Today, we’re going to tell you about the high potential of the eSports niche and the unsuccessful attempt by some hapless Germans to fill it. In the space of six months, they’ve changed their white paper and team, been caught lying time and time again, and never even gave us a clue about what their product is like.

The Prosperity and Adversity of eSports

Over the last decade, eSports has gone from a bit of fun for nerds and lazy fuckers to an industry where big money is thrown around. Prize funds at big tournaments have exceeded $20 million dollars and top players can earn $20k a month from advertising alone, while streamed matches attract millions of views. So don’t be surprised if soon your kids won’t want to watch Warriors vs Cavaliers, but will be happy to tune into the same game streamed by some NBA LIVE 18 master.

But eSports has its problems. In its current state it looks like a company with huge budgets and potential whose development is hampered by incompetent staff who are always getting in each other’s way.

To find quality analysis about the CS:GO pro scene, you have to wade through about a billion websites. It’s not easy to buy skins or keys for games without running into some sort of trouble. It’s impossible to watch all the games of your favourite Dota 2 team in high quality and with replays in one place. Just recently Facebook didn’t let Twitch show an entire ESL minor.

To sum up, this pigsty needs to be cleaned out vigorously and thoroughly. But whoever is able to do that is sure to strike gold and become something of a deity to eSports communities.

The Owls Are Not What They Seem

It’s no wonder that in these circumstances eSports is a perfect breeding ground for fraud. At the moment there are a lot of ICOs that promise to solve all the niche’s problems in one fell swoop. Almost all of them are scams or something very similar. But people take the bait. Because when an eSports ICO is successful, investors will be able to buy as many Lambos as they want.

That will definitely not be the case for this particular eSports ICO. These guys took the best possible domain to become a Mecca for pro gamers, but in the end turned out to not be what they seem. Like the owls in Twin Peaks.

Let’s start with the fact that the website meant to become the top platform in the eSports world is at the end of the second page of search results for the query “esports”. Now that’s just an embarrassment. Or have they still not got around to looking for a decent SEO specialist? Outwardly, the site looks like a regular resource for gamers. Nothing special. News, videos, streams, white paper, a masterplan (basically a roadmap) and information about the token.

Social Media

The company’s Facebook page looks like an eSports media outlet that doesn’t have a social media manager. It’s littered with pieces of news from the website. You can forget about GIFs, competitions and comments. There’s an average of 10-20 likes with 14,500 subscribers.

The content on Twitter is the same with around 3-8 likes from 3,500 followers.

They had to actually make some videos for YouTube. During the ICO, they came up with some stuff, filmed it, edited it and seeded it too. Now there are interviews recorded during video calls with 100 views each.

Take a look at the company’s profile on LinkedIn. Almost all the people in this list no longer have anything to do with the project.

White Paper & Product

The whitepaper was remade after the project launch. Users had a lot to say about the first version. Especially about the use of blockchain.

One of the co-founders joyfully informed the community that the whitepaper has been updated.

Since the links to the old white paper are broken, let’s delve into the new one. It’s a barrel of laughs!

Basically, they’re working on the product. Of course, no one has ever laid eyes on it.

Paragraphs like this should be more than enough to get someone sent to hell in the afterlife. Not a single word of any substance!

Now this is interesting. Have you heard about any Ethereum-based ERC20 tokens lately that were created before the decision was made to hold an ICO?

Have you had a careful look at the numbers? Here’s some alternate history for you. I wonder who’s lying?

Then in January the boys claimed to be entering into sponsorship agreements with the giants of the gaming world.

There is no sign of eSports on the Overwolf site and there’s no mention of their organisation on ESL either.

Apparently, the team have tokens coming out of their ears too. Otherwise how would they all add up to 101%?

As for the product, it was initially announced that a platform would be created to play the role of a media outlet, TV channel and bookmaker. Users would be rewarded with tokens for writing articles and recording sick videos. Now the company has decided to abandon betting. This looks very strange. In eSports, there are a lot of unexpected match results. Which attracts the attention of those who want to make a killing out of the blue. This means that refusing to create a betting service on a popular platform is tantamount to throwing your money down the drain.

Team and Advisers

Nevertheless, the strangest things are happening within the company itself. A couple of weeks ago, the founders Föckersperger and Geppert disappeared from the new whitepaper. Just prior to this, Michael Broda became the CEO of eSports. It’s unclear what brought the distinguished founder of a Czech investment fund to this godforsaken place. Maybe the authors of the whitepaper mixed him up with this hunk?

Ben has publicly described his conflict with project investors (apparently the $36 million shortfall from the ICO had an impact). He also told us that lawyers are now involved.

Philip wrote about his departure on LinkedIn. It’s doubtful that he was sober while doing it 😀

The current team lineup can be seen in the whitepaper. Two Bulgarians have appeared — Ivan Nikolaev and Georgi Georgiev. The advisers include Eric Benz, who also advises Kick City, a scam we’ve already written about. Melissa Blau, a popular woman in eSports, has never indicated her involvement in the ICO anywhere.

The CEO Broda himself replied to questions about the corporate conflict, inconsistencies in the whitepaper and other important things in keeping with the best traditions of slippery politicians.

Rating

During the ICO, the eSports token was sold for over $2. Since then, it has dropped significantly and is unlikely to rouse enough public interest for a rise in the near future. The lack of a product, corporate conflicts and policy flip-flops are there for all to see. It’s a complete fiasco.

We believe that one day there will be an ICO from a project that will revolutionise the world of eSports. It’s a shame that the name won’t be so awesome. Investors will lose any desire to put cash into anything that even hints at “eSports”. 100% confirmed.