The world of esports eyes will be focused on New Orleans in April

Franklin, IN -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/17/2019 -- The Esports Development Company announced today that the inaugural Esports Pipeline Convention and accompanying Global Esports Invitational Skills Combine will be held from April 3-5th, 2020 in New Orleans, LA, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, adding to the city's impressive roster of national and international sporting events hosted there annually. The Esports Pipeline Convention will invite to New Orleans the biggest esports brands, investors, suppliers, developers and industry stakeholders. In addition, the convention will feature a unique global Esports Skills Combine that will simultaneously connect aspiring gamer talent with collegiate and professional teams and leagues seeking to recruit and develop players through scholarships or professional roster spots.

"We are thrilled to bring the Esports Pipeline & Invitational Combine to New Orleans in 2020," said co-founder of the Esports Development Company, Kerry Gumas. "From our first conversations with the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation and the New Orleans & Co. convention and visitors' team, it was clear they understood the impact this event could have for New Orleans and the world of esports. New Orleans is a city of deep traditions in business innovation, great sports organizations and events and a culturally significant style of high-energy entertainment." The Pipeline is focused on player development and commercialization opportunities to serve the global and professional esports community. This is not a small demographic,as currently esports reaches a growing audience fast-approaching 500 million players worldwide.

The Pipeline has attracted a world-class board of advisors to this event, including Kevin Lin, Founder of Twitch; Benjamin Denis, Montreal Esports Academy; Kate Yeager, formerly of Mixer; Allie Young, Axis Replay; Adam Toth, from the University of Limerick, and many more. "It is imperative for us that we cast a wide net for this event" says Bill Dever, co-founder of the Esports Development Company, along with Shawn Smith and Kerry Gumas. "Unlike other sports, esports currently lacks the infrastructure of a fully developed pipeline to progress and develop talent from youth level to high school, collegiate and pro. We've created the Combine to serve as a platform for collaboration within the industry to provide a gateway for promising talent from around the world seeking to navigate what can appear to the uninitiated as the sometimes festival-like environment of esports. The fact is that the sport is huge worldwide, with huge demands for talent at all levels," said Dever.

Esports Pipeline 2020 invites you to join over 1,000 representatives of leagues, teams, schools, organizations and facilities and 5,000 invited pro, collegiate and amateur players and prospects for a unique platform created to drive player development, investment and business innovation and accelerate the worldwide growth of esports. "Under the common banner of player development, we look to innovate and solve critical industry issues today so that our sport may continue to grow and succeed," said Shawn Smith, co-founder of the Esports Development Company.

Join us April 3-5th in New Orleans. For more information, visit www.pipelinecon.com.

About Esports Development Company LLC
Esports Development Company is dedicated to the advancement of esports and development of the sport's talent base of players, coaches, management, marketing and operations professionals. The company is dedicated to the advancement of player development, investment and business innovation to accelerate the worldwide growth of esports. Esports Development Company maintains a unique network of expert relationships and provides advisory services to esports investors, owners and management of companies in or seeking to enter the industry and to athletic directors, counselors and administrators at the collegiate and high school level. The company was formed by professionals with deep experience across a broad range of sectors including esports and competitive gaming, large-scale global event production, media, information, entertainment, commercial property development, hospitality and finance.

Contact:
Bill Dever
bill@esportsdevco.com
317.225.9767
http://esportsdevco.com
http://pipelinecon.com

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GYO SCORE POWERS NACE'S EFFORTS

Franklin, IN -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/07/2019 -- From June 21-June 30, nearly a dozen nationally accredited universities will offer esports summer camps and combines for prospective students and players seeking esports scholarships nationally. The NACE Summer Camp Series is the result of a strategic partnership between the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) and Harena Data Inc (GYO Score), to promote the burgeoning collegiate esports scene by aiding in player improvement, recruiting and data analytics in college esports.

Beyond the summer series, the NACE and GYO partnership will bring much-needed player statistics and schedule coordination to the esports collegiate circuit. "In a few short years we have seen collegiate esports grow at an incredible pace. However, the tools and services colleges and universities need to be successful, many of the same tools we see widely used in traditional athletics, has been lacking" said Michael Brooks, Executive Director of the National Association of Collegiate Esports. "Our strategic partnership with GYO puts some incredibly powerful tools back into the hands of our members to not only improve the way they recruit student but also how they manage their teams and interact with other institutions. These new tools that leverage the strength of our network within the association will be a tremendous help to the future success our members will see in the years to come."

The NACE Summer Camp Series will be held in at least 8 NACE affiliated schools across the U.S. During the events, students play competitive esports titles in a combine format in order to set statistical benchmarks for themselves and to create data baselines from which to improve their game. During the event, they will receive oversight and assistance from official college coaches and program directors. Once the event concludes, players will have created a scouting report for their play styles and strengths, which will become the foundation of their recruiting profile as schools begin to consider offering scholarships to their program.

