The Esports Journal - Edition 6

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CONTENTS

In this edition

12 Riot Games

Behind the dynamic evolution of LEC.

26 eSportStars Filling a unique void in the esports ecosystem.

36 Isurus Isurus is leading the fight to stop toxicity.

Digital version will also be available via www.theesportsjournal.news 10 FlyQuest

Reshaping FlyQuest during a time of turbulence.

14 BLAST

The pandemic can’t stop BLAST´s explosive growth.

18 Bayes

The Top 10 challenges facing the esports industry.

20 GRID

One data platform to unite them all.

34 Sportswear

Esports is becoming the latest battleground for longtime sportswear rivals.

38 9Z

A fast-growing organisation in a fast-growing region.

40 Giants

Vodafone Giants: A new European titan.

42 Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C

28 Deloitte

Building the Arena: Increased Appeal of Esports Infrastructure Investments.

32 In-game advertisements A space to improve brand and partner integration.

From Silver Sniper to senior gaming advocate.

54 Bird & Bird

A brief guide to securing a good deal and protecting your brand.

Visit our site: theesportsjournal.news

Why Wolves Esports could become the football club’s top draw.

22 WePlay!

Behind WePlay! Esports’ unique storytelling and international expansion.

52 DieHardBirdie

44 Psyonix

Rethinking Rocket League esports.

46 ESI & CSM

Esports teams and the brand identity challenge.

48 Play The Game

The spanish agency open its new office in Argentina to operate in South America.

50 ACES

Connecting the esports industry with academia.

Follow us on Social Networks

The companies and executives that make esports one of the fastest growing industries worldwide The Esports Journal is a joint venture between Esports Insider and LMG.

EDITION 4 ICE Esports Arena | February 4-6 Esports BAR Cannes | February 11-13

The Esports Journal Management Team Sam Cooke Managing Director & Co-Founder - Esports Insider Agustin Cikes COO and Co-Founder - Latam Media Group

EDITION 5 ESI Digital Summit | May 25 - May 26 Postal Distribution to key industry stakeholders

Content Team Andrew Hayward - Content Lead - The Esports Journal Adam Fitch - Editor - Esports Insider Pablo Monti - Editor - LMG Cody Luongo - Journalist - Esports Insider Mitch Reames - Journalist - Esports Insider

EDITION 6 Esports BAR Miami | September 22-25 Postal Distribution EDITION 7 ESI Digital Winter | November TBC ESI NYC | November 30 - Dec 1 Postal Distribution Available year round in: Platform, London’s leading esports & gaming bar. www.experienceplatform.co.uk V.Hive, Team Vitality’s HQ and store in central Paris.

Digital versions will also be available via www.theesportsjournal.news To get involved, or if you have any questions at all, please reach out via info@theesportsjournal.news

Design Micaela Palotti - Design Lead - LMG Perthenia Thomas - Design Lead - Esports Insider Community Manager Daniela Rocha Aranzana - LMG Social Media  http://twitter.com/The_ESJ  http://www.instagram.com/theesportsjournal  https://www.linkedin.com/company/ the-esports-journal Site http://theesportsjournal.news Contact info@theesportsjournal.news Printing coordinated by: Young’s Media Productions Ltd 9 Aquarelle House, 259 City Road, London EC1V 1AG,UK T: +44 (0) 7811 864 001 E: craig@youngsmedia.productions Registered in England and Wales No. 10131185 Distribution The Esports Journal is printed in the United Kingdom, and distributed globally, throughout Europe and North America. It is available at London’s most premium esports and gaming bar and restaurant, Platform, and at Team Vitality’s HQ and flagship store in Paris.

Dear readers, So here we are. Somehow, we’re already on the third edition of the year. This one has been longer in the making than initially expected, courtesy of the pandemic, but as they say - good things come to those who wait, and never have truer words been spoken.

Edition 6 includes some exceptionally insightful pieces from a look at what Wolves FC are doing with esports globally, to a one-onone with FlyQuest CEO Tricia Sugita, and a look at the potential of ingame advertising and what is already being done in that space.

We went somewhat tournament and league organiser crazy here too, and we’ve interviews with BLAST, the LEC, and WePlay! Esports who each approach the space a little differently - a contrast and compare with the three of them for sure makes for a good read with a cup of tea.

For anyone interested in crunching numbers and data to back up assertions and assess trends, we got you. We’ve a meaty feature with Deloitte which discusses the increased appeal of esports

infrastructure investments, and on a global scale too. On a slightly different angle, we have a great interview with ‘DieHardBirdie’, real name Abbe Borg; this is an interview with the 78-year-old CS:GO-loving Swede.

In addition, the US-based developer Psyonix spoke to us about the new changes with Rocket League esports. We put pen to paper this time ourselves too, and the piece on the brand identity challenge for teams takes a look at what possible learnings esports teams could take from elsewhere, and how they might seek to differentiate themselves from the crowd to better stand out.

Education and esports is explored too via a piece discussing ACES, and there’s a broad look at the rise of athletic apparel too.

With Platform reopen in London, the magazine will be available there in its physical form, just as it will be at SPORTEL Monaco in October. We will continue with the digital drive and development of the magazine’s channels too; you can find us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, and directly via theesportsjournal.news.

All in all, it’s been another great job by the whole team here, led by Andrew Hayward and Adam Fitch on the editorial side. More to come!

Sam and Agustin

Sam Cooke

Managing Director & Co-Founder ESI

Agustín Cikes

COO & Co-Founder LMG

Meet the Team

Andrew Hayward Content Lead The Esports Journal

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Adam Fitch Editor ESI

Pablo Monti Writer LMG

Jamie Wootton Journalist ESI

Mitch Reames Journalist ESI

About Us

About Us

Based in London and founded in 2016, Esports Insider is an industry focused esports news platform, B2B agency, media and events company.

Based in Buenos Aires and founded in 2016, Latam Media Group was launched to bring a new concept in communication, networking and content creation.

ESI runs a world leading and international esports industry news site, operates The Esports Journal magazine, and has run more industry events than any other company globally, from London to Los Angeles.

Other arms of the company include ESI Media, and ESI Connect which assists brands, investors and suppliers with strategy and a route to market via esports rights holders.

Latam Media Group is a media group specialized in the Latin American Gaming industry. Its expertise in public relationships let them multiply their business audience, building a selected and exclusive network that acts as a guide to keep evolving in the right direction.

EsportsInsider.com - One of the leading esports industry focused platforms worldwide. We feature the latest news stories from a global perspective, alongside opinion pieces, and interviews with those making waves in esports business. We also have magazine publication; The Esports Journal, and a twice weekly newsletter, the ESI Dispatch.

Betting Mgz - The first and only magazine focused on the online gaming industry in Latin America. It´s distributed in the main events of the region, reaching the main operators, suppliers, regulators and businessmen.

ESI Events - We run esports focused events and have produced more esports business events than any other, globally. These have included the Forum Series, ESI London, the annual ESI Hall of Fame and ESI NYC. We offer white label events services too.

ESI Media - We offer B2B and B2C content services (editorial, podcast and video), which can be via ESI channels, or it can be fully whitelabel, and we have the print magazine The Esports Journal, which we run with our partners LMG. ESI Connect - ESI Connect sits in-between current esports rights holders and companies seeking to do business the right way, without all the hassle. Acting as a media house, translator and mentorship group, ESI Connect will evaluate what you seek to do, propose the best fit, initiate the right contacts and support you in the delivery of your plans. Find out more about ESI Connect on the site, and you can drop us a line at info@esportsinsider.com to apply.

LMG now organizes events, VIP dinners, conferences and summits for the Latin American gaming industry.

LMGMAS.com - It´s one of the leading websites of the Latin American gaming industry. Apart from promoting the latest trends of the companies and the executives, LMGMAS makes the difference with their innovative way of communication, exploiting all the resources that social networks and new trends allow.

All the content is perfectly segmented, according to the interests of each of their readers. This is: Esports Industry: All the information related to esports industry, focused on Latin America with a worldwide perspective.

Gaming Agenda: Exhibitions, Conferences, Summits and Webinars.

LMG Eventos - Thanks to our daily contact with the whole industry, we know the needs of our clients. That´s why we organize events that fit perfect with their demand.

Some of our events: Esports Brands Conference Betting Sports Marketing Conference Affiliate Summit LatAm Welcome Cocktails

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INTERVIEW

Tricia Sugita CEO FlyQuest AUTHOR Mitch Reames  @Mitch_Reames

Reshaping FlyQuest during a time of turbulence n June, companies that operate in America had to make a decision. After the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmad Aubery sent thousands of people down the streets of every major American city in protest, calls for corporate channels to speak out in support of Black Lives Matter and the movement against police brutality echoed across social media.

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The protests brought hundreds of millions of dollars to charities, saw the NFL apologise for its handling of player Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protests, and saw the vast majority of esports organisations who operate in America pledge their support to the protests.

One of the first organisations to speak out was FlyQuest - and the decision came straight from the CEO. “At FlyQuest, we believe that greatness exists within everyone and we want to 10

find and showcase it,” Tricia Sugita, CEO of FlyQuest, told The Esports Journal.

“Our vision of ‘Showcase Greatness’ will never change. That is our north star and why we are in esports. Whenever we have an opportunity to help others and use our platform to do good in the world, we will always take it.”

Sugita has been CEO for FlyQuest for about half a year. During that time she has spearheaded initiatives to fight climate change, transitioned the team to a new facility, and brought home the organisation’s best finish to date for its League of Legends squad. And she did it all while navigating a global pandemic.

“In this day and age, we have the opportunity to be more than just a company - in our case, more than an esports organisation,” said Sugita. “A lot of companies and teams say they ‘want to be more than XYZ,’ but I don’t know

what that ‘more’ is. Even for traditional sports teams who have been around for decades, I don’t know what their vision is, what their brand is. I wanted FlyQuest to have a clear vision from the start because many of the greatest companies in the world have started with a vision.”

For Sugita, speaking out on major issues isn’t “will-we-or-won’t-we,” it’s how. The company has amplified or run charity events to support Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA+ communities, and the environment - and that’s just in the last few months. When gaming had its own “Me Too movement,” it was Sugita’s name attached to the heartful statement of support for victims of sexual harassment and abuse.

For Sugita, these are personal tenants of her life that stretch far beyond her time at FlyQuest.

“If we speak in marketing terms, you have your vision, you have certain initiatives,

INTERVIEW

and you have certain products. But if you put all that aside, at the end of the day you have your ‘why,’” she said.

“Why are we here? Who are we? What is our purpose? For me, I believe that greatness lies within everyone, and I want to serve humanity and help others be happy. That mission has led everything I do in life. It is very much a privilege that I am able to work towards my vision through FlyQuest.

“Now that I’m at FlyQuest, that same purpose is still there. But now I have a greater responsibility, a greater privilege to be able to spread that purpose through a company. It’s important to use your platform responsibly and find ways to help others.”

Previously the COO of FlyQuest, Sugita helped the organisation focus on helping combat climate change, and initiatives like TreeQuest found a way to tie League of Legends into planting trees. For every kill by a FlyQuest player in the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) or Academy, one tree is planted; Ocean Drakes are ten trees and a FlyQuest win is 100. In all, nearly 10,000 trees were planted by the organisation via TreeQuest in the Spring Split.

When it was time for former CEO Ryan Edens to transition to President last January, initiatives like TreeQuest made Sugita stand out from a wide crowd of other candidates. Now the entire organisation falls under her leadership.

“FlyQuest’s employees don’t always agree with what we want to do, but they understand my perspective and understand why it is important to me, and that I’m speaking from the heart,” Sugita said. “I don’t try to convince the other staff members. I try to inspire them and say, ‘Let’s leave a legacy in esports.

Let’s actually be more than an esports organisation.’”

Within a new eco-conscious facility dubbed the ‘Greenhouse,’ FlyQuest players are finding success. FlyQuest has been a middle-of-the-road team

in the LCS since Wesley Edens, the owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, purchased Cloud9’s Academy team and its LCS spot in 2017. Over the past two years, the team’s highest finish in an LCS split was fourth, with the average finish being about seventh place. This year, with a new facility and a new CEO (but many of the same players), FlyQuest held second place for almost the entire split.

In the Spring Split, the organisation finished in a three-way tie for second place and lost the tiebreaker. The players made up for it by going on a run through the loser’s bracket in the Summer Split playoffs to reach the finals. In the finals, they matched up against Cloud9, arguably the greatest LCS team ever established, and were swept. Despite the finish, this was certainly the best split FlyQuest’s LCS team has ever had, and the organisation’s revamped attitude could have played a part.

“Players have really responded well to these changes and they enjoy working here,” Sugita said. “We’ve centralised into our Greenhouse facility (prequarantine) and that allows for a lot more collaboration between different parts of the company and gives players input on things like jersey designs, TreeQuest, and other things that they find important to them. It’s resulted in positive effects on both competitive play and on FlyQuest as a whole.”

For Sugita, it was the leadership style that felt natural. Her focus on

mindfulness created an environment in which everyone inside FlyQuest’s Greenhouse has a voice. Much like Complexity CEO Jason Lake’s focus on player health that he calls “Esports 3.0,” Sugita has found success by taking a holistic approach to running an esports organisation.

“At FlyQuest, we do things as an entire company rather than as individual departments,” Sugita explained. “When we have a possible initiative or idea, we share that with the whole company starting with why it is important. The ‘why’ helps inspire people and make it their own. Once we figure out what we want to do and why it is important, then we figure out how to execute it. Players are a big part of that process, and they become more invested in what we are trying to create and the impact that we can have.”

As Sugita looks towards the future, promises of calmer seas seem inevitable. In her first six months as CEO, with the pandemic spreading and protests in the streets, Sugita never flinched. Driven by her own guiding philosophy, Sugita proved to be the perfect leader in a time of complicated worldwide issues.

While things may slow down, there will always be causes that need support, and Sugita’s FlyQuest plans to be quick to help in whatever way the organisation can. That’s what showcasing greatness is all about.

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BRANDS

AUTHOR Adam Fitch  @byadamfitch

Behind the dynamic evolution of Riot Games’ LEC ver since Riot Games welcomed the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) as the official top flight of League of Legends in Europe, in place of the EU League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), the competition has gone from strength to strength.

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Alban Dechelotte

Head of Partnerships & Business Development EMEA, Riot Games

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From international competitive success to a seemingly ever-growing roster of commercial partners, it’s clear that plenty is going right with the LEC. In the pursuit of uncovering the components of such success, The Esports Journal spoke with Alban Dechelotte, Head of Partnerships & Business Development EMEA at Riot Games.

