It’s time for Latin America

Esports are no longer something new for the region and tournaments gather more people every time and also non endemic brands.

ith Asia, Europe and United States already having established ecosystems when it comes to esports, you may be forgiven for overlooking Latin America. But you’d also be a fool. W

When it comes to organizations, competitions, fandom and sponsorships, LATAM is growing everyday. It’s time for Latin America.

From world class teams, to amazing tournaments with passionate (and loud..) fans, long-term partnerships and the involvement of ‘non endemic brands’, all this suggests one thing; the growth of the Latin American esports market. In short Latin America should be a region of interest for all those companies that wanting to excel and make a name for themselves in esports.

Riot Games took the first step in LatAm with the regional qualifiers for League of Legends World Championships. In 2019, the North and South regions were unified to give birth to Copa Latinoamérica with region’s top 8 teams. This decision launched national competitions also, as part of the wayto-LLA tournaments.

Let’s not forget either, the CounterStrike: Global Offensive scene is huge in Latin America. With Brazil as a mirror, other countries of the region now have established organizations and stronger teams. The same thing happens with the tournaments in which LatAm teams participate, such as DreamHack, BLAST Pro Series and ESL, amongst others.

LoL’s Copa Latinoamerica moves its Finals from city to city and in 2019 Bogota, Colombia, will host the event. As far as CS:GO is concerned, Brazil has hosted several events: ESL One was held in Belo Horizonte in 2018, BLAST Pro Series finished in Sao Paulo in late March 2019 and Rio de Janeiro will soon play host to a DreamHack festival.

If you’re in the mood for some homegrown LATAM teams, then look no further than the likes of Kaos Latin Gamers and All Knights from Chile, Rainbow7 in Mexico, Infinity Esports from Costa Rica, the Argentine Isurus Gaming and Furious Gaming, to name but a few. Brazil though is blazing the trail in the

region when it comes to establishing its teams abroad. INTZ eSports, Team One and FURIA Esports have their CS:GO teams competing in North America. The Argentine team Isurus Gaming has taken a first step in that direction, moving its CS:GO team to Brazil, where they already are the best in the country.

“Our main goal is to become global and reach N° 1 spot in the world” said Facundo Calabró, CEO of Isurus Gaming. A finalist at LoL’s Copa Latinoamerica and with a CS:GO team at the top in Brazil and having qualified for DreamHack Masters in Dallas, Calabró assured The Esports Journal that “the target is to compete abroad and professionalize our athletes and structure, gathering a team of professionals that can help our sports teams within the organization”.

Sponsorships are typically the biggest source of income for esports teams right now, and that is unsurprisingly the case too in Latin America. Gonzalo Garcia, CEO of Furious Gaming, another Argentine org explained how they were able to adapt and strengthen their contracts and partnerships with the likes of Lenovo and Logitech: “At the beginning, we would have agreements for free, but then we started to sign contracts receiving products in exchange for branding. Now, we receive investments from our partners and we are very proud of that!”

For Isurus, the reality is similar. “Our partners not only help us with investment, but also give us international exposure. This happens with HyperX, with who we’ve been working for 7 years and nowadays they also help us to organize boot-camps in South Korea and the United States”, noted Calabró. The org also have deals in place with the likes of Omen and AMD.

Latin America is opening the doors to more non-endemic brands. For the past few years, Coca-Cola has been actively participating in two of the most important gaming events in the region; Festigame in Chile and the Argentina Game Show. Argentine sports TV channel TyC Sports had a twoyears contract with IVECO –the Italian truck manufacturer owned by Fiat- for their EA Sports FIFA tournaments. In addition, FIbertel –one of the main internet service providers in Argentinais the headline sponsor of the local League of Legends tournament. The music festival Personal Fest meanwhile hosted a whole gaming area together with Twitch.

Latin America no longer looks at esports as something new. From League, to CS:GO, DOTA, Rainbow Six, Fortnite, Apex, Hearthstone, FIFA, Overwatch, and many more - the competitive landscape is shaping up across LATAM, and more and more brands are waking up and realising the opportunities too. With all this, the region is reaching its boiling point and, we stress again, when it comes to esports it’s time for Latin America.

About the Author

Pablo Monti is a journalist specialized in esports and gaming with 20 years experience and 6 around gaming and esports. He works at TyC Sports in Argentina as Chief of Gaming and Esports Content.