The Esports Journal - Edition 2 by Latam Media Group

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CONTENTS

In this edition

10 Justin ‘Jayne’ Conway The current state of the Overwatch League

16 Yuriy Lazebnikov WePlay! Esports USA: Solving esports’ grassroots problem

Carmac With over 15 years experience in the esports industry, Michal “CARMAC” Blicharz has done it all, seen it all and just about achieved it all.

Digital versions will also be available via www.esportsinsider.com & www.lmgmas.com

14 WIN

Esports fans are an eclectic bunch with a diverse set of wants and needs. The team at WIN has been busy working to understand how best to serve those varied interests, and it believes it has taken a big step towards achieving that goal...

20 Jonathon Oudthone

Home to the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys, the Lone Star State is known for its big sports stadiums and hard-core fans. However, over the last couple of years, there has been an emergence of esports organisations, tournaments and now venues making it their home.

22 ESI New York

The inaugural ESI New York went down a storm.

26 ESI London

The two day blockbuster event will take place on 16-17th September at the iconic home of English rugby, Twickenham Stadium.

28 BBL

BBL’s Rapid Expansion in the Brazilian Esports and Entertainment Market. BBL will broadcast over 3,000 hours of original esports content in 2019.

32 Esports BAR Miami

Esports BAR was launched in 2017 by Reed MIDEM, the organiser of the leading international entertainment markets: MIPCOM, MIPTV, Midem. Rum by experts in show organization and international B2B deal-making.

34 Nicolás Villalba

From Argentina to the top of the world.

36 Esports Brands & Business Conference

The first Esports conference in Argentina.

38 ESIC

The Case for (Some) Regulation in Esports.

46 HITMARKER

The Golden State has advertised more esports opportunities than the other 49 states combined in 2019.

48 CYBERPORT

Hong Kong: Esports in Asia’s World City.

50 Nixon Peabody

Ask the Esports Lawyers.

54 Los Angeles Western Esports Hub

56 The growth of the FGC

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

Welcome to The Esports Journal We’ve given life to this industry-focused magazine, which will be available in digital format and print (at all good esports b2b events near you), as we believe there’s a gap in the market for such a project.

Notes from the editors

ust as in ‘traditional sports’ there are businessfocused publications from SportsPro to SportBusinessReview, we saw there was space for such a magazine focused on esports. Some prefer to read their long-form content in a print publication, and indeed for the screens only amongst you, we’ll produce each version in digital format too, which naturally will be made more widely available.

Initially, in 2019, The Esports Journal will only be available at select esports industry events, but there are plans to expand beyond this should there be appetite for it. There will be a minimum of three editions of The Esports Journal in 2019, and you can pick each up at the below events: ESI NYC April 23rd 2019 ESI Hall of Fame June 10th 2019, Los Angeles ESI London September 16-17th Esports BAR Miami 2-4th October

Sam Cooke

Agustín Cikes

This is an idea we’ve toyed with for a while. We’ve been producing daily business-focused content on esportsinsider.com for close to three years now, and then after chats with our Buenos Aires-based friends at LMG, we decided to go ahead.

In LMG, we are keen supporters of printed magazines; perhaps it ́s as Sam said, I’m being nostalgic because it reminds me of when I read Wired magazine, or simply, the newspapers in the morning. What I do know is that I’m 100% sure that it’s much more effective to take a magazine home or to the office rather than bookmarking a link (though you can do this with The Esports Journal too..).

Managing Director & Co-Founder ESI

Maybe I’m being nostalgic for the days of reading Match magazine, GamesMaster and NME, but I do believe there is a space and will be a desire for an esports industry focused print magazine. And we’re producing a digital alternative too, for those who of you determined to see the end of WHSmith. The aim with the magazine content is that it’ll be differentiated enough from ESI content in that it’ll be a home for longer form content, more in-depth interviews and insightful opinion pieces. All industry and business focused. Give us time, and we will deliver on this front. Moreover you won’t be forced to read ‘Esports Insider says’ at the end of every article.

COO & Co-Founder LMG

Over the past few years, we’ve attended the most important business events in the esports industry, and one thing we noticed was that there was no specialised magazine focused on the industry (looking at the business side; the organisations, the brands, executives, associations, challenges and so on). And so here we are; about to launch a highquality magazine with fantastic, exclusive content and reaching the most important executives of the industry. Enjoy!

About Us

Based in London and founded in the summer of 2016, Esports Insider is an industry events, agency and media company, with a leading international business focused news site.

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

We are a team of industry professionals who are both knowledgeable and well connected across the space as a whole. In this fast paced and fast changing industry we have formed a team of experts to play a part in guiding it in the right direction. Esports Insider.com - One of the leading esports industry focused platforms worldwide. We feature the latest news stories each day, alongside opinion pieces, and interviews with those making waves in esports business. We publish four to eight stories daily, and see upwards of 140,000 page views per month, and have a twice weekly newsletter, the ESI Dispatch. Our Twitter following is 7,000+ and our combined social media reach is over 12,000. We are also active on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. ESI Events - We run esports industry focused events and have produced more such events than any other, globally. These have included the ESI Forum Series, the ESI Super Forum, Betting on Esports Conference, ESI Birmingham, ESI London, and ESI Hall of Fame. In 2019 we have ESI NYC, ESI London, the ESI Forum Series and the ESI HoF in Los Angeles. We offer white label events services too. ESI Media - We offer content creation options (editorial, podcast and video), advertising, consultancy, and social media campaign promotions. 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 an agency, 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.

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. LMG now organizes events, VIP dinners, conferences and summits for the Latin American gaming industry. Betting Mgz - The first and only magazine focused on the online gaming industry in Latin America. It´s distributed in the main events of teh region, reaching the main operators, suppliers, regulators and businessmen. 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. Betting Sports Mkt: It´s a new era for betting, entering to sports market as never before. In this section, you´ll find all the content related to this area. 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 & Business Conference Betting Sports Marketing Conference Affiliate Summit LatAm One on One VIP Dinners

INTERVIEW

Carmac

A life in esports AUTHOR Laura Byrne  @SimplyLaura123

ith over 15 years experience in the esports industry, Michal “CARMAC” Blicharz has done it all, seen it all and just about achieved it all.

Now the Vice President of Pro Gaming at ESL, Michal has grown the Intel Extreme Masters to a level which has helped put esports on the map. This year’s IEM Katowice attracted over 232 million viewers across the two-week event, making it the most watched ESL tournament series of all time. During the opening ceremony, Michal took some time to reflect on the sacrifices which come with wanting to be a champion. His continued efforts to understand and shape esports is exactly why he was chosen as one of

the first members to be inducted into the ESI Hall of Fame in 2018. We caught up with Michal, better known as CARMAC, to talk about his incredible career, how the esports industry is developing and what’s up next. The Esports Journal: What did being inducted into the ESI Hall of Fame in 2018 mean to you? Michal “CARMAC” Blicharz: I thought of it as a token of being recognised for leaving something behind, that what I’ve done in esports has lasting value. I like to think I was involved in building something and it’s pleasant to see that someone agrees. My wife was proud of me. However, I am not done yet and I know there is much more work ahead of us all in esports.

“I thought of it as a token of being recognised for leaving something behind, that what I’ve done in esports has lasting value” ESJ: How important is it that we recognise people that have helped shape the industry? C: I think it has historical value and also helps people tell the difference between a genuine expert in the field and someone with a great personal sales pitch. It looks obvious today to say that this person or that person helped esports grow, but a decade from now esports will be larger and vastly different. Fans won’t be aware of the history. I’m quite sure

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the only way for our children to find out who really built the sport they follow is through initiatives like this.

“I’m quite sure the only way for our children to find out who really built the sport they follow is through initiatives like this” ESJ: You’ve achieved so much already in your career, what is left that you want to accomplish, and why? C: I think there’s still room to build in esports overall and evolve. Are the ecosystems across all games done optimally? It’s plain to see that structures like the League of Legends leagues or the Overwatch League are easy to understand, but are they likely to produce enough great superstars for the future? I am not sure that in those games there are enough full-time jobs for players outside of the professional league for that. It’s rather the opposite in open ecosystems with a number of tournaments. There’s a lot of value for a great number of players in a game like CS:GO, but the story and structure of the ecosystem could be simpler and clearer for outsiders. I happen to be working closer to the open ecosystem section, and that’s where I could potentially help. ESJ: What was it like taking ESL One to Mumbai? How important do you see the Indian esports market in the coming years? C: It is always great to introduce international esports events in new territories. I’ve been a part of this process with Intel Extreme Masters for ten years, and it never gets boring. When it comes to India, there will only be more PCs and more internet connectivity in the future, so that market is growing in relevance.

There will be more players there and more esports fans, so it’s on its way up. ESJ: With talks about over saturation and teams pulling out of events for various reasons. Do you think we need to see more seasonal breaks in esports as we do in football as an example? C: I personally don’t think so as long as the schedule is predictable. I see nothing wrong with teams picking and choosing events to go to. I don’t think every single event should have the world’s top 10 in attendance. It helps create grading in experiences for fans and more chances for teams below the top 10 to show

themselves and compete. Connecting events into a coherent story also helps, if done right. ESJ: What are your thoughts about the Call of Duty franchise league? C: It’s certainly bold to try to sell spots for a model which is still not entirely tested. I am not a big believer in closed leagues as they don’t leave any value on the table for teams outside of the league’s cutoff line. They also tend to produce matches that are less interesting than the alternative. Watching the #10 team in the world play a full season of round robin is not very compelling.

“I am not a big believer in closed leagues as they don’t leave any value on the table for teams outside of the league’s cutoff line” ESJ: What has been the biggest development to esports since you entered the industry? C: From a business and value perspective, I would say the emergence of people willing to pay tens of millions

of dollars for a seat to play in a closed esports league. Everything else happening until that point was a natural progression from small to bigger to very big, along the same axis. Building a mega money league from the top down, with the audacity to pour millions into a blueprint that has never been tried in practice is something different. I am not sure if the people trying it are correct, but it’s a clear signal that they have recognised esports as something they would not want to miss out on.

