Sources: Activision Blizzard collegiate partner Tespa closing down NACENorth American collegiate esports organization Tespa is coming to a close and will make way for new university programs from game developer Activision Blizzard, according to sources. Headquartered in Blizzard\u2019s offices in Irvine, California, the company confirmed to members that the \u201cTespa name and brand will not continue to exist come 2021\u201d according to documents obtained by Dexerto. Since their national expansion in 2013, the organization has existed as an \u201cevent support network\u201d for colleges who have gaming and esports initiatives. In 2014, they partnered with Blizzard to host collegiate events for Hearthstone, League of Legends, StarCraft II, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch. Following the closure of Tespa, the developer will continue to host competitive programs for students across North America. At the time of writing, there are programs for Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. The decision was at least partially made due to the restrictions surrounding hosting events in 2020 due to the global health situation. Tespa will \u201cindefinitely\u201d cancel their Chapter Program, a network of officially-recognized gaming clubs for students across Canada and the United States. \u201cWith the rapid amount of change that has been in effect this year, we\u2019ve taken time to reflect and plan for how we want our collegiate programs to grow in the future,\u201d a document reads. \u201cThe Tespa name and brand has been with us since the beginning, and although we are moving on from this brand, we\u2019re excited for the opportunity to integrate more with our game franchises.\u201d Grand Finals is slowly approaching! The finale of our Overwatch Varsity Playoff matches is now LIVE \ud83d\udd34 Who will make it to the top? Come join us for the decisive matches on the Overwatch Contenders Twitch and YouTube channels now! \u27a1\ufe0f https:\/\/t.co\/Y0bi7NmOJC pic.twitter.com\/eWTBfoHJr0 \u2014 Tespa (@TeamTespa) December 6, 2020 Further solidifying the end for the company, there are plans to close the Tespa Community Discord \u2014 a hub for those who take part in the program. To commemorate the closure, the company will share highlights and milestones from the community on their Twitter from December 9 to the end of the month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sources: Activision Blizzard collegiate partner Tespa closing down NACENorth American collegiate esports organization Tespa is coming to a close and will make way for new university programs from game developer Activision Blizzard, according to sources. Headquartered in Blizzard\u2019s offices in Irvine, California, the company confirmed to members that the \u201cTespa name and brand will not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}