The Six Masters is returning soon, and Snowball Esports is proud to be covering one of the pinnacle events on the Rainbow Six ANZ calendar.

Snowball Esports is proud to announce our partnership with Ubisoft Australia for the Six Masters 2020 season, providing in-depth media coverage and analysis for the event across all channels.

The best teams from across the country ?— from Six Invitational veterans to up-and-coming stars ?— will be colliding over a number of weeks to determine who is the best team in Australia.

• Read more: Six Masters 2020 to tie into new Rainbow Six global esports circuit

You’ll find weekly wrap-ups and predictions for the Six Masters, as well as player interviews and more right here on Snowball.

We are excited to keep telling the stories of the ANZ Rainbow Six scene, from grassroots to Pro League. With Pro League Season 11 wrapped up, and the future APAC expansion on the horizon, there’s never been a more exciting time to follow Siege.

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled on Snowball Esports, as well as the Rainbow 6 ANZ Twitter for all things Six Masters.

As we close out the decade it’s time for our yearly wrap, and a look back at what we accomplished this year.

In 2019, we went through some major growth at Snowball in a couple of areas. At the beginning of the year, San Hoang and Chelsea Moss became the first content producers outside of myself on the team since Snowball began. Having them on board allowed us to maintain the same quality while continuing to pump out more content, especially during the OPL splits.

We hit up IEM Sydney, the Melbourne Esports Open and PAX Australia this year, and brought our flavour of coverage to those events.

In September, we announced that Snowball will partner with META High School Esports next year. We’re really excited to work with Nigel Smart, Woody Wu and the rest of the team on this for their 2020 season, providing high quality content and regular coverage.

I took a different approach with my year in review, going month to month and picking some key pieces from each to give you some insight into our year.

January

OPL

Presenting Snowball’s Scuffed OPL Tips!

by Josh Swift

January 17, 2019

The likes of Andrew Wray and numerous others try and cheekily convince me to take on ridiculous time consuming projects all the time. After finding out there would be no tipping system for OPL like in 2018, we’d had discussions about trying to fill that gap and do something via Snowball but ultimately decided it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort to set up and maintain a competition.

We now know how weak-willed I can be when the community yearns for something. I ended up building an entire tipping league just days before the OPL returned in January. Over 200 OPL fans participated in the competition during the Split 1 regular season and some won some great RP prizes courtesy of Riot.

February

CS:GO

ARTeMis and refreshed lineup lay Carnage across WESG and IEM Qualifiers

by Reece Perry

February 8, 2019

A great feature from Reece Perry on Jessica “ARTeMis” Majrouh and Carnage after their efforts at the WESG qualifier in Perth. This piece was also produced by one of our talented new additions at the start of this year in Chelsea Moss.

March

OPL

An impossible Dream – How Ronan Swingler made it to the OPL

by Ellis Longhurst

March 22, 2019

I am intensely proud of this piece from Ellis Longhurst. Ronan’s story is one that resonated with League of Legends fans both here and overseas, and is one of the most viewed Snowball pieces of all time. Ellis took a unique approach composing this story as if it were to become a six-part Netflix series, it’s an intensely inspiring read.

Also during March was the OPL playoffs for Split 1, which marked the return of Snowball’s Gauntlet Run series, kicked off by Harry Taylor.

April

OPL

‘The stars aligned for us’: Order forge OPL history with 9-1 miracle gauntlet run

by Isaac McIntyre

April 2, 2019

I’m fairly sure this is the longest OPL recap of all time from Isaac McIntyre, and with good reason. It tells the tale of Order’s run through the OPL gauntlet, after barely scraping into the playoffs and taking down each team against all predictions on their path to the final.

Also worth noting in April was an interview ahead of the Mid-Season Invitational with Bombers coach Westonway which garnered international attention as people looked to find out more about the oceanic representatives, and announcing our IEM Sydney coverage, with the intent to bring a team to the event for the first time in Snowball’s history.

May

IEM Sydney 2019

IEM Sydney: Celebrating a Legacy

by Ash Whyte

May 31, 2019

Along with a myriad of written and video interviews with CS:GO’s biggest names, we had one of our newest writers Ashley Whyte put together a great feature on IEM Sydney, and the legacy that it’s created in our region after we talked with Michal ‘Carmac’ Blicharz.

As part of our IEM Sydney coverage, the popular Survival Guides made a return, this time with Sydney local Bernadette Wong at the helm.