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Justin ‘Jayne’ Conway The current state of the Overwatch League AUTHOR Graham Corking  @ESIGraham

Photo by: Blizzard Entertainment photographer

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ype ‘Overwatch League is’ into Google, and the first suggestion you will be met with is ‘Overwatch League is dead’...but is it? Do the negatives from a stale meta and frustrated fans really outweigh the positives of national TV agreements and huge sponsorship deals?

After launching in May 2016, the game had already amassed seven million players by June. By November, the Overwatch World Cup was taking place, and the OWL was formally announced. Despite it still being an unknown quantity in esports terms and a franchise model on a scale that hadn’t been attempted before, Blizzard found no problem in bringing in huge sponsorship deals. HP and Intel were two of the first to sign up as the official PC and processor providers. Toyota was brought in as a sponsor providing support and to run contests for viewers, and as official partners during intermissions and the half-time shows. Then, in one of the most significant deals in esports to date, Blizzard revealed that ABC, ESPN and Disney XD had signed on to air the initially postseason games alongside the official Twitch streams. By 2018, the inaugural season had kicked off, and the first official match was a 4-0 whitewash by the Los Angeles Valiant over the San Francisco Shock. On the opening day, over 442,000 concurrent viewers watched the action. Blizzard reported that 10 million viewers across all streaming platforms tuned in for the first week of the league and all arena events were sold out. More than 10.8 million tuned in to watch the Grand Finals and the Barclays Centre in New York was a sellout. As season one ended with the crowning of London Spitfire as the inaugural champions, the state of Overwatch as

a whole had changed. The introduction of one hero, in particular, had caused not only a change in hero selection but the attitude to the game and a complete overhaul of the meta. Brigitte’s powerful kit did not go unnoticed by the teams, but to include her in the lineup, they needed to think outside of the box. This was when Dallas Fuel struck gold during Stage 4 using Brigitte as the lynchpin in their triple tank; triple support set up. Though not their own idea — instead inspired by Ninjas in Pyjamas and then GOATS — it helped them to a 6-4 finish. Compare this to their three previous stages, and you can see the impact it had. By the time season two had started, GOATS was being run by every team — including the new additions of Chengdu Hunters, Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark, Paris Eternal, Toronto Defiant, Vancouver Titans and Washington Justice. Unsurprisingly, fans began to hit out at just how stale the league had become. Watching someone as naturally gifted as Carpe be taken off Widowmaker to play Zarya was pretty painful for some. At the start of each round, fans would spam the ResidentSleeper emote.

“If you can win by mirroring a comp because your team is better, your communication is better, and your individual mechanics are better — which is grossly understated in GOATS — it’s going to be a lot better to spend your time improving your players and the fundamentals that apply to all comps.” Controversial meta’s aside, the Overwatch League has continued great success in terms of viewership and opening new sponsorship deal. Blizzard signed a multiyear agreement with Coca-Cola as their official nonalcoholic drink for all Overwatch League, Contenders and World Cup events. They followed that be adding Bud Light as their official alcoholic drink for the rest of the 2019 season outside of China. Finally, State Farm was named as the official North American insurance provider of the Overwatch League. As for viewership, incredibly Blizzard reported that viewership was up 30% for the season 2 opening week, with 13 million viewers tuning in. In fact, during the stage 2 playoffs, it set a new viewership record for a non-Grand Finals event, with a global average minute audience (AMA) of 545,000.

Despite the fan backlash, GOATS has continued to prevail in the league, even after the addition of the so-called GOATS killer, Baptiste. Though many fans and critics have claimed the controversial meta has left an overall negative impact, there are still those who defend its use, especially with so much on the line in terms of prize money.

“If it does succeed, the OWL is going to be the poster boy of esports. It’s going to really be something everyone wants to watch and be a part of.”

Dallas Fuel & Team Canada coach Justin ‘Jayne’ Conway believes the risk-reward factor is too great not to play GOATS: “I don’t think it is that teams have to play the meta I think it’s that the risk-reward analysis to playing other compositions that aren’t GOATS just isn’t there.

Then there was the news that starting from the 2020 season; teams will play home and away fixtures. Localisation could just be what sets the Overwatch League apart from other esport competitions for the next decade.The Philadelphia Fusion were the first to

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Photo by: Blizzard Entertainment photographer

announce a specialised arena, with the $50million (£39.4 million) stadium in partnership Comcast Spectator to be completed by 2021. To give fans a taste of what it would be like to see the teams play in front of partisan crowds, the Dallas Fuel was selected to host the first ever home-based games. The event called the ‘Dallas Fuel Homestand Weekend’ saw one of the most hostile Overwatch League crowds of all time, with the home support showing no-love-lost to the Houston Outlaws. Jayne believes localisation could be what makes the Overwatch League the poster boy for esports: “Localisation is going to be a scary venture, and there is going to be a lot of changes. “However, every time the OWL has done to these home games outside of LA they have been a huge success,” said Jayne. 12

“I don’t see any way that localisation is going to be a step back. “If it does succeed, the OWL is going to be the poster boy of esports. It’s going to really be something everyone wants to watch and be a part of.” Season 2 is now at its mid-way point and everyone is wondering how localisation will change the league for better or worst. Yet with multi-year sponsorship deals with some of the biggest brands around, the potential with localised games and of course, official Overwatch League trading cards; there is little doubt that the Overwatch League is in a great position to succeed. It is a model that — as long as it is continually backed by non-endemic sponsors and if new franchises can be sold — could go on forever. More importantly, even after the huge backlash over the GOATS meta, fans have still stuck by it. You can flick

Twitch on when the OWL is live and will see at least 100,000 people watching, engaging, booing, spamming emotes and cheering on their favourite teams. Jayne possibly puts it best though: “Its current state and format are very temporary. They’re always looking forward, and they’re continuously improving. “The investment and buy-in from new teams and franchises are all the indication that you need that it is stable and growing. We might go through rough patches, but I don’t think we’re in one right now or can expect one for a while.” However, it will be interesting to see how the league does without Nate Nanzer who recently confirmed he was leaving Blizzard to join Epic Games. Nanzer was the Commissioner and Vice-President of the league since its inception and was

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a key figure behind the league’s move to localisation. In fact, it was Nanzer who pitched the idea of the league to Jeff Kaplan back in 2015. Yet not only did he leave the league during its most pivotal phase, but for a rival company in Epic who could easily jump straight onto the franchise model similar to the OWL for Fortnite. All eyes are now on his replacement, Pete Vlastelica, to guide the league past the early stages of localisation and maintain its massive sponsorship deals and continually grow viewership.

Photo by: Blizzard Entertainment photographer

Photo by: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

arly in 2019, WIN launched a new digital media platform, WIN.GG. The project was ambitious from the start, featuring a combination of original content, advanced stats and analytics, and deep customization tools allowing each individual user to create their own experience.

It was a lot to take on. But the team at WIN held a firm belief in its ability not only to accomplish its objectives, but to thrive in doing so. “We have a team of experts from different fields who love esports. This is what they want to do. And we knew that, 14

with the team we’ve assembled, we could accomplish this,” said Serge Vardanyan, CEO at WIN.

perspectives from communities big and small, and whose expertise covered each of the esports industry’s most popular titles.

Building out this new platform would require the alignment of numerous moving parts. The first and most important element was the platform’s original content, the metaphorical meat on the bones of any media website.

“We’re big believers in diversity of voice,” Wynne said. “That diversity allows us to present to readers both a broader and more inclusive conversation than they can find elsewhere. It’s a real asset to us.”

Editor-in-Chief Jared Wynne set to work in assembling a diverse team of writers from around the globe, hailing from the United States, Canada, Central and South America, and numerous countries across Europe and Asia. Writers who could offer different

The writing team then set to producing the content that would be the backbone of WIN.GG, running through a digital newsroom organized by Wynne to reproduce the urgency and immediacy of a live newsroom environment. As original content began to be

BRANDS

Building all of this out isn’t an easy task. It has required the hard work and continued deployment of an expert development team, guided by the hand of the company’s head of product, Albert Sheng. But for all of the work required for the endeavor, Sheng has been happy to see it through. “We want our users to have the best possible experience. That’s what we’re always working towards,” Sheng said.

delivered, readers started showing up in the thousands, with a traffic growth rate of better than 100% month-over-month. This presented a further opportunity to shine a spotlight on other aspects of the new platform. Chief among these is a thorough database of stats and analytics unique to WIN.GG. Plugged directly into statistical feeds provided by big developers and publishers like Valve and Riot Games, the WIN.GG platform holds so much raw data that the team’s first challenge was in figuring out how best to filter and present it. The answer, as would befit the company’s core values, was to let users decide for themselves. Accessing WIN.GG’s stats database immediately allows for the customization of how much or how little is being displayed, with a veritable smorgasbord of potential filters making for specific customization according to every user’s individual interests. This database also includes live and constantly updating scores and standings from tournaments and events all across the world. Being able to keep users constantly up-to-date on the latest happenings in esports was a consistent

point of emphasis throughout the platform’s development. “We want users to know that if they want to see what’s happening in esports on any given day, they can come to WIN.GG and they’ll find what they’re looking for,” Vardanyan said. The company’s database is also being put to use in new and exciting ways that are still under development. These include building out a proprietary predictive service constructed by WIN’s data science team. This new service is being designed to be more accurate than any other offering on the marketplace. Its potential uses are many, with the first being to allow interested bettors to make more informed decisions.

With the platform’s structure built out in full and the content that drives it being delivered every day, the next steps are clear. WIN is continuing to integrate its complementary platforms together, including the leveraging of its competitive platform, Winners League. The team has other developments in store as well, though its primary developmental focus for the time being is on making its new predictive service as robust as possible. As for what comes after that? “We are launching our native mobile applications in July and our betting affiliate section in September,” Vardanyan said. “The future is bright.”

