Category Archives: esports

Play Rocket League in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie!

Rocket League players pay attention, you can join the newest tournament of the Keuken Kampioen Divisie! Gamers First, our proud partner of the Rabo Esports Stadium, is joining forces with the Keuken Kampioen Divisie to host the Esports Fan Tournament featuring Rocket League.

The online tournament takes place on Saturday 16 May and starts at 12.00 hours. The whole event will be broadcasted live from the Rabo Esports Stadium on the H20 Esports Campus on the YouTube channel of the Keuken Kampioen Divisie and the Twitch channel of Inside Esports. Teams represent one of the sixteen Keuken Kampioen Clubs in the new tournament.

Teams can register for the tournament as of today via the website of the Keuken Kampioen Divisie. The teams consist of at least three players, where substitutes are allowed. The tournament consists of a group phase and a knock-out phase, in which two teams in the final will decide who is the champion of the Keuken Kampioen Divisie Esports Fan Tournament.

Keuken Kampioen Divisie steps into esports

With the launch of the Keuken Kampioen Divisie Esports, it is the first time that the Keuken Kampioen Divisie steps into Esports. The current football-free period is seized upon to give fans the opportunity to defend the honour of one of the sixteen Keuken Kampioen Divisie clubs, from home, by means of a fan tournament. To compete for the very first title of the Keuken Kampioen Divisie Esports Fan Tournament.

Practical information:
Date: Saturday 16 May 2020 from 12.00
Teams: Maximum 3 players (substitutions allowed)
Registration via: https://keukenkampioendivisie.nl/esports/ (registration is possible until Monday 11 May 2020)
Broadcasts via: YouTube & Twitch

The complete broadcast will be done from the Rabo Esports Stadium at the H20 Esports Campus. Keep an eye on our website and socials for all upcoming game tournaments within the H20 Esports Campus.

Gamers pay attention: Join the AtHome Super League on behalf of the H20 Esports Gaming Club and win fantastic cash prizes

The H20 Esports Gaming Club offers gamers the chance to participate in an esports event with a huge prize pool of $200,000 from home for free! You can join the exclusive Super League - Season Zero championships simply by joining the H20 esports community on Discord. Just download the free AtHome client to take part.

Sjaak Kuil, manager H20 esports: "Our physical esports gaming club cannot open until the Corona measures are eased and schools reopen. But we've looked at what is possible now. Together with our partner ggLeap we can now offer this to local, regional and even national gamers who follow H20. The gamers represent H20 esports and themselves and can win great prizes in the coming weeks.

Sjaak: "I further hope that everyone is doing well during this bizarre period. Take care and stay inside! To make staying indoors a little easier, we would like to announce that we are going to participate in the Super League with the H20 Gaming Club. This is an online league worldwide exclusively for gaming centres where you as a gamer and we as gaming centre can win great prizes. There is a total of about $200k available this weekend! Participation is free! ;)"

What can you win with the AtHome Super League?
1st place $500
2nd - $400
3rd - $300
4th - $200
5th - $100
+ Every week for the next 3 weeks! & extra prizes for H20 as a gaming centre
++ You are on the leaderboard within the H20 environment, show that you are the best in NL

How does the Super League work?
You play one of the PC games listed below after 7 April, your stats are tracked by Overwolf and automatically entered into the Athome system. The best 10 players per game represent the Rabo Esports Stadium worldwide and compete for big prizes. There is also a solo league, which automatically pits you against similar players around the world. You can just play your game at home and your scores will be compared. Again, more info at the admins 😉 of the discord.

Games
- Fortnite
- Dota 2
- League of Legends
- Apex Legends
- PUBG
- CS:GO

Want to join?
Do you want to join? Great! Give your mail to an admin and then download the Athome client here: https://home.ggcircuit.com/install/h20.

