Who shapes the growth of regional esports?

As we know gaming is one of the biggest industries in the world and esports is getting more and more attention by the day. Eastern countries were the first to recognize its potential, and then Europe, and North and South America followed. Today we have successful esports tournaments all around the world.

A1 Adria League has been active for a long time now, actively working on improving esports in the Adriatic region, but there are many organizations that have been supporting the same story and providing a battlefield where the regional esports players will shine.

Regional esports organizations

There are a lot of positive examples of regional organizations that want to bring regional esports to a higher level. Good Game Global is a familiar name in regional esports as well and they had their mark in the growth of competitive esports, raising popularity in the b2b sectors and of course running their own league for students… They have been creating esports content, influencer campaigns, and other esports initiatives since 2016.

Fortuna Esports with their EBL franchise have been shaping careers for many League of Legends superstars who had their shine in the most prestigious organizations in the world. OGA Dota Pit brought an official Minor event to Croatia alongside teams like Fnatic, Astralis, Liquid, OG, … and what can we even say about Relog Media who surpassed the region a long time ago, but they are still supporting local players with invites to their multi-million dollar tournaments.

Some of the events to mention are Rikon, primarily a science fiction convention that sometimes organizes smaller esports tournaments. Then we would also mention Fantastic Esports and their Fantastic Gaming Show, Beyond Esports Conference, local events and tournaments ran by esports federations, and more.

A1 Adria League is one of the projects that is doing the most for the region. We have been active since 2017. Since then we have had 12 successful seasons (the 13th is ongoing). Every year we have more and more players who want to compete and maybe get a chance to be recognized by someone. Just last year we had:

• over 250 hours streamed
• 200k live views
• 95k live viewers
• over 1000 players

Is the Adriatic region giving any future to the players?

The fact that esports isn’t taken seriously is mostly affecting the players who don’t have a future here but need to play for foreign organizations and teams. The most recent cases are the players from Guild Eagles. RigoN just signed for BIG, while juanflatroo and sinnopsyy went to ITB, and we all know the quality of these players.

This is why A1AL is doing the most for the region. Even though the players at the moment don’t have a bright future with domestic teams, they get recognized playing our tournaments. Some of the players who played in A1AL and are now in Europe are:

• Rigon “rigoN” Gashi – Played for BNE/Guild Eagles – Just a couple of days ago signed for BIG
• Dionis “sinnopsyy” Budeci and Flatron “juanflatroo” Halimi – Played for BNE/Guild Eagles and recently signed to play under ITB (UK org)
• Pavle “maden” Bošković – ATM plays for Falcons, previously played for ENCE
• Toni “Sacre” Sabalić – Played for SK Gaming, currently at Schalke 04
• Dino “LIMIT” Tot – As a player, we have seen him at SK Gaming, Schalke 04, and BDS, currently he is the assistant coach for SK
• Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač i Nemanja “nexa” Isaković – won our A1AL season 2 with Valiance&Co, currently at G2 Esports