Albert Sheng, head of product at WIN, at ICE North America in Boston

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Yuriy Lazebnikov WePlay! Esports USA Solving esports’ grassroots problem AUTHOR Graham Corking  @esigraham

here’s little doubt that esports prize-pools are top-heavy. Take Dota 2’s The International as a prime example - and the winning team has taken home over $10,000,000 in the last two years - and looks set to do the same yet again this year. Meanwhile below the top echelons of competition, there’s players on the verge of competing with the world’s best who don’t receive salary, nor tournament income and the esports dream is just not achievable.

WePlay! is a company aiming to address the aforementioned problem and bring esports back to the communities that each title was built upon. They target the tier 2 and tier 3 organisations and design tournaments and leagues which provide money and competition to those aspiring to reach the upper echelons of competition. The company’s Forge of Masters has already seen success in CIS and Europe and now WePlay! is ready to take America by storm. We spoke to Yuriy Lazebnikov, co-founder and CBDO at WePlay! Esports USA to find out more.

The Esports Journal: What do you see as one of the biggest problems in esports at the moment? Yuriy Lazebnikov: To be fair, esports is a very young industry, a very young market, so it’s a bit difficult to pinpoint a problem that might be considered the biggest. There is a certain number of them, and they all are kind of related. We, as a company, see the problem of a closed nature and state of esports which started to manifest itself lately. It’s getting disjointed from the roots and the community that brought it into the world. There are some top echelons

of esports teams/clubs/championships getting created. And they’re almost impossible to break through for the community teams who want to get into the industry and show themselves as young pro players. Not to mention the overpriced slots in popular leagues and unreasonably

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high requirements that would let you compete in specific tournaments. Everything I mentioned creates a barrier between the player and the industry. This is a huge problem which must definitely be solved. We need to bring esports back to the community so it wouldn’t become another elite club that you could just spectate but would remain the sport that anyone can easily be a part of and where anyone can build a professional career.

We need to bring esports back to the community so it wouldn’t become another elite club that you could just spectate but would remain the sport that anyone can easily be a part of and where anyone can build a professional career. ESJ: With prize-pools in tier-1 esports titles often being very favourable to the tier-1 teams, what impact do you think this has on the esports ecosystem as a whole?

YL:This is one of the signs of the problem impacting esports right now. A certain number of pro teams de facto receive regular preferences in the industry: getting the prize money, slots in regional qualifiers, direct invitations to the tournaments that they’ll clearly be taking the top spots. The teams who start dictating how the industry market must develop instead of paying attention to the trends that the community and regular gamers want to see. The gamers who love games, who witness the development of the industry and who kickstarted the industry thanks to their love for the games in the first place. Overall, it’s an ecosystem, and you can’t escape it - there will always be “the best teams” who take the biggest prizes. But our goal, as a market player, is to keep it open-ended, not to allow it to become a closed-loop circle that would reduce interest and involvement of viewers as well as their desire to follow their favourite games in esports, cos nothing new happens in the competition compared to the previous year - the same teams competing against each other. The prize pool might be a little bit or significantly higher but would eventually end in the hands of pretty much the same powerhouses.

ESJ: How important is a grassroots approach to esports across the world? YL: Grassroots approach is fundamental to our strategy. This is what actually stood behind the creation of esports and what our parents used to call “waste of time in front of your computer”. They limited us in favour of other “more useful” things but we managed to find time to work on our skills, get together and enjoy a good fight. Thus grassroots actually created the industry through devoted and talented players, managers, programmers, coaches who allowed esports to become professional, to become the Next Big Thing. I think it is very important to keep in mind that esports is still a relatively new industry and market. And, as much as many would love to see themselves as superstars and superprofessionals that the “mere mortals” cannot reach, this market still depends on love and attention of ordinary players who need an opportunity to break into esports, become professional and compete on the pro stage. ESJ: How can we help develop a grassroots scene in different regions? How is the WePlay! Forge of Masters league format going to help boost the tier-2 & 3 scenes? YL: The goal behind our Forge of Masters League in the American and European regions is to focus on talented teams. The squads who are now called tier-2 and tier-3 and actually represent the majority of the professional esports scene. But the attention they get is deliberately diminished. It manifests itself in quality of events - low prize pools, almost zero attention from the talents (casters and analysts) and low viewership as a result. Basically, a huge dominant part of the esports market is wholly neglected at the moment, as I see it. With the Forge of Masters League, we produce consistent and top quality content based on a giant echelon of

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tier-2/tier-3 teams, while giving them the opportunity to show their worth on the esports scene, win prize money and achieve higher rankings within tournaments. So to say we create an inclusive opportunity for them. At the same time, it allows the industry to grow not through mimicking or cannibalization but a more natural route. Esports is a huge market which is still in its infancy. We kind of let the first seeds of hope to sprout as many gamers more and more often think “It’s not worth it, there are already many stars right now, everything’s already divided. We can’t reach the pro scene with our skills, $500,000 or $1,000,000 prizes are not for us”.

This market still depends on love and attention of ordinary players who need an opportunity to break into esports, become professional and compete on the pro stage. 18

This is definitely NOT a story of our League. We build professional esports. For us, there is no difference whether it’s a tier-1, tier-2 or tier-3 team if they pass the qualifiers and want to be a part of large-scale esports. If they can demonstrate their talents, have the will to win, the desire to move forward, participate, create, train, change their teammates, do everything in order to become a pro team - this is the League for them. ESJ: We’ve seen the Forge of Masters series help develop up-and-coming CISbased teams by putting them against more well-established organizations. How important do you think this is for development? YL: The main point of the League we created in Europe, and the ideology that will be mostly carried forward in our American project was to attract the teams who are hit the glass ceiling of the current esports scene. We give them a chance to manifest themselves, come out to the professional arena, demonstrate their teams as united pro-squads that have potential, skills, capabilities and, what’s most important, strong desire to be part of the professional esports arena.

Top echelon being fully occupied by popular players should never stand in the way of young talents and their growth; otherwise, we’ll end up watching a few well-known teams playing against each other once a week. That’s a dead stop for the industry. It shouldn’t and will not go this route. If there is no new blood - new squads and talents, it can hardly be called a sport.

“We give them a chance to manifest themselves, come out to the professional arena.” Forge of Masters is our move towards the proper evolution of the industry where new teams, despite their youth and lack of experience, can power through the rankings of Forge of Masters and reach the top. There they’ll meet the champions, forge against them in fights for good prize money and prove that esports is still for anyone passionate, talented and purposeful.

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Jonathon Oudthone

Arlington Esports Stadium Building a home for esports Laura Byrne

ome to the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys, the Lone Star State is known for its big sports stadiums and hard-core fans. However, over the last couple of years, there has been an emergence of esports organisations, tournaments and now venues making it their home.

Housed in the County of Arlington is a newly built 100,000 sq ft Esports Stadium. The venue, which cost $10 million to build, can accommodate up to 2,000 fans. It also includes a VIP area, training rooms, players’ lounge, and even a built-in 85 feet-long LED. To mark its opening in November 2018, the Esports Stadium hosted the FACEIT ECS Season 6 Finals which saw a $750,000 prize pool up for grabs. We spoke to the President at Esports Stadium Arlington, Jonathon Oudthone, to hear about his involvement behind-the-

AUTHOR  @SimplyLaura123’

scenes, the reaction from the Arlington community and plans for the stadium’s future. The Esports Journal: Can you talk us through your background in esports and what it was like being involved in the process of bringing The Esports Stadium Arlington from an idea to reality? Jonathon Oudthone: I’ve always been a fan of esports, even before I actually knew that the term existed. In the early 2000’s I would compete online in Starcraft Broodwar while watching players like Yellow and Boxer go at it until the early hours of the morning. It wasn’t until 2009 with the release

INTERVIEW

of Street Fighter IV that I discovered a real passion for the esports community. I started out as a semi-professional player and soon found myself focusing more on the event management and broadcast production side of events. After years of working in the trenches, I finally landed opportunities working on the broadcast for large fighting game events such as Evolution Championships, Combo Breaker and CEO. It was through events like these that I built connections and developed my skills and knowledge of esports. I eventually found myself in front of the City of Arlington by connection of one of my investors and business partners, Neil Liebman. They had been tossing the idea of getting involved with esports for awhile and felt now was a perfect time. We began looking at their convention centre which, was an underutilised space with great bones and would have been perfect for an esports facility. The first conversation happened in early January, then by July, we had finalised our budget and began construction, and by late November, we opened our doors. Needless to say, it was a fast timeline, but working with the City and Populous made it an easy process. ESJ: The Esports Stadium Arlington boasts to be the largest esports complex in North America, can you talk us through why you wanted to create such a large scale venue? JO: The entire idea of our facility was built around alleviating many of the pain points with building out an esports event in a convention centre, sports stadium or hotel ballroom. Simply put, many venues lack the necessary infrastructure and technologies that an esports event requires to function. When designing our space, we touched base on every topic from team hospitality and broadcast production to the local gaming community and the live in-house

digital experience.Taking all of these matters into account, we ended up needing quite a bit of space. Every inch and corner was purpose-built to suit the unique needs and demands of an esports event. It also didn’t hurt to stay true to the famous state slogan of ‘’everything is big in Texas’’. ESJ: With esports venues being a relatively new concept, what design and logistically decisions did you make to ensure the stadium was fit for purpose? JO: We took a lot of things into account when designing this facility for the purpose of esports. Including LED screen size and positioning, the width of player desks, networking infrastructure, types of cameras and lenses, vantage points for audience members.

