NRG Announces Chicago based Call of Duty Franchise

(Chicago, IL - September 13, 2019) - NRG has announced the acquisition of the Chicago franchise for the upcoming Call of Duty Esports League.

With this acquisition, Chicago joins the likes of Paris, Toronto and New York in the now 12-city league, which kicks off in 2020.

“NRG has loved Call of Duty and the competitive pro and amateur scene for a long time now,” said NRG CEO Andy Miller. “The formation of the new Call of Duty esports league provided the perfect opportunity for the org to jump in. The prospect of having Chicago written across our team’s chests was the icing on the cake. We hope to transfer our winning formula from the San Francisco Shock of the Overwatch League to the new Call of Duty esports league and our Chicago team."  

About NRG

NRG Esports is a globally leading esports organization that fields competition across multiple gaming titles. Founded by former Vice President of Apple and co-owner of the Sacramento Kings, Andy Miller, NRG is led by a roundtable of experience and expertise stemming from traditional sports and tech industries alike; with investment from the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Tiesto, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez. 

NRG Announces New Partnership with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

(Los Angeles, CA - September 13, 2019) - NRG announced The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), the global leader in the fight to end blood cancer, as the team’s new charitable partner through 2020. The collaboration reaches across the entire NRG organization and its subsequent teams and starts just in time for Blood Cancer Awareness Month in September and LLS’s 70th anniversary. 

“I’m thrilled about this new partnership! It’s a great way for the NRG Family to give back to the larger community and drive a positive message,” Said Brett Lautenbach, President of NRG. “This is a first of its kind partnership for us and we’re excited to help The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society get its message out to all of our fans and the community at large.”

The partnership will see NRG and its players raising awareness and driving donations through digital and live activations.

“LLS was founded 70 years ago by a family for families, and we are excited to team up with NRG to help bring us closer to our goal of creating world without blood cancer,” said LLS President and CEO, Louis J. DeGennaro, PhD. “Blood cancers, like leukemia and lymphoma, can strike anyone at any age and are the most commonly diagnosed cancers in children and young adults.  We are so excited to partner with NRG Esports, a leader in the industry as this relationship will help expand our reach and spread awareness among young people about these diseases and the free services we offer to help patients of all ages.” 

About NRG

NRG Esports is a globally leading esports organization that fields competition across multiple gaming titles. Founded by former Vice President of Apple and co-owner of the Sacramento Kings, Andy Miller, NRG is led by a roundtable of experience and expertise stemming from traditional sports and tech industries alike; with investment from the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Tiesto, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez.

About The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is a global leader in the fight to end cancer. The LLS mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. LLS funds lifesaving blood cancer research around the world, provides free information and support services, and is the voice for all blood cancer patients seeking access to quality, affordable, coordinated care.

Founded in 1949 and headquartered in Rye Brook, NY, LLS has chapters throughout the United States and Canada. To learn more, visit www.LLS.org. Patients should contact the Information Resource Center at (800) 955-4572, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.

For additional information visit lls.org/lls-newsnetwork. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

NRG Current: Major Edition

CSGO
NRG went for it in a major way last week. After cruising through the New Challengers and New Legends stages in the Berlin Major, it was on to the New Champions (Playoffs) stage for the very first time in NRG history! That’s right, after years of trying and often banging on the door, NRG CSGO was finally in a Major with a real chance to win it all. It has been a methodical build to get to this point with Stanislaw and Tarik coming on board this year to solidify the squad that featured Brehze and last year’s additions Ethan and Cerq. These 5 incredible players have indeed put the entire CSGO community on notice; NRG is no longer just one of the top North America teams, we have now solidified ourselves among the world’s elite squads with a proven ability to beat any team, any time. And to celebrate this achievement, we released new NRG stickers and this limited edition white jersey to kick off the weekend!

On Friday, we took on Navi with a top 4 spot on the line. The boys were on fire from the jump and Tarik went full nuclear as we took them down easily 2-0 and made our way into semifinals! The boys, were confident after that match (just listen to Stanislaw on stage) and with good reason as NRG had beaten both teams they could face in the semis already this tournament. We ended up taking on Astralis, the greatest CS team of all time, who ended up playing their best CSGO at just the right time as they took us out in the semis and went on to win their fourth straight major a day later.

