Danish esports organisation Team Singularity has partnered with machine learning platform Pluck GG to launch its own talent academy.
Initially, the academy will only be available to Fortnite players, however, it is expected to open up to other titles in the first quarter of 2021. Additional titles will include: FIFA, Rocket League, CS:GO, League of Legends, PUBG, VALORANT, Rainbow Six: Siege, Dota 2, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and StarCraft 2.
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Exactly how the academy will work — beginning with Fortnite — was outlined by Erik Lydecker, Founder and CEO of Pluck GG: “The programme includes a clear roadmap for academy players with target milestones, game-connected missions, weekly schedules, real-time tracking engines, live online coaching sessions with official [Singularity] coaches, auto-generated competitive academy events, and much more.
“The primary purpose is to give all serious gamers a powerful platform to grow and a smart tool for professional organisations to add novel and massive revenue streams, monitoring and scouting services powered by machine-learning to assist in spotting future promising talents on autopilot.”
According to a release from Singularity, Fortnite players need to complete all 40 missions in the academy to be offered a professional contract with the organisation. Moreover, Team Singularity has explained that the decision to launch its own dedicated academy was so players could get a contract based off their ‘skills and not because of their social media metrics’.
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Despite just announcing the programme, Singularity currently has more than 700 active Fortnite academy members. The organisation has confirmed that it will offer two current Fortnite academy members professional contracts before December 31st.
“I’m incredibly proud to give hopeful and motivated talents a clear path to become a professional esports athlete,” added Atle S. Stehouwer, Founder & CEO, Team Singularity. “It’s becoming harder and harder for new talents to make a splash in the player pool and get picked up by a professional team/organisation, as the number of competitive players is constantly growing.
“It’s been a great pleasure to work together with Erik and his professional development team to shape what we believe will be the future of esports academies and a revolution within the industry.”
Esports Insider says: This gamified approach to procuring talent is incredibly unique and interesting. Pluck seems to be doing something unique, and this sort of academy system will likely benefit players and organisations alike by not only increasing the talent pool, but also improving accessibility. On the player’s side, it offers a clear path to pro, and on the organisation’s side, it provides more ways of analysing potential signings.