The size of player locker rooms and esports specific production suites such as an observer room were all custom-designed to adhere to esports standards. Some of these decisions were redesigned last minute to take into account changes in standards that players or organisers required with a constantly evolving landscape. ESJ: Since it’s opening last November what has been the reaction and feedback from users of the facility? JO: We’ve received lots of praise from companies such as Psyonix, Faceit, Nintendo and ESL. They’ve been impressed with how easy it is to activate our space. The amount of time and money they save plays a huge role in why our facility is so successful. It’s turn-key

and built for esports which helps these organisers and publishers negate a lot of infrastructure buildout they face every time they want to produce a large scale event. ESJ: How has The Esports Stadium affected the community in Arlington and Dallas as a whole? JO: With infrastructure being such a new vertical in the esports industry, there’s no doubt that a facility of this size has brought attention to the City of Arlington. There’s nothing out there like it right now. Our facility is an anchor for esports development in Dallas-Fort Worth as a whole and contributes greatly to putting the area one step closer to being the hub of esports in North America and beyond. ESJ: With the esports scene continuing to grow and the introduction of new games and technology (the rise of VR and 5G), how will the Esports Stadium Arlington adapt these evergrowing changes? JO: Interestingly enough, we worked with Sansar to build out a to-scale virtual-reality replica of our space that’s open for anyone to visit at any time. We have big plans for this in the future which will enhance our attendee experience. I’d also keep your eyes peeled for opportunities with 5G and our facility. ESJ: What are your long term goals? JO: Long term goals include solidifying ourselves as ‘’the’’ facility that publishers, organisers and teams want to utilize for their events, boot camps or activations. We cater to all aspects of the industry, not just events. We plan to have a calendar jam-packed with some of the most prestigious and biggest events in esports. You won’t be able to find a week where we don’t have something going on.

events

AUTHOR Adam Fitch  @byadamfitch

The inaugural ESI New York went down a storm n April 2019, Esports Insider finally took its expertise stateside when it hosted ESI New York (#ESINYC) - the first event it has ever hosted in the United States. Taking place at the Tribeca Rooftop, over 275 delegates flocked to Manhattan to spend a full day surrounded by other esports enthusiasts and veterans from in and around the industry.

The event was an overarching success. Capacity had to be expanded to accommodate a rush on tickets with the event eventually selling out, the sun was shining from start to finish, ample refreshments were provided throughout the day too to complement a stellar line-up of speakers, and the rooftop reception closed off the day in style.

If you didn’t get the chance to attend - or you’d simply like to relive the day - here’s what went down on April 23rd.

Content, content, content There are a few reasons Esports Insider’s events are well known, and one of those reasons is the care taken with the formation of the panels; from topic to speaker. With high-calibre industry figures discussing the most pressing, possibly shied-away-from topics in esports, there are countless opportunities to learn and even get your own questions answered.

“ESI New York was a masterpiece in informational conferencing.” At ESI New York, there were panels on the rocky relationship between the FGC and esports, the ever-changing responsibilities of top esports players, creating the perfect esports venue, marketing in the industry, and the state of the ecosystem between publishers and organisations. We had the likes of Barry Lee, Agent at Evolved Talent Agency, Greg Laird, CEO of Chaos Esports Club, and Sujoy Roy, Director of Esports at Luckbox

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“The event was incredibly satisfying - it gave us the opportunity to listen and learn from real experts in the industry. Each panel was well moderated with a good sense of audience engagement through questioning and probing interviewing of the panellists.” From there, Ben Nichol, Head of Events and Business Development at NYXL and Keith Sheldon, EVP of Programming at BSE Global were among those talking about the creation of the perfect esports venue. We moved on to marketing in esports with Shaun “Shonduras” McBride, Owner of Spacestation Gaming and Eunice Chen, VP of Marketing at Cloud9, among others. The closing panel assembled Nicolas Maurer, CEO of Team Vitality, Steve Arhancet, Co-CEO & Owner of Team Liquid, Ed Chang, Director of Business

Roundtables Esports Insider isn’t afraid to try new things, and that’s why ESI New York provided the opportunity for delegates to sit down and have a real conversation with some esteemed industry figures. With topics covering the state of collegiate esports, investment in esports, the commercialisation of data, and what needs to change; there were plenty of topics for delegates to sink their teeth into.

“ESI NYC sets the standard for esports conventions.” The likes of Bobby Sharma, Tori Stevens, SVP of Customer Success at GumGum Sports, Saira Meuller, Director of Content

discussing the ever-changing responsibilities of top esports players. Journalist Rod “Slasher” Breslau and Khalid Jones, Co-owner of Echo Fox, were among the speakers on the next panel, which looked at the rocky relationship between the fighting game community and esports.

“ESI New York was a masterpiece in informational conferencing,” said Tim Lawless, Consultant Advanced Digital Engineering, ARUP.

Strategy at EA Competitive Gaming, and Chris Hopper, Head of Esports (NA) at Riot Games, with Nicola Piggott, Co-founder of The Story Mob in the moderator’s chair to discuss creating the perfect ecosystem among publishers and teams.

at Gen.G, Ian Smith, Commissioner of ESIC, and a host of others all rotated around the roundtables to give their thoughts and debate with those in attendance. “ESI NYC sets the standard for esports conventions,” said Bo Feely Co-Founder

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at The Home Key. “Great discussions, well moderated and the right group of people to connect with. As a small startup, it’s exactly where we want to be.”

Networking The plus side of having so many figures from esports - or those looking to enter the industry - attending these events is the opportunity to network and build successful business relationships. Once the panels and roundtables were wrapped up at ESI New York, everybody headed to the rooftop to make the most of the free drinks and food while chatting with peers. The conversations later moved on to Jay-Z’s The 40/40 Club, for the official after party. What’s next in the ESI events calendar? We’ve our 2019 ESI Hall of Fame in Los Angeles on the evening of June 10th, whilst our largest conference to date, ESI London 2019, will be taking place over 16-17th September and provide even more of the same! Any questions drop a line to info@esportsinsider.com and visit www.esportsinsider.com for details and updates.

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ESI London - At a glance ollowing on from the rousing success of ESI New York, all eyes are now set on ESI London, our flagship conference in September. The two day blockbuster event will take place on 16-17th September at the iconic home of English rugby, Twickenham Stadium.

• Live Pitch competition at The Clutch – By ESI & HKS Inc • One on one matchmaking opportunities • 2 networking after-parties

Building on the tremendous foundations laid by last year’s inaugural ESI London, we’ve scaled the event and made it bigger and better than ever before.

After welcoming our wonderful attendees the night prior with preregistration drinks, we’ll fly straight into the industry leading content we’ve become renowned for. Delegates will be treated to leading insight from key decision makers across the esports board.

ESI London will contain no less than: • 400+ Delegates • 40+ Leading industry speakers • 10+ Panels, Workshops and Debates

We’ll be discussing and debating pertinent topics such as the emergence of franchise leagues, not only in the States but in Europe too. Hear from

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key investors across the space as they dissect the investment opportunities and share words of wisdom. After a blockbuster year in UK esports, we’ll welcome speakers to reflect on the last 12-18 months in the UK and how the industry can continue to grow and build. Of course there’s little point in having great content if there’s no opportunity to forge valuable business relationships. With networking areas available all day, second-to-none catering and plenty of planned breaks, delegates will be fed, watered and encouraged to make new friends aplenty. After the 16th we’ll head up to the Rose Garden for an open bar, food and live music as delegates wind down after what we’re sure will have been a cracking day. On day two we’re doing something a little different. Inspired by TV shows we all know and love “Dragon’s Den” and “Shark Tank”, ESI Clutch will welcome ten startups to pitch under time pressure to 5 investors with huge know-how in the space. After three minutes, the microphones will be cut and the pitch will be over. Investors will then have five minutes to test the wits of the

entrepreneur and see just how robust the business idea is. It’s not one for the fainthearted. The winner will be crowned the “ESI Clutch” Champion for 2019 and who knows… maybe it’ll lead to an investment down the line. To put it simply, ESI London has it all. From top quality content through to investment opportunities - it’s going to be our biggest and best event yet. Earlybird tickets are on sale now!

brands

BBL’s Rapid Expansion in the Brazilian Esports and Entertainment Market BBL will broadcast over 3,000 hours of original esports content in 2019

INTERVIEW brands

ollowing the global trend, which decidedly heads towards an increasingly connected future, many companies are looking for new ways to invest in digital. Electronic sports are the answer: being digital by birth, there are many possibilities to be explored and supported by a very large, faithful and passionate audience.

To fully explore that potential and achieve the desired goals, proper guidance is needed. After all, it is a new market and not well known. It is natural that significant brands are reticent, but that needs to be overcome in order to benefit from the opportunity presented by gamer culture and esports. BBL had its start helping the gamer universe communicate effectively with companies. By establishing innovative strategies, unify all aspects of the sector and creating value within the gamer universe. In November 2018, BBL hosted its first large scale event in São Paulo. The company’s six studios, apt for six simultaneous broadcasts, along with its arena for 300 people, accommodate tournaments and product launches on a weekly basis. Besides that, boasts over 100 permanent staffer who enable it to produce large quantities of high-quality productions.

That is where electronic sports come in: with its origin being digital, there are many possibilities to be explored and a very faithful and passionate audience. The company’s partners and founder bring a low with them to the company, with 20 years’ experience in the areas of games, esports, and technology, Leo De Biase is BBL’s CMO and CEO of ESL

Brazil. Nando Cohen, BBL’s CEO, is an award-winning director of advertising films. Thomas E. Felsberg, a leading practitioner of capital market’s law and member of the New York State Bar and Brazilian Bar Association in São Paulo, is the company’s General Counsel. Wellington Amaral, BBL’s COO, is the founder of “5.6”, one of the largest producers for advertising films in Latin America. Walter Longo, BBL’s CIO, has over 40 years in marketing and 20 years in the technology sector. Finally, Jovem Pan, one of Brazil’s largest radio stations and entertainment conglomerates, is a seed investor in the company, working hand-in-hand with BBL’s board to advance its goals.

