March 8 is International Women’s Day and to celebrate The Esports Observer is recognizing some of the amazing women working and serving in prominent leadership roles within the esports industry. For the next five days, we will be sharing valuable stories and insights from a diverse group of movers and shakers—from how their esports journeys began to different ways women can join and thrive in this burgeoning industry.

According to a report from Esports Observer, the China Internet Association held a Digital Esports and Intelligent Economy summit in Beijing on March 2. The China Internet Association stated their intention to start the Esports Work Council during the event. Having additional standards in place in China could serve to protect players and further standardize the industry in the country through regulations. This could also lead to potential visa benefits for athletes traveling to and from the country to compete, which has been an issue for Chinese players in the past.

“The esports industry has grown in a certain scale and level, it already has sort of a strong economic effect,” Song Maoen, Vice Secretary of the China Internet Association said.

The summit, according to ESO’s report, had the support of several Chinese government departments, including the Chinese Propaganda Dept, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the General Administration of Sport of China.

AT&T has closed its first esports team sponsorship, coming to terms with Cloud9 on a deal that includes presenting rights to “The Nines,” a new weekly digital video series about the organization’s 12 teams in 10 games.

The Nines’s holistic approach to the entire Cloud9 organization will be a shift in content strategy, which to this point mostly focuses on particular teams. The new format will facilitate crossover fandom from one game to other Cloud9 teams, executives hope, and also allow AT&T to market to an aggregated fan base.

Cloud9 had 17.4M social followers across its various channels.

“We don’t have a single place where you can just go find out what’s happening in the Cloud9 universe in one spot, and I think that’s what’s unique about what we’re building here,” said co-founder and CEO Jack Etienne.

This has finally happened now – Super League, an organization founded in 2014 is now trading at Wall Street. Unlike most esports companies, SL made the decision to focus on regular players and their interests rather than prospective pro players. The company’s CEO Ann Hand has referred to her company as the ‘Little League for esports’.

Not so little, of course – the company reported sales exceeding $1 million last year. Among their activities are in-person amateur competitions, streams on Twitch and YouTube and more. Their first day at Wall Street was Tuesday, and truth be told, it didn’t go very well. As soon as trading started, the shares tumbled down an unpleasant 24%, and stayed around the $8.50 mark.

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.