H20 welcomes Sjaak Kuil as General Esports Manager

"We are extremely happy and proud to announce that Sjaak Kuil is joining H20," said Dirk Tuip. "At H20 we are taking a step further every day towards our goal: To become the coolest esports venue in all of Europe! The past few months we received about 80 applications for the various jobs. Several interviews with different candidates were the result. With Sjaak we think to have found 'the right man for the job'. With pleasure we therefore introduce him.
That Sjaak is someone with ambition and passion soon becomes apparent when you start talking to him. He has loved his hobby for many years and, like many on the H20 campus, has made it his job. Sjaak also has the necessary experience and knowledge to make the H20 dream come true. This becomes quickly clear when you look at his years of experience within esports. To name a few experiences:

Building Esportswall (an esports platform), which within a few months grew into a platform with thousands of users playing daily.
Starting The City League (TCL), an online league based on physical esports locations, such as H20 in Purmerend. Esports venues across Europe joined up, allowing teams to play physically on location, but play online against other venues. This way we had matches like the Antwerp Lions VS Reload Prague, or Milan Titans VS SP Thessaloniki. This concept was very much focused on traditional sports, with matches taking place once a week. All matches were broadcast live and provided a live link between all esports venues in Europe.
The WESG Benelux qualifier is organised with a prize pool of $10,000.
Festival Director, at Blammo Media, known from Gamekings and the Firstlook Festival. The latest edition of the biggest gaming festival of the Benelux was organised by Sjaak.

It was not a difficult choice for H20 to hire Sjaak as esports manager. Our team welcomes Sjaak to the team! Together we are going to have a phenomenal opening!

How did H20 come your way?

"After the projects Firstlook Festival and DreamHack Rotterdam 2019, I started looking for the next assignment. With the idea in the back of my mind that I wanted to stay active in esports and not let go of production yet, I ended up with a select group in the Netherlands and some international challenges. I knew the idea of H20, but I was still sceptical about the size of the project. At the next meeting, I saw everything come to life and it all really happened. An esports stadium in the Netherlands! The chance to be there and experience everything from so close is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Because of a good click with Matthijs Vink and Dirk Tuip, founders of H20, it all went pretty fast and as of January 2020 I am working as General Manager of H20 esports BV!". - Sjaak Kuil.

H20 is slowly becoming the place to go for anyone who wants something to do with gaming. Esports, Game Design or Application Development will be the focus, but also the latest technology. We asked Sjaak why he chose H20 and how he sees the future.

I wish we had something like that when I was a student!" - Sjaak Kuil

Why did you choose H20?

"I chose H20 because this concept has a lot going for it in different areas, with a central focus on youth around the age of 20 (H20 stands for 'age twenty', among other things). There will be something for everyone, from the latest competitions in VR gaming to Minecraft children's parties. Because what we are going to do is quite broad, this attracts my interest. All aspects are interrelated and ultimately scream out one central topic: esports! We are going to work hard, with the help of H20, to make students excited about the future and help them make the right choice for their career. I wish we had something like that when I was a student!"

How do you see the future of H20?

"Personally, I would love to see the esports club structured like a traditional football club. We then look very much at the structure of football, such as training once a week and a match at the weekend. Plus the division of juniors and seniors with coaches, trainers, etc. I tried this concept before under the name The City League. We organised the competition between gaming centres throughout Europe. Now we have the opportunity to set up our own gaming centre and I think it would be great to work on the future structure of esports. The top talents are mainly scouted at local esports clubs, like H20. Next to the gaming club I am most looking forward to the Rabo Esports Stadium and the VR area, both are unique in the Netherlands and will provide the ultimate experience for the visitors".

The next five years at H20

"In the next five years, I hope firstly that we can compete as a stadium with the fast-growing international esports market, creating a well-filled agenda with unique events. Secondly, I hope we can bring structure to the general esports landscape, especially looking at traditional sports. The esports club should run lively with perhaps a national league. Finally, I hope we can keep up with all the rapid innovations in VR, AR, gaming and robots. These technologies are being developed at a rapid pace and at H20 we need to keep up. All aspects of H20 must be rotated and structured. Perhaps then we can think about opening more locations like this in the Netherlands, or Belgium, or elsewhere in Europe?! "

"I am very much looking forward to taking up the adventure at H20, to establish Partnerships and manage events from large to small!" - Sjaak Kuil, Esports Manager H20.

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Companies miss many opportunities for marketing in esports

A handful of large, international companies are actively and visibly promoting themselves to tens of millions of gamers via e-sports. Still others are not doing so at all. "There are a lot of opportunities," says Jeremy Jackson of market analyst Newzoo.
Advertisers and sponsors seem to be ignoring audiences of millions internationally. There are people all over the world, young and old, who play games occasionally or more often. From entertaining pastime to competitive team play and everything in between. Yesterday Jackson told Emerce Performance in Amsterdam that few companies hardly use this channel for communication.

Almost everyone gamed.

