12 Things I Leaned in eSports over 12 Months

Staff are the unsung heros of eSports. People do not realize the manpower it takes to keep the wheels turning. Especially if you want to have reliable people who are skilled at what they do. The wider range of staff you have, the better ability you have to adapt to what is most important at the time. For our staff we have graphics, social media, writers, musicians, player managers, division managers, technical guys for coding / website development, casters, scouts, and translators. These people are all volunteers, people who work extremely hard in their day job / school but then manage to do F3 stuff in their spare time. There is an endless supply of people wanting to break into eSports but don't really have the training or experience. I believe in our staff we have four people who hold graduate degrees, two who own their own business, one who works in management for a global multi-million dollar corporation, and pretty much everyone else holds at least a bachelors degree.

The key with staff is you have to have hard working people who all can work together. I can say that I have met some unbelievable people over the years who not only do great work, they became close friends of mine.

This seems like a no brainer, that it could be a simple way to live your life. But surprisingly it isn't something that people commonly follow. Many organizations are under the illusion that there is a ton of money to go around and that if they have a certain player, sponsors will show up. More often than not, these people end up getting locked into contracts they cannot afford to pay so they just disappear. There has been a handful of times where players from other organizations have come to us asking if we could send them to a LAN because their organization could no longer afford to do it. Usually the trip was in their contract too, but it was a promise someone made that they couldn't keep.

We always operate on the premise of, "If we cannot 100% provide this right now, we will not offer it." Sure it sometimes hurt us because other organizations promise the world to players and we miss out on signing them. But at the same time, our current and past players all know that when we offer something, we mean it. If it is money or travel, it will 100% happen. This mindset has allowed us to remain out of debt in an industry where so many teams go in the red for a very long time.

The mental side of the game is way bigger than people think. We have had teams that look amazing on paper and ended up being the biggest disaster imaginable. Not only do you lose the money spent, you also lose a lot of time in an industry that moves quickly. On top of that sponsors are already hesitant about the longevity of eSports that when a roster constantly is changing players or wanting to boot players is a way to scare them off.

If everyone buys into the same goal and is willing to work hard, they will be successful. Sometimes it is more important to trust guys who have experience playing together rather than trying to get big names together. The best way to facilitate this is to have a trusting manager that the players have a relationship with. Then having an open door policy so if there are any issues, everyone can begin to work on them as a team.

Networking is a key to life, but even more so in eSports. Every sponsorship we have gotten is because a guy we knew introduced us to the marketing manager for a specific company. Even with one of our sponsors, I reached out and they ignored my request. (Ignoring doesn’t equal a no, sponsors get hundreds of messages a day). But I then I discovered someone who was working for F3 knew them, so when I reached out a second time I got an instant reply and a meeting setup. It wasn't because F3 became more “valuable” but it just gave us some sort of legitimacy to stand out among the sea of people demanding sponsorship.

It usually isn't how great of a proposal you have or how much you know, it really comes down to who you know. Some people view this as a bad thing and it really isn't. Relationships are key and especially when people put their jobs on the line in a very young industry. Everyone can do a better job at networking and getting to know people within the industry.

This is probably the favorite thing I learned. There have been so many times that players, organizations, or some random dude coming out of the woodwork will claim "I know this person who is looking to sink $500k into eSports." I am not saying these people don't exist, but when you hear it for the 25th time it sort of loses its allure. Yet both organizations and players fall for this over, and over, and over again.

This is a little bit overstated. Of COURSE you want to win, no one wants to lose. But the biggest thing I have learned is that social media and exposure mean way more to companies than winning. They are not exclusive though, usually winners will have a larger fan base. Companies ask first “What sort of social media range does your team have?” before they even consider “Are your players any good?” This is where we get into this weird grey area where players with larger social media get paid better than those who are more skilled. The sad part is some players who are extremely skilled, just don't have the desire or personality to maximize their social media exposure.

Contrary to belief, a lot of the companies sponsoring eSports really have no clue what eSports is. It is refreshing when you get a representative that knows the scene they are interested in really well, because they know how good a specific roster can be. But at the end of the day, it is really up to us to pitch eSports in a positive light and explain why they should spend some of their marketing budget on these players. A common thought companies have is, “Well if we give you X amount of dollars, how many viewers will that get us?” And it is a super hard question to answer. One example of this was last years Dreamhack Winter where our CSGO team was invited to the last minute qualifier. We had less than 48 hours to scramble to get them there, then less than a week to prepare for the Major. It was a fluke that we were even at the event. I can’t promise a company that if they invest a specific amount of money into our team that we will qualify to every big stage. Perhaps if we were a top tier 1 team then I could say with some certainty, but that isn’t realistic. This is where things like being able to show the amount of events we are in, ability to do product promotion, and streaming becomes important.

This is where how you pitch a sponsorship deal comes in. I could do a whole other blog on the ins and outs of this because it was a major learning process for me. But the best thing to do is to assume they have never heard of eSports before and begin with the basics. Don’t use jargon or other industry specific lingo, just stick with basic information that they care about. Explain everything thoroughly and answer a lot of questions. At the end of the day these marketing reps are depending on someone else to properly showcase their brand so the relationship and rapport is key.

