As online multiplayer phenomenon SpeedRunners passes $3.25 million in sales, the tinyBuild and DoubleDutch game is finally becoming an official ESL Gaming eSport.

tinyBuild has been pushing for SpeedRunners as an eSport for the last year, running dozens of events around the world on a weekly basis, and working with companies like Twitch, SteelSeries, Alienware to livestream prize tournaments.

Through talks with ESL, the oldest and largest eSports league in the world, SpeedRunners has now been signed up for ESL rotation alongside the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends.

SpeedRunners players are now invited to compete in official ESL cups and tournaments for prizes, with the first series commencing this Saturday in the SpeedRunners 1on1 Summer Series in Europe, and the first North America Series starting the following Saturday.

Prizes will include a custom ESL trail for the winning player that they can show off to other SpeedRunners during regular play online, trophies, and packs of tinyBuild games.

Sandwiched in between this, there will be an official Gamescom SpeedRunners Tournament that will be livestreamed from the Twitch stage next week at Gamescom, including a press-only tournament.

“SpeedRunners as an eSport just makes sense, and the velocity at which our community has rallied behind this important next step for the game has been incredible,” said tinyBuild CEO Alex Nichiporchik. “Our pro players can’t wait to get involved.”

Today, InnoGames released a new feature in its strategic city-building game Elvenar: Fellowships. Players can now band together with up to 25 companions and engage in activities that all members profit from, such as trading and enhancing production by visiting each other’s cities. Being in a fellowship also allows access to the ingame chat-function which grants seamless communication between members.

By founding a Fellowship, players become its Archmage, the guild leader. They can invite other players as well as assign Aspirants, initiates for the Fellowship. Proper members will be granted the titles of Fellow, Ambassador or Mage, each with their own privileges and rights within the fellowship.

Valiance Online has broken its silence this month with some pretty interesting pre-alpha server updates including a rather colorful character creation set-up, and now a look at the powers that will define your personalized super hero!

Part 1 of their discussion of powers points to a primary/secondary power set system in which players will acquire paths that define their archetype, while building a well-balanced character that acquires a secondary set of skills at a slower rate to balance their overall effectiveness on the battlefield.

Based on the preview, we see melee paths ranging from all out offense, to different tank styles, to full on support leader rolls. Ranged paths on the other hand seem focused on sniping down enemies before they’re seen, fully disabling them, or more standard healer support archetypes.

This is apparently just the tip of the iceberg though, as we won’t understand the full implications of the system until the hybrid power sets or archetype system is fully explained. Check out the full Director Blog here.

Plarium, one of the world’s fastest growing developers of social and mobile games, just announced the latest batch of updates for Nords: Heroes of the North, its hit MMO game currently available to play for free on Facebook.

Developed by a team of hardcore gamers, artists, and technical gurus, Nords includes 3D battle animations and a wide range of RPG features. With the fantasy title’s latest updates, Plarium continues to deliver more of the features hardcore players have been requesting and waiting for, such as tournaments, clan missions, raids and much more.

For the first time, players find themselves front and center in the legendary realm of Shingård. However, a wicked presence has recently descended over the snow-covered land and legions of undead are rampaging across the kingdom – it is up to the player, who can choose to be in a tribe of Orcs, Elves, or Nords – to unite for the common good in order to vanquish this evil presence.

The latest updates include:

Tournaments
There are two types: personal and clan tournaments. This update allows players to fight against each other and earn points that will give them rewards.

Clans and Clan Missions
Clan Missions are special tasks that require players to work with other Clan members to complete global objectives. New Clan Missions are randomly selected, and each Clan will have 24 hours to complete the objective. Every completed Clan Mission grants huge rewards.

The Gift of Giving
Players are now able to send and receive free gifts of Resources to and from friends. Resources sent as a free gift will not be subtracted from a players’ current resource stockpiles.

These free gifts have no expiration date and friends may accept them at any time. However, players may only send one free gift to each friend per day, and may receive a maximum of 10 free gifts.

Raid Quests
From now on, new Quests will include more military operations, such as engaging battlegrounds, destroying rival units, and other increased opportunities to show off your skills, with bigger, better and more diverse rewards.
Players can also earn rewards by raiding other players, but only through clever diplomacy, resource trading, and the forming of alliances.