The eSports Observer is only a shy four months old. Since our launch in September, we managed to establish a well-known and respected business hub for the industry. We triggered much discussed topics, like the #esportsunpaid debate, and reported on big business deals as well as mind-boggling scandals. With a growing staff and the effort to become a premier source for esports business, we look forward for the years to come. For now, it is time to rewind and recap the last year.

These are our Top Stories of 2015:

Jens Hilgers launches the eSports Games Chart to evaluate games as esports

Evaluating where esports lie in relation to each other is a difficult task. But Jens Hilgers, founder of Turtle Entertainment and CEO of DOJO MADNESS, has slowly been developing criteria to do just that. He published the first eSports Games Chart, a culmination of this line of thinking that has helped him throughout his many years in the industry.

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Esports Investor and Pharma CEO takes public flak for hiking drug price overnight

When Martin Shkreli, an outspoken and highly controversial personality in the healthcare sector, entered the esports industry via League of Legends this year, the community reacted warily, just to be proved right after all.

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Esports agency behind joinDOTA among the 500 fastest growing companies in Germany

German media outlet FOCUS and online statistics portal Statista elected an esports agency among the fastest growing companies in Germany. Freaks 4U Gaming was placed fourth in the category “Advertising, Marketing, Media.”

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Flash: The End of a Legend

This year, Lee “Flash” Young Ho retired. Arguably one of the most-renowned esports player in the history of StarCraft, Flash dominated the hardest game, during its toughest time period, for the longest duration. He is, without a doubt, a legend.

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Eyes on Brazil: Big moves in one of the fastest-growing regions in esports

America, Central Europe, China, and Korea dominate when it comes to esports. However, one region is rapidly growing and may soon begin turning heads—Brazil. Here’s what you need to know about recent developments in the South American country.

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The French Ministry of Sport refuses to consider eSports as a sport

“Today, the position of the Ministry of sport is that eSports is very, very far from being a sport,” reports Rémy “Llewellys” Chanson, director of eSports at Webedia after his meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Sport.

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G2 signs former Epsilon TF2 players for Overwatch

G2 joined the race for the most competitive Overwatch team by recruiting former Epsilon players. Once holding a dominant spot in the competitive Team Fortress 2 scene, the ex-Epsilon roster is believed to adapt very fast to Overwatch.

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Esports statistics: Why StarCraft needs a Stimpack

One common reaction to the match-fixing scandals in Korea’s StarCraft 2 esports scene is simply “Oh wow! Again?” For a game once referred to as “Korea’s national sport”, today, it seems like “Korea’s bad habit.”

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Riot’s New LCS Player Contracts – A Legal Analysis

European eSports lawyers Jas Purewal and Pete Lewin from Purewal & Partners break down the first in a series of big incoming changes to LCS contracts and what teams need to do about them.

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Why investors should buy a spot in Brazil’s growing LoL scene

NA LCS teams are sold for close to a million dollars. Not a small price to pay for entry into the League of Legends elite. There are, or course, other options. And one in particular—buying into Brazil’s growing LoL scene—is cheaper and could pay off big in the long run.

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Dennis “TaKe” Gehlen on building his own studio, and what the future has for TaKeTV

Dennis “TaKe” Gehlen is a legend within the esports community. An RTS player with a talent for entrepreneurship, TaKe turned to streaming when his Warcraft III talents failed to translate well into StarCraft II. He soon created a brand for his stream, TaKeTV, and started pumping out content. TaKe and his channel quickly became synonymous with entertaining, high-quality—and sometimes controversial—esports programming.

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Exclusive: Fnatic confirms Overwatch plans

Following the announcement of shutting down Fnatic’s Battlefield Division, rumors circulated that roster will most likely seek new challenges in the upcoming Blizzard team shooter Overwatch.

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Call of Duty World League could spell tough times for MLG

For years, Call of Duty eSports fans around the world have cast envious glances at the Counter-Strike eSports community, and the relationship it has with the game’s developer, Valve. While Valve has provided huge prize pools, regular tournaments, brilliant in-game integration for teams and tournaments such as special skins for teams and a built-in stream viewer, Call of Duty has found itself limited to one developer-funded tournament a year, with little other developer support for its eSports scene.

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Fnatic CEO Wouter Sleijffers: “We want to be the lifestyle brand for Esports”

The European-based esports organisation Fnatic just recently announced an Indiegogo campaign to produce own gaming peripherals. This move comes after the acquisition of Func Inc, a hardware company based in Sweden. We sat down with Fnatic CEO Wouter Sleijffers to talk about the campaign, the general strategic goals of his brand and also asked why EU is not able to match the salaries of NA.

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Epic! Gaming Lounge disappears from the scene along with $40K prize money

When U.S. based telecommunications giant Verizon joined other big brands like Coca-Cola or Red Bull in marketing to the esports audience back in July, Forbes magazine author John Gaudioso said: “If Verizon can nail that, it can build its own eSports niche.” Sad to say, that they backed the wrong horse. It has whipped in public, that their former partner Epic! Gaming Lounge disappeared from the scene along with the promised $40,000 prize money for its EGL Dallas 10K tournament, which was held in August.

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Press release: “G2A Battles Riot for e-sports Rights to Grow”

This is the original and un-edited press release we received by G2A. The content does not represent the opinion of the editors. It is a self-explanatory document of weirdness.

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“We’re planning on changing the NACS scene by treating it just like the NA LCS”

The LCS offseason is a wild ride. While Europe faces an exodus of star players, North American organizations are digging deep into their pockets to purchase them. Riot’s changes to the Challenger Series have also created some drama, when they added regional seeds, among other changes. And then, there’s the trend of major teams being bought out. In addition to this, new challengers are on the rise. And among them, the ambitious team known as Ember.

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Sources confirm: ScreaM’s transfer fee to Titan was €150,000

Rumors following the transfer of pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom from Gamers2 to Titan were afire. These rumors only intensified when Richard Lewis stated on “Trash Talk” that ScreaM’s transfer fee was six figures.

eSports Observer had received confirmation from multiple sources close to the trade that ScreaM’s transfer fee was €150,000, the highest ever for the Counter-Strike scene.

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