Super Evil Megacorp’s Vainglory closed its first year as the world’s leading touchscreen eSport with momentum across the globe. 2015 saw exciting Vainglory Live Season Championships in North America, Europe and Korea as well as the first-ever China invitational. Vainglory players took home more than $350,000 in prize money globally. Heading into the new year, the top touchscreen MOBA’s new Winter Season, now underway, is expected to be even bigger, with 800 competitive teams already signed up across the globe and tournaments lined up in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and Korea.
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“When you think about the fact that it took 15 years for eSports to be start maturing on PC, we find it super encouraging that the rate of touchscreen eSports adoption signals a much more rapid realization of mainstream eSports,” said Kristian Segerstrale, COO and Executive Director, Super Evil Megacorp. “This year we’re doubling down on what we’ve believed from the start – that Vainglory belongs to its community,” he added. “We’re so proud to see some of our game’s best players acquired by esteemed eSports organizations, and we know that by making our relationship with VGL official, more players around the world will be able to participate in tournaments and pursue competitive gaming.”
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Demonstrating Vainglory’s growing prominence in the greater eSports world, Team Secret, the Dota 2 with four first-places finishes in 2015, has acquired Media Pixel eSport, the French team that won the Vainglory European Autumn Championship last month. Vainglory will be the first mobile-only game for Team Secret, who had previously competed on PC exclusively.
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“We acquired Media Pixel after their exhilarating win in the Vainglory European Championships last month, but we’ve had our eyes on the team, and Vainglory, for a while,” said Kemal Sadikoglu, Team Director at Team Secret. “There are more than three times the number of touchscreen devices in the world compared to PCs so we know touchscreen eSports will be huge. Vainglory is the perfect example of how the touchscreen generation is embracing competitive play and eSports. Vainglory truly captures that immersive, team-based play with deep strategy, tactics and mechanical skill that, until now, had been reserved for PC.”
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Super Evil has hired the founders and partnered closely with Vaingloryleague (VGL), the largest community-run Vainglory eSports organization. VGL has been part of the larger Super Evil Megacorp family even before Vainglory launched globally, and will now expand their tournament reach beyond North America and Europe, adding South America and Korea to the list of regions that will have their own qualifying structures under the VGL umbrella. To run these programs, Super Evil Megacorp has brought on VGL founders Tomek “bluberryz” Borowka and Jonathan “DonJon” Sakoucky as full-time employees. In addition, Southeast Asia will enjoy its first official qualifier tournaments: the Tesseract Qualifier Series organized by our community in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and India under the banner of Tesseract eSports.
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The excitement of Vainglory’s Winter Season has kicked off, and the game’s next update will be themed to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Beginning early February, the Halcyon Fold will have a new Lunar New Year-themed map skin including fireworks and other visually stunning effects. A new hero will also enter the Fold, celebrating the Year of the Monkey: Ozo is an acrobatic jungler with distinct and rewarding weapon and crystal build paths. Ozo seeks out fights, bounces between targets (literally) and delivers devastating area-of-effect damage with his razor-sharp ring. We are also adding a new limited-edition Lunar New Year skin for Koshka, only available in Update 1.14
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The Winter Championships for North American players will return to the eSports Arena in Santa Ana, California, while the European players will gather in London at the Gfinity Arena to compete. Tickets for both are now available and can be purchased for $12 at http://vainglorywinterna.eventbrite.com and http://vainglorywintereu.eventbrite.com.
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