Thinking Esports: Thoughts From ESI Digital Summit THINK, pt. III

(This is the third entry in a five-part series covering topics addressed during the two-day ESI Digital Summit’s THINK track, taken place on May 26–27, 2020. Read parts one, two, four, and five.)

With Day Two of the conference off to a smooth start, the panelists and moderators kept to schedule, navigating dense digital panels with top esports brass and thinkers. As each panelist shared their inside looks of their corners of the industry, trends began to unfold for me as I furiously scribbled notes and later cross-compared them to my notes from my earlier outreach to more than a dozen speakers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to arrange meetings with all of the moderators and panelists, however, I hope the synopsis offered in the finale of this series offers talking points to stir the industry into discourse.

The nuances shared during the ESI Digital Summit, reflect the buzz going on inside of the industry, both online and offline, of changes that are anticipated to come — both because and in spite of COVID. The industry is growing, there’s new eyes upon it, and money continues to pile up on bets where the industry will flourish. Esports as entertainment has enjoyed the attention and vanity metrics of viewership over the spring, but in order to keep the show going, the same song and dance won’t take us there. In 2020, we all need to level-up, and the industry vets have clear plans to spend the summer grinding.

Panels covered in this entry:

?? The Future of Tournaments Post-COVID

?? Malta — A New Home For Esports

?? Content and creating a unique brand — How to stand out from the esports crowd

?? The bubble won’t burst, but the dam is leaking — should we expect consolidation in esports in 2020?

The future of tournaments post-COVID

Moderator:

Ian Smith, Commissioner ? ESIC

Speakers:

James Dean, CEO ? ESL Gaming UK Ltd

Rob Black, CEO ? Promod Esports

Nicolas Estrup, Director of Product and Experience ? BLAST

Jonas Gundersen, COO ? Ninjas in Pyjamas

The existence of already semi-mirrored virtual esports scenes and baked-in recognizable content can readily educate decision makers in traditional sports to finally pay attention

The pandemic-pause has massively affected most entertainment-adjacent industry titans whose innovative offerings have suffered from the drag and unwieldiness of their size. Nicolas Estrup, Director of Product and Experience at BLAST, expressed that coming off the high of a successful event in January their team needed to put together a new format for their upcoming tournaments to stick to the schedule. Ramping up their innovative strategies from the years before, the team was able to dream up new formats that also satisfied their goals of better engaging remote fans in the New Normal.

Jonas Gundersen, COO of Ninjas in Pyjamas, shared the perspective of how the tournament scene appears in the eyes of players like his. Without the environment changes and competitive tension felt at in-person tournaments, player motivation requires new attention when high-stakes tournaments are being played in the same environment a player games and sleeps in day-in-day-out in quarantine. Managing the team and addressing player concerns also becomes a different task when it must be done from videocalls. Jonas’s mindset is focussed on staying sharp during the lull so that the organization can come out swinging once the measures are lessened.

Catalysed by COVID-19, Ian Smith, Commissioner of ESIC, explained that many traditional sports will enjoy their privileges of hybridization — which will benefit the both industries. The existence of already semi-mirrored virtual esports scenes and baked-in recognizable content can readily educate decision makers in traditional sports to finally pay attention. This may help move the needle for other sports video-game publishers to consider injecting resources to fuel symbiotic partnerships with the real-world organizations to, at the very least, consolidate and concentrate content and product offerings.

James Dean, CEO of ESL Gaming UK Ltd, shared a critique of traditional sports entities only being interested in the carbon-copy virtual version of their respective sports instead of expanding their organization’s offerings into the wider swathe of compatible esport. Games like Rocket League can function both as a motor-sports’s parallel as well as a football club’s — but the lack of understanding in the space or disinterest has many groups leaving money on the table in terms of esports cross-over possibilities.

Rob Black, CEO of Promod Esports, views the, however shallow, acceptance of traditional sports bridge-building toward esports will benefit both markets generously in the future. Especially from a brand perspective of creating more channels and deeper resonance in the connection of their audiences with new partnerships and relevant moves into one another’s space. If nothing else, this toe-dipping into the rising-tide of esports in general could help adjust the brightness of the future health of both industries as the world continues to battle COVID-19.