This is a stark comparison to the LCS, Riot Games’ North American initiative.

From performance, to the broadcast, to the partners involved, the LEC appears to be the developer’s golden child in the West. Dechelotte’s explanation of this is simple, and begs the question of just how important location is - even in an industry that’s very much online.

Riot Games has done an impressive job of bringing in brands into the league for support - whether they’re already particularly familiar with esports or otherwise. The likes of Nestlé’s KitKat, Kia Motors, Shell, and Foot Locker have all pledged allegiance to the European competition for 2020.

“North America and the EU are different in a variety of ways including the languages spoken, amount of countries, and diverse cultures,” he said. “When you take this into consideration, it’s no surprise that the way brands associate and engage with LEC and LCS are vastly different.”

Across many of Riot Games’ regional leagues, and on a global basis, ingame banners have been introduced - providing another way for commercial partners to get eye on their brands and, thus, theoretically creating more value for those who may want to get involved in the action. This fits in well with the LEC’s approach to creating a great experience for its partners, Dechelotte explained.

“For the first time in League of Legends history, these in-game banners place our partner’s brand directly in the game, creating an immersive experience similar to what is found in traditional sports arenas,” he said. “With live events still mostly off the table, this is an innovative way to still bring value to our partners,

BRANDS

teams, and fans. We are looking for ways to surprise and delight our fans with experiences that only brands can create, similar to what we did bringing KitKat into LEC breaks. Only our creativity will limit our capacity to bring new brands onboard.”

Another way to increase the value for both existing and prospective partners in the LEC is to bolster the amount of eyeballs on its weekly broadcast.

While games are typically banded together under the broad umbrella term of “esports,” they each have their own communities with their own preferences, characteristics, and expectancies.

fans to catch up on the LEC match of the week if they didn’t have the time to watch our weekly show live. We definitely still have huge growth potential in Europe, and our priority is still to provide more reasons and ways for audiences to become fans of League of Legends and the LEC.” As previously touched upon, the transition from EU LCS to LEC seems to have boded well for Riot Games, but only certain information is in the public realm. While it’s undeniable that growth in viewership and commercial interest are two KPIs that the developer is focusing on, we wanted to know whether the expectations of Dechelotte and

Photo: Riot Games

With this in mind, it’s harder than it perhaps seems on the surface to keep growing your broadcast. If you’re already accessing a huge portion of the League of Legends fan base, it may well be tough to improve the numbers if you’re looking to attract the attention of fans from other titles. There are, of course, opportunities to grow deeper in Europe, to expand viewership into new regions, to better accommodate female viewers, and to access more casual fans of the MOBA title.

“We are definitely exploring ways to keep attracting new audiences to the show through new platforms, languages, and formats,” said Dechelotte. “A great example of this is our recently released 52-minute format on ES1, a specialised esports TV channel in France, to allow

by the diversity of the background we come from, the LEC brand is a very authentic manifestation of our vision for esports in Europe. The combination of creativity and cultural diversity really reflects the uniqueness of the European region, and supported our recent performance on the global stage.

It’s worth noting that none of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for the phenomenal teams we’re working with.”

The LEC is in long-term partnerships with 10 teams - including some of the biggest brands in esports, such as G2 Esports and Fnatic - but what’s stopping that number from growing? If the teams are happy with the deal in place, the fans

Photo: Riot Games

his team were met, or even surpassed, since the rebrand a couple of years ago.

“We have been overwhelmed with positive feedback from the community after the LEC rebranding, which also coincided with our announcement of a new league format with 10 long-term team partners,” he said. “The sentiment, viewership, and engagement have been incredible since the transition, and we are more committed than ever to finding new ideas to keep the flame burning and growing.

“After being known as the other league’s sibling for a while, I think our biggest transition was finding, polishing, and articulating our own unique tone of voice for the brand,” Dechelotte continued.

“Inspired by all our initiatives, and driven

are pleased with the product that’s being delivered, and those behind the league say it’s been successful, then perhaps adding more well-known brands with solid rosters could act as a catalyst for further growth.

“We are happy with the balance we currently have in the LEC with a diverse group that mixes esports pioneers, traditional sport and entertainment organisations, local heroes, and global brands,” he explained. “But of course we do see the value in adding new teams to create new rivalries, new storylines, and engage new audiences. We are definitely open to the possibility, and while we do not have immediate plans to expand for the next season, will continue to evaluate on a yearly basis.”

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INTERVIEW

The pandemic can’t stop BLAST’s explosive growth AUTHOR Andrew Hayward  @ahaywa

ow do you run a global, events-driven business during the time of pandemic?

Amazingly, BLAST hasn’t missed a beat, rapidly shifting from live tournaments to online events, all while ramping up its content output, launching new formats, and even entering a new game.

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Along with adding Dota 2 competition alongside its established CounterStrike: Global Offensive events, BLAST has also launched multiple fashion collaborations and announced a €12.5 million investment round. In short: COVID-19 hasn’t slowed BLAST down one bit.

The Esports Journal recently caught up with BLAST CEO Robbie Douek to discuss the organisation’s online pivot of late, his optimism about the return to live events, and where he’d like to be in 12 months - with or without BLAST events in global arenas by then.

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Robbie Douek CEO BLAST

INTERVIEW

The Esports Journal: How has BLAST adapted to the pandemic so far given the impact on live events?

Robbie Douek: It’s been a really crazy time to be operating in the world of sports and entertainment, and none more so than in esports. We’ve really embraced it as a big opportunity.

Despite the limitations of doing live events in arenas all around the world, which is obviously something that most viewers have become accustomed to from us, we’ve actually been able to put on all of our events at distance and online.

Actually, that online opportunity has meant that we’ve increased our output and launched some new formats. We launched something called BLAST Rising and we moved our Premier Spring Showdown and our final to online formats, specifically. And then we went into Dota 2, as well, where we’ve launched something called BLAST Bounty Hunt.

The combination of all of that is a huge amount of exposure: 308 hours of live action over the period. The pandemic has been tough for live events in arenas, but obviously for online, it’s been very interesting and exciting. As an organisation that is obsessed with

its broadcasts - because that’s really a key component of what we do - we’ve really focused on the technology and the delivery of that, and making sure that our consumers are really having the most incredible experience.

On an operational level, we’ve had our teams distanced across different geographies. We’ve been operating with teams all around the world. Our internal teams at BLAST are between different parts of Denmark and the UK, and then the teams that we work with on Premier and Bounty Hunt have all been in different locations around the world. We’ve had to adapt to that, and adapt to working conditions. I think the companies that are winning through this are the ones that have been quite quick out the door, and have been able to make that happen.

I always like talking to the team. We’ve changed the frequency of management meetings and town halls, and I just think they’re working so hard and so effectively. I’m so proud of the employees we’ve got. Without singling anyone out, across the board, they’re just incredibly dedicated people who are there for the cause. It’s been really amazing.

ESJ: Given that the uncertainty continues with the pandemic, how far out ahead are you planning to potentially be disrupted like this?

RD: We were just talking internally as well about what the impact is around the world. We’re a global business. You saw from our agenda last year, we were from Brazil to Moscow and the Middle East we went everywhere.

It’s been a massive learning curve, is probably how best to say it. Nine months ago, would you have thought this

We have destinations that are earmarked for the latter end of the fall, which is quite helpful, but we’re looking at government legislation

would’ve happened and we’d be confined to our houses, and that’s how you would operate as a CEO of a global business?

No way! But it just shows so much about human nature, how quick you are to adapt to the situation you’re in and how you can change it for the good.

and we’re looking at the position that the government authorities are giving against how to operate in those environments. It’s very varied. You’ve got some countries that are very much aspiring to open up arena play and to have 3,000-5,000 people in an arena

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INTERVIEW

with social distancing in mind. And you’ve got others who are adamantly against that.

I think the proof is in the pudding of what happens in the U.S. Really, what goes down in the U.S. over the next four weeks, if they can control the current spike, then potentially it’s back on again.

It’s the same with other markets around the world. Some have controlled it well.

We’re really looking at the next six months, and we’re very, very confident that in the year of 2021, we will be back in live arenas again around the world.

I’m saying that because I’m trying to put a positive spin on it, to influence it. [laughs] ESJ: What made BLAST want to get into Dota 2 for its next game?

RD: I’ve been looking at Dota for a while with the leadership team, and speaking to the teams who play in Dota. We think that it’s right for BLAST. We looked to the teams playing in it and looked at the ecosystem, and we said: There’s something in this where BLAST can lend itself very nicely to it. We can bring our entertainment factor and our show

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factor to Dota to really give it something that it hasn’t had until now, and apply a lot of the innovative technology that we’ve used in Counter-Strike to Dota in a very positive way.

We looked to that, and the response from the teams has been really positive.

They were very keen on BLAST Bounty Hunt. It was a relatively disruptive format with the bounties and the dynamic prize pool, and the fan cams involved and the engagement around that.

I think there is further opportunity in Dota. I think we can make the game more mainstream in the sense that we can enable larger broadcasters and sponsors to engage with it and the fans, to really give that opportunity for more than there’s currently been. We’re very bullish about the future of Dota.

ESJ: There’s a lot of hype around VALORANT right now. Is that a game that BLAST is actively evaluating, or are you waiting to see how that scene develops?

RD: It’s exciting to watch what’s going on with VALORANT. We are excited by VALORANT and we’d love to engage with it at some point in the future. We’re just watching as we go along now to see when that ideal moment is. I think there is some ideal opportunity out there to engage, so we’re going to follow it closely and we’ve talked with Riot Games. We would definitely welcome the opportunity to engage with VALORANT in the coming months, and it’s something that we will actively look at.

ESJ: How will the recent €12.5 million investment round help BLAST grow in the months and years ahead?

RD: It’s been reported that we’ve closed a round of funding, which is great - and a tricky time to do it during COVID. But obviously, it speaks volumes for the product that we have and the brand that we’ve built. We were very eloquent around what we want to achieve as a business. We want to diversify our

INTERVIEW

portfolio from CS:GO into other games, and we’re showing that with Dota.

We’ve got a lot of play in and around traditional sports and potentially further entertainment formats, because we think of ourselves as an entertainment business. But the underlying factor here is that we wanted to be able to invest in our own technology and build out that platform, and give consumers more.

We’re excited by the opportunity to enable consumers to engage further with BLAST, whether that’s Premier, Bounty Hunt, or any of our other IP. We’re excited to offer consumers the ability to lean in and engage with that broadcast in a way that they probably can’t do currently, and in a way that technology enables that to happen.

We’re very much earmarking the funds to do really good technology development, further enhancements and improvements around our current physical space in terms of our studio base, etc. And then on top of that, obviously IP development is hugely important, and some key hires around the team. We’ve got a great organisation that is relatively small, and we’d like to expand that further and be in different geographies. So, as far as that money can stretch.

ESJ: What opportunity do you see in fashion collaborations, given the couple announced so far and the promise of more ahead?

RD: I’m personally really excited about what we’re doing in the lifestyle sector.

When we launched the Champion collab alongside the BLAST Premier London series, we were blown away by the response to that. And then we’ve done something with Smiley recently, which was really well received. We’ve just launched something with TW Steel too. We were the first to announce a watch collaboration in esports, and it was quickly followed by a second in the space. We’re happy with that.

We think that the reason why that worked is that BLAST seems to be proving itself as a direct-toconsumer brand. BLAST seems to be something that resonates with people as a brand that they quite like, and it lends itself to these forms of collaboration and potentially future fashion and lifestyle outlets. I think we’d like to do a lot more and we’re lucky to have a superb lifestyle department working hard on those kinds of collaborations.

Of course, when you’re wholly operating online, that produces some challenges in itself, but we’ve actually managed to work through quite a lot of that. It’s harder when you haven’t got the physical presence in an arena to showcase all that you’re building, but I think social media has really provided us with a platform to be able to market quite a bit of what we’re about. In short: more to come, very exciting.

ESJ: Looking out a year from now, what would you like to have accomplished with BLAST by then, whether or not you’re holding live events?

RD: We pride ourselves on being the esports business that is providing the most incredible broadcast experiences and consumer experiences, so the ultimate answer to that is further enhancements to our broadcast technology - providing consumers with just the most amazing shows. And then on top of that, probably further diversification of our IP and brand into further games and collaborations, and lifestyle formats, as well as oversee the launch of some of our technology play.

Some small tasks there ahead of us over the next 12 months.

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BRANDS

The top 10 challenges facing the esports industry ith an industry that’s predicted to exceed more than $1.5 billion in revenue next year, esports is hotter than ever before. Globally, the industry could scale to $7 billion by 2023 . Viewership continues to grow as innovations and technology evolve.

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Independent data marketplaces, such as BEDEX from Bayes Esports, solve the problem of very fragmented esports data, which is not accessible for people who want to buy it because it’s locked into exclusive contracts.

But there is even more work to do.

Martin Dachselt, CEO of Bayes Esports, shares the Top 10 challenges facing the esports industry.

Challenge 1: Uneven ground Currently, data is only available partially for and from tournaments and games.

The distribution is a matter of exclusive details and third-party products.

Challenge 2: Integrations Several data sources have to be integrated from several people, systems, and formats. This not only costs time and effort, but it takes away convenience for the clients and time for product innovation.

Challenge 3: Central sourcing It is impossible to represent global statistics as there is no central source for trustworthy, reliable, and quality data. A simple, representative example would be establishing a Counter-Strike:

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Global Offensive (CS:GO) world player ranking. Right now, a simple thing like that is nearly impossible to do, as most sources only offer a partial amount of data or incomplete data. A central source does not exist yet.

But it isn’t just an issue for the organisers and participants. For startup companies, the navigation of a multitude of structures, data formats, and integrations is further complicated by individual contracts.

Challenge 4: Accessibility By not being centrally available or complete, data doesn’t allow for the creation of products with good user experiences that depend on data surrounding the esports industry. The media industry desperately requires a solution to this problem.

Apps developed for and around esports can only use a fraction of data, if they’re using official data in the first place.

Many applications use unofficial sources for data, and those pose a huge risk because they are firmly unreliable.

Even if there is a degree of accuracy, there is no guarantee for the sustained availability of data.

Challenge 5: Lack of organisation This topic is one that touches every aspect of esports. In comparison with traditional sports, the landscape of esports is chaotic at best and fractured at worst. There is no central organisation for tournaments and no central structure for data. Regional and national structures do not exist or represent only a fraction of the total ecosystem, and that contributes to the problem.

The multitude of tournament organisers comes with a multitude of their own scheduling, data, and tournament formats. With so many methods and structures, there is a huge margin for error and misunderstandings. It makes things difficult for everyone, even for the biggest names in the scene, to keep an overview and it makes it next to impossible to organise in the long term.

Challenge 6: Live data So far, live data comes from only two sources; streams and the scraping of websites. Streams can provide delayed, inaccurate, or incomplete data and at varying speeds. Furthermore, the acquisition of data in these two methods is expensive and unreliable.

Challenge 7: Limited data The information given by a public stream is limited - not only by the usual one-player view, but information is also hidden by commercial breaks and commentators as well as analyst desks. These events aim to improve the experience of the fans, but they also complicate the acquisition of data through the stream.

Challenge 8: Unofficial data Undocumented APIs are available, and unfortunately, also in use. The matter

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of legality aside, these sources can simply disappear or change, posing an entirely malicious risk to any business using them. A return of investments or profit are difficult to manage under such circumstances.

Challenge 9: Exclusivity Further problems arise with the multitude of data rights contracts. Such contracts are only given for a limited time span, usually one year, and given exclusively. This means potential clients have only a limited selection and may not even be aware of all sources.

Challenge 10: Monetisation The situation of exclusive and not-public data carries the problem of suboptimal monetisation of data. Short timings for schedule and a varying parade of formats for tournaments, simultaneous events, time zones, and unauthorised data usage form an insurmountable chaos.

comprehensive scheduling and data sources. Additionally, fans and teams have to adjust to an unpredictable event calendar that is not guaranteed to be very fan-friendly and engaging.

For more information, read the latest Bayes Esports whitepaper “How to create value out of Esports Data?” at bayesesports.com

This chaotic situation makes long-term planning difficult from every angle and for everyone involved. Tournament organisers, data users, media, and betting companies struggle for

New Live Data Widgets make Esports look like traditional sports n terms of visualisation, there is a large issue that makes esports less accessible in the media and betting industry than traditional sports. For an entertaining live experience, different visualisations and perspectives on site and within the live streams are essential, not only to understand and enjoy the competition, but to feel like part of the game especially in complex 3D games. In order to provide these advanced features, real-time live data must be available as well as accurate and correct, to enable innovative visualisation tools.

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To power up esports engagement, Shadow.gg and Bayes Esports have developed the “Esports Widgets.” They enable the curation of data through official sources via computer vision and 24/7 manual monitoring. Thus, the media can display complete 2D visualisations (replays) live and during the game, with representation of player positions and trajectories of objects.

This was previously only possible after the game, i.e. not in real time.

The “Esports Widgets” provide esports fans with the modern look and feel to which audiences have grown accustomed. Visuals and pop ups within the interactive technology provide deep insight into every esports match, including pre-game, post-game and during play, delivering engaging visual content with no technical overhead.

Editorial Support: The Live Match Tracker gives new products a much better starting point to create more visually compelling stories, in-depth game analysis, and statistics.

For media and betting companies, the “Esports Widgets” mean a new standard in audience engagement: Event-Based Content: Betting and non-betting platforms can capitalise on major esports tournaments, covering everything from basic data to deeper granularity of match events and statistics.

Widgets Portfolio: Users can add esports headlines, stats, win predictions, team and player breakdowns, interactive 2D mini replay maps, and much more to further engage their audiences.

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GRID: One data platform to unite them all Thomas Warburton COO and Head of Product at GRID

fractured landscape with numerous stakeholders, the esports media space is a tangled amalgamation of communities, nationalities, and brands.

To navigate the entire competitive space, one must possess an acquired taste of uncertainty.

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AUTHOR Andrew Hayward  @ahaywa

have autonomy over their schedule, but a bit maddening for a fan. At GRID, we understand - as fans ourselves - that if we want to flourish in an ever-changing landscape, then our platform has to be built with game-agnostic features and unrelenting flexibility, and have the ability to scale… quickly.”

for fans. With a predominant share of exclusive data rights under the GRID umbrella, it seems to be in striking distance of its goal.

Berlin-based GRID is the first company specialising in esports data rights and distribution. With a vision of unlocking the value of official data from rights holders through API delivery, and building reliable and granular data products, GRID has a mission: that if the ecosystem has no intention of consolidating itself, then it can organise the chaos and provide industry companies comprehensive solutions

of Valve, there is no public-facing competitive API. Publishers typically see their esports scene develop organically from loyal patrons of their game compiling teams and competing to determine who is the best.

One might assume that esports data should be plentiful, but in reality, the data has historically been rudimentary and often collected by hand. Outside

“I grew up on the football pitch and cheering for Halifax Town,” said Thomas Warburton, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Product at GRID. “It is easy to follow football. Games are scheduled sometimes years in advance, and outside of a global pandemic, the games move forward as scheduled. You watch them on Saturdays at the pub with your mates.

Esports, however, is a whole different ball game.”

An inherent issue of a grassroots community like esports is that there is no centralised or understood path in which a fan can follow their team.

Imagine being a fan of any CounterStrike: Global Offensive team: one week they are playing in Flashpoint, and then a few weeks later they are off playing at Intel Extreme Masters.

“It would be like Manchester United playing in the EPL, then off for a weeklong tournament with the MLS,” said Warburton, “It is great for the teams to 20

While there are features built in-game for comparing casual play, a data feed for competitive events is oftentimes secondary to releasing a game that

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is fun to play. This means game publishers have to dedicate resources from publishing their next big game, or their next patch, and funnel them into developing a dedicated API for competitive play. GRID aims to solve this puzzle by actually flipping the model, actively tapping into the source and monetising data for its partners.

This seems like a tall order, but Warburton revels in how beautifully simple it can be. He said that it is a matter of creating a platform that functions as a game-agnostic data engine. Titles that may seem to be in separate categories share some basic crossover in data points. Building the bedrock of this universal truth and engineering it from the ground up allows for the rapid expansion of GRID, he explained.

“What we do is unique in the sense that we can solve the problem of data mechanisms for a wide variety of games, all while still keeping pace with the schedules of our partners,” said Warburton. “Our timelines are measured in days rather than months. Tournament organisers or publishers come to us with a tournament or game that is not in our system, and due to our game-agnostic infrastructure, we can deliver web, streaming, and data assets replete with predictions, stats, and schedules on their site, with their sponsor’s logo, within a week.”

GRID matured from a data distribution platform to including B2B product solutions in September 2018 with its partnership with FACEIT for its CS:GO Major. This portfolio has since grown to include a multitude of tournament and publisher-focused products: GRID Insights is an automated system for broadcasters to provide real-time data stories that can be customised for onbrand messaging. GRID also has social media cards with live data call-outs, and its newest engagement product Esports Millions is a data-driven prediction game that has a grand prize of €1 million (£900,000), available and free to enter for any spectator.

GRID’s watch pages include a live stream of the match either from Twitch or the sanctioned tournament broadcaster.

Live in-game statistics spotlight tournament leaders with relevant data points, a matchup section comparing two players from different teams, and a fully laid-out schedule for the coming weeks of competition. The page is a unique combination of an NBA viewing page and a site like HLTV. At the bottom, there is a live-updating prediction graph showing the momentum flow, with up-to-the-minute projections of the likelihood of a win by each team.

“Much like our business, the pages are scalable and modular,” said Warburton.

“Anything that you see on the site can be modeled and fit into what a tournament or game publisher is looking for. If you look at the different pages we offer for various titles, you can see our agnostic vision at work.”

“Our business is B2B, but we understand that our end users are the fans,” said Warburton. “Fans cement their loyalty to teams and players. Our goal is to provide a product that tells the story of data’s role in a team’s legacy and sparks conversation for fans for all levels of play.

The money we generate with our partners feeds back into the system, adding to the esports value chain, and as the value chain grows we grow. It’s a two-way street.”

It is unclear when, if ever, the chain of command in esports will unify into an easily-digestible schedule, straightforward to outside observers.

It may not even be necessary; like a historical landmark renovation may be detrimental to the various facets that

This vision bleeds through into every facet of GRID’s products. The approach to developing the product as if it is for all games makes it infinitely more usable for anyone who comes to GRID and wants to monetise their assets. From there, layers are added to give each game its own flair.

“Each product idea goes through the same ringer. Everyone has a say on our team. They can provide a write-up and detailed wireframe, but it has to fulfill the first rule we have,” Warburton said. “Does it fit the vision? If it can fit that initial framework, then it becomes endlessly scalable for all of our partners and becomes easily integrated with our platform. All the while, it allows us to stay lean and hit timelines required by the industry.”

GRID functions as an esports company working in the data space rather than vice versa. It is a truly endemic organisation built by fans, and one that grows alongside the terraced foundation of esports and provides the nervous system to a vibrant community.

provide culture and character to a scene egalitarian to its core. GRID makes sense of madness with products and visualisations somehow unique and agnostic for titles and tournaments that draw hundreds of thousands of viewers each day.

“We scale alongside complexity and richness in various titles in the esports space to allow rapid monetisation for everyone involved. No use fighting the rapids: just catch a wave and surf with it,” Warburton concluded. “With this philosophy, we are future-proofed, ready for the rise and fall of titles, and ready to give any tournament the polished data and visualisations that GRID prides itself on.”

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INTERVIEW

Ivan Rogovchenko Chief Design Officer WePlay! Esports

AUTHOR Jamie Wootton  @Jamie_Wootton

Behind WePlay! Esports’ unique storytelling and international expansion n June 2020, WePlay!

Esports hosted its very first publisher-affiliated CounterStrike: Global Offensive event, WePlay!

Clutch Island. While the competition took place online due to COVID-19 restrictions, the broadcast was conducted in a studio environment with a familiar roster of commentators, analysts and - of course - WePlay!

Esports’ unique set design.

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Once WePlay! Clutch Island finished, The Esports Journal spoke with Ivan Rogovchenko, Chief Design Officer at WePlay! Esports, about the tournament operator’s approach to design, and how exactly the concept behind this latest event came to fruition.

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The Esports Journal: WePlay! Esports’ stages and overall design sets it far apart from all other major tournament organisers. How long has WePlay!

Esports specialised in this?

Ivan Rogovchenko: WePlay! Esports has a long history starting from 2012. It was a small company whose team mainly consisted of esports enthusiasts, but the relaunch at the end of winter 2018 has changed a lot in how we operate. Since that time, we’ve been searching for effective ways to engage with the audience. Our goal is to cover esports events through the whole existing ecosystem, but to do it following a unique approach.

When we were planning to host our first tournament, Reshuffle Madness in September 2018, we aimed to make

an unforgettable first impression. We had the resources, a freshly redesigned studio, a media platform, and successful past projects in 2016 with huge prize funds under our belt.

So, we could not just make another esports event. How did we plan to distinguish ourselves from competitors?

First of all, we focused on the main needs and wants of our target audience: great visual content and exciting storytelling.

These two pillars make up our visual communication strategy. The production team, headed by Maksym Bilonogov, the General Producer at WePlay! Esports, is responsible for storytelling - and the design team that I lead is working on the visual part. Our art director works closely with the production team to implement the ideas we pitch.

INTERVIEW

We also try to keep our visual communication system very flexible but recognisable at the same time. First, we have WePlay! Esports, the main brand through which we engage with the whole audience. Then each tournament, event, or product we develop has a sub-brand that becomes a communicational part of our ecosystem.

Eventually, the whole team and visual communication strategy influences how WePlay! Esports engages with the audience, new and potential partners, or teams. Our approach is to maximise the number of customer touchpoints, active cooperation with other teams like production, marketing, or PR, as well as the high-quality visual content and storytelling. We strive to surprise gamers with original visuals for every tournament, just like my design team keeps me feeling excited to see their final art decisions.

design solutions are developed by our employees. This principle allows us to be flexible and fast in making and implementing decisions, and creating a visual communications design strategy.

We can also experiment without being afraid to make mistakes because we hire people who fit our corporate culture while adjusting our strategy to them.

On the subject of our staff, we have several teams working together on a daily basis. The production team develops a tournament idea from a storytelling point of view. The communications design team uses this idea and plot to develop branding, a tournament identity, the so-called key visuals for advertising, communications, and other tasks. The title team creates the graphics that viewers see on-air such as statistics, player comparisons, activities, or the heads-up display – a background interface in Counter-Strike we showcased at WePlay! Clutch Island.

ESJ: Can you share some details about the design process that goes into making these stages and stories behind the events themselves? Is this all done in-house, or is any part of the process from inception to execution outsourced?

IR: We try to do everything in-house, and that’s our principle. All solutions for infrastructure, the tournament platform, brand identity, and other

When it comes to the design process, there are many methods that we use, so I will skip this part. However, the most important is that we usually try to combine things one won’t expect to see together. For example, we used a fluffy logo for the WePlay! Dota 2 Valentine Madness event, as well as a blend of closed community and classic history at the WePlay! Pushka League Dota 2 event - the latter of which, to me, is the

most efficient branding we’ve ever done for tournaments.

ESJ: It seems feasible that a lot of design concepts are thought up and thrown away when trying to find the perfect solution. Can you think of any rough ratio of successful, final designs that reach the public to the total number of drafts and ideas that are thought up by WePlay! Esports’ design team?

IR: In graphic design, the concept behind the used symbol is crucial - and I’ll tell you what - once you have a solid idea that’s based on great visual storytelling, the visual component you get is a result of work by skilled specialists. We spend a lot of time to elaborate on any concept.

Usually, we go with the third or fourth solution as it has features to develop a great product: forethought, great idea, and visual presentation. So, our team could do many iterations before creating the final design. We have a funny story for such situations called a “12-hour branding.”

When preparing for WeSave! Charity Play, an event that aimed to combat the spread of coronavirus, Vitalii Ivanenko, Head of Design at WePlay! Esports, and I came up with the concept at 6pm. We wanted to get the design ready by the morning to be able to send teams their invites as quickly as possible. The next

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ESJ: Clutch Island was your first CS:GO tournament to be officially affiliated with Valve. Do you believe that WePlay Esports’ unique designs were a big factor in their decision?

IR: I think that the well-developed concept we provided in the application to Valve, along with other business components, could have influenced their decision. We were elaborating on every detail when working on the concept.

