Astralis have picked up their third Major title after winning IEM Katowice 2019 with a convincing 2-0 success over ENCE.

If there were any remaining doubts about Astralis‘ credentials, about their position as the most dominant side in the modern Counter-Strike, they surely were dispelled on Sunday. The match was always likely to be David versus Goliath; ENCE, a first-timer at Majors, going up against Astralis, a team looking for their third crown. The Finnish squad had already proved that dreams do come true, beating Liquid and Natus Vincere with some miraculous comebacks, but the Danes proved to be a tall order for Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen‘s troops.

Global sportswear brand Nike announced a four-year apparel sponsorship deal today with TJ Sports for China’s League of Legends  Pro League (LPL), from 2019-2022. The deal would see all LPL players, coaches, referees, and team managers exclusively wear Nike branded clothing and shoes on game days. TJ Sports is a joint venture of Tencent and Riot Games in China.

According to the announcement, made at a press conference in Shanghai, Nike and the LPL will also design the “Nike & LPL” joint esports themed apparel line, which will be made available to the public after the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational. In addition, the official Nike branded LPL team jersey will appear during the League of Legends World Championship.

Esports is a booming business according to surges in funding for top esports teams in the past ten months. G2 Esports, Cloud9, and Team Liquid have all posted record fundraising numbers since the beginning of 2018. Additionally, the amount of funding deals in esports has more than quadrupled since 2015 according to Crunchbase.

The new-fangled sport is on an undeniable upward trajectory. In just the past six months, aXiomatic (Team Liquid’s parent company), Cloud9 and G2 Esports have received a combined $103.3 million in funding from investment entities and celebrities.

Unless you’ve been in a coma for the last month, Apex Legends was released and SpellBreak entered its closed alpha stage. Ironically, SpellBreak was picked up by Epic Games. I’m pretty sure Epic Games won’t care if SpellBreak steals some players from Fortnite. Apex is the first game to beat Fornite on Twitch for ten days in a row. As I’m writing this article, Fortnite currently has only 10k more viewer than Apex Legends on Twitch. We’re talking about a game that can only be played on the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 vs a game that can be played on just about anything.

Women in esports are underrepresented, but that’s no reason for concern as intelligence company Interpreter has released a new report showing positive trends. If esports-focused female gamers are fewer than their male counterparts, women are just as avid about casual gaming as men.

• Women esports viewership grows to 30.4% in Q4, 2018
• Female gamers more likely to engage in casual mobile gaming than men
• More role models needed on the basic level of esports