Creator League is a new competitive gaming league by eFuse with a focus on content creators and using their fandoms as a way to garner viewership. With esports around the world struggling with the question of monetisation, community content creators and their audiences have proven effective in garnering viewership. Creator League will combine competitive gaming with some of the biggest global content creators, like MrBeast, IShowSpeed, and many more.
8 creators. 4 Splits. 1 CHAMPION ????
— Creator League (@CreatorLeagueGG) September 2, 2023
Here’s everything you need to know about Creator League Season 01 ???? pic.twitter.com/aQoxCsYHeM
Esports disciplines such as Valorant have already seen the power of community casters and their fans. Throughout Valorant Champions 2023, tarik was the most-watched streamer of the event and he was significantly more popular than the official Valorant broadcasts. Community casters are in many disciplines of esports the most effective broadcasters for drawing in viewership, and using content creators as the face of your competitive gaming league might be an answer to the monetisation question.
What’s the Creator League?
Creator League was announced by MrBeast in a recent YouTube video, where he explained the league features some of the top gaming entertainers in the world and that, “it’s like having a front-row season ticket, but you’re not just watching”. He elaborated that by buying a community pass, fans would be able to influence the league, compete in weekly tournaments, and maybe even win some prizes.
The passes are priced at $19.99 and if purchased before September 9th you also receive a free box of MrBeast’s Feastables. Although MrBeast is partnered with or sponsored by the Creator League, he himself is not competing.
When does the Creator League start?
The Creator League kicks off this weekend, September 8th, with a $50K three-day open qualifier 3v3 Zero Build Fortnite event. All players with a pass can compete and are not only playing for a chunk of the prize pool but also a spot on their favourite creator’s team. After this, the league will have an official show launch on September 13th, with a live draft of the best players and team voting, where players can voice their opinions and create strategies.
After this, the league officially launches on the 19th of September, with the Finals of the first split taking place between October 3rd and 5th. This is only the first split of the league, which is planned to take place over almost a year. Below you can find a schedule of the Splits for the upcoming season of competition.
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Split 1: September 8th – October 5th
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Split 2: October 20th – November 24th
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Split 3: January 12th – Feb 8th
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Split 4: February 23rd – March 21st
Which creators are involved?
The Creator League announced some of the biggest names in live-streaming and content creation to compete. IShowSpeed, Bella Poarch, Clix, Sapnap, and Vinnie Hacker are some of the biggest internet personalities at the moment, and they were all announced to be involved with the Creator League.
OpTic Gaming and OTK were also announced to be a creator for the league, although it is not currently clear which members of these organisations are confirmed to be involved with the league. CDawgVA was one of the eight creators originally announced for the league, but it’s already off to a messy start as Connor announced his withdrawal from the league on Twitter.
So I'll just be real with you guys, I accepted to join the creator league not fully understanding the tech behind it. Needless to say, with the current information available I'm planning on withdrawing.
— Connor (@CDawgVA) September 3, 2023
I was not told or made aware at any point that there was Blockchain…
Connor explained in a Tweet that he was unaware of the blockchain technology involved with the league and was only made aware of this when the event went live. Not only was he unaware of the technology before the announcement, he claims to have been given assurances that the league would have nothing to do with NFTs.
As it turns out, the community passes are actually NFTs. NFTs are a divisive topic in the gaming and live-streaming communities, but the real issue for Creator League is that they failed to announce to both the fans and seemingly the creators involved that the community passes are NFTs and will utilise blockchain technology. Creator League has yet to reply publicly to Connor about his withdrawal from the league, but he is still listed as one of the eight creators on Creator League’s Twitter bio.
OTK co-founder Tips Out also took to Twitter to explain that OTK was explicitly told that there were no NFT or crypto components to the league and that OTK is currently waiting on a response from Creator League to their questions. This is an unsurprising stance for OTK, considering that their co-founder Asmongold has been vocally critical of blockchain technology and pushed back against other creators who have campaigned for NFTs to be integrated into more video games.
Creator League may be one of the biggest competitive gaming leagues of the year, but it’s already off to a rocky start with one of its eight creators having publicly withdrawn himself from the league, and other creators may follow. Whether or not the creators involved support blockchain technology, a key issue here is the seemingly purposeful denial of the usage of NFTs from the side of the Creator League.
Despite the rough first step, Creator League has signed some of the biggest names in internet culture and will undoubtedly be one of the biggest gaming events of the year. Stay up to date with the viewership performances of the league with Streams Charts’ analytical data.