Eventually, we implemented all the proposed elements in that application: an event format and a design concept for WePlay! Clutch Island.

workday, the art director smacked all our ideas and drafts down. She developed a new concept herself within two hours, and that was the logo that everyone saw on the broadcast.

ESJ: There must be a big team behind such bold design projects. Could you share what kind of resources – whether they be time, people, or financial budget – are put towards the planning and delivery of such unique designs?

IR: Since we design everything in-house, our team is huge and includes various roles. 3D and motion designers are working in the production team headed

by General Producer Maksym Bilonogov.

The rest of the specialists are from my department, and they represent two main disciplines: visual communication and interaction design.

The Art Director leads the visual communication design team. These guys develop concepts for tournaments, advertising campaigns, special projects, and manage design standards.

Besides that, the team includes people working solely on banners and ad visuals for marketing communication, and those doing social media design – graphics one can see on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and our site. The creative team develops an identity for tournaments and overall branding.

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Product designers, UX designers, UX copywriters, and researchers work on our digital products: media, events, and tournament platforms, as well as other products with which WePlay!

Esports’ audience interacts. So, that’s

our interaction design team. Designers in the titles team create all graphics that viewers can see on Twitch during a broadcast.

Several other teams also help us do the job. For example, the customer experience team is responsible for feedback collection, user growth, and additional research. This team helps us understand our users’ needs and wants so we can act upon them. We’ve recently established a branding team that manages internal communications, develops our brand book - specifically the WePlay! Esports brand - and elaborates touchpoints.

Did we cooperate with Valve? No. Our production and design teams did the whole task themselves. In my opinion, when we emphasise visual components and storytelling, we allow the design to play its part, which is to attract user attention and evoke needed emotions.

We are going to dig deeper into this direction and develop new products.

We’ll do everything we can to keep your dopamine levels high during tournaments, because we have many ideas and surprises for you in store!

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AUTHOR Jamie Wootton  @Jamie_Wootton

Filling a unique void in the esports ecosystem ith tremendous media commitments and substantial salaries, it would be difficult - and rather unconventional - for professional sportspeople to sign up for a platform upon which amateur fans can pay to compete against them. In esports, however, the burgeoning industry hasn’t quite reached the same level of traditional sports yet, and with reduced salaries and fewer commitments, there is perhaps an opportunity for show matches between amateurs and professionals.

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Based in Japan, eSportStars has plans to fill this gap in the market and serve as a platform that allows fans to purchase tickets to compete against some of the world’s best esports athletes. In an effort to learn more about its offering

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and how the company came to be, The Esports Journal spoke with CEO Masato Kakamu.

Kakamu heads-up both TIME TICKET and eSportStars, the former of which is a C2C platform similar to Fiverr. TIME TICKET was first established to help people work for themselves and operate without the confines of an app like Uber or Etsy that - Kakamu notes - takes a sizable chunk of their earnings. In the spirit of helping people and putting earning power in their pockets, Kakamu commenced work on eSportStars with the idea that it can “supplement the income” of esports athletes who aren’t quite at the apex of their respective scene.

“Most esports professionals and those who are rising through the semiprofessional ranks struggle to make ends meet, but they still have to practice for 10 hours per day,” Kakamu explained.

“On top of this, it can be hard to allocate time to engage with their fans, so eSportStars wants to give players opportunities to make money, practice their game, and engage with fans all at the same time. Semi-professional players can compete against those with a higher status in the community, and fans can play against their favourite players.”

Kakamu acknowledges that such a platform can connect fans with their gaming idols like never before, and he hopes that eSportStars can become somewhat of a community service in this respect.

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Not yet launched, eSportStars is in a pre-registration phase while Kakamu and his team make finishing touches and conjure interest through test marketing.

Using his experience at TIME TICKET and the lessons he learnt in growing that service to more than 250,000 users, Kakamu is confident that he will be able to sign up a cluster of players to the platform. eSportStars already has a number of Japanese esports organisations

partnered, and hopes to work with Chinese, European, and North American organisations to get a foothold in the Western market and double down in Asia. Not only would the involvement of Western esports organisations raise the profile of eSportStars and encourage further users to sign up, but Kakamu also hopes that it will increase the platform’s scouting capability.

Amongst a few different objectives, one of the eSportStars’ primary purposes is to be a proving ground for emerging talent and semi-professional players. “I want this platform to serve as a way for talent to be scouted by big organisations,” said Kakamu.

With approximately 1,000 users, 16 professional players, and three teams partnered already after minimal marketing efforts, things seem to be moving in the right direction for Kakamu and eSportStars. However, not everything has been so straightforward.

Despite the platform not having launched yet, eSportStars has already been met with friction from publishers and rights holders of games that are supposedly going to be affiliated with the platform.

and he hopes that he can engage in a healthier relationship with them for the betterment of players in the future.

In response, Kakamu revealed that he has consulted with lawyers and is confident of eSportStars’ position in the market. He described eSportStars as a matching platform where you can find personalities to play with, not a gambling operator or an organisation violating the terms of use as some publishers have apparently alleged.

the platform because of its unproven nature. He hopes that a successful prelaunch will boost registration numbers and reassure said stakeholders of the platform’s potential.

The eSportStars boss explained that some publishers have taken a stance of, “You are making money out of my title, I don’t like that,” rather than support a platform that could potentially bolster and boost active player numbers.

Kakamu encourages publishers to support the eSportStars service,

Moving forward, ahead of the expected October launch, Kakamu plans to raise awareness of eSportStars and increase the number of pre-registered users through marketing initiatives including online creator events. Having spoken to esports stakeholders in the Western hemisphere, Kakamu understands that some are apprehensive about

Although a number of initiatives need to be executed ahead of eSportStars’ launch in October, Kakamu has grand plans for the platform both in the present and future. If all goes well, professional and semi-professional players could have the opportunity to exercise a new revenue stream.

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REPORTS

Building the Arena: Increased Appeal of Esports Infrastructure Investments AUTHORS Phil Colaco, Christian Christoefl and Alec Lynch Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC

he esports industry has gained significant mainstream exposure through the first half of 2020, in part likely due to tailwinds associated with stay-athome measures that have contributed to increased gaming and esports viewership.1

This article seeks to categorise esports infrastructure into its component parts and consider investment activity from 2019 through the beginning of 2020, highlighting areas for potential opportunities and the impact COVID-19 has had on investment activity.

With increased mainstream focus on the industry, investors are increasingly looking for ways to get involved. In our discussions with investors, no sector of the esports ecosystem has seen as much expressed interest as its infrastructure.2

Investment into esports has experienced significant growth over the last few years, with $5.5 billion in reported investment dollars in 2019, a 23 percent increase compared to 2018.3 4 In terms of number of deals, there were

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Number of Esports Infrastructure Deals by Month, 2019 30

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Esports Infrastructure Deals by Category, 2019

April

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Advertising Analytics

10%

16%

7%

Betting Business services

5%

Coaching Marketplace

Network connectivty

8%

21%

Content creators

9%

Community tools Streaming services Tournament organisers

9%

8%

6% 1%

674 investments made in 2019 with an average of 58 deals completed globally per month.5 Although major game developers represented a significant portion of 2019 investment activity (~$3.5B), a significant area of investor focus was esports infrastructure. Esports infrastructure companies provide the critical platforms and services that bolster the broader industry, providing such services such as analytics, tournament organising, streaming support, and advertising.

While individual games and leagues can rise and fall in popularity, investors have indicated that it is the long-term needs of infrastructure services across the esports ecosystem that is an attractive proposition.

STRONG INVESTMENT ACTIVITY IN 2019 In 2019, there was approximately $766M of reported investment into esports infrastructure representing 210 reported deals.7 These 210 deals were spread across the year with more activity in the first half of 2019 compared to the fall and winter months.8 On average, 17 infrastructure deals were done per month in 2019.9 While infrastructure saw investment activity across a broad range of subsectors in 2019, two subsectors that experienced significant investment were streaming services and tournament organisers.10

1 Washington Post, “The giants of the video game industry have thrived in the pandemic.�, accessed August 3, 2020.

2 Deloitte Corporate Finance internally developed esports M&A database.

3 Deloitte, The rise of esports investments: A deep dive with Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC and The Esports Observer, 2019.

4 Deloitte Corporate Finance internally developed esports M&A database.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

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REPORTS

Investors See Long-Term Potential of Streaming In terms of dollars invested, the $312.6M invested into streaming services represented the largest category of esports infrastructure investment in 2019.11 With global live game streaming expected to grow at an annual rate of 19.0 percent over the next five years, investments in this category are likely being made in anticipation of this expected growth.12

One of the most notable streaming services acquisitions was the acquisition of Streamlabs by Logitech, a popular major hardware peripherals company, at the end of 2019 for $135M.20 Streamlabs is the developer of streaming support tools with approximately 1.6M users near the end of 2019.21 By making the acquisition, Logitech can expand its ecosystem to not just supporting gamers in their gaming, but also in how gamers share gaming with others.22 As streaming continues to make headlines, it is likely that other large strategic investors may explore ways to gain further exposure to this subset of esports and gaming.

While some large investments were made into streaming platforms and software suites in 2019, more than half of streaming subsector investments were made to early stage companies focused on developing new tools to support streamers and their audiences.13 This represented 29 deals with an average reported investment size of $3.5M.14 One example of this would be the Series A investment round for Stream Element - a popular streaming production platform that provides streamers with tools to streamline their activities – for $11.3M in January 2019 from a number of strategic and venture capital investors.15

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Considering geographies, significant streaming services investment occurred in Asia, likely targeting its rising population of stream viewership.16 1 There were 14 such investments into streaming services companies in Asia, 1 representing $89.0M of total1reported 2 21 32 investment.17 Examples here1 include 2 an $18.0M3 Series 3 A investment into 12 3 Xiaoxiang Huyu, a game streaming and 23

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1

1 1

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Organiser 1Tournament 1 1 Deals1in 1 2019 Type J F M by Investor A M

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Venture Capital

JPrivateAEquityS Strategics

The largest investment of the year was the $35.5M Series A round of Indiabased Galactus Funware Technology, whose Mobile Premier League allows players to compete for cash prizes on a variety of third-party developed mobile games.26 Other major investments in 2019 included Game.TV, Inc for $25.0M and G:Loot AB for $24.6M. 27 28

Tournament Organisers in the Early Stages But Growing With 33 deals and $150.5M in reported investment, tournament organisers were the second-largest category of esports infrastructure investment in 2019.23 Representing the tools and platforms that players use to compete for cash and prizes, tournament organisers offer players the ability to try and replicate the feats that they see in professional tournaments and leagues, or while watching their favorite streamers. 1 6

When examining activity by investor type for 2019, there was consistent involvement by venture capital investors.29 With such a large number of investments into smaller early-stage platforms, as mentioned above, there is some indication that the tournament organiser subsector has yet to consolidate. This suggests the potential for M&A consolidation by emerging major tournament organizer platforms, a dynamic that typically appeals to traditional private equity investors.

As players increasingly explore these third-party platforms to test their skills in various games, investor interest will likely continue to follow.

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2 O N D Strategics Venture Capital Individuals

On average, tournament organisers experienced 2.8 investments per month in 2019.24 While several large deals in March, April, May, and December contributed a significant portion of the $150.5M of invested dollars in the subsector, 21 deals or 64 percent of reported deals were in smaller, early stage companies focused on either developing new platforms with emerging technologies, or providing support services to tournament organisers.25

hosting platform based in China, in April 2019; and a raise by Mirrativ, Inc., a Japan-based platform focused on mobile streaming, in February 2019.18 19

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11 Ibid 14 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

12 Business Wire, “Live game streaming market growth”, accessed August 3, 2020.

13 Deloitte Corporate Finance internally developed esports M&A database.

Private Equity Venture Capital Strategics Individuals 15 Games Industry, “Steam Element lands investment”, accessed August 3, 2020 16 Deloitte Corporate Finance internally developed esports M&A database.

18 China Money Network, “Chinese game streaming platform raises series a round”, accessed August 3, 2020. 19 Globis Capital, “Mirrativ follow-on investment”, 20 Business Wire, “Logitech agrees to acquire streamlabs”, accessed August 3, 2020. 21 Ibid.

22 Logitech, “Logitech Agrees To accessed August 3, 2020.

23 Deloitte Corporate Finance internally developed esports M&A database.

Acquire Streamlabs, Adding Streaming Tools to its Gaming Offering”, accessed August 11, 2020.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

26 Live Mint, “Gaming start-up raises $35.5 million”, accessed August 3, 2020.

27 Esports Insider, “Game.tv raises $25 million in Series A 28 Esports Insider, “G-Loot welcomes $25 million in investment”, accessed August 3, 2020.

29 Deloitte Corporate funding round”, accessed December 12, 2019.

Finance internally developed esports M&A database.

29

REPORTS

COVID-19 IMPACT ON INVESTMENTS MAY BE STARTING TO LEVEL As the global economy dealt with the negative implications of COVID-19 during the first half of 2020, the esports industry was able to garner some positive tailwinds.30 For example, streaming viewership and concurrent viewers were up significantly among major streaming platforms, and players increased their time playing games and money spent during stay-at-home mandates.31 While the stay-at-home measures associated with COVID-19 offered some benefits to esports-focused companies, in terms of investment activity— particularly in esports infrastructure investments—the trends through the first four months of the year were consistent with the broader economy.32 In aggregate investment dollars, the infrastructure sector experienced a decline of 51.1 percent in investment dollars through May 2020 relative to the previous year.33 When reviewing investment activity each month, January through April experienced a significant decline compared to each month in the previous year; April exhibited the lowest activity, with a decline of 85 percent compared to 2019.34 During this steady decline in activity, venture capital also saw a steady decrease in its monthly number of investments.35 In discussion with some investors, this could be attributable—in part—to the personal nature of venture capital investing, which was impacted by various stay-athome measures that limited in-person meetings and travel.

While investments through the first four months declined, activity in May suggests that investment activity may be starting to normalise.36 This could be due to investors adjusting to the market

Month-over-month growth in total infrastructure investment dollars, YTD May 2019(A) vs 2020(A)

Percent of total infrastructure investment dollars, YTD May 2020(A)

3%

Advertising

2%

4%

Business services Betting Analytics Tournament organiser

Marketplace Community tools

4%

31%

7% 8%

Coaching

Streaming services

10%

Network connectivity

15% 14%

Content creators

changes from COVID-19’s impacts and seeing the esports industry as a viable opportunity to invest relative more impacted industries that are facing greater challenges. As demonstrated in the data, venture capital, private equity, and private individual investments increased in May, relative to the average of the prior four months.37

30 Venture Beat, “Gaming sees explosive growth in social video as people stay home”, accessed August 3, 2020.

32 Deloitte Corporate Finance internally developed esports M&A database.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid.

