Managing an e-Sports Team

e-team

Share this infographic on your site!

Managing an e-Sports Team

E-sports are blowing up
Largest Prize Pool Ever: $11 million (The International 2014: Dota 2 Championships)[1]

Global revenue for video games:$46.5 billion[4]
Global Box Office Revenue: $38 billion[5]
Global Music Industry Revenue: $27.4 billion[6]

Most watched e-sports event: 32 million (League of Legends’ Season 3 World Championship)[2]

Viewers of 2013 Sporting Events[3]
MLB World Series: 14.9 million
NCAA Basketball Final Four (average):15.7 million
NBA Finals (game 7): 26.3 million
BCS National Championship: 26.4 million
League of Legends Season 3 World Championship: 32 million

And where the fans go, money follows

First Off, Pick Your Game

(Largest games in the e-sports scene)
League of Legends
Dota 2
Start Craft II
Counter-Strike
Smash Bros.

Second, become a master at your game

League of Legends:
Unranked
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Master & Challenger (around the top 200 players)
Game type: MOBA

Dota 2
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Pro (around the top 200 players)
Game type: MOBA

StarCraft II
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Master League
Grand Master League (the top 200 players)
Game type: RTS

Most Managers Were Previously Pro E-Sports Players

Then Grow Your Audience

Twitch:
Is the home for live streaming on the web.
100 million viewers watch Twitch Every Month
More people watch live streams on Twitch during prime time than those watching cable networks like MTV and CNN

Streamers promote their stream through contests and interactions

Subscribers: viewers who donate to obtain special privileges including:

Giveaways
Subscriber Games with the Streamer
Premium Chat Icons
Music Requests
Premium Engagement

Youtube:
The place for recorded video like tutorials, highlights, and past games.
95% of gamers visit Youtube for information/entertainment [8]

Most Popular Content Types Consumed by Gamers

Announcement:
Brand-released content, 1-3 minutes long
Gameplay Gemo:
Brand-released content, 5-15 minutes long
Launch:
Brand-released content, 1-3 minutes long
Game Powered Entertainment:
Community-created content, videos and parodies, less than 5 minutes long
Tutorial:
Community-created content, how-to-videos, 1-5 minutes long
Walkthrough:
Community-created content, game play footage, more than 15 minutes long
Review:
Third-party review, 4-5 minutes long

You’ll Need to Find Some Players

Academies:
Some players get experience on “B-Teams” before they’re ready to make the leap

Other Leagues:
Most e-sports have leagues worldwide. Scout, scout, scout, and hope that players want to move to your country.

The U.S. began granting eSports players visas as professional athletes in 2013.

Youngsters:
Many famous e-sports stars started playing competitively in their early teenage years. Check out the new batch.

Hire a Team to Watch Matches:
You can spectate thousands of top tier games daily.

Discern what else your fans want to see

71 million+ worldwide watch competitive gaming[9]
35 million+ from the US

Average viewer watched 19 times a month
With an average session length of 2.2 hours

Who are they?
82% male
18% female

75% aged 18-34
44% college students

52% U.S.
45% Europe

67% play 3+ hours a day
30% play 5+ hours a day

54% watch traditional sports
38% watch 10 or more hours of game play a week

20% willing to pay $200 for tickets

If you’re going to win, start crunching the data

To discern:

Opponent strategies
New Champion and Item Metas
Up-and-Coming Players
Your own game play

Many e-sports teams now employ full time data analysts.

Deal With Sponsors

E-sports events are used to promote:
Theatrical releases (Kevin Costner’s 3 days to kill, Game of Thrones)
Large Brands (Coke Zero, Nissan, Red Bull, Intel )
Gaming Great
Other Games

e-team

Citations: