The porn pros still want to play.
YouPorn is sponsoring a professional Overwatch esports squad as part of its Team YP esports group. The roster includes several new faces and the surprise addition of Street Fighter V pro Valmaster, who is going to attempt to compete in both Capcom’s fighting game and Blizzard’s class-based team shooter. This marks Team YP’s return after encountering some difficulty participating in certain tournaments following bans from organizations like ESL due to the squad’s affiliation with an adult-video website last April.
Esports is a growing industry that industry intelligence firm Newzoo predicts will generate as much as $696 million in revenues this year. Overwatch, which only debuted in 2016, will likely play a major role in that growth as it has quickly caught on with an esports audience, and Blizzard is rolling out the Overwatch League to cities around the world.
And Team YP is standing proud and erect to participate in those kinds of events.
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“Although it took a little longer than anticipated, we are thrilled to finally be able to announce the new team” YouPorn vice president Brad Burns said in a statement. “We’ve seen how strong they are in their day-to-day and that makes it easy for us to have all the confidence in the world in them” Burns continued, “but we absolutely cannot wait to see what they do in this tournament.”
Capcom Cup 2015 finalist @_Valmaster to represent @TeamYPOfficial in both #SFV and @PlayOverwatch https://t.co/uDMsxj6hzy
— AceKingOffsuit ♠️❤️ (@acekingoffsuit) February 15, 2017
The new Team YP will compete at the Montpellier Esports Show on February 25 and February 26 as part of that event’s Overwatch tournament. Moving ahead, the group will look to participate in as many official events as possible. The ESL still has it banned, but that’s not going to stop Team YP from grasping the esports scene and yanking on it until everyone takes notice.