Looking to overhaul the traditional eSports tournament format, veteran live event producer and Black Stage Productions founder Steve Suarez created the cross-genre video gaming championship Ultimate Gamer. The series challenges gamers around the world to compete in first-person shooter, fighting, sports, battle royale and multiplayer online battle arena tournaments for a chance to earn the title of “Ultimate Gamer.” For its first-ever “Valorant” LAN tournament, which took place over the course of three days this summer in Miami, Suarez live streamed all of the action to fans worldwide via social media platforms. Using an AJA Ki Pro GO multi-channel H.264 recorder/player provided by systems integrator CineSys-Oceana, his team also captured highlights footage for integration into the three-day stream. 

The world’s toughest adventure race kicks off the next edition in just over a year - and the tension is already beginning to mount. With each race comes a new route and most importantly, new athletes. Have you got the skills and resilience to hike and paraglide over 1,000km across the beautiful but treacherous Alps? It’s time to find out because the application phase for Red Bull X-Alps 2021 is officially open until August 31, 2020.

Ekstraklasa SA will pay the highest amount ever – EUR 50.6 million – to the clubs for the 2019/2020 season. This is almost 45% more than in the previous season (which was also the highest-grossing season at the time). Legia Warszawa will receive EUR 7 million as the Champion of Poland. This will represent a nearly twofold increase in comparison with the previous year, when the Warsaw club received EUR 3.57 million for finishing second in the table.

ChyronHego’s TRACAB team in Sweden has achieved another important milestone in its latest developments towards a semi-automated offside technology, based upon the Emmy^® Award-winning TRACAB Gen5 optical tracking system. At a June 22 video conference hosted by ChyronHego and attended by FIFA and its Working Group for Innovation Excellence, the TRACAB team presented a demonstration of powerful new capabilities in TRACAB OCT (Offside Calling Technology) (Story on FIFA Website). Exploiting its AI-driven ball tracking for automated ball pass detection, combined with limb tracking and skeletal modeling derived from video feeds, the technology is showing great promise to support referees in the future to make fast and highly accurate offside calling decisions.

The MEDIAPRO Group and the Johan Cruyff Institute join forces to present the eSports industry and its business opportunities to companies and professionals. Their first joint project is the launch of the massive open online course (MOOC) "The eSports Industry", an online training for professionals in the fields of marketing, communication, consulting, managers and executives from all sectors which utilizes gamified learning to provide training in the growing business behind the eSports sector. Both partners will work to incorporate eSports as part of the agenda for other academic programs.

The impacts of COVID-19 are already being felt harder by women and girls in many areas of life due to gender inequalities. This reality is also mirrored in sport. The Policy Brief called “COVID 19, Women, Girls and Sport: Build Back Better” clearly points out that “existing gaps between women and men, girls and boys in both elite and grassroots sport may widen if governments, sport organizations, sponsors, civil society, athletes, media and UN agencies do not put women and girls at the centre and address their specific needs in response and recovery plans”.

M2A Media, leading innovators in cloud-based video solutions, today
announced that its just-released cloud-IP transport service, M2A CONNECT, has been adopted by
global sports brand, Formula 1®, to acquire, process and distribute the motorsport brand’s live
content to global broadcasters and sports rights owners.

The elite racing series has its first winner of 2020: Valtteri Bottas beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the chequered flag at the Red Bull Ring. Millions of motorsport fans around the world followed a turbulent Formula 1 Rolex Großer Preis von Österreich via the TV and online, with Bottas holding onto his advantage after starting in pole. Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris joined the Finn on the podium.

MEDIAPRO Canada has been selected by the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL), Canada’s first division professional men’s basketball league, to produce live television coverage of all 26 games in the league’s 2020 CEBL Summer Series, which tips off on July 25th and culminates in the Championship Final on August 9th. MEDIAPRO Canada will produce seven games, including the semi-finals and the final, for live broadcast on the CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, as well as the remaining 19 games which will be carried live and on-demand on CBC GEM, the corporation’s streaming service, available across all connected devices.

They say the stars shine brighter in Hollywood and thanks to Samsung Display technology, Hollywood Park will be the brightest of them all. Samsung’s outdoor LED products were exclusively used to build SoFi Stadium’s 70,000 square-foot dual-sided center-hung videoboard and five levels of fascia display which will be used to elevate the fan experience to unparalleled heights. The state-of-the-art videoboard not only features the most LEDs ever used in a sports or entertainment venue, but also has the first and only 4K end-to-end video production in a stadium.

The Norwegian Ski Federation has extended its exclusive international media rights agreement with Infront, a Wanda Sports Group company, for FIS World Cup events, including men's and women's alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, ski jumping and nordic combined. The renewal takes the existing partnership beyond 30 years and further solidifies Infront’s leading position in winter sports.

Ski mountaineer and runner Anton "Toni" Palzer has crossed the three main peaks of the Watzmann mountain in his native Germany in a new record time of 2h 47m. Here is all you need to know:
- Palzer took the high-alpine tour from Wimbachbrücke (634m) via Watzmannhaus (1930m) to Hocheck (2651m) shortly before 7am on Friday June 26 then scaled the high point at 2,713m, the Southern tip (2,712m) before starting his descent over the Wimbachgrieß (1327m) down to the Wimbachbrücke.

The German Football Association (DFB) informed Infront today that it will end its very successful and lengthy partnership with Infront and terminate or discontinue all existing contracts. Infront contests the validity of this cancellation and insists on the full completion of the current contracts with the DFB. Infront has severe doubts about the methods and motives of the investigative agency Esecon, on whose interim report the DFB is basing this proposed cancellation. The DFB said it based its decision on allegations of "potentially damaging activities". The interim report of Esecon – which Infront has not been given access to – apparently accuses Infront of gaining undue benefits from improper gifts to DFB employees.

Max Verstappen believes that the Formula One drivers will "try and put on a good show for everyone watching at home on TV" when the 2020 season finally gets underway with the Austrian GP at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing's home track this weekend in Spielberg. The Dutchman has won the last two races at the Red Bull Ring and he is looking forward to getting back on the track alongside teammate Alexander Albon with team principal Christian Horner directing tactics from the pit wall.

For a perfect gaming experience, Esports professionals need the highest possible frame rates and lowest latency to be able to play smoothly in order to stay ahead of the game. As a leading manufacturer of KVM systems for extending and switching keyboard, video and mouse signals, Guntermann & Drunck GmbH (G&D) offers professional gamers the perfect Esports experience including crystal-clear full HD resolutions with 240 Hz frame rates and without any noticeable latency.