Mobile developer Super Evil Megacorp has signed a three-year, multi-million dollar partnership with Twitch, to bolster the Vainglory Championships in Europe and North America, the two companies announced Thursday. The new deal calls for substantial monetary investments from both companies, in an effort to grow the Vainglory audience, boost sales, generate new promotions, improve Vainglory broadcasts and host yet-to-be-revealed live events.
The partnership comes on the heels of a massive growth period for Vainglory. The up-and-coming MOBA closed out 2015 as the fastest growing mobile game on Twitch with more than 150 million minutes of viewing time, including 1.5 million viewers during last year’s Vainglory Winter Championships. Hundreds of teams are participating in the game’s competitive scene, including squads from popular esports organizations like Team SoloMid and Team Secret, and more than $350,000 in prize money was awarded (globally) during 2015.
It’s an impressive run, to be sure, but one that Twitch and Super Evil Megacorp still feel like they can build upon. The two companies are also taking a slightly different approach than what we’ve become accustomed to in recent years. In the wake of The International, Valve’s annual Dota 2 championship event, it’s become common for players and fans to judge the health of a game by the amount of cash being handed out at its event. But Super Evil Megacorp COO Kristian Segerstrale and Twitch’s Director of Esports Operations, Nick Allen, say it’s more important to create a sustainable environment for Vainglory than it is to host multi-million dollar tournaments.
“We want to make sure teams have things to play for and that when you win you feel really good and there’s a significant prize associated with that. But at the same time that’s sort of the tip of the iceberg,” Segerstrale told iDigitalTimes. “The thing we want to do really well is make sure teams have an ecosystem where they have a large amount of fans, they can source significant sponsorship revenue, they can create content (and benefit from that) and they have a healthy merchandising business.”
“There are full time players playing Vainglory. This is their full time gig,” said Allen. “So, to a certain extent, we owe it to them to create a healthy, sustainable infrastructure around the game that’s worth investing in. So, one of the goal’s is growth, but sustainability is a key part of this.”
To that end, SEM and Twitch are already turning their attention to the upcoming Vainglory Spring Championships. Enrollment for the first competitive season of 2016 opened Thursday and the two companies have already announced $80,000 in prize money for the North American and European events. The first 32-team qualifier will run April 9-17. A qualifier will begin on April 30, and continue through May 8, with the winner of each advancing to the Vainglory Spring Championships in June. The Vainglory Amateur Series will also return this year, beginning April 9, giving 128 teams a second chance to earn a spot in the April 30 qualifier.
Fans can expect to see similar competitive schedules every quarter, to prepare for the Summer, Fall and Winter Championships. Super Evil Megacorp also plans to host a World Championship in November, featuring the top teams from each region, but the studio doesn’t want a single event to become the sole focus of Vainglory’s competitive scene. The event is important, because it gives the world’s best teams a chance to compete against each other, but seasonal play remains just as important to the Vainglory dev team.
“We are very passionate about our quarterly season model,” Segerstrale told iDigi. “Not just for esports, but because it provides players, and in-game guilds and in-game teams, with things to try and achieve within a manageable time period.”
The primary goals for Twitch and Super Evil Megacorp new partnership might be growth and sustainability but it’s difficult to get people interested in competitive gaming if they’re not already fans of the game being played. To that end, Super Evil Megacorp has been working on new content for the entire Vainglory community. This week, a new Battle Royal mode will make its in-game debut as part of the promotional push for the Spring Championship series. The studio is also releasing a new hero, Alpha, and launching a new Halcyon Days event for the community.
The new partnership is also a big shift for Twitch. The video game streaming site opened its doors to mobile streamers back in 2014 but the company’s new partnership with Super Evil Megacorp is a major change from Twitch’s previous (largely hands-off) approach to mobile gaming.
“This is especially interesting for us because Twitch as a whole, related to esports, has been thought about primarily in the PC and a little bit in the console space,” Allen said. “This is a big venture for us into the mobile space and our first one at that. And we see a ton of potential in Vainglory...these types of partnerships, the depth and the multi-year/multi-million dollar side of it, is something that we rarely do. It takes a very exciting opportunity for us to get involved.”
***
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for additional Vainglory coverage throughout 2016 and for however long Super Evil Megacorp supports Vainglory in the years to come.
