The weekend’s finals brought an extraordinary season of the “Swisscom Hero League powered by ESL” to a worthy conclusion. A total of 10'700 gamers have been competing in the Swisscom Hero League and the Swisscom Gaming Cups since the beginning of the year. The top 22 met last week at the HeroFest in Bern. The winners of Clash Royale, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends have now been decided.
22 professional players put up a thrilling fight at the Grand Final of the Swisscom Hero League at HeroFest at the Bernexpo centre. Although only around 100 people were admitted on site each day due to the current restrictions, the mood remained buoyant. The event turned into an online spectacle that was watched by 285'000 E-sport enthusiasts. Nadine Jaberg, E-sport manager at Swisscom, is pleased with the end result, despite the current restrictions. “We had of course hoped that the Grand Final could have taken place on a larger scale. Nevertheless, the fourth season has still been great success thanks to the many online viewers. Especially given the current situation, it has shown how closely the gaming community sticks together and the potential of this sport.”
Swisscom was quick to embrace this trend within the gaming and E-sport sector, and is bringing new impetus with Swisscom blue TV: customers can easily find a wide variety of gaming content from TV channels, streaming platforms such as Twitch or from the net in the Gaming folder and watch it on TV. It also plans to gradually expand the cloud gaming offers on Swisscom blue TV.
On Saturday, Karan Rastogi aka «Senpai Rekt» from Geneva took the victory in the mobile game Clash Royale. «KINGZZZ» made everyone sit up and take notice by winning the tactical shooter game Counter-Strike:Global Offensive. Team «KINGZZZ» prevailed against team «Red Instinct» by 2:1 to pick up the trophy and the CHF 5,000 prize money in front of a substantial online crowd. As in the first season, the E-sport classic League of Legends took place on Sunday, with the teams «Lostik» and «Noetic» competing against each other. After more than 2 hours of playing time, team «Lostik» won by 2:0 to celebrate victory on the big stage.
The Swisscom Gaming Cup feat. Fortnite, also broadcast by HeroFest, was won by «Noahreyli». «285'000 viewers of all ages watched the final of the Swisscom Gaming Cup feat. Fortnite – as well as the finals of the Swisscom Hero League – online and on TV, an indication of the significant interest in E-sport that exists outside the community too. Some players are already attracting a fan base. I am really excited about this development,» says Jaberg Bilanz.
Valorant gamers have something to look forward to: following the success of the Swisscom Gaming Cups with Fortnite and FIFA, a format with the new game Valorant will be launched on 21 November 2020. Registration is now open. For more information, visit swisscom.ch/gaming. The Swisscom Gaming Cups are popular tournaments that are open to all gamers. Several thousand players took part in recent Fortnite Cups.