"It's a misconception to think that only young boys up to age 23 are sitting at home in the basement gaming." He shows demographic figures, which indicate that every age group is represented from about evenly between the ages of 10 and, say, 60. Even the split between men and women is about 50/50. He does note, however, that engagement can vary greatly. One group prefers to watch games on Twitch or YouTube and another is casual gamer at night on the couch. Yet another gamed in teams or is more interested in the hardware.
Newzoo estimates the total gaming audience worldwide this year at 443 million. That's 100 million more than in 2017, but 150 million more will come by 2023.
"What companies need to do now is: orient themselves to this area and the audience in particular. In doing so, they should ask themselves what they can contribute contextually relevant. The public is open to approaching companies. Do you then want to bring your brand into the game or do you integrate a game into your brand and compare products?"
Jackson does indicate that there is still much to be gained for the gaming world in terms of onboarding advertisers. This is because it is difficult to measure the effect of campaigns in real time from the game environment.
Research by Newzoo shows that in 2019, there were 253 brands that were sponsors or advertisers in international esports competitions. "Sixty-one percent of them are not substantively affiliated with the game. Last year it was 55 percent." Most of the companies are general advertisers, not game-related parties. "It is especially striking how many gaps there are in our matrices. Empty fields that illustrate how many commercial opportunities go unfilled."
Source: Emerce.

China big winner of the League of Legends World Cup, the biggest esports event in the world.

The Chinese team FunPlus Phoenix has just won the final of the world championship of the video game League of Legends. More than 100 million people are expected to have watched the live stream of the final match. The match was played in a packed arena with spectators.

The Chinese won 3-0 against the European team G2 Esports. Not entirely a surprise, say the experts.

"The hope was that the European team would win, but actually that was against our better judgement. The level of the Chinese teams is just that little bit higher," says Ward Geene of the website Esports Club. "The competition in that region is very strong. A lot of talent is being developed there. For a long time, South Korea was at the top, for example."

The final of the League of Legends World Championships is the biggest event in the world of esports in terms of viewers. Last year, 99.6 million people watched the final via the livestream. The Chinese team Invictus Gaming won. In comparison: the Super Bowl - the final of the American football season - was watched by 114.5 million people last year.

Geene expects that with this afternoon's final a new ratings record has been set. "League of Legends has been the biggest game in esports for years and in terms of viewing figures it hasn't reached its peak yet. There was a European and a Chinese team in the final again this year, so both in Europe and in China a huge number of people will have been watching."

FunPlus Phoenix gets to share a few million euros after winning this afternoon. The team also receives a trophy with an accompanying case, specially made by the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton.

Source: Nos.nl

Esports: Top sport with a keyboard

Source: Volkskrant
Anyone who has had anything to do with gaming lately will know that Fortnite is a worldwide phenomenon. The game, in which 100 men on a virtual island fight until only one remains, has proven time and again to be a huge success. For the very best players, gaming is not a frivolous pastime, but top-class sport with a corresponding income. Dave 'Rojo' Jong (21), the most successful esports player in the Netherlands, is well on his way to his second million.

Dave gets out of bed around noon. The top athlete lives on American time. And as befits a top athlete, he starts each day with a protein- and fibre-rich breakfast: oatmeal and hard-boiled eggs. A bite to eat, an hour of fitness, and then it's time for the workout. Dave likes to make comparisons with professional football, a future that the athlete also considered when he played meritoriously at the youth team of football club Hollandia in Hoorn. Training three times a week, and matches against the youth teams of Excelsior and Ajax.

It's like holding the high ground,' says Dave, taking a seat in the game room next to his bedroom, where an ultra-fast computer hums softly to control his equipment: three widescreen monitors, two keyboards, two cameras, a radio microphone and a mixing desk. 'If you practise that for a few minutes a day, you won't be as good at it as if you were doing it for a few hours a day.'

Fortnite: Build, Shoot, and Set Traps

And just like a professional footballer, training starts with a warm-up. In his case: shaking off the wrists, warming up the fingers, awakening the ability to react. Making Nineties, that is, building structures with ninety-degree angles - floor-slope-walls, floor-slope-walls - at lightning speed to propel your character upwards and above an opponent. He practices on long gangways with walls to the right or left, to move as bullets come from the side, and on platforms to shelter from overhead fire.