The guys wanted even more, but this was not a disappointment by any stretch. You can hear the conversation about how respected we now are in every broadcast. You can see the adulation in our fan base at the event. And as of yesterday, NRG is now the #3 ranked CSGO team in the world! Congrats to our guys who we know will keep grinding until they get to #1!

SHOCK

WHAT A WEEK! From playoffs beginning to on sale for ShockFest2020 tickets to our very own Sinatraa being crowned the Overwatch League MVP, so much happened for the San Francisco Shock!

Before the playoffs began for the team, the Shock received one more individual award; the big one, as our own Sinatraa captured the Season 2 MVP award.  Not surprising considering how he played this year resulting in a #1 league ranking in damage and other categories, but still incredible considering how far he has come.  Remember, Jay “Sinatraa” Won was the “toxic” kid who was too young to play for much of the first season and struggled to live up to expectations when he finally got on stage.  All he did from there though was listen to his coaches, work with all his teammates, and grind as hard as anyone to be the very best player he could be.  It just turned out that he was good enough to be the best in the world too!  Congratulations Sinatraa, we could not be more proud of you!

As the team began the 2019 Playoffs we had some amazing stats to point to and a lot to reflect upon vs. this time last year.  But as we took the stage, with a new playoff meta we knew this would be a whole new challenge.  Especially with our first match against old friend BabyBay and the Atlanta Reign, who also went undefeated in stage 4 and had the advantage of another match in the new meta before playing us.  It was an intense game that went to game 7 and the energy on stage was matched by fans in Roseville who came out en masse for a Shockwaves fan club watch party hang out.  Both teams played their hearts out, and there were huge plays for the record books, but in the end we fell just short of stopping the Reign.  But this loss did not eliminate us from the playoffs, instead, it simply moved us into a tougher bracket.  

Next up we took on the defending Overwatch League champions, the London Spitfire, on Saturday. Things started shaky, but we bounced back in a big way.  London seemed to lose steam as we flexed our muscles and dominated each map. One of the best parts of the night was getting to see all ten Shock members on stage contributing to our 4-0 victory which knocked the defending champions out of the playoffs!  Now we turn our sights to the LA Gladiators this Thursday at 7p PT. Two more wins after that on Saturday and Sunday and our Shock are off to Philly for the Overwatch League Grand Finals on Sunday September 29.  It won’t be easy, but if this season has taught us anything, this squad is up to the challenge.
 

BATTLE ROYALE
NRG Fortnite is certainly on top. After another incredible week, NRG now has the #1 ranked player in North America (Epik Whale) and Europe (Benjyfishy)!!! Both players won their respective Fortnite Championship Series this past weekend to help solidify that ranking with Zayt and Symfuhny getting top finishes too. This crew pulled in a cool $142k over the weekend. And as of today, EpikWhale, Benjyfishy, Symfuhny, and Zayt have all qualified for the Fortnite Champion Season Finals on Friday, September 20th!

Apex has its next big tournament this weekend with The Apex Legends Preseason Invitational in Poland. This tournament has the biggest prize pool in Apex history with $500,000 on the line. Stay tuned to NRG social for all the Battle Royale action this weekend!

ROCKET LEAGUE
Our Rocket League trio took to Dreamhack last weekend in Montreal. After a rough start we found our bearings and tore through our matches to reach the Top 8! We continued to dominate as we swept GC Aura in our next series, but in an exciting 7 game semi-final series, we fell to G2 in Overtime. The new look NRG RL squad has one win and one 3rd place finish under their belt in their first two tournaments together.

AROUND NRG

Please welcome our newest Clash Royale members, George and Boeufman!
And last but not least, please welcome a whole new game and team as we officially entered Gears of War last week! We are thrilled to call the winningest esports team in history (17 wins in 19 tournaments) Ashes, Sumuns, Praized, Mental, Solurs, and Xplosive our #NRGFam.

NRG CURRENT: Live and Legendary!

LIVE AND LEGENDARY...

