Richard Lewis Newsletter

Nov 1, 2023 | richardlewis.substack.com | Richard Lewis

This week saw the news that the Saudi Arabian state, through the vast wealth of its Public Investment Fund, had acquired another ailing esports property that it would use to further expand their ever tightening stranglehold on the industry. The Electronic Sports World Cup hadn’t run a tournament since 2018 but is now set to be the brand that will be used the esports component of the Gamers8 festival in Riyadh.

Sep 2, 2023 | richardlewis.substack.com | Richard Lewis

Rare cause for celebration in the world of esports happened the other day. The news that Nicole Lapointe-Jameson will step down as CEO may well be publicly lamented by the esports Twitterati but the rest can breath a sigh of relief and dare to finally pop some corks. The writing had been on the wall for some time.

Aug 11, 2023 | richardlewis.substack.com | Richard Lewis

As regulars will know I’m currently on holiday, a month long retreat from the stresses of fighting the losing battle for the soul of esports. I have long since made peace with defeat, accepted that this was always an industry where only grifters and turncoats could truly thrive.

Mar 29, 2023 | richardlewis.substack.com | Richard Lewis

The overwhelming majority of the 101 pages submitted as court filings revolve around conversations between Astralis Director of Sports, Kasper Hvidt, and Nicolai “Hunden” Petersen, then coach of Heroic. The main topic of conversation is Hvidt tasking Petersen with feedback on building a new look Astralis team and encouraging the Heroic coach to reach out to other players and encourage them to join Astralis.

Mar 27, 2023 | richardlewis.substack.com | Richard Lewis

As is established by now, Nicolai “Hunden” Petersen was sanctioned for a second time by the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) for sharing strategic materials with a rival opponent and given a two year ban on the 27th August 2021. In their investigation it was revealed that the materials were shared via means of a Google Drive and that the only reason that Petersen was the only party banned was that forensic analysis showed that no-one else from the opposition team accessed the files.