Malta — A new home for esports

Moderator:

Michele Magro, Chief Counsel of International Affairs & Policy ? Malta Gaming Authority

Speakers:

Sergey Bidzan, CEO ? Eden Esports

Kersten Chircop, Founder & Director ? GMR Entertainment

Mark O’Sullivan, Video Game & Esports Lead ? KPMG Malta

Kevin Spiteri, Co-Founder ? Level Academy

Ivan Filletti, COO ? Gaming Malta

If esports needed an island, it earned itself one through the help of the Maltese government working together to fertilize the ground esports should tread upon.

Innumerable curious developments in the international tourism industries have yet to reveal themselves over the summer, to be sure, with Iceland announcing its pandemic-present attraction packages leading the way. Ivan Filletti, COO of Gaming Malta, introduced the panel stating that Malta is sending a message in a bottle for the digital coasts announcing its stake as a physical home for esports. Boasting its industrious and gambling-friendly tax system, avid player base, beautiful locality, thriving island culture, and livability, the echoes of which are amplified by its relatively undisturbed routine from the pandemic. Only seven deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 this year.

Sergey Bidzan, CEO of Eden Esports, breaks down the esports tournaments into two scales: large and small — large events resembling arena events and smaller events occupying more intimate venues. While not equipped to host the high-budget spectacle of esports performances in the form of large arenas and mass gatherings of people. If esports needed an island, it earned itself one through the help of the Maltese government working together to fertilize the ground esports should tread upon.

Mark O’Sullivan, Video Game and Esports Lead at KPMG Malta, explains that the infrastructure of Malta makes its offering known with its indoor-voice — offering intimate venues, affordable 5-star hotels, and engaging nightlife — the island can comfortably accommodate 5,000 person tournaments. The leisure and outside-of esports Mark explains that his other role at the KPMG Global Esports Team

Kevin Spiteri, Co-Founder of Level Academy, explains the shifted vision of the organization due to the pandemic, focussing on a holistic education approach to hopeful esports athletes with programs teaching leadership, career, as well as performance. Education and “path to pro” opportunities as well as promotion of teaching marketable skills, Level Academy also provides an online tournament ecosystem so that players can make use of these skills and practices. This new-school approach to providing a curated pipeline to prepare players and industry hopefuls an all-encompassing approach toward the professional scene.

Kersten Chircop, Founder & Director of GMR Entertainment, shared his insight that while the industry is in need of traditional business and sports talent, that new comers in the space still need to have at least a basic understanding of what esports are. Learning about the specialties and potential growth of the industry, but due to its ballooning growth over the years, initiatives to educate are finding themselves perpetually too small to meet the rising demands. He sees a lot of potential in utilizing Malta’s educational infrastructure to provide educational intensive courses to help bring the growing audience up to working-proficiency knowledge.

The island sanctuary has much to offer: a true holiday destination, locals who are genuinely excited by esports tournaments and tourism, and ideal conditions for making stress-free island-inspired content. Malta wants to build it but who will come, will be the question the industry’s economy and bubble-elasticity will have to determine.

Content and creating a unique brand — How to stand out from the esports crowd

Moderator:

Adam Fitch, Editor ? Esports Insider

Speakers:

Christie St. Martin, Gaming Director ? IMC

Carl Kuhn, Account Director/Esports ? Jung von Matt/SPORTS GmbH

Jakob Kristensen, Founder & CCO ? Astralis Group

Tricia Sugita, CEO ? FlyQuest

Orgs with different talent builds, distributed between roster and professional stats, have to navigate both competitive and content creation situations based on their skill sets.

Culture that can be communicated through branding and content goes just as far, if not further, than a winning-record in terms of attracting and retaining a loyal fan base. Tricia Sugita, CEO of FlyQuest, references the New York Yankees by their winning brand, hinting at the cultural capital export of the brand in the form of the NY Yankee baseball cap. The brand that the hat symbolizes is known the world far outside of the traditional sports industry, the fans of the artifact-as-content are just as relevant as the fans of the baseball team. In esports, no wins can be guaranteed and for fans who are fickle about the weight of Ls on an org’s record losing loyalty are mitigated by the fans who stay because of the content and branding.