35 Ibid.

30

3%

31 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid.

REPORTS

providing capital in the face of rising uncertainty.39

transactions, some large strategics can utilise significant cash deposits sitting on their balance sheets. These cash deposits were useful in supporting strategic investment because as measures were implemented to defend against COVID-19 globally, credit markets became more hesitant with

One point to note is that while financial investor activity declined through the first four months, strategic investors remained active.38 This likely suggests that long-term strategic considerations outweighed the near-term uncertainty in investment decision-making. In addition, whereas financial investors typically need to leverage debt for their

As credit markets begin to open and creditors participate in more transactions, traditional financial investors may have a greater ability to pursue deals in the sector in the months to come.

Monthly Infrastructure Deals by Investor Type, Jan-May 2020 74

35 30

26

25

80

73 30

25

23

20

20

10

10

60 19

12

10

70

61

23

21

13

15 10

61

57

13

13

13

12

9

7

50

17

40 30

20

5

10

0

0 January

February

March

Private Equity

Conclusion Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, strong investor interest and positive tailwinds for esports infrastructure persists. While esports infrastructure was negatively impacted

by COVID-19 through the first few months of 2020, activity in May suggests that investors are adapting to the new environment, demonstrated through increased investments in advertising, analytics, and online gambling subsectors.40 This positive trend, as well as the general anti-cyclical characteristic of infrastructure businesses, suggests that infrastructure sector will likely continue to be an attractive area for esports investment opportunities as the global economy navigates to a post-COVID environment.

Venture Capital

April Strategics

Individuals

May Total

Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC (DCF), a broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), is an indirect whollyowned subsidiary of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP and affiliate of Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP. Investment banking or other services that would require registration as a broker-dealer with the SEC and membership in FINRA would be provided exclusively by DCF. For more information, visit www.investmentbanking.deloitte. com. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/ about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

38 Ibid.

39 S&P Global, “Coronavirus: economic and credit market implications�, accessed August 3, 2020.

40 Deloitte Corporate Finance internally developed esports M&A database.

31

OPINION

AUTHOR Pablo Monti  @PabloMMonti

In-game advertisements A space to improve brand and partner integration

sports-related companies are always working on improving revenue streams and finding new ways of monetising. Although esports is an innovative field, successful experiences from other industries can sometimes be imitated and adapted to fit this digital world.

E

Riot Games recently announced the addition of in-game advertisements during its League of Legends tournaments, putting its sponsors’ branding in front of viewers as they watch their favourite teams compete on the Rift. The company is not the first one doing so, but it’s the largest esports

32

competition to date that is opening this new revenue door.

The inclusion of brands’ logos on ingame ads can be easily compared with advertisement boards in traditional sports, and even traditional sports video games already have them on their esports competitions. This could be good news for brands partnering with esports like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and many others as well, should further developers follow suit. The until-now usual way of showing brands with overlays will be optimised instead with in-game ads, putting brands in the spotlight.

“Our main goal around esports is creating a sustainable ecosystem,” Javier España, Content Manager at Riot Games, told The Esports Journal. “To do so, we need to make our audience grow and also find sponsors to partner with. We work on what to offer them besides content, engagement, and a bond with our audience.”

“For a sponsor, having its brand inside the Summoner’s Rift of League of Legends is extremely relevant since it gives them enormous visibility,” he continued.

“Although we are a new sport, we have the advantage of being able to learn from other sports and the things they do

OPINION

great. Bringing in-game ads has to do with that: learning from the traditional sports experience and seeing how to take that into League of Legends. We believe in making a more sustainable scene to give our sponsors more tools to show themselves.”

Developers can add in-game advertisements themselves, just as Riot Games is beginning to do. However, some external companies also deliver that solution for both developers and competitions alike. Bidstack is an ingame advertising platform that works with game developers and brands to display in-game ads in different formats: static, dynamic, direct, or programmatic. How the ads are presented to viewers is critical to their overall success.

this initial implementation with global partners such as Mastercard and Alienware will eventually expand to further leagues along with local and regional partners. It won’t just be the major, international brands that get to benefit from in-game broadcast integration. “Our aspiration is to create an environment that exudes the energy found in traditional sports, and we’ll continue to work towards that goal,” reads Riot Games’ post.

That environment that Riot Games seeks to foster, taking cues from traditional sports, is one that Bidstack also envisions. “With global brands actively getting involved in the gaming space and using this approach of native in-game advertising placement, one could argue that it creates a greater sense of legitimacy for the wider

non-gaming audience in seeing League of Legends as an ‘actual’ professional sport,” added Cook.

Advertising spaces in both traditional sports and esports are seeing more and more overlap - from naming rights and jersey branding to sponsors’ logos on backdrops or in-game billboards. Could the next step be having team’s jerseys on in-game characters? That’s something that EA Sports has been doing for a couple years with FIFA, but can you imagine that in esports like CounterStrike: Global Offensive or League of Legends?

When it comes to broader advertising spectrum and partners’ integration, anything is possible - and the potential benefits could be immense.

“It comes down to execution. Creating a new revenue stream that can be used to develop the League of Legends esports scene or to continue to develop phenomenal games is definitely a good thing, but it has to be done authentically and in a way that won’t disrupt the gaming experience,” Charlotte Cook, VP of Gaming at Bidstack, told The Esports Journal.

“There’s definitely a natural tendency amongst gamers to dislike advertising in games because of how they are delivered, not the advert themselves.

Particularly in mobile games, adverts can often get in the way of the player’s enjoyment of the game, where they are pressured to watch unskippable videos in order to progress. Obviously, that causes a lot of frustration,” she continued. “Riot’s integration is the complete opposite of this. They are simply mimicking the same advertising placements that we’ve seen in live sporting events for years, but this time in a virtual landscape i.e. ads in checkpoint banners in a racing title or pitch-side hoardings in-stadium game.”

Riot Games is confident about the potential of this initiative, with the official announcement noting that

33

BRANDS

AUTHOR Mitch Reames  @Mitch_Reames

Esports is becoming the latest battleground for longtime sportswear rivals The founding of adidas and PUMA is one of corporate legend. t starts with the Dasslers, two German brothers who owned a shoe factory in a small town named Herzogenaurach. For 30 years the brothers worked together creating sportswear. They found massive success at the 1936 Olympics but the looming war saw the factory turn to weapons - and the brothers split.

One brother was drafted while the other stayed home. By the time the war ended, their relationship had become untenable. In 1948 they split to found their own companies. Rudolf Dassler founded PUMA, Adolf Dassler founded adidas. Their intense rivalry split the town of Herzogenaurach into two

I

34

camps. Both Dassler brothers passed in the 1970s and they are even buried on opposite sides of town.

That same decade, a third company popped up to challenge the German companies´ stranglehold on sportswear.

Nike was the flashy new company from America and made a major entrance to the industry in the same way adidas and PUMA did decades prior - by innovating on the track.

Now, all three companies are the biggest athletic apparel brands in the world. The Dassler family is no longer the driving force behind PUMA or adidas, but the

rivalry is still strong. Instead of family squabbles, it’s corporate competition to sign the top athletes, teams and leagues to apparel deals. Over the past year, that rivalry has expanded to esports. adidas was the first of these companies to have an apparel deal with a major esports organisation. FC Copenhagen, an adidas football club, partnered with Nordisk Film to create North in 2018. adidas came along, and even if it didn’t know it yet, the runners were on their marks.

In 2019, the starting gun sounded. adidas created a sneaker for Team

BRANDS

Vitality and signed deals with Lyon and Team Heretics. Nike sponsored the LPL with unique kits for every team. PUMA grabbed Cloud9 and created apparel lines bolstered by a flashy commercial.

sells out streetwear in minutes while FaZe Clan is building a media empire.

What it means to be an esports organisation is changing as time goes on.

During 2020, despite a pandemic, the pace has only quickened. Nike signed a deal with T1 Sports & Entertainment and SK Gaming. PUMA fired back by grabbing T1’s longtime LCK rivals Gen.G. So, if you’re keeping track at home: adidas has the most organisations, PUMA has the two largest, and Nike has the only league. Even with all these moves, the race resembles the tension of runners halfway through a 1,500M sizing each other up while judging the perfect time for the final kick.

To be clear, Gen.G is great at video games. Its LCK team is one of the world’s best, its PUBG team has won multiple championships, and even its VALORANT team is finding early success. Its Seoul Dynasty franchise in the Overwatch League and Shanghai Tigers franchise in the NBA 2K League give Gen.G presence in all the biggest esports markets.

But beyond the games, Gen.G’s Team Bumble strides to empower women in gaming and the Elite Esports Academy provides a fully-integrated academic esports program.

“[Esports] is a natural extension of what we do,” said Matt Shaw, Team Head of Digital Marketing and Esports for PUMA. “We’re a sports company but really we are a culture company. To be a culture company, we have to love the things our consumers love. One of the things at the top of the list of what our consumers love is gaming and esports as a corollary.”

While competing for medals and league titles is still core to these brands competition, there are new playing fields now. When rapper Kanye West switched his Yeezy line from Nike to adidas, that was the biggest moment in the brand’s rivalry since LeBron James surprised adidas with an eleventh-hour Nike contract.

“People have begun to accept gaming and esports more over the pandemic,” said Gina Chung Lee, Creative Director of Gen.G. “Trends that were already happening have been vastly accelerated by everyone being stuck at home. A lot of this is going to stick, especially the convergence of gaming, esports, music and fashion. All of those worlds are colliding and a lot more unexpected collaborations are going to come soon as people see the overlap between different worlds.”

As culture brands themselves, the sportswear companies are recognising that overlap. With athletes streaming on Twitch and sports owners investing in organisations, the traditional sports

“There’s enough room to play in esports that the major brands haven’t really bumped into each other,” said Shaw.

“It’s really important that there is an investment from a number of different sportswear brands here. One of the challenges that sportswear brands face is establishing esports as a legitimate sporting pastime [in the eyes of the general sports public].”

In the esports community, the question of “Are esports sports?” seems to have faded away slightly. At least personally, I haven’t had to answer the sigh-worthy question in months. But in general sports circles, that debate hasn’t ended.

Shaw says its a question he still has to answer regularly when talking esports at PUMA. According to a study from Casumo, 46 percent of sports fans in America still don’t see esports as a real sport.

The sports vs. esports debate will likely never end. As esports has proven itself on its own merits, especially in a world threatened by coronavirus, much of the esports community has simply moved on.

Still, when looking at the wider sports ecosystem, having brands like Nike, adidas, and PUMA entering esports is a stamp of legitimacy from the cultural trendsetters of the sporting world. Right now, there is plenty of space for these companies to operate without butting heads, but there are only so many potential partners out there. If current trends hold true, the sportswear giants will soon add esports to the decadeslong list of corporate battlegrounds.

“The definition of the word ‘sports’ is constantly changing,” said Shaw. “Sports brands don’t just have to play in their lane anymore. The great thing about PUMA is that we are inextricably linked to music culture, entertainment culture and internet culture. As a sports brand we are able to wrap all those different cultural threads together and bring experiences to life for Gen.G.” In esports, organisations are expanding into different areas of culture beyond competitive video games. 100 Thieves

worlds push into esports is undeniable.

Still, we are in the early days of any sort of competition. The majority of esports organisations are making clothing inhouse or are represented by endemic esports apparel companies like We Are Nations, not one of the big three sportswear brands.

Gina Chung Lee Creative Director at Gen.G

35

TEAMS

Isurus is leading the fight to stop toxicity

#NoHaters

AUTHOR Pablo Monti  @PabloMMonti

n the eyes of many, the esports industry could well become one of the most financiallylucrative markets on the planet. Major brands and media companies are already investing in esports, along with international organisations with an expansive roster of staff and competitive players.

I

One of the more crucial needs to reach more people and bring in non-endemic brands into esports is trying to offer a polished product. The tone of the conversation and the behaviour of players and fans are central to achieving that.

36

Argentine esports organisation Isurus has started a campaign to fight both toxicity and hate around esports, #NoHaters. Juan Cyterszpiler, the team’s Sports Director, explained: “Isurus’ values are compromise, competitiveness, inclusion, and loyalty.

That’s what we share with our fans and what we do every day. We are glad to have the same standards as brands so they can identify with us. That says a lot about how they feel about the consumers.”

Isurus seeks to compete fairly and enjoy esports above the ambition for victory.

The organisation understands that

there are many toxic agents within the ecosystem, and that’s why it decided to start a campaign to stop violence having room in esports. Esports has been in the spotlight during the global lockdown so Isurus believes it’s the right time to promote ideas that encourage a healthier industry. #NoHaters is designed to generate awareness about the respect for rivals, the referee, and the rules. Other goals are practising a fair game without cheats, tricks, or anything else to confuse the opponent or the referee, and also to avoid offending, humiliating, or mistreating anyone. Finally,

TEAMS

competitors must accept defeat with dignity and embrace victory respectfully above all.

The campaign will last four months, starting in August and finishing in December. It will cover Latin America and have Isurus leading its first stage, and will add another significant Argentinian team - Furious Gaming - for its second stage.

said Mexican mid-laner Edgar “Seiya” Bracamontes. “As I grew up, I learned to deal with it. Sadly, I believe it will be hard to correct and we can only try to think about something else. As a player, you need to get used to it because there will always be hate.”

Chilean bottom-laner Fabián “Warangelus” Llanos added: “I believe this happens in every sport and comes

put it aside. I recommend that everyone listen to their closest people and not to anyone on social media. People should understand that they are free to say what they want, but never hurt somebody else.”

The #NoHaters campaign will be bolstered by significant investment to reach a broader audience. Besides an organic digital campaign on websites and social media, the PR team will work on reaching traditional media by facilitating content, organising interviews, and holding clinics with spokespeople.

Isurus is one of the most relevant esports organisations in Latin America, fielding more than 30 players across four gaming houses. Its League of Legends team has won two of the last three splits in Liga Latinoamérica, and the organisation is opening a large facility in Ciudad de Mexico for the team. Its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster lives in Brazil and recently qualified for the first time for the ESL Pro League Finals. Also, Isurus’ streamers gather a large audience regularly.

Being in the spotlight made the issue of toxicity especially clear for Isurus and its staff. Just reading the chat on Twitch was enough to help them understand that something had to be done. This is a global situation and something the whole industry needs to fight against to offer a better and cleaner product.

