Riot Games and Verizon expand training program for women in esports

By Giovanni Colantonio June 14, 2021

Verizon and Riot Games are teaming up to offer training and mentorship for women in esports through an expansion of Verizon’s VCT Game Changers initiative. The objective is to train more female esports casters.

The announcement comes from Verizon’s E3 keynote presentation, which featured several announcements. Chief among those is Verizon’s commitment to increasing female representation in the gaming industry and esports.

The VCT Game Changers program will give female esports casters tools to help grow their profession, as well as mentorship. The program will launch sometime this fall and offer opportunities to female players, including tournaments and broadcasts produced by Riot Games.

As part of its inclusion initiative, Verizon put $1 million into a new Game Forward Scholarship. It will be awarded to 25 female students studying technology this fall at five historically Black colleges and universities. The list of participating schools includes North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Morgan State University, Texas Southern University, and Howard University.

Recipients will be guaranteed an internship at a top gaming or tech company, as well as access to Verizon’s 5G Gaming Center. The $1 million investment will also fund the creation of tech centers at historically Black colleges.

As for the rest of Verizon’s E3 showcase, the company announced a new partnership with EA to better optimize its games on Verizon devices. The mobile company has also partnered with Team Liquid to create a new VR experience that lets people attend live events virtually. Finally, Verizon has teamed up with Dignitas to beta launch an NFT experience. The first 100 fans to interact with Dignitas on its social channels will receive an NFT of Dignitas’ Women’s FPS team that can be viewed in AR.

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Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

Gaming

Summer Game Fest returns just before E3 2023 next June

The official artwork confirming Summer Game Fest's return on June 8, 2023.

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That June 8 start date, and the other Summer Game Fest events likely to follow, put Keighley's show just ahead of E3 2023. The ESA and ReedPop plan to bring E3 back between June 13 and June 16, 2023. With five days of lead time on E3, Summer Game Fest can coexist with the long-running gaming conference and encompass the plethora of publisher showcases that tend to precede E3.
Geoff Keighley made it clear that he wants Summer Game Fest and E3 to coexist for a while. "We've had extensive conversations with ReedPop about E3," he said in an interview with Epic Games Store. "I think it'll kind of fit together and flow kind of from what we're doing into what they're doing and stuff. E3, to me, is this kind of master brand that represents gaming news in June."
With the start date of Summer Game Fest confirmed, the coexistence of these two summer gaming events is a reality. Summer Game Fest returns on June 8, 2023.

Gaming

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Multiple members of the TSM esports team.

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TSM partnered with FTX in June 2021 via a naming rights deal set to last 10 years. At the time, the partnership was valued at a whopping $210 million. With the deal, TSM would change its name to TSM FTX and use the company's logo on gear like jerseys, as well as display it in players' social media profiles. With FTX's recent collapse, which saw the cryptocurrency exchange filing for bankruptcy, TSM found itself in an awkward position less than two years into the deal.

Gaming

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Three shoutcasters on couches.

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I spoke with Special Olympics CTO Prianka Nandy and last year's Rocket League champion Billy Seide to learn about the initiative that's looking to expand the reach of esports to all players.
Widening esports
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