I have had the great pleasure of being able to work with both people on this spectrum. And after all this time, I would work with someone who has a better character every time. A lot of the back end bit of eSports is dependent on satisfying your sponsors needs. This is something like doing product reviews when they ask for it, doing the proper amount of social media, streaming with the proper overlays, and always being honest with your managers. There is nothing worse than having a player not willing to do things that they “should” be doing. Especially if they agree to it and it is in their contract. It is a pain to levy fines and it isn’t enjoyable for either party. Players and staff who understand they have to do things they don't want to in order satisfy others, is really important.

Another bit that goes along with this is player ego. Especially in team games, you can have a player who dominates the decision making. An example of this was we had a player who got in a fight with a teammate, kicked the teammate from the team, and then they posted on social media that they were done. ALL before consulting their manager or me. Luckily we were still early enough in the contract to pay out the months salary and then terminate it. But players think only about “I can’t play with him anymore, he is out or I am out!” Normally we have to check with the lawyer to make sure the contract is fine for us to terminate, get the agreement from the player, prepare an announcement, and notify any sponsors if necessary. It is a huge pain to have to deal with these things and long term, it is best to have players who are on the same page as you and who you can build a solid relationship with.

The most recent example of this happened a few weeks back when our CSGO team was traveling to the ESL Katowice Offline Qualifier. We spent two weeks going back and forth with the Ukraine / Poland governments to try and get the Visa through as quick as possible. We were trying to get help from Valve and ESL to help speed the process up as well. Our guys got their Visa’s about 2 hours before their fight on Friday (the day before the event). All it took was a few hours later and we would not be playing at ESL Katowice 2015. People don’t realize this stuff when just watching the events.

Another funny story, when we played at Dreamhack Winter 2014. We qualifier so last minute that most hotels were already sold out. Then when we did find a hotel we could book, they wouldn’t take a US Credit Card. Which is totally fine, but with the time frame we couldn’t wire money and get it to them that day. Luckily we had a staff member who lived in the EU who was able to pay for it upfront and then we wired him the money a few days later once it processed.

This goes along with the “secret investor” lesson. Best story for this is we once had an investor offer to buy F3 and sink in $200,000 of cash. The catch was he got to replace all the staff / players as he saw fit and he would become full owner. After going back and forth for a few weeks, we finally said no because it didn’t feel right. He then went after another team, got a really good group of guys, but then failed to pay any money. I don’t want to give specifics, but these players were all promised great salaries. We are talking $2,500+ a player, full travel, for 12 months...but for whatever reason they never got what they signed up for. I wish I could say this is an isolated incident, but it isn’t. If a deal or a person feels like it is too good to be true, then trust your gut because it is too good to be true.

We have had sponsorship deals ready to go, even as far as verbal “Yeah lets do this.” Only to never be given a proper contract or terms from the contract get changed when the document is presented. There are a ton of people who buy into the hype of eSports, as they should because it is an exciting industry. But a lot of the times the people who are so passionate about eSports are not the ones who sign the checks. I have had to learn to not get excited or jump up and down until things are 100% legally good to go. Getting excited to early only allows for greater disappointment.

The example of this that comes to mind was we had a side team working on a product for tournament organizers. We got the green light to go ahead and finish the product for a specific event. We had about 12 guys on staff working very hard on a project that probably took almost 2 weeks for them to finish. One of them worked on it at least 8 hours a day as his fulltime job. At the end of it, we presented it to them and they said they were unable to use it in this event due to issues with an agreement with Valve. Needless to say, everyone was crushed. Sure you shouldn’t begin working until you have a contract, but sometimes when you are on a clock, you cannot wait around. We had about 2 weeks to finish this product for there to be enough time to distribute and produce it for the event. The sad part was this was an amazing project, it just needed a significant cash flow to maintain it. Perhaps someday we can bring it back.

There are always issues within eSports and it is amazing that things manage to still move along. I could go on and on about the reasons why, but I will try and relay why I feel this way. Communication is hard. Most people still work a day job, so things can pile up and people push their eSport responsibility aside. People are also global, so time zones become a barrier. Languages become difficult as well when working with specific tournament organizers or teams on scheduling / booking. Contracts can be all over the place. Player contracts are usually 6 or 12 months. Sponsorship contracts can range from a 1 month trial, 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months. Tournament prize winnings can take anywhere from 30 days - 6 months, to never being paid out. Visas are a pain, travel is a pain, recieving product on time is a pain. For example, our jerseys take about 3 weeks to create and arrive at a players house. If we add a new sponsor, we update the design, and purchase one hoping it arrives to our player before the event. Travel is a pain because all it takes is one flight being late and a player missing a connecting flight. Scheduling is extremely hard because tournaments release their schedules SO late. (Example, WCS 2015...we had no clue when and where puCK was going to be playing until a few weeks prior) Players sometimes have school commitments they need to organize, we have to order jerseys / book flights and hotels, and all of these are really stressful when you have a limited amount of time.

If you add all of these things up, IT IS A MESS! It is a miracle that things seemingly function as well as they do on the outside. Though the biggest thing I learned that it is ok for these problems happen because generally we solve the issue. Sometimes it is pure luck, but more often than not it is because at the end of the day everyone is just trying their best to push an industry they love forward.