June

OPL

FBI becomes first Australian in the LCS system: ‘It’s what I’ve always dreamed about’

by Isaac McIntyre

June 6, 2019

After a stellar split in the OPL, Victor “FBI” Huang became the first Australian to make the journey to North America following in the footsteps of New Zealand’s Lawrence “Lost” Hui as told by Isaac McIntyre.

Other notable pieces from June include Emma van der Brug putting a spotlight on the Girl Gamer Festival coming to Sydney, a foray for us into Hearthstone with Legacy signing Grandmasters star FroStee, and the acquisition of the Chiefs Esports Club by ICON.

July

CS:GO

Global Offensive & The Importance of Grassroots in Australia – BrisVegas LAN Preview

by Ash Whyte

July 3, 2019

Building up grassroots esports in Oceania has always been a focus for us at Snowball, so when Ashley Whyte pitched a feature on the latest BrisVegas LAN in July and why it’s important to have these kinds of events, it was a no-brainer.

August

OPL

‘Nothing else matters’: Chiefs eye return to the top – OPL Final Preview

August 31, 2019

OPL

Can Mammoth deliver on the superteam promise? – OPL Final Preview

August 31, 2019

The Melbourne Esports Open was Snowball’s biggest event by far of 2018, and this year was no different. Armed with a team of 7 at Melbourne Olympic Park, we worked to bring high quality coverage to as much of the event as we could.

I’ve spotlighted the two OPL final previews, on Chiefs and Mammoth, because it marks something really important to myself, and the wider management of Snowball. These pieces show more than most the growth in both Harry Taylor and Emma van der Brug. Both of them were added as community panelists for Snowball’s OPL Power Rankings in Split 2 of 2018.

These features are a testament to their hard work and dedication to growing themselves, and I’m intensely proud of that. Pair that with some stellar creative work from producer San Hoang and you have some bar-setting content.

September

MEO 2019

Yuki: A decade in esports

by Andrew Amos

September 16, 2019

Although we capped off MEO coverage in early September, also with the unfortunate debut of Roaming Wray, this feature from Andrew Amos on James “Yuki” Stanton is my highlight for September. It’s not often you see players have careers spanning this long, and it’s even rarer when they span as many titles as Yuki has, and Ducky did an excellent job bringing this story to life.

Also at the tail end of September, Go Next Media was announced to the world.

October

Interviews

Raid: The five thousand mile pilgrimage

by Andrew Amos

October 30, 2019

I believe this feature is the crown jewel of Snowball’s 2019. It was an absolute pleasure to produce, and was a complete product of circumstance. Andrew Amos was in Korea to cover the Overwatch Contenders Gauntlet right in the middle of Raid’s stay in Busan.

This is the calibre of content we strive for. You don’t often see this kind of unbridled view from retired esports pros in Oceania, and I can’t thank Julian enough for sharing his story with us.

Another notable mention from October was our PAX Australia content, my personal favourite of which was Ellis Longhurst’s look at the Mortal Kombat tournament finals.

November

CS:GO

[Updated] Australian CS:GO divided over scheduling controversy: The full story

by Andrew Amos

November 5, 2019

In one of the most worked-on investigative pieces in Snowball’s history, Andrew Amos with the help of Isaac McIntyre and myself aimed to tell the full story of the scheduling controversy between multiple Oceanic orgs and ESL Australia.

It’s a story we didn’t take lightly, and took the time to make sure we reported the facts of the situation after obtaining full email transcripts between the teams and various other parties.

Other notable pieces from November include my report on the Essendon Bombers leaving esports and selling their OPL slot to Pentanet.GG, Ellis Longhurst’s visit to the Red Bull Fight or Flight PUBG event in Sydney, and Kevin Walker’s Snowball debut with pieces exploring Overwatch 2 and its impact on competitive and a chat with New Zealand’s Overwatch World Cup team.

December

League of Legends

Triple joins FlyQuest Academy ahead of 2020 season: “Australian, American, Korean, I have to beat them all now”

by Isaac McIntyre

December 12, 2019

I love this feature from Isaac McIntyre, and it’s a good one to grasp the scale of the offseason oceanic League of Legends has had. We’ll have a piece recapping every move of the ‘OCE exodus’ as its been dubbed in the new year, but his chat with Stephen for this piece shows how dedicated these pros are, and I’m super happy to see so many of them head overseas next year.

Andrew Amos put in some work on the Australian Overwatch offseason this month, announcing the Sydney Drop Bears new roster and telling the story of a new super team being built on our shores.

