The ‘eFootball Diwali Showdown’, a special influencer tournament organised by NODWIN Gaming, a leader in new-age youth entertainment, gaming, and esports, and Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. (KONAMI), the leading video game developer and publisher from Japan culminated with S8UL Aman being crowned as the champion. 

Eight of India’s prominent gaming personalities including Dreamboy, Yes Smarty Pie, Ezio18Rip, Sid, Senpai Spider, K18, Binks, and Aman, competed in both group stage and knockout formats. 

In addition to the tournament, KONAMI has also announced special in-game rewards to celebrate Diwali with Indian gamers. Players will have the opportunity to log in to eFootball and earn exclusive Diwali-themed rewards.

This includes unique player packs featuring popular Indian football team stars, giving fans the opportunity to play with homegrown talent while celebrating the festival of lights. Alongside these packs, players can unlock special Diwali-themed jerseys, available only during this festive period.

Tournament participants K18, Senpai Spider, and Yes Smarty Pie will also be streaming the game extensively and hosting matches for fans on an integrated YouTube stream from their individual channels.

These Diwali-focused initiatives are a testament to KONAMI’s commitment to catering to India’s fast-growing mobile gaming market. As a free-to-play title, eFootball provides open access to casual as well as high-level competitive gaming, eliminating any financial and accessibility barriers for gamers from all backgrounds.

Recently, eFootball was selected by FIFA as an official title in the FIFAe World Cup, with India among the 18 countries invited to participate. Additionally, eFootball is also set to be featured in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s WAVES Esports Championship 2025 (WESC), further solidifying its relevance and appeal in India’s gaming landscape.

Earlier this year, Konami announced that eFootball has surpassed 700 million total downloads worldwide.

Movember and BLAST Premier partner to improve mental health in esports

Movember will become the official mental health partner of BLAST Premier, a global Counter-Strike tournament series, in an exciting initiative to support the mental health of esports players and communities. Global men’s health charity Movember will work with the global esports entertainment company to develop awareness and support for mental health challenges, create psychologically safe spaces, deliver evidence-informed mental health workshops and undertake research to develop Mental Health Guidelines for the wider industry.

The partnership will see Movember and BLAST Premier commit to working together to promote good mental health and prevent ill-health amongst esports players and viewers/spectators alike, encouraging the community to take action and better support themselves and each other, officially launching at the BLAST Premier World Final in Singapore from 30 October – 2 November.

The World Final 2024 will see the biggest and best esports and Counter-Strike teams compete in Singapore across five days of competition for a sizable total prize pool of $1,000,000.

Ahead of the World Final, Movember joined BLAST Premier at September’s Fall Final to spend time talking to fans, players and teams. Movember hosted special mental health workshops in the lead up to the tournament with players and talent to better understand the challenges the wider industry faces with mental health. The iconic Movember barber shop was also made available for fans in the arena to get haircuts, while having an open and honest chat.

As part of these conversations and future focus across the wider esports sector, both organisations will collaborate to establish a set of Mental Health Guidelines, centered around lived and living experiences of players (ranked and non-ranked), designed to level up the impact esports has on people’s mental health with the aim of onboarding other organisations in the future.

Director, Global Innovations at Movember, Dan Cooper said: “This partnership between Movember and BLAST Premier is a significant step in highlighting the health challenges facing those in the esports community. We plan to do that in part by collaboratively building guidelines that will act as a set of foundational principles to protect esports players and support the creation of psychologically safe spaces.”

“The influence of esports is growing, our aim is to help transform how the community engages and prioritises mental health and in doing so takes proactive steps in Levelling Up, not only in performance but also positive health outcomes”

Faye Marlborough, Director of Growth at BLAST, said: “Esports has a huge influence on people all over the world, and through this new partnership we have already started to have industry-led discussions about mental health and deliver interventions in settings where esports players and the community spend their time.”

“We hope this partnership will help leverage Movember’s experience to equip our fans and community with best practices and approaches to dealing with mental health.”

From October 30 to November 3, the BLAST Premier: World Final 2024 will be held at the Resorts World Convention Centre on Sentosa island in Singapore. GG.BET, the tournament’s exclusive betting partner, is inviting the arena’s attendees over to the GG.BOOTH during the playoff to bag some unique merch and join in some fun activities, including autograph sessions with the teams. GG.BET also has a special 200% deposit bonus and a freebet lined up for its users.

The World Final is the concluding stage of the 2024 Counter-Strike 2 tournament season in the world-famous BLAST Premier series. In the final, the strongest 8 teams will butt heads, with 6 advancing to the playoff and battling it out in a LAN tournament for a $1,000,000 prize pool.

GG.BET have created a special area so that fans can have an even more amazing experience at the playoffs, from November 1-3. Here, you’ll be able to take photos to remember the event by and create posters to support your favorite team. Don’t forget to grab some merch so you stand out from the crowd. You’ll find the GG.BOOTH on the left as you enter the Resorts World Convention Centre via the main entrance.

There’ll be activities going on at this spot with a host and GG.BET brand ambassadors, as well as autograph sessions with the teams. More details about the activities will be posted on the GG.BET pages on Х and Instagram. Make sure to follow so you don’t miss a thing!

GG.BET is also offering its users a special bonus for BLAST Premier: World Final 2024: a 200% deposit bonus and a $50 freebet.

How to use your bonus on GG.BET:

1. Register on the GG.BET website or log in to an existing account.
2. Activate this offer in the Bonuses section.
3. Make a deposit of at least $20 to get a bonus of up to 200% and a freebet.

This offer is available from 00:00 (UTC+0) on 30 October 2024 to 23:59 (UTC+0) on 03 November 2024.

In 2024, BLAST Premier and international betting brand GG.BET entered into an exclusive one-year partnership. For the entire tournament season, GG.BET has been organizing exciting online and offline activities for Counter-Strike 2 fans, as well as creating exclusive content featuring the players.