eSports

Amateur esports events will soon overtake professional tournaments by budgets

Published

4 years ago

July 16, 2021

George Miller

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Gamers have crashed a new gaming quest website: esports events are growing in popularity

Professional esports tournaments will soon begin to lose ground to amateur tournaments on budgets. The latter have more and more participants, and this attracts sponsors.

For example, the prize pool of the second season of Polish Esport Cup Summer 2021 is approximately $3,000; LPL Pro League Season 8 has $7,500. At the same time, EXTREMUM Digital Pass event has collected a prize pool of $20,000 and the number of participants is quite large – 50,000. The project has already been running for two months.

This is more than a tournament. There was created a large interactive quest for gamers of all categories. Not necessarily for professionals, and age is not so important.

For successfully completing virtual quests, players earn points that can be spent on real prizes in the DP store. The grand prize is a customizable gaming PC. Now the second season of the project is in full swing. It started on June 1 and will finish on July 25 (the first season was in 2020).

For the first time EXTREMUM brand held a similar quest back in 2019. But it was designed for a small number of users and lasted only 5 days. The event was timed to coincide with the announcement of the Dota 2 lineup, and despite the smaller scale, the project attracted the attention of users. Then the organizers realized that the community was eager for such activities – the gaming audience is mature enough to go beyond the usual formats.

That is why they switched to a wider format. In the first season, it paid off: the audience was 10,000. For such a scale, the developers had to write a huge system from scratch, as there were no similar IT solutions for organizing virtual events. After that, they fixed bugs and eliminated errors, listened to the audience, improved the general approach to the quest, etc.

This season EXTREMUM has not only increased its audience to 50,000 people but also went far beyond the CIS region and now 52% of the audience are English-speaking users. During this season users have already activated more than 1,000,000 game codes in the system.

And now it’s not just personal competition. In addition to individual tasks there are clan tasks. Participants join in groups, compete with each other (including in Dota 2 and CS:GO), socialize and make new friends. The number of some clans reaches 150 people.

The organizers didn’t expect the quest to cause such a stir. On average, a drop of 100 prizes is sold out in 5 seconds. During one of the drops the site went down: it couldn’t cope with the huge number of active users. The devs had to urgently expand the technical features of the website. This experience will be taken into account in the future.

Brands began to invest more actively in cyber events. Even at the start of the project, partnership requests kept coming in. Brands began to come to the understanding that the esports audience is now a serious community with broad interests and opportunities.

The final drop of the event will take place on July 25, which means that even new users have the opportunity to earn enough points to claim the grand prize. This point and drop mechanic is designed so that people can join the event at any time. To do this, you need to register on https://pass.extremum.gg/ and start completing tasks in your personal account area.

Berlin Gaming Industry

Tom Achsel Joins FACTORY-C to Spearhead “Home of Indies” Communications

Published

3 days ago

January 7, 2026

Wladimir P.

tom-achsel-joins-factory-c-to-spearhead-“home-of-indies”-communications

FACTORY-C, the Berlin-based communications powerhouse specializing in gaming and esports, has announced the appointment of Tom Achsel as Event Communications Manager. Achsel will join the “Home of Indies” team alongside project initiator Christiane Gehrke, focusing on the platform’s global expansion and upcoming presence at Gamescom 2026.

With over a decade of experience in the tech and gaming sectors, Achsel brings a massive professional network and deep operational expertise to the agency.

A Veteran of the Berlin Gaming Scene

Tom Achsel is a well-known figure in the German development community. His career highlights include:

Games Academy: Served as Head of Marketing & Events at one of Europe’s oldest game development institutions.
Games Ground Berlin: Co-founded and led communications for the Berlin Gaming Festival, curating impactful B2B programs and speaker lineups.
IGDA Berlin: Serves as Vice-Chairman, strengthening ties between local developers and the global gaming ecosystem.

Christiane Gehrke, Senior Event Communication & Sales Manager at Factory-C

“Tom knows the indie scene from multiple perspectives and has a sharp understanding of the needs of indie developers,” said Christiane Gehrke, Senior Event Communication & Sales Manager at FACTORY-C. “He brings everything needed to support the continued development of Home of Indies.”

Scaling the “Home of Indies” Platform

Since its debut in 2022, Home of Indies has grown into a central pillar of the Gamescom Indie Area. The platform provides a shared booth for independent developers, lowering the barrier to entry for international studios.

2025 Growth: The booth expanded to 440 square meters, featuring over 50 games from a dozen countries.
New Features: The project recently added a dedicated Spotlight Stage, streaming booths, and professional networking areas via MeetToMatch.

As Event Communications Manager, Achsel will lead the outreach strategy for Gamescom 2026, ensuring that the creative diversity of the global indie scene receives maximum visibility among press, influencers, and players.