Broadcasting Broadcasting is the main link between the public, the brands, the influencers and endemic companies. With that in mind, BBL structured its physical structure and staffing to be able to broadcast multiple simultaneous events. The focus is to serve the entire Brazilian market in the gamer / esports segment, producing varied content, individualized sponsorship projects and the execution of large-scale events. The first broadcast tournament was the regional finals for the second season of Arena of Valor, gaming titan Tencent’s debut in Brazil. BBL hosted the finals for LATAM, Europe and North America. Teams from these regions traveled to São Paulo for the competition and were well impressed with how they were hosted and the arena where they played. BBL was also responsible for the production and broadcast of the following live events: League of Legends Challenger Circuit, Super League (League of Legends offseason), Paladins Brazil Premier League, Hearthstone Brazil Premier League, CS:GO Brazil Premier League and LA League, Rocket League Brazil Premier

League, Garena Free Fire Pro League and the Fortnite World Cup. BBL also broadcasts Fortnite LATAM qualifier, both in Portuguese and Spanish. Epic Games hired the company to operate the broadcast on its official channels, with professional narrators and influencers presenting the show.

BBL also broadcasts Fortnite LATAM qualifier, both in Portuguese and Spanish. Epic Games hired the company to operate the broadcast on its official channels, with professional narrators and influencers presenting the show. What is BBL? BBL is ESL’s the official licensee in Brazil. As the world’s largest esports content producer, ESL chose BBL as its partner in Brazil, as well as for a potential LATAM expansion. With over 3,000 hours of original content in 2019, BBL is the largest producer of esports content in Latin America. The Guild, BBL’s influencer network, and Party of Legends, Brazil’s most popular gamer party, round out the company’s coverage of the national gaming sector. “With all of our companies, working together in unison, BBL is building a complete ecosystem with varied offerings”, explains De Biase, pointing out that the idea is to analyze the profile of the client and offer him the product that best fits his needs. BBL’s Zero to Hero tournament schedule is sponsored by Claro (one of Brazil’s 29

INTERVIEW brands

largest operated telecommunications companies), in an agreement that also extends to the Challenger Circuit. A year-round esports strategy was built from small amateur competition to the professional level – this allows fans and brands to follow the entire trajectory of a player.

“With all of them, we are building a complete ecosystem with various types of offerings,” explains De Biase Other important sponsorships with Intel and Dell Gaming were also signed for LA League and the Brazilian Premier League

(or BPL). These leagues are focused on CS:GO and PUBG competition. BBL partnered with Brazilian teen website and online magazine Capricho, which has 15 million registered subscribers online to bring gaming content to underserved female gamer. The goal is to serve existing female fans, bring new audiences through the website’s subscriber base and generate content for the recently announced Women’s Circuit, which features amateur, semi-professional and professional League of Legends, CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege and Dota 2 female only tournaments. A recently signed partnership with Forma Turismo – the largest high

school graduation travel and hospitality group in Brazil – aims at fomenting the competitive scene at the starter level. The idea is to reach this public, with Forma’s help and encourage them to compete and participate in the esports entry level scene. Additionally, a whole range of content creation and advertising activations have been birthed by this project. Esports is set to explode in 2020 and BBL is poised to make even larger leaps, as they have invested heavily in their broadcasting and content creating capacities. “Today our company is broadcasting as much as a full, yearround, 24-hour channel, while being focused esports and related content” says De Biase.

Let’s level up in esports together

Join the world’s business events for esports & non-endemic leaders. 500 attendees

2400 meetings 40 countries

40 advisors & Mentors

To contact us: BARtender@reedmidem.com www.the-esports-bar.com

Our next event: Esports BAR Miami 2-4 October 2019 JW Marriott Turnberry Miami, Florida, USA The must-attend esports event to attend!

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Esports BAR Miami

2-4 October at the JW Marriott Turnberry

sports BAR was launched in 2017 by Reed MIDEM, the organiser of the leading international entertainment markets: MIPCOM, MIPTV, Midem. Rum by experts in show organization and international B2B deal-making.

Esports BAR has become the leading B2B esports event: its 6th edition is on its way to Miami, next 2-4 October.

The core mission of Esports BAR is to contribute to the transformation of the sport of the digital generation into the future of entertainment. Esports is a global cultural phenomenon that is definitely designed to take a central place in the entertainment ecosystem. We know how essential it is to achieve this goal, the interaction with nonendemic business players like brands & media. That’s why Esports BAR has the main goal to mingle endemic and nonendemic key decision makers. A bit more about the upcoming event. Our next stop is Miami! Our next edition is scheduled in Miami 2-4 Oct., at the JW Marriott Turnberry.

We expect +500 execs and indeed, to meet the industry’s needs the best, we offer different options: the famous and prestigious VIP Arena, where we pre-select execs that are eligible for the 1-to-1 Matchmaking; the Forum where we welcome the bright minds of the industry to deliver keynotes and be part of the renowned Mentoring Programme. As an essential part of the event, the Hosted Brands Programme is more than ever growing: non-endemic brands like Lotto, Air Asia, Coty, Danone, Kopparberg, Nike, Shell, Sennheiser, and Unilever have already confirmed their attendance. And last but not least, a special focus on LatAm is schedule on

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day#2 of Esports BAR Miami this year. Why the US and LatAm are such an important focus for Esports BAR and the industry in general? Latin America has quickly risen in popularity and has now developed some of the most talented players and teams in the world. After Riot Games launching a Latin America league, based in Santiago, Chile, Allied Esports announced recently the production of a Latin America esports event, Nation vs. Nation, while Blizzard just added Latin America to the Arena World Championship alongside with NorthAmerica, Europe, Korea and Australia/ New-Zealand regions. With three main cultures and languages, Latin America is a rich and promising region for esports. It seems important to help the industry and non-endemic leaders to understand this phenomenon, its key factors and more importantly how to reach this growing community; this why for this edition, Latin America is part of the three pillars of the event. What are the other pillars of the conferences? Aside from a big focus on brands (keynote series + round-table sessions), media networks and platforms also represent a bigger part of the Forum. Broadcasting questions and content

issues are rising as esports is getting more and more popular. A special focus for media and about media is absolutely necessary. Finally, sports and esports are getting closer than ever, in terms of similarities and complementarities opportunities, a powerful combination can be built, for example, the NBA created its league dedicated to the NBA 2K game. What else to announce this year? Mentoring has been since a while a strong part of our shows. We have been on board so far some of the most

experienced execs in esports that have been extremely engaged in our show to help younger execs to maximize their skills and knowledge. We do continue the mentoring programme in Miami, but we add to this a brand new format of sessions: the Round-Table Series. The concept is very simple: Execs from media platforms, publishers and leading brands will sit at roundtables to share to delegates insights on how to work with them. Each session lasts 1 hour, during each slot there will be 5 tables, available for ten delegates, each one led by a representative from a platform, or a brand or a publishing company. We’ve created a special explanatory video that you can look at on our website: https://miami.the-esports-bar.com/engb/forum.html We’ve just announced the first platform: Will Lowther, Esports & Gaming at Caffeine will be part of this new format and will host a roundtable on how to work with Caffeine and similar media. Much more is to come.

INTERVIEW

Nicolás Villalba From Argentina to the top of the world

AUTHOR Pablo Monti  @PabloMMonti

ow can esports change a person’s life? That depends on a number of facets. Whilst there are now plenty of pros who have become millionaires playing games competitively, perhaps their lives haven’t been so radically altered as others.

The case of Nicolás Villalba, however, is a different story. Aged just 19 he’s the current PlayStation world number one in FIFA 19. Born in Flores, a workingclass neighbourhood of Buenos Aires,

Argentina, his father allowed him to play video games in a bid to keep him off the streets and out of trouble. Whilst playing competitive video games is increasingly common in South America, what is not so common is doing so in a professional capacity. Villalba, better known in-game by his tag Nicolas99fc, is a well-known and regarded player in the FIFA scene having been around for a few years. He played in the 2017 FIFA Interactive World Cup in

London and began to make a name for himself on the pro circuit. He won the 2018 FIFA Global Series Playoff (in Amsterdam), two editions of 2019 Gfinity Cups (both in London) and the 2019 FIFA eClub World Cup (also in London). He has finished runner-up at three FUT Champions Cups (winning the PS4 tournaments in Barcelona, London and Atlanta) and the 2019 FIFA eNations Cup in London.

INTERVIEW

Those achievements took Villalba to his current number one spot in the PlayStation 4 world ranking, but most importantly, changed the lives of both himself and his family.

represent a team like FC Basel -being South American- makes me really happy and thankful for being scouted because of what I have done (and hopefully, what I will do) during my professional career.” The reality of esports is wholly different in Europe when compared with South America, and the Argentine knows this all too well. “In Argentina, it’s not common to listen to people talk about esports. Indeed this activity might be even criticised. “In Europe, people know esports is a professional activity. Although we work doing what we love, many people criticise us just because we play video games. We all know esports is the future, but Europe has understood that earlier.” Villalba has been around the esports scene for a few years and clearly knows the ecosystem: “Europe and Asia are front-runners. In South America, we have Brazil as a top country, but we are still behind them in terms of both infrastructure and economy. We are reducing this gap step by step, and my hope is that I am able to say that I am a professional video game player and this’ll be normal in a few years”.

Nowadays, Nicolás plays professionally for the Swiss team FC Basel: “Representing a football team playing a football game is really good. It’s also a great opportunity since South American players are not recruited as European players. “I believe South America needs to be seen more often since we have many talented players that don’t have the chance of playing professionally. To

Playing competitive video games changed Villalba’s life, but there are a few things about the industry that he’d like to see change. He has earned a considerable amount of money, but he still believes that FIFA needs to see changes. He noted: “FIFA should improve its prize pools. Whereas other esports have millions in prizes, a FIFA major gives $50,000 (£44,100). Of course, it’s not a small amount of money, but it’s not even close to other games. Since football is probably the most popular sport in the world, I hope football esports will grow and even reach the Olympic Games”.

