After Esports Insider’s initial ESI Digital Summit back in July, the UK-based event organiser and publisher has since launched a bigger online conference – ESI Digital Summer.
This took place in August, spanned insight from more than five regions and had more than 100 speakers. Megalodontus provides a recap of one talk from every region: Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Latin America.
Europe
The Academy Model – finding and moulding the next generation of pro players
Speakers:
- Kirsty Endfield, CEO and founder of Swipe Right PR (Moderator)
- Kieran Holmes-Darby, CGO of Excel Esports
- Anna Baumann, managing director of Rogue
- Mike Nieland, head of esports at AFC Ajax
- Carleton Curtis, executive chairman of Guild Esports
One of the core pillars of traditional sports is nurturing and identifying talents for the future. Even if they adopt a traditional academy model, the challenges are vastly different in esports compared to sports.
Kieran began by talking about his experience with the LEC and its mandatory academy system within the European Regional Leagues (ERLs), an ecosystem below the LEC.
He said: “Riot have created a valuable tier 2 competition below the LEC which people want to compete in and people want to win. You can build business model around that model quite comfortably. It allows the players a clear platform to show off their skills and to be picked up for tier 1.”
Anna offered a different perspective and mentions the foundation is lacking on the scientific front, such as how to select players early on without knowing which factors can contribute to esports. But she agreed at this moment teams are highly incentivised to pursue an academy system.
Carleton added by saying publishers hold player data from the accounts created, and this is actually an untapped advantage. “I think that’s the potential behind this for esports and it’s untapped. I don’t think we have a discovery problem when it comes to that path to pro, we have a development problem.”
They continue on. Anna believes most of the responsibility of talent development lies more with teams, but the incentive to undertake this project rests mostly on the publisher or tournament organisers. Carleton agrees.
Moderator Kirsty asked the panel which current esport ecosystem might be the way forward. Kieran said the LEC and the ERLs is the best he’s seen thus far, while Mike praised the FIFA format due to its ability to be played from home, allowing anyone to be the next big star more easily.
Anna ended the panel on what she thinks can be improved: “As an esports team, it’s absolutely crucial when we scout and develop talent. And of course we look at players at the age of 12 or 13, and what kind of environment we can build for players to have a long and healthy career.”
North America
Valorant – A new dawn for Riot Games in esports
Speakers:
- Annie Pei, producer at CNBC (Moderator)
- Daniel ‘DDK’ Kapadia, esports commentator and analyst
- Alex ‘Vansilli’ Nguyen, host and shoutcaster
- Tyler ‘FionnOnFire’ Erzberger, esports journalist at ESPN
- Jordan ‘Nothing’ Gilbert, professional CSGO player
Valorant has been making waves in our world of lockdown esports thus far, and in the West the hype remains steady. While it’s not been a tsunami of revolution, fans and esports organisations alike have felt it’s potential to be the next big thing. How far can it go?
Alex started off the forum by commending Riot’s marketing of Valorant, citing the beta key drop for viewers and the developer showmatch has been an integral start for the game. Daniel chipped in and mentioned Valorant doesn’t have the same issue as CSGO, where the concept of counter-terrorist and terrorist have been hard to market.
He also said Valorant could be competitively global: “In Counter-Strike we’re used to the battle of EU and NA mostly, but moving into Valorant it looks like it should be a global, tactical esport and that’s very exciting”.
Tyler mentioned that Valorant is still in a ‘fledgling state’ and unpolished, but the foundation is solid. Alex agreed and said that once Valorant is established, the possibility of Riot allowing sponsors on the maps will present a good opportunity to attract more investors and sponsors.
Moving on, Jordan thinks people are excited for the esports scene because Valorant can learn from CS and not have an ‘oversaturation’ of tournaments. Tyler agreed, saying Riot is taking things deliberately to see how the competitive scene organically shapes up.
He stated Teamfight Tactics as an example: “In the first month or two, there was huge viewership. It would have been very easy for Riot to say, ‘hey let’s make this a tier one esport’. But they waited and watched, and the numbers went down. They’re still doing a World Championship but in a more reasonable way.”
