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eSports

Prodigy Agency strengthens its North American team and support to players with new hires

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Prodigy Agency strengthens its North American team and support to players with new hires

 

Prodigy Agency, a leading esports representation agency, has announced a series of new hires in North America to lead and expand its initiative to support the players from all angles in the region.

Prodigy Agency, founded and directed by Jérôme Coupez, represent more than 100 players around the world , including some of the biggest stars in esports like Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski on CS:GO, Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom and Tyson “TenZ” Ngo on Valorant, Alexandre “Kaydop” Courant on Rocket League, or Kacper “Inspired” Słoma and Paul “sOAZ” Boyer on League of Legends (LoL).
Already representing nearly 20 world-class players in North America (TenZ, EliGE, SicK, Palafox, nitr0, steel and more), Prodigy Agency is developing its local team to continue to expand and always provide top-notch services and support to its players with the main goal to welcome new stars but also to focus on nurturing and providing full support to young and upcoming talents in the region.

Angela “woori” Yang and Taylor “Tailored” Broomall have joined the agency as Prodigy Agency’s new North-America FPS Coordinator and Agent, and LoL Coordinator and Agent respectively. Moreover, Amir Fallah has been hired as its North-America Sales & Partnerships Officer.

Prior to joining Prodigy Agency, Amir Fallah served as a Commercial Strategist for Infront Group’s digital arm, Infront X, where he supported the procurement of major sports contracts and collaborated on a number of accounts for strategic advisory including Activision Blizzard and Chelsea FC.

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He will be leading the charge of commercialization and monetization for the roster of players in North America, through ambassadorships, sponsorships, licensing and more.
Taylor Broomall has worked as a coach for some of the best teams and organizations in NA, including Splyce or EnVy on CS :GO or TSM on Valorant, while Angela Yang has been working with collegiate and LCS teams on content and social media, having a close relationship with players for years.

Both of them will take over the local initiatives and support to players, by coordinating with all the services from Prodigy Agency.

“Our main goal with Prodigy Agency is to always provide the best support and protection to all our players and I’m really excited to build a world-class team to develop our North American presence.
Angela, Taylor and Amir perfectly fit our strong values and mindset and will help us constantly raising the bar of players’ representation.

I’m proud to officially welcome them to the Prodigy family, and to already see some amazing results since they joined.
We are aiming to keep expanding our NA team and to open offices in 2022 in order to always be more efficient for our players and the industry, and to be able to provide a 24/7 support via our offices around the world.

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Jérôme Coupez, Founder & CEO – Prodigy Agency


“I’m honored and excited to join Prodigy Agency. This team understands the needs of players because we are passionate gamers ourselves. That passion is echoed in the mission statement of #PlayersFirst, where our values are strengthened by ensuring the business success of the players we represent. I’m confident that my ranged experience in sports will support that mission even further by developing long lasting strategic partnerships to nurture the growth of our athletes and agency. ”

Amir Fallah, North-America Sales & Partnerships Manager – Prodigy Agency

“As someone who has always worked closely with LCS and Academy players, Prodigy’s motto of “Players first” really resonated with me. I’ve seen my fair share of tragic esports situations and while I’ve always done my best to help players out where I can, joining Prodigy gives me the ability to make a bigger impact. Prodigy is an agency that I can proudly represent – the work ethic and amount of effort and care that goes towards players is unparalleled. I know that players will be taken care of and they can focus on competing at the highest level while we’ve got them covered everywhere else.”

Angela Yang, North-America LoL Coordinator & Agent – Prodigy Agency

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“I feel honored to be joining Prodigy Agency. It was clear from my first meeting with Jerome that the Agency defines themselves by the wellbeing and support they provide their players. My primary goal as FPS Coordinator for North America is to help manage Prodigy’s expansion in the region, specifically in Valorant and CS:GO. I will be principally focused on improving regulations and standards in the region with regards to contract security, employee benefits, mental health practices, etc.
Above all, I want the #PlayersFirst mindset to flourish as our industry grows. Since the outset of my journey in esports helping protect and develop players has been my underlying objective. Jerome and Prodigy are giving me access to invaluable resources that will allow me to work with a wide breadth of talent. ”

Taylor Broomall, North-America FPS Coordinator & Agent – Prodigy Agency

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eSports

Community Gaming Joins Forces with Moonton as Official Esports Partner for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

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Community Gaming Joins Forces with Moonton as Official Esports Partner for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

 

Community Gaming (CG), the leading esports platform for automated tournament payouts and sponsor of the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s professional league for the Latin America Region, MPL LATAM, now supports developing esports communities in Latin America in collaboration with Moonton.