“Many people end up in the jobs they don’t like, so I am fortunate to do what I love. I enjoy travelling, knowing new countries and cultures, but it also has its downsides.” After travelling the world with his father or his brother, Nicolás turned 18 last year, and now he typically travels alone. For him, it is complicated to be able to picture himself in ten years time since he claims always to do what he likes doing. “I like being a FIFA pro player right now, but if I don’t like this anymore or I stop enjoying what I do, I probably would stop playing, I don’t know. Right now, I love playing, and it’s a huge deal being able to do what I love doing!” Working doing what he enjoys is one of the biggest pros for Nicolás Villalba, but there are also things he doesn’t care for. “Many people end up in the jobs they don’t like, so I am fortunate to do what I love. I enjoy travelling, knowing new countries and cultures, but it also has its downsides. “Most of the tournaments are held in London, and I have a 14-hour trip to almost any destination. It is hard not to be at home since I need to be in the place I live in, near to my family, my friends and my girlfriend. I really enjoy what I do, but I don’t like it when it turns into an obligation.” How much can esports change a person’s life? In the case of Nicolás Villalba, entirely. Moreover, it’s not just for him but for his family at large, and even for the kids in Argentina, that view him as something of a role model.

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Esports Brands & Business Conference The first Esports conference in Argentina.

n order to demonstrate the importance of esports for all types of brands and sectors, Latam Media Group, TyC Sports and UADE, organised a specialised conference, bringing together the most important stakeholders from the esports ecosystem in Argentina, and the wider region.

The interest in esports in Latam is now a certified reality.

It was just 9:00 am on Thursday May 16th, when in Buenos Aires, inside the main classroom of the UADE institution, that Latam Media Group together with TyC Sports presented a unique opportunity for the region. The event consisted of seven different panels, and featured events organisers, content creators, team representatives, endemic and nonendemic brands and more personalities, which culminated in a fantastic business opportunity for a growing industry with enormous potential.

The different panels were designed to deliver a day that first introduces you into the world of esports, training you and then give rise to discuss, chat and ask questions. The topics ranged from an overview and introduction to help attendees unaware better understand the world of esports, and then there were the sessions which provided a deeper dive into some of the most pressing issues and challenges the industry faces today.

“This Conference is the real proof that esports is a serious business in Latin America. The quality of each and every panel and speaker shows that things are being done properly. It has been an absolute honor to moderate this conference and we are sure that it has been the first one of many.”, said Pablo Monti, EBBC moderator, TyC Sports journalist and esports influencer.

“This Conference is the real proof that esports is a serious business in Latin America. The quality of each and every panel and speaker shows that things are being done properly...”, said Pablo Monti, EBBC moderator. On the other hand, Agustín Cikes, COO of Latam Media Group said “EBBC was a huge success. Our goal was to gather together different esports sectors and personalities, and we are really happy with the result. The event was massive, all parties were really satisfied and they all came back to their offices with new ideas and concepts, understanding even more the biggest entertainment industry (esports).“

PANELS AND REPRESENTATIVES 1st Panel - Ecosystem Esports: Events, teams and brands. Alan Polo, Baires - Esports Center; Jonatan Cisterna - TDJ; Gonzalo García - Furius Gaming.

4th Panel - Content creators Fernando Carolei - América tv, A24 and Radio la Red; Federico Ini - Telefe, Fox Sports; Martín Pérez Disalvo - Content Creator.

2nd Panel - The Fan of Esports Leo de Biase - BBL; Jorgelina Peciña Audience Specialist; Guillermo Areco - Pro Player of CS: GO.

5th Panel - Esports Tournaments Fabián Minotto - TyC Sports; Daniel Morales Riot Games; Leo de Biase - BBL. 6th Panel - Brands with experience Silvana Cataldo - Telecom; Gabriela Sorrentino - Intel.

3rd Panel - Sponsorships: The Esports and the great opportunity. Walter Costabel - LocalStrike; Facundo Calabró - Isurus Gaming.

7th Panel - Traditional Sports & esports Luis Castro - AFA; Claudio Destéfano, Bizers Producciones, Atlas; Pablo Fuentes - Sports Assistant Secretary of Buenos Aires.

Undoubtedly, the inaugural edition of #EBBC19, which will keep growing year on year, has opened a new stage for the esports in Argentina. It delivered a space for discussion and increased understanding between stakeholders from in and around the industry; that is the brands, and esports rights-holders. The Latam region is clearly ripe for growth, and events such as this are an important factor in its sustainability.

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ESIC

The Case for (Some) Regulation in Esports Esports Integrity Coalition  @ESIC_Official

ay 2019: One of the major differences between esports and traditional sports is the lack of a governing body or even a sense of a “centre” to the industry. Also, of course, the games are owned by different companies with different philosophies, ideas and resources and these companies are, fundamentally, in commercial competition with each other. Consequently, it is widely felt within esports that an overarching governing body is not necessary and, in fact, best avoided if the traditional sports models we’ve witnessed over the years is any example – bloated, top heavy, patronising and corrupt as many of them appear to be. Esports companies, particularly the pub/devs are reluctant to cede authority to any external body and why would they?

Unfortunately, this free-for-all has some distinct disadvantages; chief amongst which is the complete lack of agreed or implemented standards across key areas of common interest to the esports community. More importantly, these are key areas to some very important and powerful external stakeholders beyond the esports community - non-endemic sponsors, broadcasters, politicians and civil society.

regulation

We’re talking primarily about the three interconnected areas of concern for any esports organisation; whether it’s 50 people playing and watching Madden in a Florida club or 20,000 people watching the final of IEM Katowice. These common concerns are: 1) Youth Protection – the esports community skews young and lives online where abuse is rampant. 2) Live Event Safety – what could possibly go wrong, right? 3) Integrity – cheating to win or cheating to lose – match-fixing. In these three areas there ought to be agreed objective, externally monitored standards that apply across the industry. Obviously, the standards would need to be tiered to take account of the difference between online and LAN events, large and small and different game communities based on objective risk assessments. It is the absence of these standards currently that is particularly concerning. First, because they’re a good idea in themselves, but, second, because their absence is increasingly drawing the (unwelcome) attention of politicians and administrators to esports and what they see will not please them. There is, of course, a third reason why the major industry players should be considering getting together and developing a credible form of selfregulation and that is to create barriers to entry for incompetent or under-resourced new entrants to the market. This is valid because, currently, the esports industry is referred to often by outsiders as the “wild west”. This serves no-one well, but it is constantly reinforced by poor attempts to join the scene with small, badly run events that then run into problems with prize money, bad sponsorship activations and technical foul-ups which undermine the credibility of the whole industry. I would hope esports would consider ESIC the logical and best solution to the 3rd

common problem we’ve set out above. It is where we operate and where common solutions have been implemented by all of our members and can easily be adopted by everyone else. We don’t have the expertise to deal with Youth Protection or Live Event Safety, but that expertise can be easily acquired if we were correctly resourced by the industry. On the Integrity front, the threat is very real and getting worse. We recently collated the suspicious betting alerts received

already been played, but is broadcast “as live” by the tournament organiser without that TO clarifying to the community that the match has already been played – a common occurrence in esports and an indication of the naivety of the esports industry with regard to betting on esports), has fixed the match or has heard about a fix. ESIC is probably seeing less than 10% of the actual fixes in esports due to the underground nature of much of esports betting, primarily in China and the USA and betting on esports in the USA is going to grow rapidly since the repeal of PASPA Football spends millions of dollars on integrity efforts globally every year. Tennis just spent in excess of $20m reviewing its Integrity efforts and has an annual budget of more than $3m. Esports spends less than $250,000.00 pa collectively – it is simply not enough.

from our betting operator, regulator and monitoring services members’ network during 2018. The figures are alarming and should constitute a loud wake up call to the esports industry; especially pub/devs. Suspicious Betting Alerts in 2018: 74 (compared to 39 in 2017) DOTA2: 32 (16 in 2017) CS:GO: 20 (17 in 2017) Warcraft3: 11 (1 in 2017) Starcraft2: 4 The rest 7 Not every suspicious bet alert means a match was fixed or that a fix was attempted. Sometimes there are rational explanations for the betting patterns that triggered the alert. ESIC has discounted those alerts where there was an immediate obvious explanation that was not an integrity threat. Suspicious bets in sports betting generally indicate that the bettor has inside knowledge, already knows the outcome (in instances where the relevant match has

It is time for each part of the esports industry to acknowledge that it cannot isolate itself in its own world without consequence or recognising its place in the overall ecosystem A fragmented industry will never perform as well as an organised one. It’s time for the powers that be to lock themselves in a room and decide whether they want to make their own rules or have rules made for them by unsympathetic politicians and bureaucrats. For further information about ESIC, please contact: Ian Smith, Integrity Commissioner ian@esportsintegrity.com Phone: +44 (0)7798698201 Website: www.esportintegrity.com Twitter: @ESIC_Official The Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) was established in 2016 to take responsibility for disruption, prevention, investigation and prosecution of all forms of cheating in esports, including, but not limited to, match manipulation and doping.

We were established in 2016 to take responsibility for disruption, prevention, investigation and prosecution of all forms of cheating in esports, including, but not limited to, match manipulation and doping.

The esports Integrity Coalition works with esports stakeholders to protect the integrity of esports competition. We are a not-for-profit members’ association and we can help you, whether you’re a tournament organiser, game developer, esports league or betting operator offering esports – join us! 40

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Hitmarker The Golden State has advertised more esports opportunities than the other 49 states combined in 2019 AUTHOR Hitmarker  @HitmarkerJobs

t’s no secret that esports has a significant presence in California. It houses multiple top-level competitions like the LCS and Overwatch League, as well as countless companies within the industry, from giant publishers like Blizzard to elite organisations like Cloud9 and TSM.

OpTic Gaming. Add to this the jobs that exist all along the east coast and in the rest of the US, and it is a pretty surprising statistic.

However, the extent of California’s dominance of our industry is only truly revealed when examining the esports job market.