CSGO

CS is always all about "the" Major. Thousands of teams around the world compete every year to make it to the big stage for the final 8. NRG is finally there! After re-qualifying in the Minor and busting through the first stages of the Major the boys have gone on an insane run to capture the attention of the Counter Strike world. After suffering a loss in the very first round of this major (probably jet lag), its been nothing but W's as NRG CS looks toward its first Major's final ever. After taking down Renegades and the #1 team in the world - Team Liquid, the bracket brought us the former #1 team in the world in Astralis. Back-to-back heavyweight matches did not slow down the squad as they battled the champs in easily the best map played in the Major so far. After Astralis hit match point, we managed to come back and bring the game into overtime… actually, it was FIVE overtimes, practically another full game. NRG staved off multiple match points with clutch play after clutch play and finally pulled out a truly remarkable 31-28 win. We dominated the next map 16-4 and with that secured a spot in the New Champions Stage starting this week! That means a win on Friday and we make our final four dream of playing for the world's championship in Berlin over the weekend. Stay tuned and fingers crossed!

SHOCK

2020 Shock TICKETS ARE LIVE!! Last week we launched the presale of tickets for next year’s home SHOCKFEST 2020 festival weekend matches; First Arrival March 28-29 at Cow Palace outside San Francisco and the Showdown in Silicon Valley at the San Jose Civic July 18-19.  We had a solid response to initial ticket sales so we decided to extend our special discounted presale offer until 11p PT tonight!   Tomorrow we go full on sale to the public! So PLEASE secure yours, tell a friend and bring the fam!

We didn’t have any matches this week due to the bye that comes with our Top 6 ranking, but the League continued as 6 teams battled for the last two spots. And before the games began, our boys received some high regular season honors as Moth, Super, Choi, and Sinatraa all won esteemed Role Stars awards for Main Support, Tank, Off Tank, and DPS respectively.  Four spots from our six player starting roster for the regular season “All-NBA” type of teams is INSANE?!?!? This has truly been the year of the Shock.

This weekend our playoff journey begins with our first match against old friend Babybay and the Atlanta Reign on Friday at 7p PT.  Follow Shock social for all the details on Shockfest 2020 and the 2019 playoffs as we make our march to Philly and look to add the most important award, the 2019 OWL Championship to our collection!

BATTLE ROYALE

Congrats to the Apex squad on qualifying for Twitchcon with a first place finish! And to our Fortnite guys Benjyfishy and Epikwhale for qualifying in trios. And once more to Benjy, who went on to finish first or second in every category with his EU trio! Benjy is unstoppable!

AROUND NRG

And lastly, we hope you all had a terrific Labor Day Weekend and we are super excited about all that is to come this month and beyond!!!! September is THE month - CS Major, Overwatch Finals, Twitchcon Apex and Fortnite tournaments - buckle in NRGFAM.

NRG Current: Are You Ready for Some Playoffs?

SHOCK

What a ridiculous week to wrap up an impressive regular season for our Shock squad. The LA KitKat Rivalry Homestand at the Novo Theater in LA Live was the scene for our last 2 games of the stage and 2 watch parties around the Bay provided fun hangouts for passionate fans that couldn’t make it to LA. We came in looking to finish the regular season strong and complete our second undefeated stage of the season! But first, we had to face our season long rivals the Vancouver Titans on Saturday, and Smurf and Viol2t were ready. The Titans gave us a great fight, and the exciting match went to a map 5 after we tied the series on Havana. The boys turned that win into momentum and easily took the last map in 2 rounds to secure victory.

Just one more match to go and on Sunday it was time to defend the California Cup vs. the hometown LA Valiant. We couldn’t have asked for a more hype crowd at our watch party by Buffalo Wild Wings and Bud Light and by halftime we were already at match point with 2 map wins. After an easy win on Map 3 Nevix was summoned for Map 4. It was so great to see this amazing teammate finally on the stage again! As expected, we took map 4 as easily as the rest and completed the sweep which by the way meant the Valiant were knocked out of the playoffs in front of their hometown fans :). And with that, the second regular season of the Overwatch League came to an end.