But then, through a crack in the door, Mother Mary, just silently appeared on the landing. Dave, do you have time for dinner? Asked a little later if it's not time for her wealthy son to hire a catering service, while Dave puts his fork in a steaming casserole of chicken-potato-french beans, she smiles. I like doing it. When he was still playing a lot of football I had to drive him around and I had a lot more work to do.'

When the chicken is finished, it's time for shooting practice. Red spheres and bars dart across the screen along random paths in a programme called KovaaK's Aim Trainer. Dave has to click on them with the mouse as quickly as possible. There is no embellishment, no beautifully designed game world; KovaaK's is the digital equivalent of a vending machine that shoots endless balls at a tennis player - but with a new ball every second. Training my hand-eye coordination,' says Dave.
Training, training, and training again. E-sportsmen call it 'grinding': making metres to become even faster, even sharper, and even more successful. To shave off a fraction of a second of your reaction time to a specific tactic of the opponent. The margins are small, in top sport, also in esports. Dave studies the recordings of his lost games minutely, like a football coach dissects the replay of a failed attack from second to second.

Suddenly, a target shoots vertically in an arc across his crosshairs, the cross indicating where he is aiming. Pats, hit. A situation like that almost never happens in Fortnite, but I train for hours on it,' says Dave. Only one player in a championship final will jump over you like that. A hit or miss is the difference between zero and a prize of a ton or so.
At Kovaak's, which is deadly boring, Dave trains for an hour and a half to two hours. Every day. Fortnite is about responsiveness, but also about tactics, communication and cooperation; Dave can shoot well, of course, but shooting games are not his speciality. So he has hired Croatian gamer Serious, a top Quake shooter, for 60 dollars a session to coach him. Serious prescribes exercises, discusses his progress in reaction time and accuracy with Dave every two weeks via Skype, and adjusts the training schedule accordingly.
KovaaK's is followed by six to eight hours of Fortnite training every day, in a select company of top global players who are a match for each other. Dave doesn't learn much from playing against ordinary mortals; he makes them up in no time. Sometimes he does it just for fun, a 'public' game. He usually wins, too, against 99 other players. Occasionally, though, someone manages to shoot Dave dead. He chuckles. Sometimes I see them writing on Twitter a little later: 'Wow I just won from Rojo!

Full agenda

Dave's schedule is unfortunately full; he has no room for further commitments at the moment," read the email from Jane Tesar, Communications and Brand Manager on behalf of Team Lazarus, just after their Dutch recruit had gambled away his $1.1 million last summer. Suddenly Rojo was a celebrity in the gaming world, and in the real world David was surrounded by a hedge of managers and PR people.
These have since faded into the background, after the madness of the World Cup subsided, but for Dave, life has changed forever. Not so long ago, he was an ordinary boy from an ordinary family, living in an ordinary village, and like many other boys his age, often gaming. Until he finished high school in 2016, a gap year followed, and another gap year, and he gradually spent more and more time in front of the computer. 'My mother didn't agree,' he laughs. ''Is he now upstairs gaming again?" the neighbours sometimes said.''
top sport with a keyboard

In early 2018, he discovered Fortnite, which had been out for six months. Dave actually wanted to play another video game, but didn't want to lose the 30 euros it cost. So he threw himself into Fortnite; it was free. Fortnite has a system of amateurs, semi-pros and top players. Dave turned out to be a natural. He shot his way to the top level within a year and in 2019, he and his then teammate and 169 other gamers qualified for the World Cup in New York.
'Then we tweeted: hey we are still looking for an organisation. You can email us or send us a message on Twitter,' he says in his usual slightly flat tone, as if explaining how the washing machine works. 'Hold on,' he says, leaning towards the microphone and addressing a teammate in English. 'Yo Savage, they've got us listed against Ewroon, later. No idea who that is. Huh-huh-huh.' He continues: 'Well, and then Lazarus responded and he offered a certain amount and then I asked for a higher amount and they agreed.' Dave does not want to reveal the exact amount in the newspaper, but his salary is well above average.

Top-class sport or pastime?