On the adjacent page, we’ve used our data to visualise The Golden State’s hiring activity. From which of its cities are home to the most jobs to which of the companies based within it are the most active, our map of California gives you the highlights of its esports job scene. San Francisco stands tall, possessing over 33% of California’s jobs due to its hive of tech companies. Following it is Los Angeles with 26.99%, which benefits from a whole host of elite teams being based there. Irvine comes in third with 9.52%, primarily due to Blizzard being found in the city.

At HitmarkerJobs.com, we post opportunities in esports and gaming from companies all over the world every single day. We’ve used the data collected from this activity between January 1 and April 30, 2019, to tell the story of California’s hiring activity. What our numbers reveal is that there were more jobs located in California than there were in the rest of the United States combined in the first four months of the year. Indeed, from the beginning of the year to April 30, we’ve posted a total of 1,584 jobs in the United States, and an enormous 956 (60.35%) of these have been in California. This really shocked us at first. After all, Texas is more commonly seen as the emerging hotbed of esports, as it hosts the impressive trio of Team Envy, Complexity Gaming and

The tipping point in California’s favour is the presence of major companies such as Twitch, Riot Games and Blizzard, who combine together to overpower the hiring in these other locations.

With the Overwatch League and its teams hitting the road soon, more companies moving into the industry, and more esports startups appearing all of the time, we expect that California’s dominance of the esports job market will slowly begin to lessen. However, for the time being, it seems California remains the Golden State of opportunities!

INTERVIEW

Hong Kong Esports in Asia’s World City Cyberport

hile Asia’s esports scene continues to boom, Hong Kong is uniquely positioned to build on and establish a lucrative esports ecosystem. Hong Kong’s first government-funded venue for esports is set to be launched at Cyberport in July. The inaugural event to be held at the esports arena at Cyberport will be a business conference, the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (DELF), on 16th July.

Cyberport Hong Kong is a digital technology community entity wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR government. It’s committed to becoming a leading force in developing the digital tech industry as a key economic driver of Hong Kong, and as such focuses on three major application clusters, FinTech, smart-living and digital entertainment. Echoing the government initiative to boost Hong Kong as the Asian esports hub and kicking off the operation

AUTHOR  @cyberport_hk

INTERVIEW

of the esports arena, DELF will gather major industry stakeholders and technopreneurs, amplifying impactful discussions around the ecosystem, opportunities, challenges, technologies, entrepreneurship and talent cultivation. DELF 2019 will present a comprehensive full-day esports focused programme. The principal forum will examine the global scene, regional and local dynamics, as well as breakout tracks to discuss technologies, career development, talent cultivation, and also entrepreneurship behind esports. It will also feature a highly anticipated Celebrity Invitational Game, and there’ll be backstage venue tours to boot.

industries around the globe and Cyberport is dedicated to advancing Hong Kong esports potential and help Hong Kong to thrive on its positioning and develop into a regional esports hub. “With a series of upcoming engaging events, led by DELF 2019, alongside with different competitions, exhibitions, training, etc., I am confident that Cyberport is on its path to becoming a local esports and digital entertainment node.”

students, new graduates or eligible young persons. Under this scheme, participating employers will be allocated up to HK$7,500 per month per intern for a minimum term of eight weeks, and up to a maximum duration of 12 months as an incentive to provide various internship placements. Cyberport will also arrange relevant training activities for the interns at regular intervals.

“Cyberport is dedicated to advancing Hong Kong esports potential and help Hong Kong to thrive on its positioning and develop into a regional esports hub.” On top of engaging the local esports community, Cyberport is also bringing international industry brands to Hong Kong. The global mobile games industry conference “Blockchain Gamer Connects (BGC)” will be on the same stage as a satellite event of DELF over 17-18 July. BGC is the first dedicated B2B blockchain games event spun off from the worldrenowned Pocket Gamers Connect series which has been well received in Helsinki, London, San Francisco and Jordan. It units thousands of professionals from the games and blockchain ecosystem to share insight, and ultimately generate business opportunities to grow the industry. Eric Chan, Chief Public Mission Officer of Cyberport, said: “Esports is already disrupting and revolutionising several

The HKSAR government has strengthened its support of the esports industry with HK$100million (£10million) allocated to Cyberport to promote esports development in Hong Kong, including equipping the Cyberport Arcade as a dedicated esports venue and implementing initiatives in nurturing technologies, talents and entrepreneurs. Cyberport has rolled out two schemes to facilitate the development of the esports industry in April 2019. For nurturing esports talents, Cyberport initiated the Esports Internship Scheme to provide work experience for current

Another scheme is the Esports Industry Facilitation Scheme. The aim of this is to provide financial support for a variety of industry activities, including esports competitions and events, training activities and educational programmes, as well as outbound business exchanges and development activities. The Esports Journal readers can enjoy complimentary admission to DELF (limited quota available, first-come-firstserved). Register now with discount code “mediacomp” at https://app.eventxtra.com/ registrations/67f64c16-31a6-4147-82ba0c70378dca0e

interview

Ask the Esports Lawyers AUTHOR Nixon Peabody LLP  @NixonPeabodyLLP

Esports is an ever-changing landscape. With the industry growing at such an alarming rate, there’s always bound to be teething problems. Esports is still in the process of professionalising fully, and thus there’s still plenty of examples of business malpractice across the space.

We spoke to Irene Scholl-Tatevosyan, a labour and employment associate and a complex commercial litigator

at Nixon Peabody, and Benjamin Kim, a partner in Nixon Peabody’s Labor & Employment group who offered their thoughts and expertise on some of the most pertinent issues in esports at present. The Esports Journal: What are some of the most pressing legal issues right now in esports? Irene Scholl-Tatevosyan: One of the biggest issues will be (and to an extent already is) unionisation in esports.

Unionisation in sports generally has been a bit messy, but with esports, it becomes more complicated as there are different game publishers who own the game being played itself. Another issue is governance—in other words, how to govern this industry as there is no set structure outside of the prominent game publishers creating their own structure—as well as regulatory compliance—such as with the FTC, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in

INTERVIEW

marketing. Of course, IP is huge for any industry that touches on technology, like esports, and we see those issues playing out in recent litigation. Benjamin Kim: The employeeindependent contractor issue is another concern on the labour and employment side, especially in states like California where, based on recent precedent, it is even more challenging—though not impossible—to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees. This is particularly important for rapidly growing markets such as esports. How esports companies—which often have many facets of their business and crossover into many different industries—deal with their talent and how teams deal with their players create issues we are seeing play out in real time. Gambling related to esports is also a big one as the regulatory landscape continues to change statewide and federally. ESJ: How do you see the industry changing? Irene: It will continue to grow, not just in audience but with more structure. I think the big players are here to stay, but it will be interesting to see whether there will be another Riot or Blizzard — I think there will be. Eventually, we may see A/R and V/R have more of a role in esports as well, but we may be farther away from that future. Esports is here; I see it becoming more of a behemoth. For example, I see esports being a norm—in schools, in community activities, etc. The next phase will include a set structure for the esports player to go from an amateur to a semi-pro to a pro. It will include more college and high school programs that focus on esports as a career—not just for professional players—for programmers, business managers, and all sorts of professionals.

Ben: I think we’ll see formalisation of the esports market, and the legal issues surrounding it, as well as more guidance, either in the form of new laws or regulations. But esports is a multi-dimensional market with so many different industries at play. With everchanging technology as the backbone of esports competitions, new industries will undoubtedly form. ESJ: Irene, you are one of the drivers of the women in gaming initiative in Southern California. Tell us about that. Why was it important? Irene: I was lucky enough to meet and speak to many wonderful women in esports who are really making great changes and strides within their respective companies. What we realised was missing, at least in Southern California, was something to bring all these women together to form a community, not just to mentor and promote one another, but to show the next generation that it is possible for a woman to make it in gaming and here are the various paths you can take. This is important because if a girl wants to enter gaming, she needs to know it is a career option. She needs to know what that looks like and how to get to her goals. And, for those of us in the industry, we need to make a concerted effort to continue to support and promote one another so that we each get to the next level. ESJ: Do you think we will see the formation of a proper players’ union across games, and how would that deal with issues such as the current situation with Denial reportedly not paying players? Irene: This is a difficult one—maybe. A players’ union must come from the players themselves. A company or team cannot be involved in

that process. A players’ union is unlikely over esports generally because each game is owned by a different publisher. So, for example, we may see a LoL union and a separate Overwatch union but not an overarching esports union. If we do get a players’ union in one of the games, the path to unionisation will be as rocky as it has been with traditional sports. Assuming there is a union and a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) comes through, the players, teams, and publisher will be bound by the terms and conditions set forth in that agreement until it is time to bargain again—and even then the status quo must be maintained until there is a new agreement. Assuming a CBA, I assume there will be penalties for a team not paying its players and a grievance process that players could use to address the situation. ESJ: How can teams better safeguard their players from being poached by other organisations? Ben: Most of these protections will be in the form of contractual provisions. Where there is collective bargaining, you may see protections similar to those that you see in the NFL, NBA, etc. Esports, however, may have talent in a variety of different forms and locations. Given that the talent, even for a single competition, can span across different jurisdictions, there will be challenges in how these contractual provisions are interpreted, enforced, and litigated. ESJ: How did you personally get involved in esports? Do you play? Irene: I was and am a gamer. At some point, I would play up to ten hours, if not more, per day. I love gamer culture and the games themselves—so gaming was something I was always passionate about. So, when I learned there is a competitive gaming landscape years ago, I was beyond excited and knew I had to get involved—not just as a

INTERVIEW

consumer but as a professional in the industry. That is how the esports initiative grew at Nixon Peabody— passionate gamers looking to apply their legal skills to a truly exciting industry. I play, though not as often as I like on account of having to keep my day job! I still play Street Fighter and am back at it with the new Kingdom Hearts. Ben: I’ve always loved gaming, but I didn’t fully realise the future of esports until I witnessed how my kids consume entertainment. They could not be less interested in watching the NBA or NHL playoffs. Instead, they want to watch someone play a video game on YouTube. When I think of my kids, I see the future of consumers in their generation; they’re not watching traditional TV anymore.