The post Tom Achsel Joins FACTORY-C to Spearhead “Home of Indies” Communications appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

BlueBottle

BlueBottle Launches “League Broadcast” SaaS for Streamlined Esports Production

Published

3 days ago

January 7, 2026

Wladimir P.

bluebottle-launches-“league-broadcast”-saas-for-streamlined-esports-production

BlueBottle, the Munich-based esports technology innovator, has officially launched League Broadcast, its professional-grade production software, via a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription model.

Announced on January 7, 2026, this B2C release moves the platform from selective partner deployments and its long-standing beta phase into a publicly accessible tool for leagues, tournament organizers, and individual content creators worldwide.

Professional Broadcast Tools for All Tiers

League Broadcast is designed to automate and elevate the visual storytelling of competitive gaming, specifically targeting the League of Legends ecosystem. The software bypasses traditional API limitations by using low-level game data collection to provide real-time, high-fidelity visualizations.

At launch, BlueBottle has introduced a tiered pricing structure to suit different operational scales:

Tier	Status	Key Features	Target Audience
Free	Available	Core overlays, essential team/player data, basic game stats.	Grassroots creators & amateur streamers.
Basic	Available	Commercial usage rights, customizable pre-game elements, professional draft tools.	Semi-pro leagues & small event organizers.
Pro	Coming Soon	Advanced analytics, event-driven automation, premium production tools.	Professional leagues & high-scale live operations.

Supported by Creative Europe Media

The transition to a scalable SaaS model was significantly bolstered by funding from Creative Europe Media, the European Union’s flagship program for the audiovisual and creative sectors. This backing allowed BlueBottle to invest in:

Enhanced Stability: Hardening the software for 24/7 live environments.
Improved Infrastructure: Faster development cycles and dedicated customer support.
Accessibility: Lowering the barrier for European creators to produce “broadcast-quality” content that competes with high-budget international productions.

“This launch represents more than a new pricing model — it’s the moment League Broadcast becomes accessible to the wider esports community,” said Lars Eble, CTO at BlueBottle. “We were able to invest in long-term product quality… ensuring that our B2C customers receive the same level of reliability previously reserved for large partners.”

Strengthening the European Esports Ecosystem

By providing affordable, automated tools for real-time data visualization—such as dynamic gold graphs, inhibitor timers, and 3D in-world branding—BlueBottle is positioning itself as a core infrastructure provider for the digital media age. The platform allows smaller organizations to monetize their formats more effectively through professional-looking sponsor placements and deeper viewer engagement.

The post BlueBottle Launches “League Broadcast” SaaS for Streamlined Esports Production appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Akshat Rathee

Indian Esports 2026: Strategic Growth and the Asian Games Milestone

Published

5 days ago

January 6, 2026

Wladimir P.

indian-esports-2026:-strategic-growth-and-the-asian-games-milestone

The Indian esports landscape is transitioning from a period of rapid “spectacle” growth to a phase defined by lasting institutional structure. Following the implementation of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA), 2026 is set to be the year where regulatory clarity, international competition, and domestic grassroots development converge.

The Impact of PROGA: Policy into Practice

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act (PROGA), signed into law in August 2025, has officially moved from policy to practice. Its primary contribution to 2026 is the explicit separation of esports from money-based gaming.

Legitimacy: By categorizing esports as a legitimate competitive pursuit, PROGA has unlocked state-level adoption and cleared the way for schools and colleges to integrate gaming into their sports frameworks.
Commercial Confidence: With a clear regulatory environment, brands in sectors like FMCG, automotive, and BFSI are now viewing esports as a stable, long-term youth engagement platform rather than a risky experiment.
Athlete Pathways: PROGA facilitates the creation of standardized national registries for athletes, ensuring that competitive integrity is maintained across grassroots and professional tiers.

The Asian Games 2026: A Global Stage

The Asian Games 2026 in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, serves as the most critical milestone for the ecosystem this year.

Medal Status: Esports will feature as a full medal event with 11 confirmed titles, including League of Legends, PUBG Mobile (Asian Games Version), and Pokémon UNITE.
Indian Prospects: India’s best historical result (quarter-finals in League of Legends at Hangzhou) has set a high bar. For 2026, the focus has shifted toward high-performance training camps and long-term athlete mentorship to secure a podium finish.
Multi-Sport Integration: Participation alongside traditional athletes reinforces the narrative that esports is a viable professional career, further encouraging government investment through schemes like Khelo India.

Market Evolution and Key Trends

The Indian gaming market is projected to reach approximately $5.02 billion in 2026, driven by a massive player base exceeding 500 million gamers.

Trend	Impact in 2026
Mobile Dominance	Over 95% of the market remains mobile-first, fueled by 5G expansion and affordable hardware.
Beyond BGMI	2026 is seeing a push to diversify the market into fighting games, sports simulations, and PC titles to avoid “one-title dependency.”
Monetization Shift	Revenue is shifting from pure advertising toward battle passes, subscription models, and in-game progression.
Tier II & III Growth	Most new user acquisition is coming from smaller cities, demanding more vernacular and localized content.