Mentioned in this article
The past month has seen two key themes in Australia and New Zealand esports news: teams finding new partners to expand and grow their efforts and brand profiles, and tournaments and tournament organizers announcing their own new expansions and partnerships to grow their side of the ANZ scene.
Blank Esports Partners with NZ Warriors Rugby League, Becomes Warriors Esports
Blank Esports, a New Zealand-based Overwatch Contenders team, has formed a new partnership with a New Zealand rugby league club, the Vodafone Warriors. The partnership will see Blank Esports renamed Warriors Esports, while continuing in Overwatch Contenders Australia competition.
Blank Esports was one of the earliest Australian teams committed to Overwatch, having competed in Taiwan for two years in the Overwatch Pacific Championship. The team was selected as a whole unit in Australia’s first Overwatch World Cup campaign and made it through to the 2017 BlizzCon finals. Former players have moved into the top-tier Overwatch League in both player and coaching staff roles.
“We know that many of our current fans are esports fanatics, as are many of our players, and we also hope to engage a different audience by having a presence through this exciting new partnership,” said Cameron George, Vodafone Warriors CEO, in a press statement.
The Warriors are the first rugby league team to form a significant partnership with an esports organization.
Credit: Warriors Esports
ORDER Partners with Monash University to Field Academy OCS Team
ORDER, an Australian esports organization operating teams across League of Legends 
, Overwatch , Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , and Street Fighter V , announced a partnership with Monash University to create an ORDER Academy team for League of Legends.
The junior team will participate in the League of Legends Oceanic Championship Series (OCS), the competitive tier below the local region’s top tier Oceanic Pro League (OPL). The ORDER Academy team will also compete in the Oceanic University Championship.
“We’ve been excited to discuss esports with the different faculties at Monash and look forward to growing the partnership across ORDER’s other teams,” said Chris Derrick, CEO of ORDER, in a press statement.
Mogul.gg Partners with Alliance, Secures New Funding
Online tournament platform Mogul.gg has formed a new partnership with Swedish esports organization Alliance. The partnership will see membership driven opportunities for fans to participate in such as online events hosted by Alliance through the Mogul platform.
Credit: Alliance
Mogul is an Australian-based company that focused on developing its platform through the South East Asia region in past years before bringing its attention to Australia and other Western markets this year.
Other recent partnerships with esports teams include Australia’s Legacy Esports, which has hosted events where members of Legacy’s professional Fortnite: Battle Royale team have played with fans.
Mogul.gg is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), and recently announced it had raised $3.1M AUD ($2.125M USD) through a new stock release. According to company statements, the additional funds are intended to help with ongoing efforts to reach new international markets with the tournament platform.
Ubisoft’s Australian Six Masters 2019 Gets Its Biggest Prize Pool Yet
Ubisoft Australia has announced that this year’s Six Masters 2019 event to be held in Melbourne will feature a $50K AUD ($34K) prize pool.
Credit: Ubisoft
The Rainbow Six Siege tournament has already conducted online open qualifiers, giving a wide range of teams the chance to compete against top-seeded talent from the ANZ region, including Australia’s Fnatic . The final eight teams will compete in the LAN event to be held at the Melbourne Esports Open at the end of August.
The first prize will be $20K AUD ($13.7K), second will receive $10K AUD ($6.8K), and each semi-finalist will receive $4K AUD ($2.7K), with smaller cash prizes awarded down through all twelve teams competing in the online finals phase of the competition.