Gaming seven days a week, 365 days a year, eight to ten hours a day. Add to that the trips to tournaments in the US or Sweden, the attendance at gaming events that his employer Team Lazarus expects of him, and you could say it is a tough job. But Dave also does it for fun. Although, if he didn't get paid for it, he obviously wouldn't play Fortnite all day, he says. What would he do then? 'Other games.'
Now he gets up at the same time every day, goes to bed at the same time, eats the same breakfast, does the same warm up and the same training games. He drinks no alcohol, no coffee, no tea. Six days a week he works out, on Sundays he plays football with friends. At the latter, however, he does not want any spectators. Dave: 'I do understand that the reader will then see that I also do normal human things. But that is private.
With all that gaming, he has no time for more social activities, nor for further education or a relationship. A girlfriend needs attention, and I don't want to give it to her at the moment.
What did he do the other day when Fortnite was down for almost three days due to an update? Playing CounterStrike online with a bunch of friends.
Is Dave now an addict? A dedicated professional? A workaholic, even?
You don't call someone who plays football all day an addict - certainly not if they're paid to do so,' says René Glas, associate professor of New Media & Digital Culture at Utrecht University. We associate computer games more with frivolous pastimes than regular sport. But there is a limit somewhere where a game becomes just work. If you are under contract to a team, and the goal is to win prizes, then your work is training. esports is somewhere on the borderline between work and play.

Archery, chess and gaming

Much research has been done into the effects of gaming for fun (very briefly: online gaming can strengthen social and cognitive skills, but everything that says 'too' is bad). Little has been done to examine the mental and physical aspects of long-term gaming as a professional player. If there is such a thing as a spiritual mother of academic research on esports, it is Professor T.L. Taylor, a sociologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of several books on the gaming culture and industry.
She laughs when asked over the phone about the sporting content of esports, young boys in flip-flops sitting behind a screen - you can't possibly compare that to cycling or football, can you?
You have now named two of the most physically demanding sports', says Taylor. Moreover, prolonged competitive gaming is indeed exhausting. But there is also a range of Olympic sports that involve dexterity and are considered full. Archery, for example, or dressage. And why should we admire someone who practices eight hours a day to learn to play the violin perfectly, but not someone who can master an extremely complex computer programme?

Still from the game Fortnite, which is enormously popular with tens of millions of players worldwide.

Professional gaming, says Taylor, is a continuation of the age-old collaboration between man and machine to help the former achieve exceptional performance. A cyclist is largely dependent on the bike he is working on, books could be written about the aerodynamics of skating suits, and countless books have been written about the engines of racing cars. Taylor: 'Gaming is also about using technology to master complex systems. A gamer does with a computer what a chess player does with a chess board and a cyclist does with a bicycle.
The pressure is great, because the risk of failure is also great in e-sports: players are usually tied to the game they are good at, and these do not last as long as, say, the sport of 'football' or 'tennis'. If Fortnite's popularity declines in a year or two, your professional career is probably over (although it has to be said that Dave also played the football game Fifa to good effect). And it is already relatively short: at 25, your reflexes are so outdated that it is difficult to keep up at the top. That's why esports is teeming with (very rich) teenagers - you'd better hurry up.

Houses

This is Dave's world, and he likes to live in it. The million won, the tens of thousands of euros he has won in previous tournaments, all very nice of course. A tax lawyer figures out how to pay as little tax as possible on the top prize, and then he has the money transferred. He has no plans to buy his own house with his winnings.
Then I would also sit in a room gaming all day, just like here. Then it makes no sense to leave here. In time, he thinks, he can buy two houses, or three, and live off the rent when Fortnite is over. Maybe a fourth for himself. He has already bought a car, a Golf 7.

Where does all this money come from?

A few thousand euros a month I do put aside, something like that,' he says gapingly, his gaze focused on the screen, when he is asked for the third or fourth time about his income.
Then he chuckles in unison: 'Look, a banana skin, that's super funny when you get killed by a guy in a banana suit, right?' Huh-huh-huh.
Yes, he would love to have a million euros in his account. Especially for later. But the money means above all that he can continue gaming full time, undisturbed. An education - well, that is always an option. Dave's mother Mary raises her hands when asked about it. I sometimes used to say: shouldn't you do something else? But he finished high school. He earns a lot of money. He does what he likes. He exercises and eats well. When Fortnite ends, he wants to continue in the organisation of esports. Or he can still go to university. I believe he will get there.

