check out the schedule of games leading up to then which you can find here.

📣 EMEA Masters (August) - this is the Europa League equivalent for League of Legends! If we win the league we go to groups instantly, if not then we go through what is called the "playins", a qualifying round in football terms. Key dates for the diary - Playins (August 14-17) | Group Stage (August 21-24)

Enjoy the Summer!

Regards,

Kurt & the Nativz Team