ESP Gaming launches World Showdown of Esports with Richard Lewis

ESP Gaming has formed the new World Showdown of Esports league, with former ELEAGUE host Richard Lewis serving as the WSOE DIrector of Talent.

There’s another new esports league on the way. World Showdown of Esports will begin competition next week, according to a press release Tuesday from ESP Gaming, and there’s one big name involved so far.

Described as being “modeled closely after the UFC,” the new league will set up different events with various esports titles and crown champions, who will then have to defend their titles at future events.

A special kickoff competition, featuring PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and called The PUBG Pan-Continental, will be the first event under the WSOE banner. Sixteen teams will compete July 14 and 15 from the WSOE’s PokerGO Studio at Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, with the action being streamed on Twitch.

Following that, the first official World Showdown of Esports event, WSOE 1, will take place later this fall with a date and details to be announced.

While we don’t know what other games will be on tap under this new league, the idea has some potential. Esports tournament organizers like ESL and DreamHack have hosted events that have multiple games, but the audiences don’t always cross-pollinate.

And with World Showdown of Esports comparing itself to UFC and declaring that it “brings fans the drama and spectacle,” it certainly seems like this will be as much about entertainment as it is the actual competition.

That makes perfect sense for a league based in Las Vegas, one of the live entertainment hotspots in the United States.

What will equally intrigue esports fans is who ESP Gaming has hired behind the scenes. Former ELEAGUE desk host Richard Lewis, who left that organization earlier this year, is WSOE’s Director of Talent.

According to the press release, his new job description will involve overseeing the on-air personalities who appear at World Showdown of Esports events and on their streams. It’s a major pickup for this developing league, as Lewis was the face of ELEAGUE and one of the people who made that brand a success.

“With the WSOE, we’re completely flipping the script on the traditional esports tournament format in a way that has never been done in competitive gaming,” Lewis said in Tuesday’s release.

“The WSOE’s unique format allows us to create the matches that competitors and fans want to see and that the competitors want to engage in. We look forward to re-imagining and growing the sport of competitive gaming and crowning our first WSOE Champion this fall.”

Adding Richard Lewis to the roster automatically gives World Showdown of Esports a certain amount of legitimacy. Lewis is someone who knows esports inside and out, is very well known to fans, and proved with his ELEAGUE stint that he has a keen eye for what needs to happen behind the scenes to create a viable brand.

If WSOE can get enough talent in front of the cameras to support it, and if it does manage to keep the entertainment and personalities balanced with delivering worthwhile competition, this could further explode open the American esports space.

Especially if it focuses on titles that are still growing their own presence in the competitive scene, like PUBG, there’s room here for a new contender.

Fans can check out the PUBG Pan-Continental next week to get a taste of what’s to come, and find out if World Showdown of Esports really can become the next great esports brand.

Next: Is Jurassic World: Evolution worth playing?

For more on World Showdown of Esports, visit the league’s website. For more Gaming coverage, follow the Gaming category at FanSided.