Both Cyterszpiler and the team’s CEO, Facundo Calabró, decided to start a campaign to help change this scenery.

When you listen to Isurus’ League of Legend players, you get a very clear picture about how bad the situation is.

“I had received many hate messages and it affected me in my early career,”

with being famous. I’m probably one of the top 3 most-harassed players in Latin America, but it doesn’t affect me. I think it won’t change, and social media makes it stronger because anyone can say anything.”

Finally, Mexican top laner Daniel “Jirall” del Castillo explained: “I wasn’t used to receiving this much hate. It affected me at the beginning, but I learned to

Everyone in the esports industry should agree that toxicity must stop, but of course, it won’t be easy. Initiatives like Isurus’ #NoHaters campaign brings awareness to a topic that needs to be highlighted, and is one of the most important fights worth waging in the industry today.

37

TEAMS

hen Francisco Postiglione founded 9Z Team back in August 2018, few probably would have guessed the growth that the team had in two years of life.

Frankkaster (as he refers to himself in-game) began as a streamer in 2017 and found huge success in Argentina and Latin America. He has around 750,000 followers across Twitch and YouTube with content mostly centred around League of Legends and interacting with his viewers.

W

9Z Team was born with two clear objectives: compete and entertain. That’s reflected in the organisation’s structure, with two business units, one for the esports competitions and another for content creation. It has more than 70 people on its books between professional players and streamers from different countries in the region, such as Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay.

Francisco “Frankkaster” Postiglione CEO at 9Z

AUTHOR Pablo Monti  @PabloMMonti

A fast-growing organisation in a fast-growing region 38

Understanding esports as a business lead, the team’s CEO put together a marketing team to reach endemic and non-endemic brands alike. Red Bull jumped in early and Chinese streaming platform Nimo TV joined later. During 2020, 9Z Team added two new partners. AORUS is a sponsor for the Argentine and Brazilian markets, and Claro - one of the biggest telecommunications brands in Latin America - joined as the main sponsor and works as a hub for all the team’s content.

The organisation has clear goals, namely professionalising gaming and esports in Latin America and making it profitable. In that sense, 9Z Team built its Marketing and Public Relationships plan for 2020 to 2022 across four different lanes. It’s concentrating on brand development, quality content creation, online and offline event organisation, and making 9Z a global brand.

We spoke with Julieta González del Solar, the team’s Head of Marketing and Public Relationships, and she explained: “We position ourselves in the Latin American gaming market as a 360° organisation. That drove us the attention of partners, who decided to jump in to give fans and consumers quality contents

TEAMS

Premiación 9z ganador Liga Master Flow Clausura 2019

relevant to them. We aim to expand to other countries, and we look for strategic partnerships to transform 9Z Team into a global organisation.”

The organisation fields rosters in League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six Siege, Hearthstone, FIFA, Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, and Free Fire. 9Z Team also has two gaming houses in Argentina, where its teams live, study, train and compete during events. It also plans to house its CS:GO team in Brazil and League of Legends roster in Mexico.

Besides competitive rosters, the organisation generates crosscontent between the brand and its content creators to grow everyone’s audiences and bring new commercial opportunities. The numbers that 9Z

Team collectively gather are impressive, to say the least.

Collectively, the team’s players and streamers reached an audience of almost 6 million people on Twitch, with nearly 300,000 concurrent viewers.

There were more than 23 million new viewers, with an average viewership of over 60,000, resulting in more than 14 million hours of content watched.

The first half of 2020 was a different one for everyone around the globe.

Many organisations and brands took the opportunity to do lots of things to help others. Before there was a quarantine in Argentina, under the name of “9Z Brigade,” the organisation gathered toys that they gave out to kids in hospitals.

Back in February, 9Z launched - together

with the other nine Argentine LVP teams - the “Live Arena” initiative in which people could attend theaters to see the initial matchups of the League of Legends tournament. The “We Play For All” charity tournament, played on Fortnite in April, collected more than £5,500 in donations for Red Cross Argentina.

Frankkaster has a dream for his team: winning a tier-one tournament and competing in a CS:GO Major. He spent a few weeks in Spain during a boot camp to gather as much information as he could and returned home with a strong goal: to put his teams into the top spots in the esports landscape, globally.

39

INTERVIEW

José Ramón Díaz

Virginia Calvo Gómez

Co-owner and CEO

Co-owner and Director of Institutional Relations

Vodafone Giants: A new European titan AUTHOR Pablo Monti  @PabloMMonti

¡ants Gaming, perhaps better known as the Vodafone Giants through a naming rights deal, is one of the most prominent esports organisations in Spain, with teams in League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rainbow Six Siege, FIFA, among other titles.

G

Located in the beautiful city of Malaga, Vodafone Giants recently closed a funding round of €3 million

40

(£2.7 million) and has brands such as Vodafone, Nike, and Red Bull as its main partners. Companies such as ChupaChups, Ozone, Prozis, Versus Gamers, and Drift are also supporting the organisation through sponsorships.

Spanish esports organisations continue to surge of late. Major names such as G2 Esports, Movistar Riders, and MAD Lions - and, indeed, Vodafone Giants - are leading the way for a

country that’s constantly expanding, reaching new places, and entering top competitions.

The Esports Journal recently discussed esports in Spain with José Ramón Díaz, co-owner and CEO of Giants Gaming, and Virginia Calvo Gómez, the organisation’s Co-owner and Director of Institutional Relations.

INTERVIEW

The Esports Journal: Why do you think that Spanish organisations have grown so much lately?

José Ramón Díaz: I believe it’s because we have done a great job. It’s something that we have been building up during the past years. Giants Gaming was founded in 2008, and everything started to improve during the last three or four years with new brands jumping in.

The esports sector was built together between clubs, competition organisers like LVP or ESL, and brands. All of that work is starting to show results. I like to say that this is only the beginning; we are starting to walk, and there is a lot to do.

Virginia Calvo Gómez: Giants has been around for 10 years and has evolved to become a professional organisation at the same time that the industry has too.

The esports industry in Spain is leading in terms of growth, not only around teams but also around competitions. All of the work that we have been doing to make our organisations and our industry grow is what put us where we are right now. You don’t build an industry just with one or two companies pushing - you need every organisation and the media going towards the same direction.

There’s a lot more to do because the esports industry has a lot more to say.

ESJ: Do non-endemic brands already know about esports in Spain or is there some evangelisation still needed?

JRD: No, there is still some work to be done. Many companies don’t know anything yet about esports. Many others have an idea, but just like, “My son plays Fortnite” and so on. Likewise, if you compare now with four years ago, we are living a dream. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic put us in the spotlight with many celebrities streaming video games and competitions that kept going when traditional sports weren’t able to.

Rounding up, we work hard to make our work more visible for brands.

VCG: As an esports organisation, we have the responsibility to show what this is all about. Not only as entertainment but also as a business, making everyone understand every business opportunity and where we are heading to. The barrier to enter the esports world, if you have never seen it or if you don’t have kids, is strong. That’s also our duty, and every Spanish organisation has a person doing that job.

ESJ: In addition to the latest funding round, Vodafone Giants also acquired fellow Spanish organisation x6tence.

What is your mid-term and long-term plan around this move?

JRD: Simply, to diversify. X6tence is the oldest esports brand in Spain and has one of the biggest fanbases. Their fans are extremely loyal to a team that has always been relevant in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. What we generate by acquiring them is to diversify. We consider Giants as a family brand, with partners like Vodafone, Nike, Chupa Chups, and others.

With X6tence, we will focus on PEGI 18 games like CS:GO that will allow us to have partners that we can’t have on Giants, such as alcohol beverages or betting companies. It’s a business and every company works on growing their revenues, and that’s probably the biggest reason to acquire X6tence. It’s a very important move both on a national and international level for our company.

ESJ: Traditional sports teams are looking to esports, not only to be part of it, but also following the content generation model to reach younger audiences. Do you see esports organisations catching up with football teams as companies?

JRD: I strongly believe that Giants will be bigger than many football teams in 10 years’ time. I think that football teams know this, and that’s why they are heading into esports. You have examples

like Real Betis in Spain, River Plate in Argentina, Chivas in Mexico, Schalke in Germany, or Paris Saint-Germain in France.

Football clubs have always paid attention to FIFA games since it feels natural for them, but the esports ecosystem is a place to experiment and take risks. We see ourselves as a strong company, and we are not afraid of any other company from any sport. We even hope for them to join and compete so we can beat them.

VCG: I think of Giants as a reference for esports in Spain nowadays. I would like to see Giants as a global reference in three years time, between the top 10 or 15 teams in the world. We are working to place Giants in that position in the most relevant esports, that’s our main goal.

GIANTS EXPANSION For Spanish organisations, Europe is not the only interesting market.

Latin America is growing at a fast pace and Spanish teams and content generators have a huge audience in LatAm. Streamers like Lolito Fernández and Manute have lots of fans in Latin America and both work under the Giants logo.

Regarding the relevance of LatAm, José Ramón Díaz says, “We are planning to expand towards [becoming] a global brand. Being Spanish, the Latin American market is extremely important for us.

We are working already and planning on landing in Latin America as soon as possible. It’s completely logical. In terms of audience, Latin America is huge and we speak the same language so it’s really more natural to head that way than going to the United States, for example. Latin America is growing a lot and there will be a lot of opportunities. We are working on being ready when the time comes.”

41

TEAMS

AUTHOR Andrew Hayward  @ahaywa

n normal times, this past spring would have represented the heart of the English Premier League schedule, as teams battled for every last point to secure playoff spots. Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, derailing many aspects of everyday life around the globe - including traditional sports competitions and live events of all stripes.

I

Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. was equipped to deal with the void. While other physical sports teams and leagues scrambled to set up gaming and esports initiatives, the storied football club could already lean on its established Wolves Esports brand, which competes in FIFA and has a separate Chinese division with teams in multiple esports titles.

Russell Jones Ebinho Bernardes

Flávio “Fifilza” Brito

“It’s been really important,” explained Russell Jones, Wolverhampton Wanderers General Manager of Marketing and Commercial Growth, to The Esports Journal. “What’s been really interesting is that the fans that traditionally would never have tuned into esports have actually tuned in.”

Wolves Esports emerged victorious in Leyton Orient’s #UltimateQuaranTeam FIFA tournament, which featured 128 teams, and competed in the ePremier League this past spring as well. The Wanderers promoted the events through both its esports and club social channels, and even integrated Twitch within its team mobile app so that fans could follow the action without navigating an unfamiliar platform.

Why Wolves Esports could become the football club’s top draw

“It really has been huge for us,” said Jones, “and a little bit of light relief as well for our fans during lockdown.”

Wolves also recently partnered with Gulf Racing to sponsor a driver in the Le Mans 24 Virtual, its first-ever racing eRacing entry, and has started hosting online fan competitions for FIFA and Fortnite with prizes provided from partners such as SCUF Gaming and Turtle Beach.

“I know how powerful Fortnite is. I’ve got a 10-year-old little boy in the other room playing Fortnite right now,” said Jones. “You start to

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TEAMS

have different audiences tune in to play games, almost in a Wolves environment.”

GLOBAL AMBITIONS Reaching a new kind of audience was the whole aim of Wolves Esports when Wolverhampton first entered the fray in 2018. Sensing a growing interest in gaming from its core fanbase, the Wanderers began at a natural starting point with FIFA, but looked outside of its familiar UK playground for talent.

the country into Kart Rider and PUBG. Along the way, the team has amassed more than 500,000 social media followers in China alone.

“Wolves are almost bigger in China as an esports team than they are as a professional soccer team,” said Jones.

understands that the Wolves brand can be exponentially increased around the world through esports.”

Jones is keen to further increase the integration between the esports team and the football club’s physical players.

During the pandemic lockdown, the

That international search brought Wolves to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the team discovered relative unknown FIFA player Flávio “Fifilza” Brito, who didn’t yet even have a passport. Now he’s grown alongside Wolves Esports and its own ambitions in the space, and Fifilza is the player who won the aforementioned #UltimateQuaranTeam competition for Wolves and has competed in global competitions over the last two years.

“I was sitting in Molineux Stadium watching the Wolves first team play against Aston Villa in front of 32,500 people,” Jones recalled, relaying a moment in which the impact of esports became especially clear to him. “At the same time, I was watching Flávio compete in the cross-console final of the FUT Champions Cup in Bucharest on Twitch on my mobile, and there were 95,000 concurrent users watching that game.”

Wolves’ esports ambitions have also taken the brand into China through a partnership with Weibo, owner of the country’s most popular social networking service, with the team rapidly expanding from FIFA Online 4 in

FURTHER GROWTH AHEAD In time, Jones believes, Wolves Esports could prove to be a larger part of the team’s business than its football club, which was founded in 1877. “We believe in the future that esports has the potential to eclipse even our traditional football business in terms of revenue and fans around the world,” he said.

He cites chairman Jeff Shi as a key component of the team’s esports push, and a major reason why the organisation isn’t afraid to make such a stunning prediction. “He’s not just an avid supporter of esports, but he’s a real fan.

He really gets it. You can’t underestimate the power of that,” said Jones. “He

Wanderers have taken advantage of opportunities to cross streams, such as with football star Diogo Jota competing in (and winning) the ePremier League Invitational - which racked up more than 30 million views across Premier League digital channels. Additionally, player Raúl Jiménez leveraged his sizable Mexican fanbase to draw eyes to his own FIFA matches, including in partnership with Mexican broadcaster TUDN. Wolves Esports already had grand plans in the space, and the pandemic has only shined a brighter spotlight on its efforts.

Even with the Premier League back in action and traditional sports beginning to return to some sense of normalcy, Jones still sees big things ahead.

“We’ve tried to diversify over the last 18 months away from just the football club into more of a sports and entertainment brand, and esports has been one of the key pillars that’s helped us differentiate the brand,” he said. “The impact has been enormous.”

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INTERVIEW

AUTHOR Andrew Hayward  @ahaywa

Psyonix: Rethinking Rocket League esports Murty Shah

Cory Lanier

Esports Program Specialist

fter nine seasons and more than four years of steady growth and expansion, the Rocket League Championship Series is changing dramatically for Season X.

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Rather than have a few-month season cycle capped by a biannual World Championship, Psyonix has unveiled a larger-scale events circuit format that will span three splits across four regions before eventually culminating in an expanded World Championship in 2021. And it’ll award more than $4.5 million (£3.6 million) along the way.

