The Black Shark 2 will be the official smartphone for the Asphalt eSports Series Grand Finale. At the event, 12 finalists are set to compete for the victory and a monetary prize of €20,000. The Asphalt eSports Series is one of the bigger mobile eSports competitions, and is based on Gameloft’s latest game in the hit racing franchise.
Now that finalists have been selected for the finale, they will compete using the Black Shark 2 during the event at Gamescom. The finale will begin on August 21. For those attending, the competition will be held in Hall 11.3 of the Main Stage, but there will also be a livestream for everyone else. The livestream can be viewed on the official Asphalt and Gameloft YouTube channels, with the Grand Finale taking place at 1PM GMT.
In addition to the Black Shark 2 being the official phone of the competition, Gameloft is announcing an official car for it as well. That car will be the Porsche Formula E, and during the event the 12 finalists will have the chance to drive it before anyone else.
The Porsche Formula E will make its official racing debut in Season 6 of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship which takes place on November 22. This means Gameloft is getting a jump start on presenting this vehicle before anyone else. That presents a unique opportunity for the finalists, especially if they’re fans of the Formula E Championship.
Over the course of the last four months players from all around the globe have been competing for a chance to be invited to the Grand Finale. The Asphalt eSports Series was open to players from North America, Europe, and Asia. The countries from within those regions where the finalists are coming from include the US, South Korea, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Germany.
The Black Shark 2 being the official phone of the Grand Finale should be no surprise. Gameloft has been partnering with Black Shark in addition to the ESL since the beginning of the Asphalt eSports Series. Beyond that, the Black Shark 2 is a formidable mobile gaming device.
It features a liquid cooling system and a low latency screen, as well as a “world’s first DSP for a smartphone,” aimed at helping with advanced graphics performance. The phone is also powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 processor and offers 6GB or 8GB of RAM, and was launched earlier this year.
Back on July 30, Black Shark also unveiled a more powerful version of the Black Shark 2 called the Black Shark 2 Pro. This enhanced model comes with the more gaming-focused Snapdragon 855+ processor, and it comes with 12GB of RAM instead of 8GB like on the previous top-end model.
Since Gamescom is taking place in Germany and the livestream for the Grand Finale will be happening at 1PM local time, that means it’ll be fairly early for anyone on the West Coast of the US. 6AM PST to be exact. Anyone watching on the East Coast will have a little bit more time to wake up and get settled as the stream will begin at 9AM RST.