Insomnia esports coverage powered by AGON by AOC | Transcription by Jimmy ‘SinCyn’ Knox
Endpoint have grown massively in recent years to become one of the most-respected UK esports organisations out there, with successes in CSGO, Rocket League and Quake.
With their ninth ESL Prem CSGO title secured, a Sheffield Endpoint HQ around the corner and some interesting new partnerships with the likes of Edge Gaming, there was lots to talk about. Here are some highlights from our chat with Endpoint COO and co-owner Peter Thompson at the organisation’s expo stand at Insomnia 68.
On Rocket League, the Endpoint CeX real life race car and influencer plans
“We’ve got a decal in Rocket League and we thought: why not skin the decal the same [in real life]? It’s a BMW Series 1 so we made it into a race car and we are going to try and race it around tracks.
“The end goal is to have influencers try to set the fastest time – kind of like Top Gear’s fastest lap and just have fun with it.
“We also had our Rocket League pros at our Insomnia stand too. It’s been really busy, we’ve had queues of people coming to try and spin the wheel to win prizes.
“We are going into the third Rocket League split now and the points reset every split. If we get [get enough points] to get to the world championships it will be a million-dollar event in Dallas, which will be amazing.”
On Endpoint potentially reaching the RLCS 2022 Spring Major taking place at London’s Copper Box Arena, Peter adds: “Having a London crowd will be incredible.”
On UK CSGO dominance and improving the scene
“[We recently won our] seventh ESL Prem in a row which is nice, it’s crazy – a huge achievement. The guys play it nowadays to get into the ESL Pro League qualifier which we’ve got. That will be a LAN event in two months’ time in Sweden, which will be fun.
“We beat Fnatic and EG [in the Pro League last time], which is great. We actually did really well in the group of death, unfortunately the system with the way the Pro League is, it means franchise teams, if they come bottom of the group they get into the next Pro League, and no matter how well we would have done, we would get kicked out and have to qualify again, which is a bit harsh.
“At the same time we’ve got a really good group of players, we’ve got MiGHTYMAX, Surreal and CRUC1AL who have been with us for ages, we call them our [Endpoint] legacy players now. We have made our contract out so that harnesses talent and they get a piece of that if we sell them on, which we don’t really want to do, we want to get the talent and keep them, but sometimes it can be hard to.
“Sponsors are the ones that actually help UK esports the most because they bring money into it. I hope people see sponsorship posts, not just from us – and like them – because they love that interaction and response. There’s nothing like esports, and if you want to see esports grow, that’s how you help it.”
Peter Thompson, Endpoint
“You have to grow it at some stage, we are using these sales to grow further and further, to get to the stage where we don’t really have to sell anymore. We are not really like an organisation where we’ve got massive VC funding. Adam [Endpoint co-owner and CEO] and I have done this from our own back pocket, out of our own wallet for the last five years, and we have actually been profitable for the last two years which is great. We now have 20 people full-time salaried, which is amazing, I can’t believe it.
“So yeah, for Counter Strike we have got great stability and we are just trying to harness that next talent and keep going.
“[The scene] still needs to do better, we’re trying with the Endpoint teams and the UKIC hub, which is helping as well, but there’s a long way to go.”
On the importance of sponsors and new partner Edge Gaming
Endpoint recently partnered with Edge Gaming, a company that raised $10m in funding in late 2021 which allows esports fans to play through and re-live epic moments in esports themselves, for example the CadiaN Clutch 1v5 moment.
Pete says: “Edge Gaming are a brand new company that uses AI software to allow you to play against bots in the same scenario [from top esports moments] and you try and replicate what the player did at that time and get on the leaderboard. If you think about the future of that, it could be in any game. It could be in Rocket League, it could be in League of Legends, it could be in anything like that.
“And if you see a Twitch clip where you are like, ‘that was a sick play’, you can try and play it yourself and see if you can do it like the pros can. It’s a really cool software, really high level.
“We are letting visitors [to our stand] recreate Surreal’s ace on Train, for example. Then we’ll do an aimbot challenge to get 100 kills as fast as you can – and we are actually giving away a noble chair for it as well, so yeah, good fun.
“I just want to shout out some of our sponsors. You talk about helping UK esports and we are helping them, any of the people who sponsor us or other organisations… sponsors are the ones that actually help UK esports the most because they bring money into it. CeX have been fantastic, Beyond, Thrustmaster, Noble chairs, the guys at Edge, Socio is our fan token as well, all helping UK esports. I hope people see sponsorship posts – not just from us – and like them because they love that interaction and response. There’s nothing like esports, and if you want to see esports grow, that’s how you help it.”
Esports News UK also reached out to Edge Gaming’s VP of business and partnerships Uri Levanon, who told us they want their product to ‘give gamers a chain of orgasms and be a nuclear weapon for engagement’. So there you have it.
Insomnia esports coverage powered by AGON by AOC – see the AGON League of Legends monitor here and more i68 esports news and coverage here
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
