{"id":67899,"date":"2018-01-22T18:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T02:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=67899"},"modified":"2018-01-23T08:50:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T16:50:17","slug":"las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas ‘Rogue’ Esports Team Levels Up to Superstardom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Esports may be a big buzzword in Nevada casinos, but a Las Vegas-based team is currently sparking the most chatter.<\/p>\n

\"Rogue
Rogue\u2019s champion Overwatch team, which gets mobbed in China, apparently, and counts Steve Aoki as a co-owner, was acquired last week by ReKT Global, and is aiming for big things. (Image: Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cRogue\u201d esports team has gone from a little-known outfit to globetrotting champions in a matter of months. Last year its CS:GO team won the Mountain Dew Video Game League championship, while its Overwatch team has earned almost a quarter of a million dollars on the international circuit.<\/p>\n

Rogue is so popular, it has even attracted celebrity DJ and competitive gaming enthusiast Steve Aoki to buy in as a co-owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they go to China, they have screaming fans with Rogue jerseys and signs,\u201d Rogue CEO and cofounder Derek Nelson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>. \u201cMost of our big tournaments, they pay hotel, they\u2019ll pay appearance fees, they\u2019ll pay prize winnings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game Changers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Aoki has vowed to build Rogue into an esports powerhouse, but you could argue they already are. Last week, the team was acquired by \u201cesports infrastructure\u201d entity ReKT Global for an undisclosed sum.<\/p>\n

The deal provides the team with a financial buffer and capital needed to enter its players into the biggest tournaments in the world. Because regardless of how good you are, if your team can\u2019t afford the buy-ins, you can\u2019t play.<\/p>\n

Somehow, we were able to pull out just enough money to keep the team going,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cThey were the best players in the world, so we had to pay them at the top of the industry standard. We were just betting that it would all work out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Overwatch, the first video game designed specifically with esports in mind, turned out to be a literal game-changer for the nascent Rogue squad, as it focused efforts on mastering the team-based first-person shooter. Overwatch is now huge on the esports scene and Rogue\u2019s foresight is paying off.<\/p>\n

Esports in Casinos?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

With a new dedicated\u00a0esports arena at the Luxor in Las Vegas<\/a> scheduled to open in March, and with more and more casinos hosting esports events and taking tournament bets in their sports books<\/a>, the casino industry seems convinced esports could play a significant role in gaming’s future.<\/p>\n

But while casinos have said esports events are profitable, all of the money is currently made from the sale of food and beverages. The bigger question, and one that casino execs are dying to know, is how do you truly monetize esports itself?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question that Las Vegas’s Rogue team, however, isn’t exactly struggling with at this point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Esports may be a big buzzword in Nevada casinos, but a Las Vegas-based team is currently sparking the most chatter. The \u201cRogue\u201d esports team has gone from a little-known outfit to globetrotting champions in a matter of months. Last year its CS:GO team won the Mountain Dew Video Game League championship, while its Overwatch team […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":67901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3313,3312,11,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLas Vegas 'Rogue' Esports Team Levels Up to Superstardom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Las Vegas-based Rogue esports team is on a roll, with its players mobbed by fans in China, and superstar DJ Steve Aoki among enthusiastic investors.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Las Vegas 'Rogue' Esports Team Levels Up to Superstardom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Las Vegas-based Rogue esports team is on a roll, with its players mobbed by fans in China, and superstar DJ Steve Aoki among enthusiastic investors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-23T02:00:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-23T16:50:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/rogue-image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"534\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/\",\"name\":\"Las Vegas 'Rogue' Esports Team Levels Up to Superstardom\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/rogue-image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-23T02:00:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-23T16:50:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"The Las Vegas-based Rogue esports team is on a roll, with its players mobbed by fans in China, and superstar DJ Steve Aoki among enthusiastic investors.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-rogue-esports-team-levels-up-to-superstardom\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/rogue-image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/rogue-image.jpg\",\"width\":950,\"height\":534,\"caption\":\"Rogue\u2019s champion Overwatch team, which gets mobbed in China, apparently. 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