Madness

It is important, however, that Dave does not succumb prematurely to the mental pressure. This is enormous in esports. Don't let a football player hear you say it, but Hennes Heijmans even says: 'Esports is perhaps mentally more difficult than physical top-class sport'.
Heijmans manages the gamers of Team Atlantis, one of the smaller esports organisations and until recently representative of Mitr0, the 17-year-old Dutch number 2 in Fortnite. Heijmans himself is 19 years old. You don't get any rest in esports; there is no low season and the game is constantly changing. Every week there is a new update, with new weapons, items, techniques and sometimes even game worlds. If you don't train for a week, you're way behind the competition. That's not the case in football.
Watch the documentary Beyond the Game, which follows, among others, the well-known Dutch gamer Manuel van Schenkhuizen, and you will see the traces of years of professional gaming. The Chinese player Li 'Sky' Xiaofeng threatens to perish from self-doubt. For minutes he stares motionless at the screen when he loses a championship, tears rolling down his cheeks. Swedish champion Fredrik 'MaDFroG' Johansson briefly teeters on the edge of insanity, having come to believe that his online success means he can sense things in real life before they happen.
When you've been gaming so intensely since the age of 13, and nobody talks to you, it's very difficult to return to the normal world afterwards,' he says in the film.

Enormous growth

Beyond the Game dates back to 2008 - since then, the amount of money involved in esports has multiplied, and so has the pressure. At the same time, more attention has been paid to the welfare of the young and therefore vulnerable e-athletes. The biggest teams, which often house their players together in luxurious villas with extensive training facilities, are pulling out all the stops. Mental health coaches who previously worked for Olympic athletes, health coaches, sports rooms, psychologists. Even smaller teams like Atlantis have managers like Heijmans who take away any inconvenience for the players. Ordering taxis, arranging food, offering a listening ear when the parents of a very young player are divorced.
A good thing, says Manuel Schenkhuizen, now 33 years old. Under his alias 'Grubby' he joined the then fledgling esports world back in 2003. For thirteen years he fought as an Orc in the virtual world of Warcraft III, winning six world championships. Meanwhile, in the real world, he travelled for tournaments from Paris to Shanghai, from Los Angeles to Singapore.
It was an intense lifestyle, he says now, but he got a lot out of it. After 12 years of putting everything aside for gaming, he said enough was enough. Now he earns his living as a streamer, someone who plays at a high level but mainly for entertainment, attracting a paying audience with jokes, techniques, stories.
His advice for aspiring e-athletes and today's top players? Decide what sacrifices you think are worth it. If you want a balanced lifestyle with a wide circle of friends, then live accordingly. But if you want to be the very best, then you will definitely go to a few less birthdays. As long as you enjoy your journey to the top, and as long as you can accept it when you don't make it, then nothing is wasted.

A blow of money

Five minutes after the end of the Grand Finals, that Sunday evening in September, Dave is hanging in the semi-darkness downstairs on the sofa with his mother. She has taken a break from Expedition Robinson , calmly waiting to see if her son will come and tell her that his team has won half a million dollars. Dave is wearing sweatpants and thick socks in his Gucci slippers. There are dark lines under his eyes and he looks a bit pale. Because I am hungry,' he says with a smile. Nerves, Dave doesn't do that.
And yes, he is disappointed: his team finished in seventh place. That earns them $19,200, $6,400 each. Well, boy, I think it's a lot of money to sit up there for three hours,' his mother tells him. I don't deserve it. Huh-huh-huh, Dave laughs. It's just how you look at it', he says. 'I was hoping for a top 3. I want to win. And the cash prizes were much higher in the top 3, of course.'
Halfway through the evening, he has played seven hours non-stop, interrupted only by a few bites of food. And now? To bed? He smiles, as he opens the front door and the mouse-quiet night of Andijk slips into his twittering world for a moment. Just one more game. Just for fun.

Gamers First and H20 esports make full-stop Dutch-language broadcast of DreamHack next week

This Friday, Saturday and Sunday (18-20 October) it is finally time. A large international community of gamers and esports fans are expected in AHOY for DreamHack: the world's largest digital festival comes to the Benelux for the first time. DreamHack's parent organisation from Sweden has offered esports broadcaster Gamers First the opportunity to make a Dutch-language broadcast.
Follow all CS:GO games at Inside Esports on Twitch, Fox Sports or AD.nl, live on 18/19/20 October. The presentation is in the hands of Mike de Jongh, and the matches are casted by the duo Jerre van den Berg and Twan van den Berg. With the help of partners H20 esports, Rabobank and the Municipality of Purmerend, Dutch gaming and esports fans will be able to experience everything for three days.

