Amway Center over the weekend hosted the "Call of Duty" World League Championship, and the "crowd numbering several thousand" backed up the excitement for the event, according to Ryan Gillespie of the ORLANDO SENTINEL. Tickets for the event "started at $53.99," and ultimately OpTic Gaming defeated Team EnVyUs for a $600,000 prize (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 8/14). Central Florida Sports Commission President & CEO Jason Siegel said, "The opportunity to host this could bridge the gap to many more opportunities. Esports has become a routine conversation here locally." UCF Interactive Entertainment Academy Exec Dir Ben Noel said that Orlando’s "reputation for tourism has it positioned to serve as a regular site for Major League Gaming" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 8/12). In Orlando, Matthew Richardson noted the event had an "attendance rate of up to 5,000 people a day" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/12).
BECOMING A LEGEND: In Boston, Kevin Dupont in a front-page piece notes sellout crowds of 15,000-plus, with tickets ranging from $35-85, are "expected to pack" TD Garden from Sept. 2-3 for the North American "League of Legends" Championship Series. TD Garden President Amy Latimer said that the two-day event will "vary in a few ways from traditional Garden events." A game typically "takes 40 minutes, but with a large slate of games and breaks, each day will last upward of 10 hours" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/14).
IT WAS A GOOD DAY: ESPN.com's Tyler Erzberger noted Team Liquid on Saturday at KeyArena in Seattle had the "greatest single day -- at least financially -- for an esports organization in the history of competitive gaming." Team Liquid's "Dota 2" team earned $10.8M in prize money after it won The International 7 event in front of a "sold-out crowd and a reported 4.7 million online viewers." Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Team Liquid's "League of Legends" team was in Santa Monica, Calif., looking to "retain its spot" in the North American League Championship Series. The team had a big comeback, "preventing it from having to spend" an extra $3M to apply for a spot next season, as relegation would have cost $13M instead of $10M, per Riot Games' new franchise rules (ESPN.com, 8/13).
