Esports: The rising market for Turkish teens
I have been writing about esports for a few years now, but 2019 seems to be the year when esports will dominate the headlines.
It is only Jan. 23, but so far there are already major news that cannot be ignored.
For example, Vodafone Freezone Champions League for League of Legends’s winter season has already started. Great Turkish sports teams like Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray, Beşiktaş and Bursaspor all have esports teams competing alongside with esports-only Bahçeşehir Supermassive, Dark Passage and Galaktikos.
Turkey’s first esports movie “İyi Oyun” (Good Game) hit the movie theaters.
An esports summit was done on Jan. 17.
Even Redbull TV, which is a global broadcaster with keen interest in esports, aired a special program for Istanbul.
Actually this is a global trend; various companies are joining the frenzy. Yesterday, KFC announced that they will sponsor the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Battle Royale tournament with $60,000 and black KFC cards which will allow players to eat daily menus for free.
According to esportsflag.com, Counter-Strike is the most popular esports game in Turkey, which is played by pro teams. It is represented by six squads which have gained $797,878 in prize money. If taking into account only individual players from Turkey, then the most played game here will be Counter-Strike as well. There are 15 people playing this esports genre here on a competitive level with $579,900 gained in rewards.
Vestel CMO Tunç Berkman said that esports will grow seven times faster than any other technological advancements. He added that there are more than 4 million esports fanatics and 30 million people who are casually playing games.
The next event in the near future is the Chapter VII that will be organized by Multiplayer.com.tr on Jan. 26. Multiplayer is a website devoted to esports, and each year they are organizing a fest. This is the seventh. There will be tournaments and 20 broadcasters at the Eurasia Show Center. The tournaments are Gillette Fortnite, XBOX Forza Horizon 4, PS4 FIFA and Casper Excalibur PUBG.
I believe that it will be a spectacle to see.