Tyler also mentioned Overwatch and how Blizzard made it an esport from the get-go with the Overwatch League (OWL), where it expanded ‘way too quickly’ and now some owners are looking to get out.
Moderator Annie asked the panel on what is Valorant’s biggest obstacle to become a global, successful esport. Tyler believed it’s capturing the interest of the Asian market as a whole, and mentioned due to Valorant’s anti-cheat software in Vanguard, it’s not taken South Korea by storm, while for China it’s under government regulation.
Jordan said that constantly keeping the game in a balanced state is going to be very difficult. Alex told it from a casters’ perspective and the challenge of the observer’s UI. He said: “I think understanding is the biggest thing for me, everyone tries to know why Valorant is the next big thing. I think the observer is one way to start things off, so you understand the core basics of the game.”
So, can Valorant be the biggest esport?
Tyler believes it’s possible, but only if it somehow displaces LoL as China’s most popular game: “If it takes off in China, the sky’s the limit.”
APAC (Asia-Pacific)
Riot Games APAC Update – Wild Rift & Valorant competitive push into APAC
Speakers:
- Yinsu Collins, freelance journalist (Moderator)
- Chris Tran, head of esports, Riot Southeast Asia
- Sean Zhang, CEO and co-founder, Talon Esports
- Terrance Ting, CEO and founder, Team Flash
- Jayf Soh, CEO and founder, Resurgence
APAC (Asia-Pacific) has been a rising market for many esports, with Southeast Asia (SEA) in particular generally geared toward mobile esports. With both Valorant and Wild Rift coming into the region, they pose different questions and challenges.
Chris mentioned that Valorant is doing decently after its first few months, but cites it could be a ‘honeymoon phase’.
The other team owner panelists are keeping a close eye on it, with Jayf adding: “Valorant is exciting for SEA because we’ve always had this really big, untapped potential FPS market, especially in the PC genre. I think there’s a lot of opportunity here.”
They also discussed the APAC landscape in general such as the fragmentation of the market in terms of esports interest and how heavy localisation is required for content if a brand wishes to succeed.
Moderator Su Collins mentioned how Fnatic are one of the big orgs that currently have no Valorant team, as they are assessing the potential.
Terrance said: “Before we pick up a team, we ask: does this team have the potential to improve my brand and make Team Flash a bigger name in the local market? Building an esports team is really to build onto that branding and fanbase.”
Chris moved the discussion to Wild Rift, the upcoming League of Legends mobile game. He said: “We realise that our game (LoL) is a PC game and there is a huge part of the world that has never had a chance to experience our signature, because they’re mobile-focused.”
Terrance added that Arena of Valor is still massive in Vietnam, while Jayf said that Mobile Legends is a big competitor, and that a lot of older gamers who played LoL in the region will likely reconnect with Wild Rift.
Sean finished the discussion on Wild Rift: “If you look at the market, mobile gaming is very popular because everyone can get a high end phone, but not everyone can afford a high end gaming PC. The population of the APAC market is massive, the technology now with 3G, 4G and many markets pushing 5G, mobile is just going to be accelerated.”
Middle East
The fragmentation challenge and esports broadcast rights in the Middle East
Speakers:
- Cameron Reed, esports business development manager of Ross Video (Moderator)
- Edward Kondrat, esports executive of Empire Play
- Jamie Ryder, partner (media, sport & entertainment), Dubai at DLA Piper
The Middle East is widely considered an untapped market by many organisations and tournament organisers alike. In recent times this has slowly changed, as more and more events are gradually making their way in, but these come with unique challenges.
Moderator Cameron started off the panel by asking what opportunities the Middle East presents to esports. Edward listed off some of the tournament organisers, such as ESL, Starladder and Riot Games. While they’ve been well staffed and produced, they’ve not drawn in large audiences.
Edward gave a personal anecdote: “In fact, I myself did not know about most of these events before my friend actually told me. Even we ourselves have a challenge on an effective communication campaign, to make sure we reach out to many communities.”
He also mentioned there is a great segmentation of the player base who prefer certain titles in Dubai, with expats, Filipinos, some Arab players and so forth.