The Shock finished the season with an incredible 23-5 record and led the league in Map Differential with a mindblowing +66 map wins. We were also the only team to make all 3 Stage Finals and the first (and probably last) team in Overwatch League history to complete a "Golden" stage with a 7-0 record and 28-0 map wins! We also have 2 of the top three vote-getters to date for League MVP and 3 of the 7 starters for the USA World Cup team in Super, Sinatraa and Moth. WOW! On to Philly!

Now we set our sights on the playoffs which begin for us against old friend BabyBay and the Atlanta Reign on Friday, September 6 at 7:00p.
In the meantime stay tuned to Shock social and your inbox for pre-sale offers for shock2020.com starting Wednesday, August 28 at 10a PT! We are stoked for the first event March 28-29 at Cow Palace and the second at San Jose Civic July 18-19. We will start by going out with full weekend packages for both events this week and will introduce single tickets and other promotions along the way. We always value your feedback so please hit us up with any thoughts or suggestions any time! ...And ...Buy tickets!!! Tell friends!!! Shock 2020 in the Bay!

SMASH ULTIMATE

One of the truly fun things in this org has been watching how much Nairo has grown since he began his journey in Smash Ultimate. Even in just the last few tourneys, we’ve seen vast improvement in his play, and we saw it yet again this time at Shine. On Day 1 he and Samsora teamed up for doubles and finished 3rd. Then he set his sights on singles, securing Top 12 by the end of the day.

He had a heck of a climb if he wanted to win this thing, since he was fighting in the lower bracket. But he was hungry, and it showed. With a 3-0 on Leon and 2 reverse sweeps in a row against Tweek and Dabuz, Nairo faced Marss, one of his toughest opponents to date. In a dominating performance he swept Marss 3-0, proving to himself and everyone that he is absolutely at the top of the Smash scene.  Unfortunately Nairo did not get a break between sets, and after playing that amazing but draining match against Marss, MKLeo ended Nairo’s run at Shine in the very next match at 3rd.  We’re super proud of the work he’s putting in, and the way he always grinds and always makes time for fans.  More victories are soon to come!
 

CSGO - MAJOR EDITION!

The CS team is in Berlin for THE Major. After a rough start where they fell to team Dreameaters, the CSGO guys woke up in a big way. On Day 2 they went up against Tyloo in a Best of One where we saw how incredible Cerq’s AWP flicks are. We took that map as well as the next against Syman, which meant there was only one match left in order to qualify for the next stage of the Majors journey: New Legends. In a Best of Three format vs Avangar we dominated, not allowing the enemy team to get into the double digits for a clean 2-0 sweep. Now the big step is qualifying for the big stage, coming up later this week! We are confident heading in as Stanislaw and Tarik have truly rounded out this group, and check out the player of the match stats for Ethan over 2 games! Stay tuned to NRG social for all the action this week!

AROUND NRG

The perfect weekend for NRG was capped off by our insane Fortnite squad. Symfuhny & Snood as well as Zayt & Saf each played in the Twitch Rivals duos tournament as Symf’s team took home $5k for a win in match 3, and Zayt’s team took 3rd overall, winning nearly $8k! Savage and Benjy were also doing work in their solo tournaments last week, and Benjy competed in trios as well. Along with Mitro and Mongraal, Benjy got a 42 elim win, and for the second week in a row, they finished #1 in Europe! Benjy has now qualified for the EU Finals and Zayt and Symfuhny for NA East. And our latest signing, EpikWhale, qualified for the NA West finals after his #2 finish in trios! In all, our guys brought in a cool $183k this past weekend and put themselves in position for a lot more down the line! #NRGONTOP!!!

NRG CURRENT: 2020 Has Arrived

SHOCK

After two years of planning, the Overwatch League finally announced the upcoming schedule for the 2020 season, including our two Homestand weekends! Pre-sale begins on Wednesday, August 28 so keep an eye out on social and in your inbox for details about ShockFest 2020!!! As a teaser… The first event will be March 28-29 at one of San Francisco’s historic landmarks; The Legendary Cow Palace! This place hosted the Rolling Stones, U2, Prince and even the Beatles and we are excited about the big festival we will set up here around the matches for our “First Arrival” weekend! We will hit the South Bay for our second, more intimate event, at the San Jose Civic Center July 18-19. This “Silicon Valley Showdown” will highlight the tech capital of the world and offer triple-header matches each day! The time has come. We are All-In for ShockFest 2020. And for a little more info, just listen to our owner Andy Miller!

Oh yeah, and the Shock did play and win last week to go to 5-0 in Stage 4! After watching this last match, you wouldn’t believe us if we said the Hunters had a win on us in Stage 3 in a very close match as Rascal and the gang seemed to be on another level with some brutal DVa staggers, Genji ult denials, and… off role play? Needless to say, we rolled the Hunters in a 4-0 victory.

Next up we have the Kit Kat Rivalry Weekend where we take on the Titans and Valiant in our final two matches of the regular season. Then it’s on to the Season 2 Playoffs!!!

ROCKET LEAGUE

For the past few years, a Grand Finals win has been an elusive one for our NRG Rocket League squads. But with the dawn of a new era, complete with new jerseys and a new teammate in Turbopolsa; Garrett and Jstn were determined to prove NRG could win it all in the end. After losing their first match of the Rocket League Summit on Friday vs G2, they went on to play Vitality in a series of overtime games which resulted in a 4-0 sweep!  We continued to dominate against Dignitas and came away with and impressive 4-1 victory.  Then on Sunday, we started off against Cloud 9 and took another easy 4-0 sweep to advance to the winner’s final. After yet another win against Frontline, the guys took the time to rest while the remaining teams battled to see who would take us on in Grand Finals. 

We couldn’t have asked for a better storyline as we faced Frontline for the second time in the tournament, and boy did they give us a juicy series. With our backs against the wall, down 3-1, we managed to squeeze out a win in a 6-minute overtime in game 5. It was a smoother ride from there and we managed to come back in Game 7, which means… NRG currently holds the title of BTS Rocket League Champions! Congrats to Garrett, Turbo, and especially Jstn, as this is his very first win in majors!

BATTLE ROYALE

Dizzy, Ace, and Mohr all participated in Twitch Rivals Solo Apex Event last weekend. Dizzy and Ace both made top 5 in the final results AND the kill leaderboard! On Sunday Benjy teamed up with Mongraal and Mitro for Fortnite EU Trios. They went hard, getting a 16 kill win which put them in first place going into the finals. They continued their run, finishing 2nd place overall in Week 1!

AROUND NRG

Our new look CSGO team has a new partner. Please join us in welcoming Thunderfire and the new CSGO Jerseys!! And get your brand new Major stickers in game now too! The guys have been grinding at boot camp in preparation for the Berlin Major this week so stay tuned to NRG Current for all the details!

And lastly, we just wanted to share an update on Riley, an amazing person whom Nairo visited as his wish for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Meeting Nairo apparently inspired Riley to set goals and work hard to meet them. Riley is in a better place now physically and mentally and we are looking forward to seeing what else he can accomplish in the future!

NRG CURRENT: NEVER A DOUBT

SHOCK

Last week was our first two match week of Stage 4 as we went up against the Shanghai Dragons on Friday and Dallas Fuel on Sunday. But before the serious business went down, old friend Babybay helped Super with his look for the Overwatch League Variety red carpet event last Tuesday. After a night of fun hanging with pop and TV stars, the boys were back on the grind to take on Stage 3 foe, the Shanghai Dragons.

The first map against Shanghai on Friday was as close as it gets, but with calm and purposeful play we managed to clutch out the win. From there, we rode the momentum with big plays including a huge barrage from Rascal and came out on top with a relatively easy 3-1 victory. With just a day between matches, our guys didn’t have a ton of time to reset, but they did take it upon themselves to make their own food in that off day… see the result here!

Then it was on to face the Fuel on Sunday. It's always a bad idea to plan a local watch party when you team is playing the Shock, and Dallas learned their lesson in short order on Sunday. This one was over before it began. Rascal and Architect popped off as expected and it was good to see our MVP candidates Sinatraa and Super come in for a couple maps to remind everyone how great they are in any format the league throws at us! Don’t forget to vote them your #OWLMVP’s!

An easy 4-0 match win against Dallas, Rascal’s former team, brings us to 4-0 in the Stage. Undefeated so far! With a playoff spot secure, now it’s all about seedings for stage and overall playoffs as we hit the halfway point of the final stage of the season. And remember, to get in on all this action in our home San Francisco Market next year, sign up here and be the first to know about the Shock’s 2020 schedule and tickets to be announced at the end of the month!

FIGHTING GAMES

Nairo headed to Smash Con this weekend and sought to reclaim the title of champion he won back to back in 2016 and 2017. And Nairo went hard for it, competing in Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate singles AND doubles which made for some really long days!  Day 3 was where the real Nairo was unleashed in Ultimate Singles. 

Starting with Top 64, Nairo won two in a row to advance to the Top 16 Winner’s Bracket. After a CLOSE game against Marss, he won his next match in the lower bracket and moved on to Top 8. In some of the best Smash we’ve seen all year, Nairo’s journey ended in the Top 6, after he fought hard against but lost to the reigning EVO champ MKLeo. It was great seeing Nairo perform so well and and congrats to our Smash stud on his Smashies award for Best Comeback of the year!

BATTLE ROYALE

After the incredible success for us and Fortnite at the World Cup, things got back to a normal grind last week as Benjy took another crack at Friday Fortnite and came in clutch with some sick plays like this zipline scope. The real story though, was an almost unanimous opinion among the community about mechs in Fortnite as fans around the game all let their voices be heard around social media to remove them. The guys will be back in action at Fortnite Comps the next two weekends so stay tuned to NRG social for details!


Huge news on the Apex front too as they just announced that Apex Legends solos will be coming soon to the game. We are excited to see Dizzy and the boys rip it up!

AROUND NRG

Happy birthday to our own Grady, and also to 2/3 of the Rocket League team- JSTN and Turbopolsa! Those two will join GarrettG this weekend at the Rocket League Beyond the Summit in LA. Also, congrats to Benjy for 200K followers on twitter, and congrats to us on passing 700K followers on NRG Instagram!!!!!

NRG CURRENT: The Endgame is here...

A quick note to celebrate corporate milestones and our insane social growth in the month of July. NRG instagram (@NRGgram) grew by 150,000 followers in the 31 days of July. That is a bigger follower count than most orgs out there. NRG twitter saw 1.4M engagements on our timeline in July and NRG youtube had our first 1M view videos and added 36,000 subscribers. July also saw the completion of NRG's acquisition of brand partnership agency, Ader out of LA, and the close of the first round of our Series C financing. Wow. What a month! And now the highlights...

SHOCK

After announcing an exciting new sponsorship with Marvel Studios to promote Avengers: Endgame throughout Stage 4, the Shock got down to business looking to improve to 2-0 this stage. For the first time since Stage 1 of OWL 2019, we faced off against the LA Gladiators and we certainly had something to prove. Between the new 2-2-2 lock, forcing shakeup in our line-up, and the fact that the Gladiators gave us a rare taste of defeat early in this season, there were doubts we could win this match. But the Shock have shown they will do whatever it takes to win, and the stakes were high on Saturday as victory would clinch a top 6 playoff spot, a first round bye and a cool $200,000!

We dropped the first map but that just added fuel to the fire, because in map 2 we full held on Hanamura and proceeded to capture within the first minute! After halftime King’s Row was full of excitement as it went into overtime and each fight could be a map loss for either team. The Gladiators ended up taking Map 3, but a solid run on Havana took us to a deciding map 5 on Lijiang. In 2 impressive rounds the Shock boys secured the win and clinched Top 6 overall rankings and a first round bye for the playoffs to the Big Dance in Philly end of September.

And while the team fought hard in Burbank, our fans showed support in San Jose at the San Jose Earthquakes Gamer Night. Fans got to meet Nevix, play games on portable setups, and watch the Shock Match on the field on the big screen! We’d like to take a moment to thank all our fans for your support. Whether you’ve been with us from the beginning or have joined our family recently, you make all the hard work worth it! If you haven’t yet, make sure you join us when we bring these matches to Northern Californian next year. Sign up for more info on tickets for home festival matches for Shock2020!

FIGHTING GAMES

Nairo and Hook went high rolling in Vegas at this year’s EVO.  Hook battled hard throughout the DBZ Tournament but came up short of his stated goal ending with a top 32 finish.  Nairo was once again a star among stars in the Smash community as he made his way around Mandalay Bay and as usual he put on a show for fans.  He made a deep run through the weekend but finished 17th, falling to rival Marss whom he deems “his kryptonite”.  No rest for the weary though as Nairo is back on the road for Smash Con in Virginia this week! Stay tuned to NRG Current for details!

BATTLE ROYALE

Dizzy, Mohr, and Ace headed to the X Games Apex Invitational at the new US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis this past weekend to represent NRG. The event brought in the best players from around the planet for a pre-season warm up to a full competitive slate for Apex with the the boys taking 13th place. We are honored to have been chosen for this invitational and look forward to continued success in Apex.

AROUND NRG

Happy 17th birthday to Mr. 1.2m Epikwhale! We hope you get yourself something nice with those winnings! Mr. Savage has a new creator code! Use code 200IQ in the Fortnite item shop for a discount. And finally, congrats to our former Smite player and NRG world champ Adapting on his engagement! Once #nrgfam, always #nrgfam!

NRG Current: NRG Drops in and Delivers... 2.25 Million Dollars!!!

FORTNITE
Last weekend was an incredible moment in time to be an esports, Fortnite and NRG fan. The World Cup took place over the course of three days at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City and was watched by millions of fans around the world. The entire NRG competitive Fortnite squad double qualified in both Singles and Duos for the world's best-of-the-best competition.
On Saturday, NRG Zayt kicked off the duos competition with his partner Ghost Saf by taking the first Victory Royale of a 6 round point-based tournament. Zayt and Saf held on to the #1 spot for over 3 hours and the first five rounds before tripping up at the very end and dropping to fourth overall, but pulling in a cool $900k for the squad in the process. NRG names were all over the duos leader board with EpikWhale and partner taking 12th and fan favorites MrSavage and Benjyfish taking 14th. Sunday brought the main event to NYC, the solos championship. EpikWhale, who signed with us shortly before the World Cup began and who qualified with a computer he built on a street sign, played consistent and intelligent Fortnite staying in striking distance of the leaders heading into the 6th and final found where he made his move. The 16 year old straight A student from Rodondo Beach, CA destroyed the final round picking up huge points and moving into 3rd place on the leaderboard when the dust settled, securing our biggest purse of the weekend at $1,200,000! Benjyfishy and Mr.Savage again won the hearts of fans with their play and personality during the event finishing strong and picking up more total cash for NRG.

NRG's huge rise in popularity was never more evident than in the lead up the World Cup as NRG held a meet and greet sponsored by Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs at the 368 Gaming Studio in Tribeca where more than 1,000 fans turned out to meet Symfuhny, benjyfishy, MrSavage, EpikWhale, and Zayt. Guests were treated to hot dogs from our sponsors (hand delivered by our own Andy Miller) and even though it was humid, hot, and lasted for more than 3 hours, our guys loved every second of it and were incredibly humbled to meet all of their fans. This really was a seminal week for NRG, as our social channels picked up tens of thousands of fans, we sold a bunch of merch, hit our first 1M view YouTube video and showed up strong with on site fan activities and brand activations. NRG ON TOP!

SHOCK
After being dominant in the GOATS meta for the first 3 stages of the season, the Overwatch League implemented a 2-2-2 role lock consisting of two tanks, two damage, and two supports at the beginning of Stage 4.  Not gonna lie, a lot of people counted us out with this meta shift so late in the season. But in our first match against the Seoul Dynasty, we again claimed victory in convincing 3-1 fashion with Sinatraa still playing like an MVP.  Oh, and we also took home the Nighthawk Router Rumble belt for the second time in a row! 

While winning was not new this season, there were some new faces in the line-up as Striker, Architect, and Smurf all made appearances over the 4 maps after sitting on the bench all season. When we built this roster at the end of season one, our main goal was to include a deep bench to cover any meta possibility, and so far the strategy is paying off!

Lastly, the Shock’s fingerprints are all over the recently announced USA World Cup Team, as former players Sleepy and Danteh will join Moth, Super and Sinatraa on the Squad! Team USA is Team Shock. Very proud to have our boys rep the stars and stripes.

