It‘s been confirmed: Schalke 04 invests into a professional League of Legends esportsteam. A news conference, on the obvious question: why to buy an esport-team out of the sudden, will take place on may 19th.
To be honest Elements didn’t turn out to be a top team this so far.
They finished 7th place (6W-12L), wich means that after all they didn`t have to deal with this years promotion tournament. At last, the search for new sponsors (wich started back in december 2015) has now finally come to an end. Time will show, if Elements‘ current cast is going to remain.
Changes
As a matter of fact, the first known change is that Fox is going to step up as Elements new midlaner.
Tim Reichert (Head of E-Sport Schalke 04) stated that everyone‘s eager about the upcoming collaboration. Moritz Beckers-Schwarz (CEO oft he FC Schalke 04 Arena management GmbH) said that Schalke is going to do everything it takes for their players to feel comfortable and to grow.
Esport in german society
So what does it all mean for the tolerance and progress of esport in german society?
Pro Sieben (a major TV-channel) lately confirmed that they’re planning on airing esportgames.
Now a german soccer-club is sponsoring the esport-team Elements.
Finally esport stopped being a socially awkward phenomenon and has become an accepted sport. Even Schalke 04 sees it as an worthy investment.It will be interesting to see how much influence the Big Players in the sports industry will have on esport in the future. I’d be happy, if at least there won`t be any Visa-Problems for professional esport-player anymore.
