Isurus

More than just esports Isurus

Author: Pablo Monti

Esports organisations typically do more than just compete, whether that’s generating content, selling merchandise, or employing a fleet of streamers and influencers. In the case of Argentinian team Isurus, the club also helps nonprofit organisations, holds its own amateur competitions, and, to top it all off, publishes its own comic book.

Isurus just turned nine years old and already is one of the most important and recognised esports organisations in

Latin America, with a presence across League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, and fighting games.

Nearly a decade after getting started, not only has the team’s owner Facundo Calabró grown up, but so has his organisation. Isurus has well-established teams both in Liga Latinoamérica of League of Legends and in the Latin American CS:GO landscape, but nowadays the organisation is much more multi-purpose outside of solely competing.

The inclusion of Juan Cyterszpiler as Sports Director brought fresh ideas in terms of marketing actions. Last year, the organisation signed a deal with streaming platform Nimo.TV in order to generate content about its League of Legends team, which is now based in Mexico. The team holds events with its audience, who sometimes get the opportunity to play with the pro players. Also, they interact with the team’s

sponsors, such as HyperX, AMD, and OMEN by HP, for example, who host giveaways for fans.

More often than not esports teams are also their own media organisations, and producing content is vital to generate and maintain a fan base in a competitive land grab. One weekly content series that Isurus produces is ‘Swim to Win’, hosted on YouTube. The name is derived from the team’s logo, a shark. ‘Swim to Win’ shows how the League of Legends team lives day to day in Mexico as well as covering its competitive performance.

For almost two years, Isurus had a female CS:GO team that achieved great results in Latin America, making a strong statement about the fight for equal rights for women in esports. Isurus’ commitment to this topic was reaffirmed in early April with the announcement of its female League of Legends team. Two of the players had been involved with the local League male team, and one of them had played in LVP’s Argentina tournament.

Regarding the addition of a female team, Cyterszpiler stated: “I believe that in the near future, there won’t be separated male and female teams, and mixed teams will prevail.”Camila “Epika” Paludi is the team’s mid-laner and has already played for the local male team. Regarding the

creation of the female team, she said: “I’ve never believed that such a big team as Isurus would give me a chance. This is a huge motivation to keep improving and be more professional to face each match.”

Putting esports to one side for a moment, Isurus is evolving the scope of its mission with two other activities. The organisation is hosting a project called Co-Op that aims to help three non-profit organisations. Fans can buy tickets for raffles online, and the money raised is equally divided between each organisation.

‘Alianza x el clima’ works on environmental care, ‘Chicas en tecnología’ seeks to improve technological education opportunities for women, and ‘FUDE’ seeks to improve the social inclusion of youth through football. The team’s sponsors provide products for the raffles, and even Renault is involved in the project. On December 30th, the campaign will end with a huge stream with the team’s players, casters, influencers, and others.

The Isurus Series is another major activity that the team has been promoting. It’s commonplace to see a team compete, but it’s not quite so common to see a team organise tournaments for other people. Together with GamersClub, Isurus organises a monthly tournament for amateur teams that qualifies the winner for GamersClub’s Liga Amadora. Also, the Isurus Masters will take place every three months with the last three winners and five invited teams.

Isurus CEO Facundo Calabró called it “a big opportunity to see more players that are working seriously, besides growing our brand awareness. Innovation and creativity have always been a part of our team and of the persons that carry on this dream.”

Isurus showcases the growing professionalism of esports organisations in Latin America, expanding its ambitions, and all the while, and ever so importantly, continuing to compete and entertain.