eSports expands into TV shows, movies

The series will focus on FIFA Online contestants vying for professional gaming contracts.

A reality TV series based on the Electronic Arts’ FIFA Online football game is set to push eSports into the mainstream. 

Titled Game to Fame: Road to World Cup, the series will focus on contestants vying for professional gaming contracts with top teams in a competitive drama-filled reality format.

Fresh-faced amateur players from across the region will rough it out against the pros for a chance to compete in an all-stars invitational match at the end of each eight-episode series.

Through their personal and professional journeys documented through each episode and a diverse suite of content online, including real-time streaming interactions with fans and influencers, the series will discover eSports’ next legend of gaming.

The Game To Fame TV series will then lead into a feature film franchise slated for global distribution.

This is the result of a partnership between two Singapore companies – e-entertainment player Spout Entertainment Group and  media and entertainment asset incubation specialists Aurora Media Holdings. 

Aurora Media's productions and investments include films Stano, feauring Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara; Storm Boy, with Geoffrey Rush and Jai Courtney; The Songs Of Scorpions starring Irrfan Khan and French star Golshifteh Farahani; and The Extraordinary Journey Of The Fakir, with Indian superstar Dhanush and Oscar nominees Berenice Bejo and Barkhad Abdi.

There are plans for subsequent Game To Fame series that feature Riot Games' League Of Legends, Valve’s Defence of the Ancients (DotA) and Counter-Strike.

Aurora Media and Spout Entertainment also want to build eSports and its content reach through joint investments, collaborations on events and workshops.

Daryl Teo, Spout’s founder and chief executive officer, shared his motivations for the deal, "This eSports reality series and movie franchise will be able to leverage upon a combined base of 30 million unique global visitors across all media subsidiaries.”

Worldwide casting for the first season of Game To Fame will begin on Aug 19 through Spout’s popular content platform – Spout360.com – with production slated to kick off in the fourth quarter of 2017.