RankR – The new home of esports?

One issue with the esports scene to date is that it’s disjointed. One reason for this is that unlike traditional sports the individual games themselves are owned by companies meaning determining rights, access and coverage becomes a more complicated situation.

Many don’t realise the extent to which esports is an umbrella term, and that games within it can be as distant as basketball and football, with the only similarity the fact that it’s a video game. This unsurprisingly means that whilst there is extensive coverage and fan bases, these are often focussed on particular titles especially the more popular within the community at large such as League of Legends and Dota 2.

Step up RankR Esports. This is a new hub for competitive gaming tournaments, rankings, and news which covers any esport regardless of platform, publisher or genre.

The new online community will also include an events calendar, global rankings, and a team-builder function with a chat function that will allow players to group up and play games.

Such a centralised and all encompassing tool is much needed in esports, and it’ll make organising events easier allowing the sport the opportunity to grow even faster. Esports as a whole has a huge fanbase and viewership but questions have been raised over the potential to monetize these viewers.

With different companies and organisations running their own leagues and tournaments, and more and more popping up all the time it can be difficult for fans to find a broad range of information in one place. With RankR as the unifier across esports titles fans of one may be exposed to another and become a fan.

2016 looks set to be a huge year for esports particularly with the ELeague starting in the near future. This is a collaboration between Turner Broadcasting and WME IMG, and is the first time that an esport, in this case CS:GO, will be given regular committed television exposure. The league will be aired on TBS and will be broadcast, promoted and produced in the same vein as the likes of the NBA and Major League Baseball.

COO and Co-Founder of RankR Esports, Cameron Robinson said in a press release sent to GamesBeat: “Our mission is to make RankR esports a foundation on which esports can grow, thrive, and become more accessible to players and fans around the world. We’re taking some cues from the traditional world of sports, but also creating a community that is unique to the esports landscape.”

RankR Esports was founded by Cameron Robinson and now CEO Jake Smith.