Monthly Update July '23

Hi Reader,

July was good, really really good. Not only did our First Team secure a 1st Division finals position in the first year following promotion (that's a lot of firsts), they've also guaranteed a place in the League of Legends EMEA Masters 🔥 

🚨 The 2023 NLC Summer Split Final is this Saturday at 5pm BST / 6pm CET and we face Nord in a best of five series streamed live on Twitch. We'll also be running a virtual 'watch party' in our discord which you can access here also from 5pm BST / 6pm CET. So if you've not watched a game yet then PLEASE take a peek, it really is impressive! 🚨

The EMEA Masters is the League of Legends equivalent of the Europa League and depending on the Summer Final result we either enter the Group Stage on 21 August or we start earlier in the play-ins (qualifiers) on 14 August - action = save in your dairy!

This past week saw us release our new 2023 Players Shirt thanks to our partners Oxen...it's cool, take a look here (and grab one too!).

As for July, check out the following update on what we got up to along with some industry news that is well worth a read;

INDUSTRY

👉🏼 Feature - we wanted to take a look at the state of betting in esports, we know it's impact on the sporting world and found this interesting. It's bigger than you think. In the Esports Insider betting report for July you'll see that GG.BET entered the UK market, sports and esports betting company Pinnacle announced the 5th edition of it's Pinnacle Cup for CS:GO during July and much more.

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

👉🏼 AI is on the tip of everyone's tongues at the moment and we believe it will have a significant impact on gaming and esports. The BBC even shared their thoughts on the topic here.

👉🏼 Overwatch teams will vote on a proposed $6m termination fee as Activision Blizzard steps the title back from competitive esports.

👉🏼 Our friends at BLAST open up bids for 2024 host locations with a reported €22m economic impact on offer for the chosen host.

SUCCESS

🚀 First Team finished first equal in the standings, then beat Verdant (the other team finishing first equal) in their playoff game to lock in their place in the final on Saturday 5 August AND secured entry into the EMEA Masters...all in the first year after promotion.

🚀 We delivered our first Community Tournament on Sunday 23 July, it went really well. This afternoon long, live streamed event was a pilot focused on the Rocket League Community (stats here). We go again on Sat 23 September, this time with Apex Legends (stats here) - a new title for us.

🚀 Our organic social media growth continues with the following highlights from last mont; breaking through 1,000 followers on 'X', two TikTok videos generated over 200K views each, +10K views of my LinkedIn update about moving into Nativz full-time

CHALLENGES

🎮 We told you about the technical issue which which resulted in us having to play 4v5 against Verdant in the regular rounds and lost. Freaks4U confirmed we could appeal their decision with Riot Games (to deny a replay given the issue wasn't of our making). Having sent the appeal through we were informed by Riot that they do not overturn or overrule decisions the Tournament Organiser make - yes we were as confused as you are. They did give some valuable feedback and took on board some observations of ours.

NEEDS

👀 Repeated from June - 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!

METRICS

The following metrics are for the period of 1 - 31 July 2023:

💯 Social audience on official channels = up 7.2%

💯 Unique web visitors = Down 14.4% on July 2022

💯 Opted in marketing database = 0.4% increase in the month

COMING UP

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

📣 NLC Summer Final (5 August) - 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 (14-17 August) | Group Stage (21-24 August).

📣 GamerFest (21-22 October) - it's back with the Winter edition and tickets are now on sale here so do take a look.

📣 Ireland Industry Thought Leadership Event (26 October) - we're back at Dogpatch Labs with our second edition which will focus on the considerations around a National Strategy for Ireland Esports. More details to follow.

Hopefully we'll see you for tomorrow's final!

Regards,

Kurt & the Nativz Team