DreamHack - from LAN Party to gaming lifestyle festival

DreamHack started in 1994 as a LAN party, but has grown into the largest gaming lifestyle festival in the world with 11 stops in 8 countries on 3 continents. This year, DreamHack is collaborating with Rotterdam AHOY for the first time. DreamHack is part of the Rotterdam Games Week. People come here to watch well-known streamers and the best esports players at major tournaments, such as CS:GO (100,000 dollars) and Dota 2 (250,000 dollars), or to play for themselves at the expo or the non-stop Trust Gaming LAN Party.

Inside Esports on Twitch, Fox Sports or AD.nl

Joost Roset, owner of Gamers First: "For years we have been trying to make esports better known to a larger audience through live broadcasts of esports matches. When DreamHack offered us this opportunity, we wanted to take it. However, making broadcasts is costly, because of the deployment of various specialists. We are therefore pleased that the main partners of our new home in Purmerend have stepped in. H20 esports, Rabobank and the Municipality of Purmerend now make this broadcast possible. Apart from our well-known Twitch channel InsideEsports, we will also push the live broadcast to the platform of the Algemeen Dagblad and finally on Fox Sports.

DreamHack — Photo: Gabriel Kulig (https://www.flickr.com/photos/thefoxintheattic)

H20 esports and Rabo Esports Stadium

Dirk Tuip, initiator of H20 esports: "For H20 esports this broadcast was not the first priority. We are in the middle of a challenging renovation of the future Rabo Esports Stadium. However, the past few years we have seen that we have to make sure that esports gets more attention from the general public and this is a great opportunity to contribute to that. We want to collaborate with as many parties as possible to raise the level of esports. This is also a great way to bring attention to our opening, planned for early 2020, together with our partner Rabobank and the Municipality of Purmerend.

Gamers First moves with production team and esports competitions to Rabo Esports Stadium Amsterdam

Esports Competition Operator & Broadcast Producer Gamers First will move into the Rabo Esports Stadium Amsterdam before the end of 2019. H20 esports and Gamers First will enter into a strategic partnership. The productions Dutch College League, Benelux Premier League and the Mijndomein Masters will in any case have a fantastic new location. Gamers will be able to get used to playing in a professional stadium.

H20 looking for esports knowledge

Dirk Tuip of H20: "In recent months we have spoken to many parties in the Netherlands that have been active in the world of esports for some time. Especially because we don't have the specific knowledge of this world ourselves. We are therefore looking for parties that can bring in this knowledge in different areas. We have also noticed that the Dutch esports and gaming world has good initiatives, but that it is difficult to bring this to a higher level and ensure continuity at the same time."

Dutch Counterstrike and League of Legends fans and players next year in Rabo esports stadium

Experience in esports productions

Joost has experienced this with Gamers First. Matthijs Vink (H20): "In recent years, Gamers First has had several locations that had potential but were not designed for esports, or where esports and gaming were central. This has put a brake on growth, although the potential is definitely there. With this partnership we hope to offer (semi-) professional esports competitions a location they deserve, and expect to be able to make a big leap forward due to the production value of the broadcasts.
The joint (media-) exploitation brings the unique esports event location of H20 together with the highest echelon in the field of esports competitions and TV- and broadcast productions of Gamers First. Hopefully this will benefit the entire industry. It will also allow Gamers First to focus on what they do best. H20 will add to this its long experience in top sports, marketing and commerce." Gamers First and H20 look forward to the first joint productions."

Working with everyone

The cooperation with Gamers First brings together two unique strengths. Tuip: "We don't believe in a closed system, and we are happy to have a partner on board who believes in it. Rabo Esports Stadium Amsterdam wants to facilitate and become an ecosystem for everyone with an interest in esports, gaming and creative tech. We hope other parties will follow. This way we can get a real training institute and permanent stadium in The Netherlands that is suitable for national and international tournaments. This is only possible by working together. Joost has already helped us enormously in recent months with his knowledge of broadcasting and productions."

Joost Roset of Gamers First and Matthijs Vink of H20 shake hands at Gamescom 2019

Dutch College League and Benelux Premier League

The move to Purmerend means in any case that the Mijndomein Masters (Counterstrike: Global Offensive), the Dutch College League and the Benelux Premier League (both League of Legends, the latter in a partnership with the game developer Riot Games) will be organised and broadcasted from the Rabo Esports Stadium from 2020. Joost Roset: "We have been looking for professionalisation for a long time, especially in the field of location, marketing and commerce. With Matthijs and Dirk, and with this step, we expect to bring our complete organisation and the productions we organise in all facets to a more professional level."
Roset continues: "This is a new development that also takes time. The market in the Netherlands is of course smaller than in America or Asia. We have had quite a few discussions recently, but I am very happy with this cooperation and hope that we can now continue to grow."