Jakob Kristensen, Founder & CCO of Astralis Group, explains their business model regards content as competitive entertainment in the sea of everyday distraction: "The winning itself is not the product, the content is the product." Winning becomes the catalyst for the content product aiding in its consumption due to winning’s inherent narrative impact. The value that Astralis as an organization puts forward is the broadening and normalization of the mainstream’s awareness toward the esports industry. Communicating to a mainstream audience and being proud of that communication is paramount in Jakob’s eyes, due to the organizations focus on player health and wellness.

Carl Kuhn, Account Director/Esports at Jung von Matt / SPORTS GmbH, states that learning how to re-interpret a non-endemic brand’s entry toward an esports audience is crucial. Because of the internet savviness of the audience, navigating how to most authentically and search-engine friendly strategies to enter the space is a daunting task for any brand, especially older one. Contributing to the community and offering more than more than a logo and a sponsorship are key to long-term acceptance and loyalty within the industry for entering brands — interactive and deftly-timed reactions to the community are incredibly important or any organization to succeed in esports.

Christie St. Martin, Gaming Director of IMC, called for esports brands to more deftly and dynamically utilize their channels in compelling ways to engage audiences across platforms. This means having a vision and creating content to not just be for the benefit of the audience, but for the benefit of the brand partnerships as well. Figuring out the best way for organizations to best support the content creator side as well as the partnership teams, to create consumable value as an organization that raises all stakeholder ships. Orgs with different talent builds, distributed between roster and professional stats, have to navigate both competitive and content creation situations based on their skill sets.

The bubble won’t burst, but the dam is leaking — should we expect consolidation in esports in 2020?

Moderator:

Chris Kissack, Esports Specialist ? Amber Gaming

Speakers:

David Fenlon, Managing Director ? Media Exchange Group

Mika Kuusisto, CEO ? ENCE Esports

Chris Marsh, Co-CEO ? Dexerto

More options to invest within the industry are needed, org and league investments do nothing to satisfy the audience’s desire to buy into the industry themselves.

An incredibly influential aspect of the esports industry being shouted into the mainstream comes from analytics which are represented to the audience as numbers — valuations, social engagement, prize pools, viewership metrics, and investment amounts. Organizations have mouths to feed, yet many do not sell a product — they generate funds rather through sponsorships by renting out their audience. Content is an intangible product, especially given that much of it is provided for free on social channels — so content itself cannot be valued, but the potential for exposure and conversion by an org or influencer’s quality of content and engagement is where they have leverage.

These sponsorships and partnerships can act as ever-temporary buffs to externally enhance the influence partnered orgs can wield. The industry has grown rather quickly thanks to buffing up, but some fear the industry is entering areas it has not properly leveled up for. On a videocall, David Fenlon, Managing Director of Media Exchange Group, expressed some of the gaps in the industry’s armor especially when it comes to luxury products and services. The digital aspect of esports is farming just fine, new purchasable content, skins, and loot boxes are invented daily; however, its physical world’s offerings could use all the authentic help it can get. More options to invest within the industry are needed, org and league investments do nothing to satisfy the audience’s desire to buy into the industry themselves. Currently available inventory by the native organizations cannot keep up with the esporter’s attention span.

Mika Kuusisto, CEO of ENCE Esports Oy, explained over a videocall that in his organization, sponsorships are more like partnerships: what makes sense for each group, what are the clear KPIs, and how can both partners benefit from the union. For him there’s always more value for each organization to benefit from than just a logo on the jersey — forming meaningful and thought-out relationships can help partners avoid leaving money on the table. Working as a mediahouse helps ENCE do and offer more outside of just competing or engaging on social channels as an esports team — it’s branching and branding outwards. It’s about the value the industry offers and requests.

Chris Marsh, Co-CEO of Dexerto, analyzed some esports organization’s talent make-up, comparing players, influencers, and content creators as assets of sorts. Bringing in new players can help with winning, but winning hardly matters for the business if the fans have no means of transactions to support the organization. Influencers are important, but those acquisitions need to make sense. Picking battles are important in-game and out-of-game for esports as an industry and where’s there’s ups there are downs, but the space generated, just like social distancing, allows for the space to be re-examined as new potential.

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