Go Next Media (GNM) is the new home of Snowball Esports, Fireball Esports and the upcoming Oceanic Observer.

Snowball was founded when two Australian-based esports fans became frustrated about the lack of central coverage for all things Oceanic Pro League. They were hoping to make an impact on the coverage, and now years later their initial passion project has grown into a platform for Oceanic narrative-based esports content across multiple games.

We want to tell the player’s stories, engage fans of each competition, and enrich the experience of local esports across Australia and New Zealand.

With that said, there are challenges with the above. Snowball Esports has been bracketed by the limitations of simply covering angles of Oceanic esports, and the content is targeted at fans who are already consuming content surrounding the leagues. With the fantastic team that we’ve built over the years, we felt the need to extend cover beyond those early boundaries.

The first was Fireball Esports, a satirical publication based around providing amusing and comedic takes on global esports. This different approach to news within the boundaries of the Fireball moniker allows us to provide a unique point of view on many breaking news stories.

The second is a new project titled ‘The Oceanic Observer’. We’re aiming to fully implement its coverage in 2020. The Observer will release a regularly scheduled recap on all things Oceanic esports, allowing the construction of a community that discusses the topics of the industry while also consuming the news. This will be delivered as text-based information, as well as in a podcast format.

Outside of this, Go Next presents the opportunity to collaborate on a wider range of projects. In its current state, GNM has experience with audio, video, and extensive experience in written content. We want to bring more people into our journey. We’re here for the long run, and we want to see Australian and New Zealand esports continue to flourish for years to come.

For more information and to get in touch, visit gonext.media. You can also follow Go Next on Twitter.

Snowball Esports and META High School Esports are excited to announce an ongoing content partnership starting from 2020, with aims to shine a spotlight on the best high school teams, players and positive school outcomes across the Oceanic region.

The content coverage from Snowball Esports will include regular articles on the competition’s results and ongoing news on the teams and players involved, while META’s involvement will see increased readership and new major sponsorship deals.

“This is the first move of this kind for Snowball, and an exciting one for everyone involved in the ever-growing project,” publication co-founder Andrew Wray said of the impending partnership.

“It has long been our goal to help Australia and New Zealand esports grow to a new level with our coverage within the publication, and this ongoing content plan with META continues those ambitions within the fast-growing high school competition.”

This partnership is an important one for the development of the publication, most importantly in regards to supporting the future of the region through coverage.

“Partnering with Snowball Esports will allow the creation of compelling content around the positive outcomes teachers and students discover through high school esports competition. This partnership will allow these amazing stories to be amplified across schools, parents, and students throughout Australia and New Zealand,” META High School Esports League Commissioner Woody Wu said.

META High School Esports has already experienced massive growth this year, with the championship grand finals being held live at the Melbourne Esports Open earlier this month.

“It’s a fantastic strategic partnership opportunity,” said Nigel Smart, Project Lead for META High School Esports.

“A growing esports tournament platform like META High School Esports partners with a dedicated and respected Oceanic esports content organization like Snowball Esports, which will enhance the growth of audiences and commercial opportunities for both parties.”

While the META partnership will be a major step forward for Snowball in 2020, you can also expect to see continued coverage of other major competitions around the region too, including the Oceanic Pro League, Overwatch Contenders, and the CS:GO circuit.

Follow META High School Esports & Snowball Esports on Twitter.

In what should be no surprise, I’m proud to announce that Snowball Esports are headed to the Melbourne Esports Open this year in force.

After its debut last year, the biggest festival of esports in our region has grown again in 2019. Now encompassing even more of Melbourne Olympic Park, the League of Legends OPL and Overwatch Contenders Australia grand finals both return to Rod Laver arena over the 2-day event.

As well as the big league finals, also at MEO this year will be the META High School Esports Championship Finals across 3 titles, the Rainbow 6 Siege: Six Masters 2019 and much, much more. You can find the full schedule for the weekend here.

We’ve got some great lead-in content planned over the next week heading into the weekend, and survival guides will be making a return as well!

Keep an eye out for some very special MEO one-offs as well. Last year we put together a special podcast featuring some of the Oceanic Pro League’s all-time greats, some extra video content and interviews streamed live from Rod Laver Arena which we’re hoping to bring back this year.

We can’t wait to get to Melbourne and hit the ground running with our passionate team at the biggest esports event of the year!

Be sure to follow Snowball on Twitter and Instagram for the latest updates on our adventures in Melbourne! Get tickets to the Melbourne Esports Open here.

Photo credit: ESL | Sarah Cooper

This site was named after what a lot of people consider to be one of the ideal ways to win in League of Legends – eke out a small advantage and snowball your lead to victory. Never did I envisage our journey as a content platform following a similar path.

Esports is a strange place. It’s an industry that has such a large global exposure but is simultaneously in its infancy. I know that term is thrown around quite a lot especially in a region like ours, but the reality is the region is still developing platforms outside of viewing esports.

How close are we to getting player agents, how close are we to a players union, when will we see commercial broadcast rights? These are crucial services that take a serious amount of investment and time to establish, but we’ll get there.

Snowball was born out of frustration due to a lack of content relating to the offseason changes in the OPL heading into the 2018 season. Just two mates, an off the cuff blog on a bare bones WordPress site, and many opinions. After all, both of us had close ties to the Oceania League of Legends scene.

In the span of less than 12 months, that small blog between two mates now covers three esports and one major tournament – three of them with regular content cycles. Snowball now has 20+ team members regularly developing content for us, a sleek website and 2019 is set to be even bigger.

However, 2019 can only get bigger for us by the effort put in by all of our hard working contributors in 2018. Inero’s Pick 6 was the first post to make the front page of Reddit, generating over 10,000 hits.

We took the leap into Overwatch – thanks to our now Overwatch Content Lead Andrew Amos’ constant pestering – leading us to cover two international events.

We had one of the largest media representations at the inaugural Melbourne Esports Open, with six contributors covering three different games over the two day festival. We also appeared at Rift Rivals, the University Esports League finals, League of Origin and Supanova Brisbane.

But there’s always a strive to better and make the snowball smoother, faster, and bigger.

In 2019 we’re going to diversify our content platforms, you’ll be seeing us a lot more on Twitch and YouTube. While we love written content and it will always be at Snowball’s core, there’s a high chance a lot of our readers also watch the likes of Thoorin and Travis Gafford, and we want to fill that void in the oceanic region, so we will look at expanding into video content.

We spent the latter part of this year adding the Gfinity Elite Series to our regular coverage schedule, and from that we are looking forward to branching out into more CS:GO and other game coverage.

It’s also time for us to start working better together. Everyone in the region has been incredibly supportive of our work but we want to push the boundaries of esports content together. We’ve started this in our collaboration with Riot Games, getting the OPL Roster Tracker off the ground and even having it and other OPL content featured in the League of Legends game client.

However, if you are a publisher, team, tournament organiser – anyone involved in esports in Oceania – let’s collaborate. If there is content you need help building, let’s open the conversation. We depend so much on your rights and players, allow us the chance to give more back.

Of course, there is the elephant in the room – the strain in any organisation’s running – financials. Snowball currently has no other revenue than our loyal and valued patrons on Patreon. Building this out will be a major focus in 2019.

We’re hoping by working closer with key stakeholders and producing more quality content across multiple platforms that we will be in a position to further grow and support our community through this next year.

Last of all, but most importantly, I have to thank all of you – the readers – for interacting with our content. It’s what drives us to do better day by day.

We are extremely open at Snowball Esports, and if you would like to become more involved please let us know – we have no shortage of opportunities. This can range from content creators, to marketers, established business people looking to mentor our project or even tournament organisers needing experience.

On behalf of the staff and our team of contributors, thank you for joining us for the ride thus far, we hope you’ll stay with us as we look forward to another year of producing great content for the Oceanic region.

Follow us on Twitter and other socials for the latest updates and content releases. If you’d like to support us further, consider checking out our Patreon for more ways to get involved, exclusive perks and more!

We’re inviting you behind the curtain at Snowball Esports, with our new Patreon page.

We’re constantly growing and branching out into more esports, and would like to invite you to become one of our Snowballers. The people behind the scenes who help make our coverage the best that it can be.

By becoming a Patron, you’ll get access to our private Discord server, and higher tiers will receive benefits like being able to participate in our in-house Snowball FIGHT League tournaments, and more! For the full list of tiers and benefits, check out the Patreon page.

Why Patreon?

Snowball Esports is completely independent, we’d like to expand to provide more quality esports coverage including better video content including interviews and new shows for example.

The biggest cost hurdle for us is attending all of the amazing esports events to better cover them. Donations of any amount, large or small, will go towards better gear and travel costs.

If you would like to support us, click the button below!

Become a Patron!