Rabobank and H20 unite youth in first esports stadium in the Netherlands

The Netherlands will soon have its first esports stadium. Rabobank and H20 will join forces in the coming three years to bring young people together in the Rabo Esports Stadium Amsterdam. In addition, the parties want to encourage innovation in creative tech startups and businesses. Rabobank Waterland en Omstreken and H20 esports announced this news today in Cologne during Gamescom 2019, the largest game fair in the world.

Connecting young people and entrepreneurs together

Eric Zwart, Chairman of the Board of Rabobank Waterland en Omstreken:
"The world of the future lies open for young people at the Rabo Esports Stadium Amsterdam. The great thing is that we can connect young people here in real life. And in addition to gaming, H20 is strongly committed to education. Together we can teach the youth to game responsibly.
In addition, the esports stadium will provide business space for game- and tech-related companies. Because they can easily meet each other, it offers opportunities for entrepreneurs to come up with innovative plans together. For the Waterland region, as an important part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area, it can be a catalyst for economic growth. This, together with the strong support from the municipality and the education sector, makes us enthusiastic about our collaboration with H20. As our mission states, here we are really building a better world together for young people and entrepreneurs."

Esports to the next level in the Netherlands

Founder Dirk Tuip of H20 esports: "Internationally, esports has grown into a billion-dollar industry with professional teams, matches in sold-out stadiums, millions in prize money and also gaming clubs where visitors pay to play. We have great ambitions to make the Netherlands part of this industry.
We are therefore very proud that Rabobank dares to take this step with us. This is one of the first structural esports sponsoring deals. Hopefully it's a start and more large parties in The Netherlands will follow and embrace esports and gaming structurally. The next generation is waiting for it. More and more companies want to connect with this new generation, which is often also very tech-minded."

Rabo esports stadium Amsterdam

What is there to do in the esports stadium? Dirk Tuip: "We want all kinds of esports matches, tournaments and gaming events to be organised in the Rabo Esports Stadium Amsterdam. All necessary facilities are available, think of: broadcasting, a place for shoutcasters, a stage with players desks, play areas, etc. There is also a gaming club. This is comparable to a sports club, where you can improve your gaming skills individually or as a team with high-quality gaming gear, such as PCs and accessories. For more information, please visit www.h20.gg.

Frits Dix gets into esports and gaming and with that the financing of H20 esports is complete

Purmerend entrepreneur Frits Dix (Director of NMT Shipping) enters the world of gaming and esports through a participation in H20 esports BV. The ambitious plans of H20 esports thus become reality. The investment completes the financing of the first esports stadium in The Netherlands. The demolition of the current sports hall De Koogmolen at the Spinnekop 1-2 in Purmerend has been completed. The rebuilding is about to start.

A new world, a new market

Frits Dix: "When I was approached by Matthijs Vink, one of the initiators, my interest was aroused immediately. Every day I see young people around me only on their mobile phones, on social media or for gaming. When I heard the plans, it was clear to me that this is not just a market that is growing fast. H20 (www.h20.gg) also offers great opportunities for young people in and around Purmerend and Waterland, which I also find very important. I also enjoy helping young entrepreneurs with the experience that I have gained as an entrepreneur.

Esports Stadium Amsterdam

Matthijs Vink (H20): 'Initially, we only focused on the campus next to the sports hall. On the ground floor of this campus we wanted to use esports and gaming elements as part of the campus. However, after a number of trips abroad, we saw several large gaming clubs and also stadiums where people come to watch competitive gaming (esports). From that moment on, we raised our ambitions and the sports hall fitted in perfectly. However, this was a big challenge financially. We then approached Frits Dix. He immediately reacted positively and that gave us the right move to continue.

Developing the next generation

Matthijs continues: 'As time went on, the plans became better and more professional. Partly due to the input and experience of Frits. The beginning is always difficult. Certainly in this new world that still has to grow in the Netherlands. With the investment of Frits the financing of the esports stadium is now complete. In phase two of our business plan we will tackle the campus in the coming months. The focus is now on starting up the esports activities. Our mission is 'developing the next generation through gaming and esports'.