This partnership is a significant boost to CG’s existing advantages associated with its grant program, a partner-backed initiative to provide organizers with economic resources based on the performance and growth of their local gaming communities. Tournament organizers can apply to receive platform support, prizes, in-game currency, items, and tournament professional assistance including “Tournament Mode,” a special setting on Mobile Legends: Bang Bang that grants organizers enhanced features, such as unlocking all available skins in the game for players to fully enjoy a complete and unique MLBB pro tournament experience.

Wei Xu, regional esports operation manager at Moonton, said: “We are excited to announce the partnership with Community Gaming. Community Gaming is the most accepted esports platform in our community in Latin America. We hope this partnership brings new experiences to the players.”

As MPL comes to its end this year, CG will also be collaborating with MLBB professional teams for a flash $4000 prize tournament set to enhance the visibility of the company’s services. This event marks a pivotal moment set to highlight CG’s preparedness to impact the professional MLBB scene.

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Community Gaming and Moonton are no strangers to mutual cooperation. In the past both companies have partnered to develop the Dawn of Heroes Series, a set of events in 2021 and 2022 that offered qualifying slots to MLBB’s Signature Competition, Liga LATAM. The companies have also worked together on Peru’s University Tournament INTERU 2023 and currently Community Gaming hosts significant activity of MLBB Tournaments from over 12 countries on a monthly basis.

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eSports

Esports player age verification should be simple

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Esports player age verification should be simple

 

Despite the continuing professionalisation of esports, misconceptions about player age persist – particularly of underage pros playing in professional esports.

Back in 2021, the PandaScore whitepaper dug into the data around player age in professional esports and found that the average age of a pro player was just under 24 years old. By comparison, the same report noted that the average age for a men’s professional footballer was about 26 years old.

While there is no great gulf in player ages between esports and traditional sports, there’s more apprehension around this topic once there’s a keyboard or controller involved. There are good reasons behind this focus, but the truth is that a simple and straightforward product makes player age verification easy.

The reason behind the focus on player age

Compliance with player age requirements has been a particular concern as legalised sports and esports betting rolls out across the US. These are completely reasonable concerns, partly because of the state-by-state nature of American regulation, but also due to past compliance issues in the likes of ITF tennis.

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Age compliance isn’t a challenge unique to esports. It does have younger players in the same way tennis does, so it’s a space that operators consider a potential risk area based on precedent. While it’s understandable to be vigilant about ensuring age compliance across your whole book, the reality in esports is it’s just like any other sport.

However, with this greater attention, it’s crucial for esports suppliers to have a simple, high-quality solution that is flexible for any jurisdiction – and not just treat it as a spreadsheet-based, tack-on service.

Importance in the US

It’s abundantly clear that if you want to ensure compliance in the US space, player age verification isn’t a nice to have, it’s an integral part of your product. Across each jurisdiction player age verification can vary – something we’ve seen in Europe as well such as Sweden’s rule that a match must have 60% of players over the age of 18 for an operator to offer match bets.

In sports, it’s fairly straightforward to implement but has been an oversight from sports data providers in the past. It’s quite easy to provide, it just requires collecting data from multiple, reputable sources outside of the match itself.

PandaScore has been collecting player age verification data since it was founded in 2017 to ensure compliance no matter the regulation, no matter the jurisdiction.

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Embedding player age verification in your product

Ensuring age compliance was a founding principle for our product suite – we included it as a key datapoint in our API, which is the bedrock of our broader offering. Suppliers should have this embedded in their products, rather than an additional service.

PandaScore believes that offering player age verification as part of an API and integrated into your service means you can be more confident in your compliance not just for individual esports titles, but from match to match.

For us it’s simple: one of PandaScore’s founding principles is to not rely on only one single data source, but leverage multiple quality data sources that we can trust. We have a longstanding and highly developed process that guarantees a level of accuracy for player age verification that’s in line with regulation and gives operators the confidence that they’re compliant. Our practice of using multiple data sources means that double and triple-checking information to ensure player age compliance is in our nature.

With player age verification built into an API, operators can leverage the data to match the compliance needs of any given jurisdiction. This can be done by integrating player age data via the API, it can be included in their feed via our odds product with the flexibility to add exclusions where necessary, or if an operators wants it in a simper form, it can be done via request.

