EPTI'm an American student studying at Oxford University in the UK and am president of the the OUSS: Oxford University StarCraft Society. I have worked with IGN in the past as a reporter and am currently a content creator for ROOT. In addition, I am consulting an LA-based entertainment company looking to get into eSports. As of late, with all of this talk about how we can improve eSports, I have wanted to share my thoughts with the community.
I wrote three op-ed pieces about a month ago on how I believe event organizers and hosts can better eSports. These pieces are roughly the same as my presentations to the companies I am consulting and I'd like to see what you guys think. You are the most active members of the community and, as such, should have the best insight into what will really improve our industry.
The topics of the pieces are:
1. Progaming Celebrity
2. Creation of a Local Scene
3. An Integrated and Interactive Viewing Platform
Improving eSports
Despite all the growth that we are seeing in eSports, I can't help but think that it's stunted. I don't believe that eSports is a bubble that's on a timer to burst, not at all, but I do believe certain steps that could be taken to expand the industry are largely ignored. At the most basic of levels, as eSports fans, we all want to see this fledgling community burgeon into an entertainment giant that fills stadiums, makes the news, and connects gamers around the world. To do this industry leaders, teams, tournament organizers, and fans are all going to have to branch out in a different direction and take eSports down a path foreign to the gaming world but familiar to other forms of competition-based entertainment. The presentation I'll give here is, with some necessary embellishment, in the same vein as that I have presented to a few companies interested in entering eSports. It is based upon my studies of traditional sports marketing and how it relates to eSports and will be released in three parts.
![[image loading]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m88puklaZB1r543i2o1_1280.jpg)
How do we get this in Europe and North America?
The End Goal: Expanding eSports
Before we get into specifics, I should start by saying that what I see lacking in eSports are means through which individuals not yet exposed or acclimated can enter into and feel a meaningful connection with the scene. A tournament's primary goal should be to facilitate the connection between its viewer and the eSports community through its own lens. If the viewer makes this connection through the tournament then a degree of brand loyalty will develop, both helping the tournament acquire a dedicated viewer base and fostering the growth of the eSports community. For example, the first StarCraft league I ever watched was the Ongamenet Star League and to this day I give it precedence over other tournaments because of the connection it facilitated between myself and the eSports community. There is an element of romance that can develop through a viewer's early interactions with eSports, and it should be taken advantage of from a tournament organizer's perspective.
![[image loading]](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s720x720/551025_1786461817350_971784118_n.jpg)
Talk about brand loyalty; this is the background of my phone and facebook.
Likewise, a team manager's primary goal should be to allow for the creation of this connection through their players and organization. A team wants the fan to interact with the scene via their name or the name of their progamers. If my interactions with the community are centered around, say, posting on a forum every time EG plays or keeping up with the latest drama surrounding Destiny on reddit then my interaction with the community is beneficial both to myself and the team I support. My eSports experience is, then, essentially related to loyalty to a team or player.
![[image loading]](http://www.ouss.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/yarghhh.png)
A member of the OUSS' interaction with SCII through the lens of NaNiwa and, in turn, Quantic
Ultimately, both teams and tournaments are out to make a profit, but this shouldn't necessarily interfere with creating a meaningful connection between the fan and the eSports scene. Brand loyalty to a team or tournament promotes spending both from the consumer, who wants to pay to view events or purchase merchandise, and sponsors, who are happy to spend more money if they are connected to an organization favorably viewed by fans.
Anyone hopeful about eSports growth would say that the majority of the scene's fan-base at the end of the next ten years is not currently active. This accentuates the importance of organizations actively seeking out new fans to bring into the eSports fold. Teams and tournaments should be looking out for every opportunity to promote themselves and eSports to the unexposed. Now, here is the first step I believe should be taken to strengthen eSports:
Progaming Celebrity
At the most basic level, a fan's connection to eSports is entirely a result of competition between progamers. The easiest way for a viewer to connect to eSports is, then, to build a personal relationship with a player. To build these relationships the players have to make themselves, their personalities and histories, accessible to eSport's fan-base; this means that teams and tournaments have to actively work to craft players' past and present endeavors into a malleable story-arch with which viewers can relate. For example, I have come to know about Stephano's personality, experiences, and struggles through interviews and documentary content and I am more likely to follow events he attends and support the team he is on because of this. Players need to be allowed and encouraged to show their true personalities and it must become a requirement of the job to act as a public figure, even a celebrity. What I am not calling for is the TMZ-style garbage that destroys players' reputations and careers, but a knowledge of competitors' personality and history is essential to creating a meaningful relationship with them. Athletes are eSport's greatest asset; their connection to the fan-base is what makes or breaks tournaments and teams.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Waxangel/nanithumbsdown.gif)
More of this, please.
Hell, I have never played Magic: The Gathering, but while watching a tournament with my brother I rooted for a player because of a relationship I built with him throughout the course of an interview. On a mainstream level, the Olympics thrive on a connection between the viewer and athletes. Weeks before the Olympics begin advertisements and news stories are released featuring Olympians; eSports needs something like this, too. Tournaments and, to a greater extent, teams should be releasing content on their competitors for a few weeks leading up to, during, and shortly after an event. Through interviews, recaps of their play at previous tournaments, and projections of players' paths through current endeavors, viewers can connect with players and, in turn, events on a more meaningful and lasting level. Even something as small as a thirty second intro or a two minute recap can help foster a connection. In sum, more hype is needed.
Ads like this hype athletes before tournaments; this image promotes Michael Phelps just as much as it does Head and Shoulders. eSports athletes need more hype.
But where do we fit this in? Interviews posted to youtube don't get too much traction and most shows outside of SOTG and Real Talk have poor viewership (a good Gimble and Arn cast with interesting guests gets 100-200 views on youtube). I think the answer is obvious: how much downtime is there at MLG and IPL? The time between sets? Between matches? How often are viewers left to sit and watch scenes of the crowd? This time should be filled with shoulder content, like interviews, recaps, and projections. Some three million unique viewers tuned into IPL4, why not help them foster a connection with both players and the tournament itself by giving them a shoulder to rest on between games? Each of these periods of downtime should, in effect, become a half-time show rather than a mind-numbing experience for the viewer. I attended MLG Raleigh this year and was hardly aware of who was advancing in the tournament and what the best games that had been played were. If, between games, I had been given recaps of recent events instead of total downtime, then I would have been much more excited and engaged with what was happening in the tournament.
![[image loading]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1de9ejG9j1qhoch5o1_500.png)
As much as I like cheerfuls, I would prefer to see some shoulder content.
GSL is ahead of the curve in regard to shoulder content, largely due to the extended format of the league. GSL's GNN and Baneling are prime examples of good shoulder content. They recap, look into future matches, and give some insight into players who would otherwise remain faceless. Project A, documenting YellOw's attempt to qualify for GSL, was also great shoulder content and actually made me tune into the Code A qualifiers. I remember a spot I saw on LosirA in between GSL matches about a year ago; I know more about him than I do about almost any other player due to that five minute profile and I am still more likely to watch his matches because of it.
Hype; profiles; recaps: needed.
