Zenni Optical, the world’s leading online eyewear retailer, announced a partnership with ESL FACEIT Group (EFG), the leading esports and video game entertainment company. Designed to integrate eye health education with innovative eyewear solutions for the esports community, the partnership will officially launch at DreamHack festival in Dallas, taking place from May 31 to June 2.

This collaboration will showcase a co-branded collection of lifestyle and competitive eyewear and accessories, highlighting Zenni Optical’s commitment to promoting overall eye health, particularly in addressing issues like eye fatigue and strain. Additionally, the initiative will incorporate essential eye health education across various DreamHack Festivals, in alignment with EFG’s broader mission to foster inclusive gaming worlds and engaged, supported communities.

“DreamHack and ESL represent some of the most community-centric and prestigious competitive events in the world. In their own unique ways, they embody esports for everyone. By partnering with these incredible brands across the gaming and esports spaces, we aim to create engaging experiences that combine eye-health education with innovative eyewear solutions for players and fans at all levels,” said Robb Chiarini, Head of Gaming, Sports, & Events at Zenni Optical.

“We are thrilled to partner with Zenni Optical as the Official Eyewear Partner of DreamHack and ESL. The genuine passion that Zenni has for the esports industry is a refreshing sight to see, and a major driving factor for the decision behind our partnership. Zenni’s ongoing commitment to provide eyewear for everyone mirrors our own drive to create worlds beyond gameplay for gamers everywhere,” Craig Levine, Co-CEO at EFG, said.

Bucks Gaming’s Cream City Convergence Esports Tournament has been selected as a Capcom Pro Tour event, becoming one of just three tournaments in North America chosen to be a qualifier for the prestigious Capcom Cup.

The Capcom Cup is an annual Street Fighter 6 competition, hosted by video game developer and esports organizer Capcom, with a $1 million first place prize. Each year, Capcom selects a small number of tournaments worldwide to serve as Capcom Pro Tour events, with the winning players from each event qualifying for the Capcom Cup. As one of the tournaments selected by Capcom for the honor this year, Cream City Convergence will become the first esports event run by an NBA team to work with a major esports organizer.

Top-ranked Street Fighter 6 players will compete at Cream City Convergence when it returns for its second year on Saturday, Aug. 24, at Baird Center. In addition to Street Fighter 6, this year’s tournament will also have brackets for Tekken 8; Super Smash Bros Ultimate; Super Smash Bros Melee; and Guilty Gear: Strive.

Global esports organization Gen.G announced their acquisition of YOUR.GG, a data analysis and networking platform for League of Legends players. This partnership comes as a new method for Gen.G to enhance the Gen.G Global Academy experience for students in the program. Gen.G is the first global esports academy equipped with such advanced analytical tools to help expand their offering to players looking to improve their game to a professional level.

“Over the last few years, we’ve been hard at work pioneering what is now the world’s largest esports academy. With over 10,000 students having gone through our curriculum, we see the clear need to develop better tools that gamers, coaches, and parents need to create the best gamers possible. YOUR.GG’s best-in-class data, technology and analytics combined with millions of hours of our professional and academy student coaching will be able to unlock the next generations of esports tools that can help realize the true potential of every student and pro in our program,” Arnold Hur, CEO of Gen.G, said.

This acquisition underscores the importance of data and analytics in developing and refining esports talent, a core principle at Gen.G. YOUR.GG will power both its pro team players and its academy students with data-driven tools and reports to foster growth and provide better insight into scouting for new talent.

“We plan to pioneer a shift in how talent is developed and measured in esports. By developing a tool that will bring a level of analysis and precision to esports that mirrors the most sophisticated training environments in traditional sports. We want to take a holistic approach to measure not just the data within the game, but how a student responds to coaching and feedback,” Min Chang Cha, Founder of YOUR.GG and current VP of Technology at Gen.G, said.