Additionally, after five years on the market, Rocket League will shift to a free-to-play model in late summer, potentially reaching many more players in the process.

The Esports Journal spoke with Psyonix Esports Program Specialists Cory Lanier and Murty Shah about the origins of the new system, communicating with organisations, and the possibility of returning to live Rocket League events.

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Esports Program Specialist

The Esports Journal: When did you start talking about overhauling the Rocket League esports structure?

Cory Lanier: This has actually been a long time coming. For me, it feels like I’ve been talking about this since I first got hired 3.5 years ago, and also Murty as soon as he got hired straight from the Rocket League community from Pro Rivalry League.

This is something we’ve been talking about for a long time, and we really started having these conversations last August. It’s just been ongoing, like: When are we going to pull this lever? It turned out that 2020 was the best year for us to start laying the foundation for the future of Rocket League esports, and really the foundation that we think can grow the esport for years to come.

ESJ: How much did the pandemic play into the final form of this idea to do an events circuit?

CL: Not a lot. In all reality, this structure was always built in a way that was flexible. I think that was the most important aspect of it. You remember years where we wouldn’t have as many third-party events because of the RLCS season, so we wanted to build

something where anyone could plug into it and we could have as many live events as we wanted, or just as we got into this year, as many online events as we wanted. The nice thing about this is that it’s flexible no matter what. Coronavirus didn’t play that big of a factor into it.

Murty Shah: One of the strengths is that it’s regional-based, so we can easily have those events online and then convert to live events when possible.

ESJ: What do you see as some of the biggest upsides of this expanded structure?

CL: What we really see as the biggest upside is that we’re creating levels of play for everyone who wants to engage with Rocket League esports. And also, every day, week, month, and year has something that a competitor is working towards across all skill levels. But also, it’s rewarding consistency across the year for the best teams in the world.

As a new fan, as well, it’s very easy to get into: Who are the top point earners right now? You can really get an understanding of who’s gonna be the best teams in Rocket League to watch, which we actually think will help new fans engage more with the sport.

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MS: And they can decide how much Rocket League they want to watch. If they want to watch on a weekly basis, there’s The Grid. If they just want to watch the big events, they can do that and keep it simple. There’s so much flexibility there.

CL: On the broadcast product side, for every type of fan, there is that type of content that they’re going to want to find out there. There’s the highlight moments in the majors and then the World Championship, but also there’s that weekly play - and that daily play, even, if you’re the most hardcore and you want to see how people are doing in The Field or the Grid. There’s even just the recurring consistency of the RLCS like we had before every weekend.

ESJ: It may just be because so much has been announced at once, but between the regional events, The Field, and The Grid, it feels like there’s a lot of moving pieces to this new competitive structure. How will you convey that to fans and viewers so that it is easy to follow the framework?

CL: On the top level, we’re still going to be presenting a similar product to what we had there, and also just refining our broadcast. I feel like we’ve learned a lot on how our fanbase already engages with the highest level of competition.

Also, we’ll be keeping a longer frame of reference in terms of how much content we’re showing, and also knowing when events are actually happening. For the first time ever, you know what a year of Rocket League esports looks like. I think that’s a big win for us, and we want to keep that consistent.

MS: Generally, what helps to comprehend all of it is: when it doubt, think about splits. We’re going to lean super heavily into the idea of splits: the fall, winter, and spring splits. That’s why in the announcement, you’ll see us just outlining the fall split. At some point, maybe halfway through fall, we’ll unveil information about the second split. We can kind of give fans a second to breathe and be like: Cool, I understand the fall split, what’s going to happen for the next split?

ESJ: What has your communication been like with organisations that are in Rocket League regarding this new structure and the opportunities within?

CL: For us, the communication with them has actually been a lot more frequent than it ever has. We have been talking about this for a long time, and we did work out all of the details before going on to them, but we wanted to hear from them, their feedback. Murty actually championed a lot of this on our side, of getting our whole team to have conversations with every single organisation that is in Rocket League esports at the current time.

MS: We set up call after call and got feedback from a lot of the orgs. A lot of the features of The Grid that you’ll see are from those calls, from direct feedback from the orgs, which is super exciting. We’re going to continue to ramp that up and continue to talk to them, and it’s been super positive in my experience.

ESJ: When you see someone like Cloud9 CEO Jack Etienne saying that the game needs a “more team-friendly environment,” how do you respond to that? Is there something that you think that Psyonix can do to help teams feel like they’re getting more out of it?

CL: First off, personally - I’m sad about Cloud9 leaving, I’ve been a big fan since League of Legends days with them. That’s how I got into the esport and all that. But I think when you hear something like that, we knew what the foundation we were building for the future of Rocket League esports was.

We know that we needed to set this level of competition, a baseline level of expectation for what Rocket League esports is.

From there, it’s growing it, and then we are having these conversations with teams and we are hearing their feedback - and they are honest. They tell us what they think and they feel, because they have a personal stake in this as an organisation. Long-term, it’s just growing and proving out the beliefs that we have in this circuit system, and then showing people like Jack that Rocket League is here to stay - and you’re going to want to be a part of what the future of Rocket League esports has.

ESJ: The announcement said that all fall split events are online, but it’s kind of a question mark beyond that. How optimistic are you that there will be live events or a live World Championship in 2021?

CL: I always want to remain optimistic, but the number-one priority is the health and safety of our players, fans, and community. As soon as it is reasonable that it’s safe... but again it’s one of those things that we have to wait, day by day, and we’re constantly evaluating it. But at the current time, I’d have the reasonable expectation that things are going to be online.

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BRANDS

AUTHOR Sam Cooke  @sam_s_cooke

Esports teams and the brand identity challenge n May, Esports Insider partnered with integrated marketing and brand experience agency CSM Sport & Entertainment. The partnership makes for a highly-complementary skillset to provide an industry-leading service to brands and rights holders within esports. Debbie Scott-Bowden and James Gallagher-Powell, esports co-leads at CSM, will share industry insights and a series of thought leadership pieces together with Esports Insider’s Managing Director and Co-founder Sam Cooke over the coming months.

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In the first in the series of features, Sam discusses esports teams and the brand identity challenge they face in 2020.

In the spring and early summer of 2020, a great many esports teams vocalised their support of Black Lives Matter via the medium of social media. From statements of support to a black square posted on Instagram, the posts were numerous - and the Likes more so. They were not alone. Many companies and influencers across video games more widely did the same, and of course outside the gaming sphere too, from celebrities to sports teams, brands and plenty more across entertainment and pop culture.

It should go without saying that this is a good thing. Such manner of support matters and a united voice on these topics is vital. Perhaps this is naive, but I’d posit that on this front even something as seemingly trivial

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as Twitter posts can, and do, make something of a difference. Each statement is undoubtedly no more than a drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?

That said, the elephant is very much in the centre of the room here. If these statements and words aren’t followed up with consistent and meaningful action, they become empty. Concerns and challenges over just that are what is being levelled at esports teams and brands far and wide from Nike to Spotify, Activision Blizzard, and more.

Brands are one thing of course, and challenges over the validity of them truly being behind any movement (and indeed that mattering) is another thing.

Meanwhile, when it comes to esports and sports teams, it’s something of a different conversation. It’s an oftrepeated sentiment but one that remains true; the fans are the true custodians of a club. Owners, players, coaches, and staff may come and go, but fans are there through it all. So,

team values – what they stand for, what they’re about, and how they act - should represent their fans.

This can change over time. One look at Forest Green Rovers, the “world’s first vegan football club,” is testament to that.

Rovers’ first fans in the late 19th century probably didn’t see that coming. Then there’s the case of FC St. Pauli. The punk rock, politically vocal and progressive left-wing football club in Hamburg is currently battling it out in the Bundesliga 2. Teams in this division don’t typically sell out almost 30,000 tickets each game. St. Pauli does. Add to that more than 400 registered supporters clubs, from Hamburg and its Red Light District home to Italy, Brazil, and Indianapolis, and you have a fascinating example of how an organisation committed to something can bring people together regardless of postcode. St. Pauli has recreated itself as more than a football club, creating a global appeal to those whose feelings and views resonate with the club’s creed.

Editorial credit: geogif _ Shutterstock.com

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The global nature of esports, whilst undeniably one of its great attributes, can make the development of a sense of identity and individuality for many teams a challenge. The Los Angeles Lakers, FC Barcelona, and Manchester City all have fans worldwide, but they’re tied into a locality which helps them carve out a pre-made sense of identity. Of course the history of these sports teams helps too. FC Barcelona in particular, with their slogan “More than a club,” is steeped in regional history, hailing as they do from Catalonia. Through no fault of their own, esports teams come up relatively short on both local ties and history.

Aside from a fairly small pool of “Tier 1” teams, such as Complexity (whose connection with the Dallas Cowboys doesn’t do them any harm), Team Liquid, G2, Fnatic, T1, Ninjas in Pyjamas, OG and others, it’s a challenge for the majority of teams to properly stand out from the crowd - especially to those brands and potential partners who are brand new and getting to know the esports space.

Venues, both for the teams to call home but also a place for fans and the uninitiated to visit, is one part of solving this problem. Team headquarters are becoming more prevalent; we’ve seen Team Vitality’s V.Hive in central Paris to the likes of 100 Thieves’, TSM’s, and

Misfits Gaming’s homes in the States, to name but a few.

Another major play some teams could make, of course, is establishing brand values and creating more unique mission statements. FlyQuest is a fantastic example of this. In one of her first moves as CEO back in January 2020, Tricia Sugita, who previously led initiatives at the team supporting women, students, and refugees, spearheaded the Go Green campaign. She stated at the time: “We believe everyone has the ability to affect real change for our planet, and we want to facilitate ways for us to address important environmental issues together.”

FlyQuest’s commitment to being as environmentally friendly as possible (check out their TreeQuest Campaign as one example) gives players, staff, and supporters alike something to unite behind. It’s consistent across their content, merchandise, and general identity. This makes them stand out, makes them more memorable, and in turn should lead to attracting more fans longer term, as well as providing a USP when it comes to conversations with brands.

They won’t be a good fit for every brand - but, then who is? Indeed I imagine FlyQuest would refuse to work with a fair few themselves; but in ruling themselves out for certain sectors, they’ve put themselves in the spotlight of others.

Brands such as Quorn, EcoEnergy, Beyond Meat, Patagonia, and Lush all appear a much better fit for them, for instance, than for any other esports team I can think of.

Whilst I’m not suggesting that all esports teams need to find a “mission” or a cause, it is an interesting way to stand out, and one with notable potential. There are no FC St.Pauli or Barcelona equivalents in esports, no esports team that has dared to be so bold politically, for instance, Perhaps this is an opportunity worth considering?

For more information: Sam Cooke – Co-founder & Managing Director, Esports Insider sam.cooke@esportsinsider.com Debbie Scott-Bowden – Esports co-lead, CSM Sport & Entertainment debbie.scott-bowden@csm.com +44 7788 352014 James Gallagher-Powell – Esports colead, CSM Sport & Entertainment james.gallagher-powell@csm.com 47

BRANDS

Growth of esports: The right moment for Latin America

atin America is one of the fastest-growing esports markets in the world, and many companies are jumping into esports before the prime opportunity passes.

money in competitions, teams, and players. Now, emerging markets are a new opportunity for brands willing to do things right and to jump into a burgeoning esports ecosystem.

Huge numbers are floating all around the esports industry these days, with millions of people in audiences and millions of dollars in revenue appearing in reports all across the media. Brands all over the world are acknowledging this scenery and joining to reach that specific and golden target.

Latin America is arguably leading that pack right now. There are serious new competitions, teams are getting more and more professional, and players work hard and responsibly to reach the top.

On the commercial side, endemic and non-endemic brands are seeing the potential in the region and are investing in the LatAm landscape.

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North America, Europe, and Asia are arguably the most mature esports markets in the world, and things are well-established there. Commercial opportunities have already been explored, and brands are investing their

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The esports audience in Latin America will reach up to 55 million people in 2020, and is expected to grow to more than 70 million in 2022. Twitch also reports that in 2022, LatAm will overtake

North America in terms of number of esports enthusiasts. Regarding revenue, Latin America will reach almost $40 million in 2020. Non-endemic brands such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Gillette, Burger King, Motorola, Samsung, Claro, Movistar, Axe, Mastercard, and many others are already investing in Latin America.

The key factor when it comes to investing in Latin America for brands is doing so in a way that connects with the local audience. Each brand is different from another, and its approach into esports should be the best possible for each case. The esports audience is smart and recognises when a brand joins in an inauthentic way, and that’s why working together with companies with many years in the business is very important.

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That’s the view of Play The Game Agency. The company was founded in 2016 in Spain and started operations in Latin America a few weeks ago with a new office in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Play The Game Agency works with brands to assist them with entering gaming and esports in a way that appears natural and authentic. The companies have worked with brands such as Danone, Chupa Chups, Nike, Citroën, Burger King, LG, Peugeot, and BBVA, helping them to navigate esports in Spain.

Agustín Cikes, MD Argentina, said: “Opening Play The Game’s office in Argentina sums up the work we started at Latam Media Group (LMG) more than three years ago. We covered the most relevant B2B esports events in the world, and that allowed us to witness the entrance of non-endemic brands to the ecosystem. It’s clear now that LatAm has a huge emerging market, closely followed by the world’s best teams, tournament organisers, and other brands.”

Oscar Soriano Mullor, Co-founder of Play The Game Agency, spoke on the expansion: “Four years ago, when Play

The Game started, we had a clear goal: to help brands and organisations to understand gaming and esports and reach an audience that traditional media can’t. What we didn’t expect was to expand this quickly into new geographical regions. We now reach LatAm’s Southern Cone, willing and eager to help the ecosystem and organisations to climb to the next step.”

The Latin American landscape shows mature companies getting involved in many areas, from tournament organisers and teams to brands and broadcasters. Arguably, the largest competition is the Liga Latinoamérica for League of Legends. It gathers teams from the entire region in Mexico, where Riot Games signed a partnership with a local company and TV Azteca as the main broadcaster. Also, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is important, with a massive scene in Brazil. Brazilian teams such as MIBR and FURIA are right now tier-one level and compete in the best global events. Dota 2 is very popular in Peru, mostly, and football simulators like EA Sports’ FIFA and eFootball PES are also very relevant.

There are many options for brands when it comes to joining the esports ecosystem. Partnering with a tournament or a team is a classic route, but many others opt for an influencer (or streamer) or even an event. Streamers drive massive audiences to the teams they represent and the brands that sponsor them. When it comes to events, there are plenty around LatAm. Brazil Game Show, Argentina Game Show, and Festigame Chile have a long history, but many others are starting to generate their own audiences.

The esports market is already a worldwide giant and it’s expected to continue its march forward. Latin America presents itself as a major opportunity, being one of the fastestgrowing regions in the world. Jumping in is a decision that brands will do eventually, but it remains crucial to do so in the right way to improve the possibilities of engaging with the audience properly. There are many ways to consider, and Play The Game Agency can help ensure that you choose the one that’s best for your brand.

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BRANDS

AUTHOR Andrew Hayward  @ahaywa

Connecting esports industry with academia he esports industry is expanding at a rapid rate, and with expectations that it will continue to do so for years ahead, there’s concern about the need for upskilled talent to help usher esports into the future.

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Some UK universities have already begun meeting that challenge, and likewise, some esports organisations and companies are already advising and collaborating with learning institutions. However, the Association for Continuing Education in Esports (ACES) aims to both broaden and strengthen that connection between industry and academia, ensuring that schools are meeting the growing needs of the companies hiring prospective graduates.

Launched at the start of 2020, ACES was founded by UK-based academics who saw the burgeoning interest in esports from students and institutions alike, and recognised the need to bridge the gap with the companies that are driving the development of esports.

“The success of it hinges on academia working closely with industry in order to

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say: This is what the industry needs from graduates in the next 5-10 years,” Dr. Richard Oddy, Chair and Co-founder of ACES, told The Esports Journal. “How can courses develop the next generation of talent in terms of these graduates?”

Dr. Oddy, a senior academic and co-course director for Birmingham City University Business School’s Esports Business programme, recalls undertaking his own sports management degree some 20-25 years ago. He said there was pushback to the idea that a dedicated degree was even necessary, but he ultimately has seen the influence of such contextual degrees on the success of graduates in that industry. He expects much the same in esports.

“The top people in the sports industry now are ex-graduates of sport courses at university level, because it’s vitally important to have the academic underpinnings in terms of business and management, or science, coaching, or whatever it is, in that specific context,” he said. “I have no doubt that esports will be the same. If we’re having this conversation in 15-20 years time, I think we’ll be viewing it in the same way.”

ACES is a non-profit organisation designed to help develop that growth of esports-specific university programmes, and ensure that what it’s teaching is precisely what the industry needs to continue growing in the years ahead.

“The esports industry obviously is a fantastic industry, but it’s in its infancy, and we’re in a delicate time where more universities will come onboard,” said Dr. Oddy. “How can we make sure that the graduates that are coming out of those programs are going to really propel the industry for the next 5, 10, or 15 years?”

Part of how ACES plans to accomplish that mission is by recruiting established leaders for its industry advisory board.

Led by Rob Black, founder and CEO of turnkey esports solutions agency Promod Esports and previously COO of ESL UK, the industry advisory board will directly advise ACES’ six-member executive board. Black has been named chair of the industry advisory board for an inaugural two-year term.

Four additional members of the industry advisory board have been named as of this writing: Psych-Chek Founder

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Edgar Chekera, Hotdrop Managing Director Heather Dower, Hitmarker Managing Director Richard Huggan, and The Esports Journal’s own Managing Director, Sam Cooke. Dr. Oddy described it as a “fantastic group of individuals across the sector,” and noted that Black plans to add two further members in the months ahead.

“In the esports industry, the talent pipeline for a long time has been people who have played games and are passionate about competitive gaming and esports, and have turned that passion into a career. I don’t see that passion and drive going away it’s vitally important,” Black told The Esports Journal. “But the upskilling and professionalisation of the industry is happening at a rapid pace globally.

We see the ability for UK educational

institutions to take the forefront in being able to help professionalise the esports industry by creating a pipeline of talent that are passionate about the industry that they’re going to work in, but also have skills that can contribute.”

“We’ve already got amazing business degree programs in the UK that do that, and I think it’s just about having an esports module that attaches onto existing education programs, but ensuring that that module or those augmented bits of learning are true to where the industry is and where it’s going,” he added. “That’s really where we see the intersection between the industry advisory board and ACES, being able to have that information flow coming in from industry into ACES and therefore being disseminated out to the academic institutions.”

ACES will host a virtual symposium on September 9th to share more about its mission and start to bring people together. With longer-term goals including the advent of continuing professional development (CPD) initiatives, support with research, and possibly accreditation of learning institutions, ACES aims to be a critical part of the continuing development of esports.

“We have a fantastic opportunity to bring industry and academia together under one banner with ACES,” Dr. Oddy affirmed.

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PERSONALITIES

rofessional esports is more often than not a young person’s game, with the top tier of many titles dominated by teenagers and young twenty-somethings with rapid reaction skills. But as esports opens up wider and attracts more and more people at all levels of competition, it’s not just kids and young adults queueing up for contests.

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Abbe “DieHardBirdie” Borg is a prime example of a very different kind of esports player who has found success. The 78-year-old Swede has been a professional artist for more than 50 years, but over the last few of those, he has also been a professional gamer.

Borg competes in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and first played as a member of the Lenovo Legion-sponsored Silver Snipers, an all-senior team that won the senior World Cup competition at DreamHack Summer 2019.

“I was a bit nervous, but I had so much fun,” Borg tells The Esports Journal about his experience competing at DreamHack. “The crowd was cheering for our team, and some of the audience even asked us to pose for photos. I was very happy to see their support for us.”

Abbe “DieHardBirdie” Borg

He has since amicably parted from his former team, and now streams daily on Twitch with plans to build his own new squad. However, Borg’s ambitions go beyond his own personal competition and success. Now he’s trying to spread the word to fellow seniors or “gray gamers” that there are tangible benefits that he has experienced himself.

“Gaming helps improve mental alertness, tactical and planning skills, reflexes, communication skills, hand-eye coordination, and typing skills,” he said. “Unlike the traditional sports where it gets very physical, there is a low level of movement in esports. It is very ideal for older gamers like me. It also promotes sportsmanship and respect towards the other gamers. Esports can help form connections and friendships both in the virtual ground and in real life.”

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AUTHOR Andrew Hayward  @ahaywa

From Silver Sniper to senior gaming advocate

PERSONALITIES

Competing in intense games like CS:GO may be intimidating or overwhelming at first to some senior players, but Borg believes that if he can become a champion in his category through practice and teamwork, then so too can other players. And even if hoisting a DreamHack trophy isn’t in everyone’s future, there are still a lot of positive takeaways.

“Age should not limit you in pursuing your goals,” he said. “I believe that even your grandparents can become world champions when they are given a chance to learn how to play games. It might take some time, since we are not as fast as the young gamers, but we can always practice daily. I know this because if I can do this, then other seniors can do it too.

“It has been my advocacy to encourage more senior citizens, parents, and grandparents to play games in hopes of bridging the gap between the older and the younger generations through esports,” he continued. “I would like to call on the young ones to help teach your parents or your grandparents how to play video games. It can become a new hobby and a new way of bonding with the family.”

It’s an especially important message right now amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, with many people avoiding physical contact with others - and vulnerable groups such as senior citizens are especially at risk. Not only can the fear of the disease itself be immensely stressful, but the resulting isolation can also be mentally draining.

Borg believes that his fellow seniors should heed health experts’ advice and stay home, maintain social distance, and wear a mask if they absolutely must leave home. Playing video games has been part of his own routine to stay mentally engaged and connected to the outside world, not to mention one of the activities he can enjoy with his family in isolation.

“Gaming is one of the best ways to spend our time alone or with family and friends.

Playing CS:GO has been my daily routine at the start of the pandemic and it has kept me mentally alert,” he said. “Video games can give you a space where you can forget your worries for a moment and have fun. Playing games can also be your brain’s exercise during this lockdown. It would be better if you bond and play with your friends or your family. All of us are doing our best in this very challenging time. Everything will get better soon.”

Borg is also learning Call of Duty and looks forward to playing Riot Games’ new shooter VALORANT, which shares a lot of core similarities with CS:GO. Perhaps we’ll see DieHardBirdie tearing up the VALORANT senior circuit should it emerge.

For now, however, he continues his mission of advocacy and hopes to inspire fellow senior citizens to pick up a controller or grab hold of a keyboard and mouse, and not let initial challenges stop them from having fun - or even working their way up to competitive play.

“I believe that esports can be an inclusive space for all ages and all genders,” Borg affirmed. “Anyone can play video games.

I know that the common age for gamers fall between 15 to 30 years old, with some gamers starting at an earlier age. But there is another age group: the gray gamers. This is why I highly encourage my fellow senior citizens to try playing esports. We might be older, but it doesn’t mean we can’t play a good game.”

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BRANDS

Will Deller

Senior Associate at Bird & Bird

AUTHOR Will Deller ď‚™ @twobirds

A brief guide to securing a good deal and protecting your brand he spotlight was already very much on esports prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with both endemic and nonendemic brands increasingly looking to make significant and long-term investments in competitions, orgs and players.

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Although the pandemic has undoubtedly caused innumerable challenges for the esports industry (as with any other), it has also allowed esports to further enhance its profile as a versatile and dynamic industry. The absence of traditional sports content and ability of esports to migrate from LAN to online has attracted the attention of the global media and the sponsorship market.

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As a number of parts of the world look forward to the gradual relaxation of lockdown measures and economic activity begins to build, we expect to see deal activity continue to grow strongly.

We also expect these new deals to be bigger, longer, and more complex as the industry grows and both rights holders and sponsors seek to protect their assets and investment.

At Bird & Bird, we have decades of experience in the sponsoring sector, including in advising on major esports sponsorship deals for a range of industry stakeholders. This brief guide is designed to flag some of the key points to consider when entering into a new sponsorship agreement.

CAN YOU DO THE DEAL? With a deal in principle on the table, a logical first step is to make sure that you can actually do the deal at all and - if you can - what restrictions there are on the rights being offered.

For example, do the rules of the competitions an organisation takes part in prohibit the appointment of sponsors in a particular brand sector? Are certain rights such as kit branding or in-stream advertisement reserved exclusively to the applicable league organiser, or prohibited by the terms of the streaming provider through which the rights will be delivered?

BRANDS

As a competition organiser, will a new deal at a league/competition level cut across deals that your member orgs have done - and if so, do your rules and regulations address this? A little due diligence at an early stage can save a lot of difficulty further down the line.

WHAT’S FOR SALE? This is linked to the point above. One of the most exciting aspects of the esports industry is the fact that it’s moving so quickly; but the shifting sands of the esports world present challenges as well as opportunities.

Team rosters fluctuate frequently, with star players changing hands on short notice. Accordingly, the fortunes of teams ebb and flow dramatically, as a championship-winning team one year might be relegated the next.

Teams leave and join new leagues and competitions regularly, whilst the basic structures of the leagues and competitions themselves can look significantly different from season to season.

However, rights holders and sponsors should also take contractual measures to ensure that they don’t leave themselves exposed, particularly as the industry moves to longer-term deals. If a deal is contingent on a particular player continuing to be part of a team, a team continuing to play a particular game, or a tournament continuing to be played in a particular region, then it might be prudent to specify this in the contract.

Equally, it might be in a party’s interests to retain some flexibility in the contract to allow it to adapt as the esports landscape continues to develop.

WHO OWNS THE RIGHTS? Intellectual property rights are complex in esports. Whilst publishers own the underlying IP in the relevant game, the licensing arrangements under which tournament organisers, team organisations, and players are permitted to use it, and the position as to who owns copyright in broadcast material (among other things), will vary significantly on a case-by-case basis.

Separately, as a rights holder, do you have appropriate trademark registrations in place in the applicable territory for your team name or tournament logo, and are your player contracts sufficiently clear on what you can and can’t do with their image rights?

The same applies for sponsors. Esports is a global game; are your protections sufficiently robust in key territories to enter into the deal? Accordingly, both parties should be keenly aware of the IP protection that they give and ask for in the sponsorship contract.

THE OTHER SIDE OF BRAND PROTECTION Esports is professionalising rapidly.

Whether through the standardisation of rules and regulations, or the increase in regulatory intervention to combat cheating, even within the past six months the industry has moved on significantly.

However, given the globalised, instant and platform-pervasive nature of esports, as well as the level of (often relatively autonomous) online media

activity of players, reputation-damaging incidents do sometimes occur. In light of this, the parties to an esports sponsorship agreement need to be mindful of reputational issues outside of IP infringement, and how to address these contractually.

A QUICK NOTE ON COVID-19 A lot of ink has been spilt over the impact of the pandemic on the sponsorship sector, and in particular in what circumstances a sponsor might be able to claw back sponsorship fees for rights that it perceives have not been delivered.

Looking forward, when entering into new deals, both rights holders and sponsors should consider whether they wish to make express provisions for COVID-19 (and other pandemics), or whether they would prefer to rely on ‘traditional’ protections for ‘force majeure’ or other non-contractual remedies.

GETTING THE DEAL DONE The above should give a flavour of some of the key issues to take into account when trying to get an esports sponsorship deal over the line. The final one, though, is to make sure to get it properly documented. It has never been more important to make sure that agreements reached at a meeting or over email are put down on paper. By doing so, both rights holders and sponsors can build lasting relationships and make the most out of the tremendous opportunities presented by the esports industry.

And if you want help on getting the deal done, please get in touch.

0205 415 6770 william.deller@twobirds.com

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YOUTH PROTECTION SPORTING INTEGRITY COMMERCIAL VIABILITY WHO WE ARE

GUARDIAN OF THE INTEGRITY OF ESPORTS The Esports Integrity Commission is a not for profit members’ association established in 2015 by key esports stakeholders to deal with issues

of common interest – in particular the threat that match manipulation and betting fraud and other integrity challenges pose to esports.

SOME OF OUR MEMBERS

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MEDIA We’ve assembled a hit squad of content creators who, as a collective, know the industry and each competitive scene inside, out.

Whether it’s editorial, podcast, video, or social media campaigns, we can help.

If you need expert esports content for your platform, and/or want to promote your business to the key industry stakeholders, drop us a line

For more information visit www.esportsinsider.com or email info@esportsinsider.com

Bayes is the go-to address for the Esports Data Industry - for data right holders, consumers and service providers alike. The Berlin startup has developed BEDEX, the World First Independent Esports Data Marketplace for In-Game Data.

For more info, visit www.bayesesports.com