Player age verification might seem like a simple item, but is a compliance matter that’s essential to operating in a proper fashion. Noting the concerns and greater focus on player ages in esports, it’s something that’s important to get right: player age verification should be entrenched in esports products themselves to give operators the flexibility and simplicity that they need.

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Author: Oliver Niner, Head of Sales at PandaScore.

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eSports

CS2 Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 SuperComputer: NaVi to bounce back after Blast Fall Final loss

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Final: Natus Vincere (36.5%) to beat Team Vitality (28.1%)

Semifinal 1: Natus Vincere (52.6%) to beat MOUZ (16.3%)

Semifinal 2: Team Vitality (47.7%) to beat G2 Esports (18.7%)

Quarterfinal 1: G2 Esports (39.8%) to beat FaZe Clan (32.8%)

Quarterfinal 2: MOUZ (35.9%) to beat Eternal Fire (24.7%)

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Group stage

  1. Natus Vincere – 48.7% to finish 1st; 17.0% to finish 2nd; 84.1% to make playoffs

  2. Team Vitality – 40.8% to finish 1st; 17.4% to finish 2nd; 77.7% to make playoffs

  3. G2 Esports – 19.3% to finish 1st; 20.4% to finish 2nd; 56.7% to make playoffs

  4. MOUZ – 14.5% to finish 1st; 21.8% to finish 2nd; 53.0% to make playoffs

  5. FaZe Clan – 13.9% to finish 1st; 21.0% to finish 2nd; 50.2% to make playoffs

  6. Eternal Flame – 40.7% to finish 1st; 16.2% to finish 2nd; 40.7% to make playoffs

  7. Liquid – 16.3% to finish 7-8th; 35.7% to make playoffs

  8. Virtus.pro – 15.4% to finish 7-8th; 29.9% to make playoffs

  9. Astralis – 28.9% to finish 9-12th; 31.5% to make playoffs

  10. The MongolZ – 32.7% to finish 9-12th; 25.4% to make playoffs

  11. Complexity – 34.3% to finish 9-12th; 21.2% to make playoffs

  12. Heroic – 26.8% to finish 9-12th; 23.5% to make playoffs

  13. paiN – 36.5% to finish 13-16th; 21.0% to make playoffs

  14. FURIA – 36.4% to finish 13-16th; 20.9% to make playoffs

  15. 9z – 44.7% to finish 13-16th; 14.6% to make playoffs

  16. Imperial – 49.1% to finish 13-16th; 13.9% to make playoffs

It has been quite the run for NaVi despite their loss with back to back grand finals in recent weeks but CSDB.gg’s predictive model suggests there will be no let up for the Ukrainian esports organisation.

G2 will also be looking to build more momentum in preparation for Majors season with NiKo on a quest to finally get over the line this year to win his first major title. Hopefully Rio won’t have to see a repeat of his reaction in the semifinals at BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024 where he punched a hole in a table after losing out to Team Vitality in a key moment.

However, the hosts of Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024 may want to lockdown any nearby furniture and reinforce their desks if G2 are set for disappointment at the semifinals stage as predicted by the CSDB.gg SuperComputer.

A victory in Rio could be even more consequential for how the end of the year shapes up for the leading teams on the circuit. The Valve Global rankings have both teams close at the very top (NaVi at 1988 and G2 at 1953) meaning a win for either team could hand them a key advantage when it comes to who enters the Majors as top seed. 

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Back-to-back wins in T1 events for G2, should they prosper in Rio, would set the Berlin-based team on an incredible trajectory going into the winter months.

Meanwhile, Brazilian hopes for glory look slight according to the CSDB.gg SuperComputer with FURIA, the team co-owned by Neymar, having only been given a 20.9% chance of even making the playoffs. 

They are the leading contenders to make an impact for the home crowd but there are other teams flying the flag for Brazil with paiN and Imperial also set to give it their best to give local fans something to cheer on.

In terms of forecasted matchups of note, G2 and FaZe Clan could offer up a fascinating encounter in the quarterfinals should both teams qualify, with each organisation rated as having a strong chance of making the semis with little to separate them should they meet.

How was the CSDB.gg CS2 Tournament SuperComputer created?

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The CSDB.gg CS2 Tournament SuperComputer is a predictive model created using world ranking points, team quality ratings and performance trends. An element of randomness is also included in the model to avoid the best teams and players always winning, to reflect the fact that upsets can happen.

Every tournament is simulated 1,000 times with the results aggregated into a percentage rating of the chances teams or players have to achieve the predicted result.

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