RankR gives esports a single hub for news, rankings, and tournaments

Competitive gamers have a new tool that can make organizing and following their scene easier.

Esports Access announced today the launch of RankR, a new hub for competitive gaming tournaments, rankings, and news. The new online community will include a calendar of events, global rankings, and a team-builder function that will allow players to group together and play specific games. Market research firm Newzoo says that esports will hit $463 million this year and $1.1 billion by 2019. A tool that can make organizing events easier could help it grow even faster. Millions of U.S. gamers watch esports, and the majority are 18 to 34-year-old males, one of the most lucrative groups for advertisers. This startup is attempting to solve a problem in esports — a unified hub like this is rare for the industry. Despite its popularity, esports are often fragmented, since different companies and organizations run their own tournaments. A hub like this can help fans discover more events, even for games they don’t typically follow.

The growth of the industry has helped streaming site Twitch, which many esports tournaments use for broadcasting. Amazon bought Twitch for $970 million in 014

“Our mission is to make RankR esports a foundation on which esports can grow, thrive, and become more accessible to players and fans around the world,” said chief operating officer and co-founder of Esports Access Cameron Robinson in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “We’re taking some cues from the traditional world of sports, but also creating a community that is unique to the esports landscape.”

Esports Access started as a class project between Robinson and chief executive officer Jacob Smith, who met at a web-design course at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. You can check out RankR here.