Press Release

CyberZ has Established an Esports Professional League “RAGE Shadowverse Pro League”.
The Esports Event “RAGE 2018 Spring” was Held Successfully with +20,000 Attendees and +7 Million Online Viewers.

IR

CyberZ, Inc. (Head office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, President: Takahiro Yamauchi) a consolidated subsidiary of CyberAgent, Inc. (Head office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, President: Susumu Fujita, TSE: 4751) has established the RAGE Shadowverse Pro League (hereinafter referred to as “the league”) as Japan’s first professional league appointed for the strategic multiplayer digital card game “Shadowverse” (provided by Cygames, Inc.)

The league, which starts on Saturday, May 5 2018, will be hosted jointly by Avex Entertainment Inc., Cygames, Inc., and AbemaTV, Inc.’s gaming channel “Ultra Games”.

The 4 professional esports teams listed below belong to the league. This is a professional league with new efforts such as having each team carrying out public offerings for the players by the season opening and guaranteeing the minimum income (salary) of players entering the league.

Teams

*Alphabetical

Team Name: au DetonatioN
Official Partner: au (KDDI Corporation mobile phone/mobile communication business)
Team Logo:
Team Name: LEVANGA☆SAPPORO
Official Partner: SAPPORO BREWERIES LTD.
Team Logo: 
Team Name: Nagoya OJA Baby-Star
Official Partner: Oyatsu Company, Ltd.
Team Logo:
Team Name: Yoshimoto Libalent
Official Partner: YOSHIMOTO KOGYO CO.,LTD.
Team Logo:

Each match will be held at the largest esports studio in Japan, “OPENREC STUDIO”, and the league is planning a complete weekly broadcast on the “AbemaTV”'s “Ultra Games” channel and on “OPENREC.tv”, where everyone can watch the matches.

The league focuses on discovering new players through league matches, and will fully support the dreams of game players who want to play as professional athletes.

RAGE 2018 Spring

In addition, the largest esports festival in Japan, “RAGE 2018 Spring” was successfully held jointly by CyberZ, Inc. and Avex Entertainment Inc. on March 21, 2018 (Wednesday/Holiday) in Makuhari, Chiba. The event recorded 23,732 attendees in total, more than 7 million viewers watched the live broadcast on OPENREC.tv and AbemaTV, which was one of the largest numbers for an esports event in Japan.* Multiple genre games are adopted as competition titles in “RAGE”, which runs conventions throughout the year, and this time there were fierce battles for the following three titles:

・Strategic multiplayer digital card game “Shadowverse” (Cygames, Inc.)
・Competitive fighting game “Street Fighter V Arcade Edition” (CAPCOM CO., LTD.)
・Nintendo Switch™ software “Splatoon 2” (Nintendo Co., Ltd.)

Within these matches at the “RAGE Shadowverse Chronogenesis GRAND FINALS”, with decisions made in a record peak of 8,000 participants, 8 tournament winners have not only won prize money totalling 4 million yen, but they have also won the right to participate in the “Shadowverse World Grand Prix 2018” with a winning prize of about 100 million yen.

*CyberZ, Inc. As of March 22, 2018. Total sum of attendees and viewers of: RAGE Shadowverse Chronogenesis East Japan qualifying round (February 3 to 4, 2018), RAGE Shadowverse Chronogenesis West Japan qualifying round (February 11 to 12, 2018), RAGE 2018 Spring (March 21, 2018)