A new esports organization called Nuovo Gaming launched Wednesday, with a focus on developing the Oceanic esports scene. With the launch, the team has picked up two Australian professional esports athletes, Starcraft 2 star Ethan "iaguz" Zugai and Hearthstone competitor Tom "Tomflr" Finlayson.
The organization says it's taken note of all the recent investment in other esports territories, such as North America and Europe, and it wants to offer similar resources to Oceanic players and teams. But the staff behind the project is mainly from North America, which will offer obstacles and challenges for it to overcome working across the world.
"The Oceanic [esports] scene is struggling due to unhealthy relationships between players and organizations," Nuovo CEO Alex "GLogics" Gonzalez told ESPN. "There aren't enough professional-level organizations involved in the region to give these players a proper home. Players are undervalued and it is currently unrealistic to make gaming a career in this region compared to others, where it is easily viable.
"We're here to change that."
He believes that despite the challenges the organization will face, it can become one of the faces of the Oceanic scene, something he says that League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty organization The Chiefs eSports Club and multiple-game organization Team Exile5 have already done.
Its first two acquisitions are both well-known throughout its base community. iaguz is the first-place leader in the Oceanic Starcraft Championship, the biggest Starcraft 2 league in the region, and is known for playing the Terran race. Before this year, Iaguz, who was previously part of the ROOT Gaming organization, took top-20 finishes in each part of the Starcraft 2 World Championship Series, the largest competition for the game in the world.
As for Tomflr, he's not achieved as much as iaguz in his respective game, but he has been a part of the Hearthstone community for quite some time, playing since pre-beta. He will now compete in Electronic Sports League's (ESL) upcoming Australia New Zealand Championship Open Qualifiers, the first professional Hearthstone circuit.
Nuovo joins one of many esports teams that recently came into the industry seeking improvement. Some, such as North American organizations Immortals and Echo Fox, as well as worldwide organization Splyce, have improved player welfare. Others, like Team Ember, have been outspoken about player rights and scene improvement, only for its investments to back out from a long-term commitment.