They’re consuming a lot of esports-like entertainment. I grew up playing and watching traditional sports, and my mindset was that you only played video games but did not see them like any other form of entertainment. Then, I remembered watching high-level gamers compete in Street Fighter at the local arcade. With so many advances in technology and communication, those crowds that formed at the local arcade have grown to seemingly infinite numbers online and across the world. I remember watching a TV show a few years ago where the country’s top players in Madden NFL games competed, and thought, this could apply to any popular video game.

This article is meant for informational purposes only, and readers should consult a lawyer with questions. Benjamin J. Kim and Irene Scholl-Tatevosyan colead Nixon Peabody’s esports group. Benjamin J. Kim, a partner in Nixon Peabody’s Labor & Employment group and a member of the firm’s Occupational Safety & Health (OSHA) practice. He represents clients in a range of industries in employment and labour matters in both federal and state court litigation. He also counsels employers on a wide variety of employment issues. Irene Scholl-Tatevosyan is a labour and employment associate and a complex commercial litigator. She represents employers in all aspects of labour and employment matters, including in ERISA litigation matters and in representation before the NLRB, and works on high-stakes commercial litigation.

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Los Angeles - the hub of esports in the West AUTHOR: Adam Fitch  @byadamfitch

sports is a distinctive industry in that it’s almost entirely digital. Everything can be done online, from practising to competing, to scouting new players, to cultivating an incredibly large audience. That doesn’t mean there’s no significance in physical locations, however. Prominent and respected leagues and tournaments take place in the same location and countries have their own unique involvement in esports.

and training facilities are housed in the City of Angels. If you were to head there, you’d find the likes of Cloud9, Team SoloMid, Immortals, FaZe Clan, 100 Thieves, Counter Logic Gaming, FlyQuest, NRG Esports, and Echo Fox. Team Liquid’s Alienware Training Facility - which is described as “state-of-the-art” and quite ground-breaking for esports can also be found there. The Overwatch League was the first large-scale, geolocated tournament that

Los Angeles has cemented itself as a hotspot for the esports industry as it has grown over the past 20 years. From game developers being located there to organisations setting up shop in the sunny City, to competitions heading there; plenty is going on. If you believe projections - or simply have observed its growth over the years - it’s clear that esports is poised to be a huge industry, and Los Angeles has pitted itself as a prominent location. The city has been the home of many entrepreneurs, start-ups, and successful enterprises for many, many years, so this makes complete sense. So, which companies and organisations are responsible for such a reputation in this industry? Well, there are a whole host of esports organisations whose headquarters Photo by: Blizzard Entertainment photographer

requires competitors to buy a franchise spot. This meant esports organisations, investors, and figures from traditional sports bought a position in the league and made a particular city its own. Los Angeles, out of all 20 franchises, is the only city to house two brands. Immortals own the Los Angeles Valiant, and Stan and Josh Kroenke own the Los Angeles Gladiators, which is operated by Sentinels.

The Overwatch League is pushing towards home, and away games being played out of franchises’ own venues, but that’s not coming until 2020. From its inception in 2018, the matches in the league have been played out of the Blizzard Arena which - you guessed it - is located in Los Angeles. When the Overwatch League does incorporate home and away games, that means popular franchises will no longer be present in Los Angeles on a consistent basis, and the only time fans can head there to watch the competition is when the Valiant or Gladiators are playing at home. Even then, it will be divided, and it’s just a huge risk in general. Activision Blizzard’s ambitious project isn’t the only competition that counts L.A. as its home. Riot Games, the

developer of League of Legends and operator of numerous leagues, is based in the city and also hosts the LCS - it’s North American franchised league there too. A number of tournament organisers also have offices in Los Angeles, including major players in the industry such as ESL, FACEIT, and Major League Gaming (MLG). These companies’ position in esports is vital, they support the ambitions of the developers and even run the competitive scene of an entire game themselves - MLG operates the Call of Duty World League, for example. Even some investment groups and venture capitalists such as BITKRAFT Esports - the firm co-founded by Jens Hilgers, the entrepreneur who also co-founded ESL, G2 Esports, and DOJO Madness - are established in Los Angeles. It truly houses companies from

each vital component of the industry. This doesn’t mean Los Angeles is the only place to go if you want to be big in esports, of course. North Texas is quickly building up an esports presence of its own, with OpTic Gaming, Team Envy, and Complexity Gaming - who just opened its headquarters, the GameStop Performance Center - all setting up shop there. The Esports Stadium Arlington is also based there, and it’s quickly making a name for itself as a solid venue for a variety of titles and needs. So while L.A. is currently the hub for esports in North America, Texas could well take over in the future. For now, however, it’s indisputable that it’s leading the charge as the industry attempts to reach new heights.

The growth of the FGC

Watering the grassroots AUTHOR Chelly Toms  @ChellyToms’

sports has come a long way in the past few years. We’ve seen a boom in sponsorship and revenue in games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends; which makes for huge improvements on production quality, player care and overall happiness of the community.

However, when it comes to the FGC, there is a different approach. Fighting games differ massively from MOBA’s and other games such as Counter-Strike or

Call of Duty, where you require a team and a practice regiment to go with it. The FGC sees themselves as very grassroots and likes to keep the community vibe on a more humble level. With this, they maintain control over how they would like their community to be run. However, they miss out on a more considerable prize pool potential, sponsorship opportunities and production that would no doubt boost fighting games into the mainstream

gaming audience. Regardless, this hasn’t stopped the FGC and overall, these communities maintain their raw passion for the game, putting out their blood, sweat and tears to run events, with little to no profit. This said, fighting game competitors are starting to see a small improvement to the prize pools, as more sponsors take notice of this dedication to the game. The concept of the FGC is still a new one to sponsors looking to invest their time and money into

these communities. Though, esports giants like Team Liquid, TSM, Cloud 9, CLG and Echo Fox have already dipped their toes into smaller FGC games; which leads the way to more exposure. Kashan Khan, a commentator, content creator and player for Team Liquid said: “It was a lot different. Five years ago was when it started getting better. Sponsorships started helping, so the venues got better too.

“Smash in particular started with very humble beginnings. Prize pools, venue quality and entrants shot up.” One of the issues for the FGC is the game revenue. For example, Super Smash Bros. Melee is still going strong, but it’s not a game that you can purchase skins, characters or general DLC for. Nintendo in the past year or so has noticed that game is still a thriving community and has helped out in places. However, with newer Smash games such as Smash Bros. Ultimate, are patchable that has the potential to make significant revenue with in-game purchases such as the ‘Fighter’s Pass’. Could Smash Bros follow a game pass or skin models like League of Legends or Fortnite? Sadly, this isn’t even close to the massive revenue titles such as League of Legends makes. In League, you can buy multiple characters followed by multiple skins for your characters and wards. There’s even a gifting system where you can gift your friends with skins or characters. The revenue from this is enormous, and Riot Games can then invest that money into events such as the LCS. According to SuperData,

League’s revenue for 2018 was $1.4 Billion, and the prize pool for the Worlds 2018 was $2.25 million(£1,950,740). Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold a whopping 12 million copies by January 2019, yet the prize-pool for the Smash Ultimate Summit was just $51,917 (£40,084). Though some fighting games make some revenue on in-game purchases, it’s not at the same level. Sujoy Roy, Director of Esports at Luckbox, said: “There were always people playing, but now people are watching. For instance, that’s where gambling comes into it, monetising this brings more viewers.” This means the FGC has to look elsewhere. Content creation from players, events streamed on Twitch, player sponsorship and gaming company sponsorship; Capcom regularly supports the Street Fighter community and holds events like Capcom Cup. There are other outlets such as gambling and betting on players too. With exposure from content creation especially, there’s been a rise in pay for the players, even if it’s not necessarily from the tournament prize pool.

“There were always people playing, but now people are watching.” Twitch and Youtube are such helpful platforms for these high-level players who can provide knowledge, entertainment and also an insight on tournament life. The FGC remains supportive, so streams and videos tend to be popular; giving the FGC and it’s players more exposure. “Players have finally started making enough money, that’s when players realised it was worth it,” said Esports Agent for Evolved Talent Agency, Barry Lee. So how can we help push the FGC communities so that the players can

further benefit from the efforts that they put into their game? It’s already started being put in place for team games, and I believe it’s better cared for players. For instance, the typical stereotype gamer stays up all night playing video games and chugging energy drinks. Naturally, this stereotype doesn’t line up with peak performance in tournaments. Almost no player would benefit from no sleep or an unhealthy diet. Forcing a healthier lifestyle on players isn’t a feasible option, but giving players who are not part of a team the resources is a good start. Esports teams have houses in which a nutritionist, dietitian, fitness coach and so on. This means the team are much more likely to succeed. However, players from the FGC who don’t live in their team houses lack the same support. Admittedly, it might be expensive to hire a team of people for just a single player, but having someone send nutritional, fitness and sleep information to their FGC players might help. Greg Laird, founder and CEO of Chaos Esports Club believes it’s a positive thing to see more focus on fitness in esports: “It’s great to see we have more access to new resources; a lot of teams have dieticians or nutritionists, fitness coaches and so on.” An improvement in health and wellbeing can pay dividends to a player’s performance at a big tournament. This leads to slicker gameplay which creates a snowball effect. Fantastic gameplay makes for better online content and highlights, which then breeds more exposure to new sponsors. Sponsors are looking for someone to represent their brand, and at a guess, they may be more likely to invest in a more stricter high level ‘athlete’ than the old sleepless stereotype gamer.

Acting as an agency, media house, translator and mentorship group, the 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. It’s a non-exclusive, commission based service aimed at helping to facilitate and nurture the right business deals and partnerships globally across the industry.

Finding the right information, people and opportunities inside and outside the esports space has now become much easier.

Bringing together esports and other industry thought leadership so that you don’t have to do it yourself.

The 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, the 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.

For more information on how to apply, speak to a member of the ESI team, email info@esportsinsider.com or visit www.esportsinsider.com

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