Jamie echoed Edward’s sentiments on the challenges for holding broadcasts in the Middle East, such as regional dialects, language, internet and mobile penetration. He also said that locally produced content for the Arabic audience is a big opportunity that’s not been fully realised yet.
The discussion moved on to exploring how to overcome some of these challenges. Edward said a lot of local operators in the past overpromised and underdelivered, and as such it was not easy to convince the likes of Blizzard Entertainment to let it hold a Hearthstone tournament.
Empire Play was also granted access to broadcast Dota 2 tournaments. In terms of Valorant: “We’ve been targeting Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, since servers in the Middle East are not yet ready. We made sure that on the livestream we had commentators and analysts from those countries so we can appeal to all three countries with their own dialects.”
COVID-19 has forced the world to adapt, and the Middle East is no different. Edward’s company Empire Play did an activation with the UAE Pro League, where they had football players play in an online FIFA tournament. He also mentioned how Twitch is by-and-far the region’s biggest platform, despite not having an Arabic language option.
Jamie ended the panel by answering some questions. He said: “If you were to be coming into the region, it’s not very clear which ministries or which regulators are responsible for licensing esports events. I think where there is a real opportunity is to streamline the entire ecosystem around esports with some esports specific regulations.”
LATAM (Latin America)
Will Mobile Esports be a winner in LATAM?
Speakers:
- Matt ‘MobileMatt’ Rutledge, director of mobile gaming at Complexity Gaming (Moderator)
- Blake Lindsey, senior esports manager for North/South America, Tencent Games (PUBG MOBILE)
- João Borges, head of innovation and mobile esports at INTZ
Mobile gaming has been a hot topic in the world of esports the world over, and it’s a particularly dominant segment of the market in Asia. It’s slowly breaking into the Western markets as well, but how is it faring in LATAM?
João and Blake believe what makes LATAM different is how engaged and passionate the fans are. Blake said both LATAM and Brazilian fans are extremely loyal to certain titles or brands.
He stated: “In North America, it tends to be the next hot thing, people just forget after, that’s just the way it’s always been. But for LATAM and Brazil, if they have a title they latch on to, they are extremely faithful. To me, that’s an endearing quality.”
João gave some insight into Brazil’s market and how it’s developed, despite the language barrier with LATAM (Portuguese to Spanish). He gave an example in PUBG Mobile, saying that due to the Brazilian scene now maturing, they are slowly building bridges with other regions.
On the explosive growth of mobile esports in the region, Blake mentioned that due to competition of the mobile carriers, mobile data has become extremely affordable to people who don’t have stable internet connections. Moderator Matt believes it’s also due to these games being optimised for lower-end mobile devices.
PUBG Mobile and Free Fire are the largest ones in the region, but João also mentioned Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Brawlstars also having very strong followings – and INTZ has been actively involved in many of these titles.
When asked if mobile gaming will eventually grow to be larger than PC in the region, João believes it will. He said: “It’s all about accessibility. It’s happening because companies and publishers are working on accessibility and fulfil the niche of serving the underserved, and here in LATAM it’s very important.”
Blake agreed with João, but doesn’t necessarily think it will be a ‘mobile vs PC’ narrative in the long run.
The panel finished by answering questions from the audience. Matt gave advice to investors entering LATAM: “It’s going to end up being one of the most rewarding investments that you will have, because of the passion and the connection the people have in this region with brands is incredible. It makes it all worth it.”
Keep an eye out for Esports Insider on their main website or their Twitter page for upcoming events and news. We thank them once again for giving us the opportunity to attend ESI Summer.
Esports Insider provided Esports News UK with a pass to the ESI Digital event
Megalodontus is a miraculous survivor from the mass extinction and somehow learnt how to use his stubby fins to operate complicated mechanical equipment and drink tea. Worryingly for cryptozoologists, he’s been writing League of Legends articles too.
A self-taught writer who’s had the privilege to work with good editors who aren’t terrified of his pearly whites, Megalodontus is often seen writing either independently or for various websites such as this one. When not writing, he usually runs it down mid in real life and is fascinated with watching paint dry.
