(From left-to-right, top-to-bottom: LAIKA, Missing Peace, Sonic Rebel, King of Sneakers, Skooly, Leah Culver, Favor, and Sage Hammond.)

Skillshot Media, Gamers.Vote and esports organization Ghost Gaming today announced the talent list for InvitationATL—a digital festival on Tuesday, July 21 filled with musical performances, videogame live-streaming and a $10,000 online invitational Fortnite tournament to raise awareness of voter registration and participation across the 133M adult gamers in the US.  

“Our mission in July is to get as many gamers registered as new voters as possible” said Gamers.Vote CEO, Christie St. Martin, “With InvitationATL, Skillshot Media and the Atlanta community have embraced this mission with an incredible tentpole event featuring performers from both music and esports.”

Event participation includes Atlanta-based musicians across diverse genres including John Hopkins from the Zac Brown Band, Bill Kelliher from Mastodon, Waka Flocka, Skooly, Isaac Hayes III, Leah Culver, and more, including a world debut performance from new artist Sonic Rebel.

Programming includes casual video-games played by special guests including actor Jesse Usher, and a virtual reality DJ set by KRYOMAN - Spirit Link powered by TribeXR.

The event culminates with a 49 team $10,000 Fortnite tournament showcasing invited competitive players from esports teams FaZe Clan, NRG, Ghost Gaming, and XSET, along with top streamers and invited players from organizations including Atlanta Reign, GamersDoingThings, KontrolFreek, the National Association of Collegiate Esports and many others.

The full talent list and event schedule is available at www.iatl.gg. The live-stream event will kickoff on Tuesday, July 21 at 3pm ET at www.twitch.tv/skillshot.  

Twitch.TV is supporting this activation with a custom platform extension that directs participants and viewers to online voter registration. New Georgia Project is the local civic engagement partner.

InvitationATL will be produced by Skillshot, presented by Gamers.Vote and Ghost Gaming, with additional supporting partners including Twitch, HyperX, New Georgia Project, Respawn, Greenberg Traurig, Axis Replay, United In Gaming, KontrolFreek, Skullz, Skinz.gg, Reely, Subnation, SUBSUME, Nexus, Atlanta Reign, GamersDoingThings, Placement Music, Radar Live, Fandom, Represent Us, TribeXR, Atlanta Esports Alliance, MomoCon, and the Georgia Game Developers Association.

Partners Include United in Gaming, Skillshot Media, Uspech Marketing, Film Quality Services, Big Block Media, Visual Weaponry, Softgiving and KontrolFreek

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COV-AID is proud to present a massive, multi-platform, one-day online charity event on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, at 1pm EDT / 10am PDT. The event will feature more than 10 hours of content showcasing popular gamers, athletes, artists and other personalities streamed across top social game-streaming platforms including Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, Twitter and Facebook. All proceeds will be donated to Americares and Boys & Girls Clubs of America to help the fight against COVID-19, and to support front-line medical professionals, first responders, and families most directly affected by COVID-19.

The event will feature a mix of interactive, live-streamed competitions and performances, plus pre-recorded content from entertainers, athletes, and other personalities. Talent will include Grammy Award-winning artist Lil Jon, Super Bowl champion Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski, and many others.  Additional talent will be announced.

COV-AID is an egoless alliance of talent, distribution and nonprofit partners coming together to fight COVID-19. Event organizers and logistical partners will earn no revenue from COV-AID. All proceeds will support the event’s nonprofit beneficiaries and their work.

“This is such an extraordinarily challenging time for people all over the world,” said United in Gaming Co-Founder Andrew Smoltz. “I am grateful to my partners for coming together for this event so we can help make a difference for Americares and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the essential workers and families they support.”

Skillshot CEO Todd Harris added: "Everyone is at home. Everyone. Some people are feeling isolated and we figured this was a great moment for digital-native talent to step up and take the lead in bringing people together, albeit remotely, to enjoy each other's company while also addressing the urgent challenges we all face.”

“We're especially thankful for our amazing talent, all of whom are all donating their time to participate in this event,” added Uspech Marketing Consultants Founder Jennifer Erdman. “No one involved in COV-AID is taking any fee or percentage, which allows us to ensure every penny raised goes directly to these two essential organizations at this critical time."

Americares is providing desperately-needed personal protective equipment (PPE), training and emotional support to ensure health workers on the front lines of the pandemic can continue their lifesaving and life-changing work.

“Americares is heartened to see such an outpouring of support to help health workers on the front lines of the pandemic,” said Americares President and CEO Christine Squires. “With support from COV-AID, we can provide even more masks, gloves, gowns and essential training to protect our health care heroes.”

Boys & Girls Clubs of America is committed to remaining open to support the children and families of front-line medical professionals and essential workers while also providing meals and virtual learning at thousands of Clubs around the country.  

“For 160 years, Boys & Girls Clubs have navigated times of tragedy and crisis to provide safe places for kids and teens. Today, we are committed more than ever, to ensure Club staff, members, families and communities have the resources and support they need to navigate these uncertain times,” said Boys & Girls Clubs of America President and CEO Jim Clark. “Thank you to COV-AID and its partners for helping support our work during this critical time.”

For more information, or to make a donation, please visit cov-aid.org.

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COV-AID was created, and is being produced by, a consortium of media and technology firms with close ties to the gaming and esports community, including: United in Gaming, Skillshot Media, Uspech Marketing, Film Quality Services, Big Block Media, Visual Weaponry, Softgiving and KontrolFreek.

The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE), a nonprofit membership association and the only governing body of collegiate esports in North America, today announced their strategic partnership with Skillshot Media, esports infrastructure provider and agency, to offer collegiate competition, event production, and rights commercialization.

NACE is the association of college varsity esports programs, with over 200 member universities contributing over $16 million annually in esports scholarships.  Skillshot Media has produced and licensed esports competition and events in North America for over 5 years, across numerous titles and genres, with over 1 billion video views.

“Skillshot Media powered our initial collegiate competitions for CS:GO, Smite, and other titles.  After hearing our member school appetite for more competition, we considered many partners, and Skillshot was the clear choice for a strategic partner based on shared vision and capabilities,” said Michael Brooks, NACE Executive Director.  “We are thrilled to offer more game titles and more live events, including collegiate Fortnite this spring and many more games to come in the fall.”

Todd Harris, Skillshot CEO, added, “NACE member schools are the true pioneers and thought leaders in collegiate esports, the schools who are committing scholarship dollars, coaches, and facilities, and are committed to positive and balanced outcomes for their student-athletes.  We're excited to partner with NACE to scale esports to colleges nationwide – more schools, more game titles, more events. With our infrastructure, production capability and publisher relationships we aim to provide value to participating schools, the competing teams, and also importantly our partnered game publishers.  Beyond competition, together we are also developing governance and internship opportunities for students wishing to enter the esports industry.”

NACE and Skillshot announced that the Spring 2020 collegiate competition includes both Fortnite and CS:GO with an invitational finals to take place at MomoCon in Atlanta, May 23rd, a festival that draws over 35,000 unique attendees.

About NACE
The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) is a nonprofit membership association organized by member institutions and is the only governing body of collegiate varsity esports in North America. NACE works on building the structure and providing the tools for students needed to advance at varsity-level in collegiate esports. Areas of focus include areas such as: Eligibility, Path to Graduation, Competition & Scholarships. NACE currently includes over 200 varsity esports programs of its members, accounting for nearly 90% of all varsity programs across North America.

Skillshot Media, the esports entity formerly owned by Alpharetta-based game publisher Hi-Rez Studios, announced today the completion of a management buy-out by two former Hi-Rez executives. Skillshot will operate as an independent, publisher-agnostic esports solution provider and agency, and Hi-Rez Studios no longer has an ownership interest in the company.  

Hi-Rez Studios Co-founder Todd Harris and former Vice President Nabil Ismail will exit Hi-Rez and serve as CEO and COO of Skillshot Media, and in strategic partnership with INAP will develop an esports operations center and production studio in downtown Atlanta.  This new Esports Media Center, operated by Skillshot, will be located at 250 Williams Street NW in Atlanta, co-located within INAP’s flagship Atlanta data center facility.

“With 15 years in game development and marketing, we have seen first-hand how a community-driven esports approach delivers results for both the game publisher and brand partners,'' said Todd Harris, CEO of Skillshot Media. “Players who watch esports are more engaged and spend more money with the game publisher. Those players also have higher spending and goodwill toward partners who authentically support esports events. We believe brands that want to reach the next generation of consumers will discover esports to be the most effective and efficient way to connect with that massive audience, and Skillshot wants to help them do exactly that.”

INAP’s flagship Atlanta data center features low latency network performance enabled by patented route optimization technology and an onsight network operations center to keep game server and broadcasting infrastructure operational and at peak efficiency.

“Gaming and esports is not only the largest entertainment industry but one of the most demanding in terms of performance,” said TJ Waldorf, CMO at INAP. “INAP is proud to have powered esports communities for over a decade, and this strategic partnership with Skillshot allows us to even better serve the fast growing gaming and esports industry.”

Continues Harris, “Esports demands an IT infrastructure built for speed, reliability, and global scalability.  Players are competing for millions of dollars and INAP delivers the performance required for that competitive environment. This Esports Media Center is walking distance to the Georgia World Congress Center, State Farm Arena, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and public transportation to the world’s busiest airport, allowing us to easily integrate with other Atlanta venues and hospitality partners for esports events.”

About INAP
Internap Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP) is a leading-edge provider of high-performance data center and cloud solutions with 100 network Points of Presence worldwide. INAP’s full-spectrum portfolio of high-density colocation managed cloud hosting and network solutions supports evolving IT infrastructure requirements for customers ranging from the Fortune 500 to emerging startups. INAP operates in 21 metropolitan markets, primarily in North America, with 14 INAP Data Center Flagships connected by a low-latency, high-capacity network.For more information, visit www.INAP.com.