NRG Never Sleeps ...
No rest for the weary as NRG will be all over the map again this weekend.

Nairo and HookGangGod will be competing at EVO (Evolution Championship Series) this weekend starting August 2nd at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Perhaps the most prestigious fighting game event of the year, the guys have been training hard and both say they are in top form and ready to go. And Nairo could be getting some extra love as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has secured their spot in primetime and will be the featured event as the tournament wraps up on Sunday; a spot reserved for the biggest esports title at the time of the event! In addition, a camera crew from Nintendo will be following Nairo around all weekend. Also, about 1500 miles away, Dizzy, Ace and Mohr will invade the new U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis for Apex Legends at the X-Games! Broadcast live on ESPN all weekend, this is yet again another big platform for esports and NRG will be at the forefront.

NRG Current: Here To Stay

SHOCK

Stage 3 said a lot about who we are. With the meta shifting, the Shock lost a couple of matches earlier in the stage and everyone began to doubt the Stage 2 champs.   In fact, by the time Stage 3 playoffs rolled around we were inexplicably touted as  “underdogs”.  But the squad built off of our stage 1 runner-up and stage 2 championship experiences, stayed together as a unit, worked with the coaching staff and easily took down Seoul Dynasty in the opening round of the playoffs!  Next up was the LA Valiant in the semis as we destroyed our in-state rivals with a 4-0 sweep to advance to a record-tying third straight Stage finals and another victory to hold on to the Cal Cup.  So it was onto the stage finals where we met the Shanghai Dragons, a squad that had downed all the other top seeds in the tournament with their unpredictable strats and DPS comps.  

After gambling with a brand new starting line up the boys quickly found themselves down 0-3 in the best of seven series. With no answer and a series sweep at hand, our boys dug down deep. An impressive hold on Havana highlighted a hard fought comeback that saw us roll map after map back on the Dragons and tie the score at 3 games a piece. With a national tv audience on espn2 glued to their screen, word spread of the game 7 on twitch and the streaming audience spiked 50% in the last 30 minutes of the match.  For the second time this season, Game 7 would decide the Stage champs for the Shock!  It was a close affair, but Shanghai took Dorado (the map they chose) and they now hold the title of Stage 3 champions. 

Even with a loss, the Shock did indeed show the world exactly who we are; the most consistent team in Overwatch and clearly the best team throughout the first three stages.  No doubts.  The league is shaking things up and changing the way the game will be played in Stage 4 so our team has a lot of work ahead, but we are confident and prepping every day to be ready to show the world we are #heretostay and reach the Grand Finals in September in Philly. See u there!

CSGO

While the Overwatch League Stage 3 playoffs were happening in Burbank, the CSGO boys were going hard at the invite only Blast Pro Series down the road in LA. Tarik even took some time to show his support for the Shock! It was a long weekend of competing nonstop that began with four best of one matches soon Day 1. The boys had a few back and forth affairs but placed second when the dust settled and qualified for the semis on Sunday.  Our semifinals game was against Faze, and it was close, but our squad didn’t get it done and ended up getting knocked out. The semifinals curse continues, but we have no doubt that once Stanislaw gets firmly in the mix (Blast was only their 2nd tourney together) our boys will break free of it soon!  Our path to the MAJOR starts this week with the American Minors qualifier. Stay tuned...

BATTLE ROYALE

Big weekend as BenjyFishy, Savage, and Zayt competed in the cash cup trios. On Saturday Benjy and Savage took home 5th alongside Mongraal. Zayt shot to the top of the leaderboard with Saf and Bizzle and later remained at the top Sunday winning North American bragging rights. We are also just getting back from a terrific shoot with BenjyFishy and his mom in their hometown of England. We look forward to sharing that story socially soon!

AROUND NRG

On July 8th we welcomed the newest member of the NRG fam into the world! Congrats to our art director Gomey on becoming a dad to baby Leighton. #NRGFam. And, if you are in the area, make sure you catch our very own Nairo, GarrettG, and Nevix at the Cal State Fair this weekend! For more information, see the event site. They will also be heading to the Giants vs. Cubs game on Monday to help promote their upcoming gaming night, NRG and tickets for Shock home matches in 2020! We know Tiesto is ready...