The term "combine" usually refers to a sporting event which is a physical analysis of player conditioning to determine raw speed, strength and skill levels of a competitor. For esports combines, many of the same principals apply, but with a digital scope. Using proprietary data analysis tools, GYO analyzes raw gameplay performance statistics and gameplay footage to create a comprehensive profile of a player's skill levels. These abilities are assessed and put on display for coaches, scouts and whomever would be interested in watching the evaluation of the esports competitor. For the competitors, it is a chance to display their abilities and talents within a specific game or genre.

"Esports is the only professional sporting concept that has built a pro system without any real considerations towards a farm system or a path to pros for aspiring competitors," said Shawn Smith, CEO of Harena Data Inc. "Through these combine and summer camps, we can build the foundation of esports by giving players a true sense of where they are in the skill landscape and how they can progress forward."

Both NACE and GYO believe that schools and colleges are an important piece of the path to pros, with over 140 colleges offering around $15 million per year in scholarships for esports students, much like traditional athletics scholarship recipients. NACE is a member-driven organization that focuses on the positive development of esports programs at the collegiate level and advocates for members to create varsity programs that include scholarships for its participants and a strong institutional commitment to esports. 153 post-secondary institutions currently belong to NACE.

While the initial event is limited to select schools, NACE and GYO intend to expand the program in the future to make it more widely available to students in all regions.

About NACE
NACE is a member driven organization that focuses on the positive development of esports programs at the collegiate level, and advocates for members to create varsity programs that include scholarships for its participants and a strong institutional commitment to the sport. NACE is the only association of college and university sponsored esports programs that promotes the education and development of students through intercollegiate esports. NACE currently has 153 varsity esports programs as members, accounting for nearly all (92%) varsity programs across North America.

For Media Inquiries contact Victoria Horsley at vhorsley@nacesports.org.

About Harena Data, Inc
Harena Data is a Delaware corporation with registered headquarters located in Franklin, Indiana. Founded in 2017, the company has developed GYO Score: a machine learning and artificial intelligence data platform for the esports industry, which launched at the beginning of 2019. The GYO Score esports data analytics platform evaluates player performance and predicts future play potential so players can better develop their skills and get recruited for scholarships or professional opportunities. The principals of Harena Data have a strong background in esports, event management, motion picture production, and telecommunications.

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Indiana based Harena Data facilitates Scholarships for Rising Esports Players

Franklin, IN -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/21/2019 -- On the first of March, GYO launched its first global esports combine which ran for a period of ten days and was held in over 350 LAN gaming centers. After several weeks of combine data analysis, over 120 scholarship and team offers have been sent to players around the world, with more offers expected to be sent this month. The goal of the combine was to help players get discovered and provide players with a skill baseline and play analysis profile in order to improve their play. Moving forward, future combines will involve more direct recruiting at the scholastic levels of play, based on the success of the first.

The GYO Esports Data Analytics Platform, which hosted the Combine, analyzes player performance and predicts future play potential so players can better develop their skills and get recruited for scholarships or professional opportunities. The platform, which produces stats akin to baseball sabermetrics, is particularly beneficial to college recruiters seeking to build their burgeoning esports program.

Nearly 140 US colleges are offering around $15 million per year in scholarships for esports students, much like traditional athletics scholarship recipients. Robert Morris University in the Chicagoland area was the first college in the U.S. to offer video gaming scholarships and students there now can earn up to $19,000 a year in gaming scholarships. GYO helps assist players in achieving these scholarships by providing them access to information about applying and by sending their gameplay data to scouts and recruiters who can then invite them to apply.

Among the schools who analyzed the results of the first Combine was Belmont Abbey College. Belmont Abbey College is a small, private, traditional Catholic, liberal arts college located in Belmont, North Carolina. They will begin competing in their inaugural competitive season this Fall. Still actively recruiting, with Fall '19 scholarships still available in League of Legends, Rocket League, Fifa, Madden, and NBA2k, Head Esports Coach, Nathan Berggrun, is "quite pleased" with the GYO service. "The GYO Dashboard has allowed me to easily assess abilities and skills while also directly communicating with eligible eathletes. I believe GYO and their combines will be instrumental in building the Belmont Abbey Esports Program."

The volume of initial offers was surprising for Harena Data, given the lateness of the Combine in the traditional collegiate recruiting calendar. "We were pleasantly surprised by the large amounts of scholarships being offered," says Shawn Smith President of Harena Data Inc. "As an initial event we were not really expecting so much activity, but obviously we have hit a chord and are excited to see the demand when all schools are recruiting at full strength during the Fall of 2019."

The GYO platform takes raw data and statistics from players in-game and processes them using machine learning and artificial intelligence systems. Using these data points, GYO analyzes individual play performance by observing patterns of strong play. This allows GYO to identify positive characteristics of individual play even when final results may not tell the whole story. This has major impact on the granting of scholarships as more competition enters the market and colleges begin competing for the top skilled players around the world.

About Harena Data, Inc
Harena Data is a Delaware corporation with registered headquarters located in Franklin, Indiana. Founded in 2017, the company has developed a machine learning and artificial intelligence data platform for the esports industry, which launched at the beginning of 2019. The principals of Harena Data have a strong background in esports, event management, motion picture production, and telecommunications.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm