Who actually are the Global Esports Federation? Interview with CEO Paul J. Foster on links with Tencent & Saudi Arabia, its funding model, the Commonwealth Esports Championships & criticism from the community

Since being founded in December 2019, the Global Esports Federation (GEF) have partnered with Tencent, brought together 100+ national esports federations and hosted multiple Global Esports tournaments around the world. This week, their Commonwealth Esports Forum and Commonwealth Esports Championships will take place in Birmingham, and they recently struck a 10-year esports deal with the West Midlands.

But who really are they? Is this all just hot air? Where does their funding come from? What are their goals? Are they just another IESF or WESA? What are their links with Tencent, Saudi Arabia and others? Why are they here, and why now? What are their thoughts on recent criticism? Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco grills GEF CEO Paul J. Foster in this extensive interview, on a call with Abbey Sadleir, communications manager at Global Esports Federation, and Jack Freeman, volunteer writer at Esports News UK.

Esports News UK: Who are the Global Esports Federation? I feel like a lot of the esports community aren’t aware of you or what you do. Your website says the GEF are ‘the convening body for the esports ecosystem, which aims to promote the credibility, legitimacy and prestige of esports, and convenes athletes, players, the world’s publishers, developers, industry partners and sporting organisations on one inclusive platform…’

Paul J. Foster: We really care about our values and live those values: equality, fair play, diversity, inclusion and innovation. And we really think about credibility, legitimacy and prestige for esports, so it’s not just words.

We have 118 member federations and 27 strategic partners. Our latest member, Dato’ Ananth S.Nathan, the president of the Malaysia Esports Federation, jumped on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Birmingham to support us. 

We built a really different organisation, Dom. We started on December 16th 2019 in Singapore, and that morning we woke up and had 940 million hits on our social media platforms. Paul Foster was that guy on Twitter that esports guys were talking about… oh and by the way, I don’t like this term ‘endemic’, because I think it’s exclusive. Everyone in esports says, ‘oh we’re all included, but not really’. Only if you wear a hoodie, you know! So now I wear a bloody hoodie, I used to wear a suit and tie. 

What’s endemic? The thing’s five years old, what’s endemic? I’ve got a toothbrush older than that! 

I think when people use the term ‘endemic’, it’s used to describe endemic gaming brands, like Nvidia and ASUS and Microsoft, those old PC/gaming brands with history in the market.

Yeah but don’t you also think some folks say it as a barrier to entry? Like Dom Sacco, you’re about as endemic as it gets, you’re a well-regarded guy in the space. Kelvin Tan, our director of esports and tournament director for the Commonwealth Esports Championships, he’s an endemic esports guy and was a [semi-]pro gamer. 

Anyway, so when we did this bang, we launched and Tencent stood up on stage with us as our global partner, guess what? Next morning, 940 million hits* on our social media platforms and more (and we have Nielsen as our global partner to verify all the data). I’d never seen that before. So I called Chester [King, British Esports founder and VP at the Global Esports Federation] who’s now a good friend of mine and has done great things in Britain and around the world, and I said to him some of the gaming community said: “Who the hell are these bunch of middle-aged old white guys on stage?”

I called Chester like a little schoolboy crying, and from my previous life everyone loves us, but esports people are a bit unfiltered, they’re like, ‘bang’. And Chester said, ‘Paul, you have to man up a bit, this is esports, it’s pretty heavy and unfiltered’. 

I took that to really teach me. The community has taught me so much. In those early days, and to your point, they were like, ‘who are these guys?’ 

And now many people – and not everyone, and that’s absolutely okay – are like, ‘thank goodness for the Global Esports Federation’.

You might have seen the announcement that together with the United Nations, we’re going to build the universal framework on esports.

*Note: Esports News UK has contacted Global Esports to attempt to verify this figure, and the 500m+ accumulated views the GEF claims the Global Esports Games 2021 achieved. We’ll update this article with a response.

Update: Global Esports told Esports News UK:

1. The inaugural Global Esports Games 2021 in Singapore captured 500m+ accumulated views. The numbers include views across all streaming platforms – YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Huyan and Douyu in China. It also included social media impressions across GEF and GEG social media channels, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin and TikTok, website impressions and media coverage viewerships.

2. Regarding the launch of the GEF in December 2019, the 940 million hits included viewership across news coverage on print, online, television, radio in Singapore and regionally, as well as on social media.

‘When we launched, we had 940m hits, but some in the community criticised us, so I called up Chester King from British Esports like a little schoolboy crying. He said, ‘Paul, you have to man up a bit, this is esports, it’s pretty heavy and unfiltered’. That taught me so much. And now many people – not everyone – are like, ‘thank goodness for the Global Esports Federation’.

Paul J. Foster, Global Esports Federation

The certification, right. I was going to ask about that and what it is exactly. I know British Esports has the Esports BTEC in the UK and elsewhere. Will this be a new global certification?

Yes – let’s take that global. And did you see our recent announcement on the Global Esports Academy? Now that’s exciting. As a summary, imagine if you take some of the best practice out of the UK, or Singapore, or China, or Japan or wherever – and you may not be aware, yes we have Tencent, but also on our board we have Hideki Okamura, the chairman of Sega and the president of the Japan Esports Union. And we have other incredible people as well around the space.

Imagine a guy like me that learns how to connect with the community and to listen. I talk a lot but I listen a lot. I spend all day listening. I spent the last two and a half years listening. And what the community’s now saying to me, and again, I say this humbly, and I’m not saying everyone agrees, but many in the community… yesterday we had our townhall with all of our members and you’re welcome to attend that. Actually, the townhall was two weeks ago, yesterday was what we call our TPG, the Team Preparation Guide, for the Global Esports Games in Istanbul. We were talking about the titles, the rules of play… there were 120 people on the call at 6am in California, right, 2pm in the UK and 9pm in Singapore, 10pm in Tokyo and 1am in Sydney and Auckland a little bit later…

My point is that that community – again, not all – has said, ‘thank goodness for the GEF, because what you’re doing is those three words: credibility, legitimacy and prestige’.

Now, if you’re a gamer like we all are, we want to go and do that, but when you want to take esports to the world, meaning government, business… what are the elephants in the room, Dom? Government understanding, NGO (non-governmental organisation) understanding, community understanding, mums and dads and teachers, but also the commercialisation aspects.

Many federations around the world require funding. They don’t get the funding from the government or they don’t have the ability to do so, many of these federations around the world are just starting their journey. Britain has been around for six or so years and Chester has put a lot of money, passion and energy [into British Esports], and that’s happening all around the world. 

What I’m so proud about, and yesterday in the TPG, all of our meetings are an hour or less at the GEF, yesterday was 40 minutes. And there were a bunch of questions and we were job done. All the community said, ‘thank you GEF’. We were able to say, ‘here’s some funding to be able to fly there, here’s some rules for commercial brands on your kit, here’s some prestige we’re creating, go off and recruit your partners and we will come with you, so if you need someone to speak to HyperX, we’ll come and help you and sit next to you’.

What is the funding model at Global Esports? You have the backing of Tencent and is billed as a not-for-profit, so is it similar to British Esports in that regard? Self-funded to start and focused on partnerships?

I wouldn’t really call it the backing of Tencent, I’d say it slightly differently. What would you do if you’ve not come from esports? You’d go to the biggest in the world. So let’s go and talk to Tencent. To their great credit they have so much knowledge, capability and passion, and saw the possibilities of what the GEF could do, so they leant in and became our founding global partner.

People might have the perception that they just fund us, it’s nothing like that at all. You know how the Olympics has Coca-Cola, think of it like that. We have 27 partners, and what we’ve done is bring the history of foundations and sport to esports, without taking away the creativity and energy and decentralisation models. 

To your question about the universal framework, when you build a big house, you better make sure your foundations are good. So one of the things we can offer is a sense of foundation. Some of the things that Chester, you, me, all of us are doing around the world – what can we do to bring our collective energy together? It’s very rare we would’ve been given a chance in the world to do something as cool as esports. Let’s be honest, we’re pretty damn lucky. 

There are people in the world living through war, there are challenges with discrimination, race and inclusion. So how lucky are we to be here.

And people say, ‘gosh, you’ve done so much Paul, how do you do it?’ 

Two words: hard work. 

Also, I’m a yogi, and I was always taught this lesson. We have two ears and one mouth, let’s use them in that ratio and listen.

So, what is your funding model?

We have a secretariat, we have a team of people including Abbey [Sadleir, Communications Manager at Global Esports Federation] and in some of our team we have directors, we have staff, we’re about 25 to 35 people, depending on how you see that. 

Directors and leaders are full-time, and then you have a series of people that are part time, and then you have a series of people that are freelance. Abbey and I started as a part-time working relationship and will move to a full-time relationship. As we build, that’s what we’ll get to. 

I’m four times full-time! We have around 26 board members including Chester, and he’s almost full-time, these are volunteers.

But our funding model is very simple. There are three main pieces around it – the traditional partnerships, rights fees – we’re the rights holder of our events – and access to grants and other access of funding such as that. And these will grow over time. People might want to donate their time or resources for projects in the future.

And partnerships are getting better and better, those conversations are going up and up and bigger and bigger. 

I was on a call with the World Economic Forum the other day, I spend a lot of time talking to people: the United Nations, the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) in Paris and more partners. We have conversations with Tencent and publishers.

It’s all growing rapidly. And there’s only two impediments: time and resources. Not just money, but human resources, which is challenging for all of us. But again I’d like to remind you, we’ve only been around for two and a half years. And with covid every other month we were locked down. I should be on the road 24-7, for two years we did this (points to the webcam). Abbey didn’t even know I had legs! 

Thanks for explaining that. I think some people assume the money is coming from Tencent. When you say grants, I’m assuming that’s from governments? 

No, I don’t think that’s right. It’s mainly around rights holding. When we do lots of events, that’s what it is. 

We run ourselves as a non-for-profit. My most proud moment was early on, where we took some of that funding and we gave it out to our member federations. We gave grants.

And we learnt this from our friends at the Muhammad Yunus Foundation, the sport foundation who gave micro grants. Often times in esports you don’t necessarily need stacks of money, sometimes to do a tournament, especially in developing countries with internet and server challenges, they just need a leg up.

What we’re about is inclusion. It’s great if the countries with resources are successful, but that’s not a community, that’s a part of a community. 

One of the things I’m proud of is through our #WorldConnected motto. It’s this nature of, ‘your problem is my problem’. 

That’s how community works. If you need help, here’s the policy. If you need help, just like any family, you should ask. And ask with a sense of pride that says, ‘I can ask’, not hiding in the corner saying, ‘can I?’

So when we couldn’t have live events, we created the World Connected Series online tournament. We gave not only grants to organise, but grants as prize money, and I was proud of this. 

“We have ambition. We’re in conversations I would say northward of 15 different countries and cities around the world, in different stages of progress. We did a strategic framework agreement with Dubai, which isn’t a simple thing to achieve. We have our Singapore HQ, now we’re into the West Midlands.”

Paul J. Foster, Global Esports Federation

So you’re looking to help your member federations and esports organisations as well? 

We have 170 members (people) in our 16 commissions and councils. Academics, physicians, medical doctors, sports psychologists, entrepreneurs, players, gamers and others. For example, we have a youth council and Abbey [Sadleir, Communications Manager at Global Esports Federation] is the vice chair of that, and it’s chaired by a woman from Japan called Sayo Okamoto. And a community commission with all the champions from the Singapore Global Esports Games.

And there are now some pro teams joining us. So, recently, the director of performance at Team Liquid joined us on our health and wellness commission, which is chaired by quadruple board certified medical physician Dr Melita Moore out of Washington DC. She’s not only the WNBA’s team doctor physician, but she’s also NBA 2K team champion medical physician, so you’ve got this incredible crossover.

Do you help traditional esports orgs?

Yes we do. Our primary stakeholders are the member federations (the national associations), but as well as that, we have our host cities trying to tell their story, like Birmingham, our friends in Dubai, Los Angeles, Singapore etc, we have huge demand from people that want to host GEF events.

But as well as that, many esports organisations have reached out to connect with us, and you may be surprised that many of them are part of our commission. They’re all volunteers. These meetings are probably four times a year, an hour long, and the good news is there’s no notes and homework. There is a bit of homework, we’ll assign one of our colleagues to be a commission administrator and that person keeps the engine moving. 

What would you say to someone who asks, ‘what does the GEF bring to esports?’ For me, it’s the global nation-focused tournaments, like the Commonwealth Esports Championships and Global Esports Games, but you also have the Global Esports Tour for more traditional esports orgs. 

We have a beautiful events portfolio, what you just described. And the World Connected Series, marquee events like the Commonwealth, and what we’re doing in South America and different parts of the world. The Commonwealth is obviously owned by CGF as a property, but in partnership with us we created an initiative called the Commonwealth Esports Championships.

But we think we can do more. We have the partnership with UNESCO, 196 member states at the UN system talking about education, science and culture. When we talk about the future of work, of careers and opportunities in education and culture and science fields, we have a partnership with the ITU, with Invictus, I could go on and on. 

So, to answer your question: what does the GEF do? Prestigious events, the brand is powerful, the motto is powerful, the style under which we do it, the ways the teams worked together in Birmingham [at the media announcement of the West Midlands partnership], it was properly done in a professional way. 

We also want to help the esports community with civil society, so the reason the partnership we have with UNESCO was how do those sort of organisations learn about esports? The CGF, how would they ever learn about esports except through a partnership with the Global Esports Federation, and we said, ‘hey, what about an education initiative and we call it the Global Esports Academy in partnership with UNESCO?’

If you wanted to talk to a publisher, you can do that. We talk to 20 or 30 publishers every week. Are we on the phone every day? No, but we have these commissions, the capability, board members, folks like yourself sharing our story. So there’s that point of connectivity, how do we bring a world that knows so much to a group over here that knows absolutely nothing about space. Where would they ever go to get that information and knowledge? How would they engage and learn? Think of us as a bridge, from no knowledge to incredible knowledge.

We think only good things can come from being connected, like our conversation today. We could do a hundred initiatives over the course of a year, but it only starts by the point of connection.

Were you set up to be a governing body? I’ve seen some describe the GEF and other member federations as wanting to gatekeep the esports industry. I’d be keen to hear your thoughts on that.  

We never use the word governing body. Some people do. The Global Esports Federation is a convening body that brings together different stakeholders. 

We think in the age of decentralised finance and decentralised communities, we’re thinking about metaverse and are engaging with the community to listen to what they think about it.

But how could you govern esports and why would you want to? Surely the energy and happiness lies within convening. As we go along this beautiful journey, listening to Sega, Tencent, Dom Sacco, Syria Esports Federation, the pro teams… there are so many challenges in life today. And our community is not isolated from those challenges. There’s tons of issues around inclusion and hyper-inclusivity and making sure there’s equality and equity, the GEF tries, and I’d like to suggest to you has been successful in, bringing folks together.

“We believe in a community where everyone is welcome. We say it in our vision statement – equality, diversity, fair play, inclusion and innovation – those are our five universal values. Of course, everyone also is entitled to shape their development and destiny, which is a Commonwealth Games Federation value, in a way they see fit.”

Paul J. Foster on community divide over Saudi’s involvement in esports

Having Tencent as a founding partner, I was surprised that Dota 2 was picked as a game for the Commonwealth Esports Championships over League of Legends.

Why? How cool is Tencent to say, ‘that’s great for the community’. That’s interesting and inclusive. 

I can hear what you’re saying and I can understand why you’re saying it, but imagine if we were just a for-profit company and it was all Tencent titles. 

I remember when we first did the partnership with Tencent. Yeah they’re there, but everyone’s there. A couple of years ago we were at the Tencent Global Esports Summit and we launched the World Connected initiative. It was amazing, the publishers all stood up on the stage together and said they’d be a part of it. 

People asked: ‘What is this?’

Well, we know that people coming together is a part of it. Dialogue is the second part. Look at all the changes in the world, sports, esports, stadia, entertainment, fan engagement, open arenas, there’s no end to the challenges. 

How cool is it to me that Tencent were like, ‘great’. 

Over time you’ll see other titles come and obviously were in very frequent conversation with Tencent. And I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. Our community, the major stakeholders and participants, know that this is an exciting time.

Many people have struggled to create this space, would that be fair to say. If it was easy we’d all be on holiday in the Maldives or something! People like us, we love challenging things, and we feel like we have something to offer, all of those different stakeholders.

Imagine Dubai wanted a Global Esports Tour for the first time, and they wanted to be one of the leaders in the digital realm, and esports, crypto and web3 are a part of that, and the creative economy. So how would we do that? They can go and knock on 150 doors and get pretty tired, or they can engage with our community and we can help them. 

That’s what I’d say to you Dom too. Come to our events and be part of our family. We gotta help each other man, that’s what I believe in. It’s not a competition, is it? I’ll leave the competition to the athletes and players. Our job as people that have been around the space, and I’m including you with that, imagine what you can contribute – a rising tide lifts all boats – and everyone wins. 

It’s interesting as Riot has been thinking of doing their own World Cup, and I thought, maybe Global Esports would facilitate that.

Of course, and then, right, great idea. That’s challenging, they have an incredible schedule of events. 

Imagine the sense of knowledge, capability and brilliance these publishers and developers are able to engage in this creative/passion economy. Imagine how much they know. Leave aside complexity, go with an open heart and mind, spend an hour with any of those publishers and it’s amazing what they’re doing, and what’s next to be done. 

So, why wouldn’t we be engaged [with publishers]?

A few weeks ago you announced a partnership with the West Midlands to position the area as a global esports hub. Why the West Midlands?

You might have a different attitude to that now compared to a few weeks ago. West Midlands, number one it’s not exclusive. We’ll have this headquarters in Singapore, we’ll have a group of hubs around the world. What I’m very proud of is the joint initiative between the Global Esports Federation and the Commonwealth Games Federation called the Commonwealth Esports Championships, and the Commonwealth Esports Forum consisting of thought leaders and speakers.

How cool was it not to just see the Commonwealth Esports Championships as a one-off, but actually to make it part of a strategic play. Imagine the course of conversation we’ve had with the West Midlands for over a year. 

We had conversations with Dame Louise Livingstone Martin DBE, president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, what a visionary woman. She asked me to talk to their whole board, so we did. They were really blown away. Commonwealth Games has been around for nearly 100 years. 

Likewise, I think it’s fair to say the West Midlands were blown away by the potential. I was not aware of this, but the West Midlands has the youngest population in Europe, and if I’m not mistaken, the highest concentration of the creative economy in Europe as well. And there’s Leamington Spa around the corner with its tech hub and gaming community, and you’re an hour from London.

There’s ambition. We’re in conversations I would say northward of 15 different countries and cities around the world, in different stages of progress. We did a strategic framework agreement with Dubai, which isn’t a simple thing to achieve. Singapore HQ, now we’re into the West Midlands.

To be frank with you, it was natural for us, because we had the incredible platform with the Commonwealth Esports Championships, we had an incredibly engaged community and a resident community that’s very interested to create, across the next ten years, a series of tangible initiatives including the Global Esports Tours and candidacy for the Global Esports Games in the future, and innovation and research centres, and plenty of activity.

So we could see more regions and partnerships in the future, then.

You’re going to see more.

Birmingham has some history in esports. Do you think we’ll see more success stories like Birmingham Salvo coming from the region in the future?

What does that mean, Birmingham Salvo? 

That was a team run by Dignitas founder ODEE in the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) many years ago now – Birmingham Salvo was a British franchise team in it. They won the Championship in 2008 and took the $500,000 first place prize. Unfortunately the CGS folded soon after, but it was a great victory for UK esports at the time and garnered significant media attention.

Well that’s an amazing story, thank you for sharing that. 

If you and I do a deal and we run the Commonwealth Esports Championships, then say ‘bye’ and I’m off to Menorca for holidays. Or we can actually have a strategic lens and you saw the incredible political will and ambition at our West Midlands media event, the community turned up in droves and the impact across all parts of the sector. 

So if you were non-visionary, you could just do an event and in some ways, that’s what esports is known for. Bang, in and out. Done. Instead, imagine if we took a strategic lens. You might want to grow Esports News UK in the future, but how can you do that if it’s just bang, done, bang, done? 

Imagine if we could work with the West Midlands. They did a brilliant job [at the event], we have an agreement to agree on the potential of limitless possibilities. And we didn’t just talk about waffley things, we said we’d do this, this and this, seven things. But we’re not going to do it all tomorrow, we’re going to build.

We’ll spend the rest of this year running a great Commonwealth Esports Championships and Forum, then having some time to think about the shape and cadence of the next steps. 

“I don’t have any particular comment on [the IESF and WESA]. You know why, Dom? We’re just damn busy and we’re having the time of our lives. You can see it on my face. We’re loving it. After two years, we have around 120 member federations and 27 partners – not bad. We had a Global Esports Games during a pandemic at our headquarters in Singapore, it’s a major global hub.”

Paul J. Foster, Global Esports Federation

I have to ask about what I feel is a big trend in esports right now, and that’s involvement from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud is one of your vice presidents. There are also a lot of tournaments taking place in Saudi Arabia like Gamers8 and Gamers Without Borders, with big prize pools, some going to charity, and Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) funding the parent company of ESL and FaceIT, Savvy Gaming Group. There’s the notion that it’s ‘esportswashing’, that Saudi is doing these initiatives to cover up its poor human rights record. They’re trying to engage with esports and I see the community is divided over this, for example, Moist Esports recently declined to play in Saudi Arabia. What are your thoughts on this?

What I would say to you is two things. Firstly, I’d encourage you to have the conversation directly with the source, with His Royal Highness Prince Faisal. And we can help make that happen. 

Secondly, our world is a world where everyone should be included. We say it in our vision statement – equality, diversity, fair play, inclusion and innovation – those are our five universal values. 

So the way we see the world is not everyone agrees, but everyone should be welcomed. We believe in a community where everyone is welcome. Of course, everyone also is entitled to shape their development and destiny, which is a Commonwealth Games Federation value, in a way they see fit.

As you know, the community also has opinions on everything. I’m a 51-year-old white man that lives in California, an Aussie. Not everyone loves me I’m sure, but hopefully more than 50% do, that’s what I’m going for in my life anyway, my mum loves me and that’s good enough (laughs). I like Abbey [Sadleir, Communications Manager at Global Esports Federation] a lot too.  

But it doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything. The most important thing is to have an environment that’s welcome. 

We were in Saudi Arabia with the Global Esports Tour, that was my first time in Saudi. I went with a very open mind and came back with an enriched perception and reality of the people and the journey. That’s how I approach the world.

There’s a lot of people in the world that criticise things, but you know what I do? Have a chat, talk to the source.

You talk about your values around diversity and inclusion, but don’t Saudi’s laws go against those? 

Here’s the counter-argument. Should everyone look like me? Should everyone have the same views as me? Is that community? I don’t think so. I think our richness comes from our diversity. Our richness, in terms of building something, that’s esports. That’s the nature of esports, where everyone is welcome, even those that really disagree with me. 

This is not my time, or yours, or Abbey’s, it’s ours. Pick up any Twitter any day and people say to me, ‘the kids are very aggressive on Twitter,’ and stuff like this. Well, look at the way that politicians speak to each other. Is that a role model?

What I’d say to you is we really come to this from a place that says we do have a governance, ethics and membership commission. Every single one of our federations has had to go through that process. It’s not overly onerous but there’s a requirement to declare certain things, and the GEF constitution and code of ethics are on our website free to view, open source. That’s pretty transparent. Everyone that signs up to us, not just our members but our commission members and board members have to agree to that, so there’s a requirement to participate. 

One of the things I loved the most, and I said this in Dubai to someone running tournaments the other day, was: “The reason I enjoy [talking to you] is you disagree with me. You challenge me, you don’t just say: ‘Paul, your hair looks really nice and you’re a good guy’.

Dom Sacco says, ‘should we not have had League of Legends instead of Dota 2?’

And I can understand it.

I’m probably biased because I’m more of a League of Legends fan than a Dota one.

And why wouldn’t you be. But there’s enough to go around, as they say.

How do you choose the titles for the Global Esports Games?

We have a technical standards and properties commission, chaired by [British Esports founder] Chester King and Mars Hou, general manager of Tencent esports.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on the IESF (International Esports Federation) and WESA (World Esports Association). To me, the former don’t feel well-respected by the community and the latter haven’t really done much since they were announced following a bad PR launch. I know I’ve grilled you a bit in this interview, but the GEF seem to have done more than the others in recent years. 

Thank you for saying that. Again, I come back to inclusion. We’ve been around for a little over two years, other folks have come before us and everyone’s allowed to chart their own course, that’s a beautiful part of being alive.

Sometimes I drink Coca-Cola, sometimes I drink Pepsi, sometimes I drink water. Sometimes I wear a white shirt, sometimes I wear a blue shirt. Some of our members are also members of the IESF and other federations – why wouldn’t they be? That’s okay.

I don’t have any particular comment on other organisations. You know why, Dom? We’re just damn busy and we’re having the time of our lives. You can see it on my face. We’re loving it. After two years, we have around 120 member federations and 27 partners – not bad. We had a Global Esports Games during a pandemic at our headquarters in Singapore, it’s a major global hub.

We’re going off to Istanbul, a beautiful city, from Asia to Europe. The 2023 Global Esports Games will be in Riyadh, the 2024 Games will be in China, 2025 in Dubai and 2026 in the United States. We have a runway of six games, which has never been done, to build stability.

The board has now given us approval to work with , there are ten cities in China that want to host. There’s Dubai, UAE (United Arab Emirates), there are several cities there and the US that could host. So my team is in the process of working with those countries, those member federations, to determine that.

Imagine if we were going to the UK, we’d work with Chester’s British Esports Federation on choosing the city and how we’d manage it.

So the cool part is member federations now know where things are going across the next six years. What does that mean? That means I can go and raise funding, talk to my government, talk to the ministry of sport, or ministry of technology or innovation, talk to partners and develop something, not for two seconds, but for five or six years.

I have a tweet here from esports journalist and Hitmarker head of content, Adam Fitch, I’d like to show you, which I think demonstrates the cautiousness some have towards the GEF, and also the different views people have. 

They continue to make noise and there are some good people associated with them but the lack of integration or support from the actual industry is concerning…

— Caleb Cousens (@CalebCousens) June 22, 2022

And on that, we’ve learned a lot, we didn’t come out of the blocks getting everything right. We’ve learned a lot, and we came into this with an open mind. 

How will you try to convince the critics? 

I don’t think we need to. You can sit there and criticise, and that gentleman is entitled to his opinion. He didn’t say I have beautiful hair, nor did he say, ‘I hate you and I’m coming after you’. 

He did call us losers which is maybe not the nicest thing to say, and I don’t know how he woke up that morning, but there’s a reason he said what he said. That’s for him to determine, not for me.

We have 120 member federations, our community, 27 partners and 20 cities hosting our events.

It’s like what I said about the endemic point at the start of this interview. The exclusivity of the inclusive endemic. Esports is all inclusive, but then you get what he just said.

Do you think that Tencent is a loser? Do you think that Sega is a loser, that Capcom is a loser? Riot Games is a loser? Chester King is a loser? So to the gentleman who said that, I say this: Come and have a chat. Now, you might leave the chat thinking, ‘gosh, I think Paul is a complete idiot’, and that’s okay. 

I think it’s not nice, but that’s also okay to call someone a loser, and I don’t think it’s nice to call someone a loser without them having a chance to share their vision, like we have done in this past hour.

Now do you conclude this conversation today thinking we’re losers? I hope not. 

I don’t really use that term myself, but I have been sceptical of Global Esports and its intentions, and I’m a believer of actions speaking louder than words. What I do want to do is educate, and help the UK esports community understand more about Global Esports and get informed so they can form their own opinion on you.

We’re just getting started. Gaming has been around and is prolific, but esports is really starting. It’s natural there will be criticism and we should welcome that.

The only thing I’d say to that gentlemen is have a chat with us, and other people. Have a chat with Abbey [Sadleir, Communications Manager at Global Esports Federation], have a chat with Dom Sacco, have a chat with [Esports Insider co-founder] Sam Cooke, who was with us at the Global Esports West Midlands event. 

Adam Fitch used to work with Sam at Esports Insider.

And I don’t have anything against the guy. You know what I don’t love? That Abbey might open Twitter and see [us being called losers]. Our community is working so bloody hard to do great stuff. But we’ve got to have thick skin. Not because we’re right. But because we’ve got to learn how to be more inclusive, how to bring in more voices, and not always voices that say you’re right. Instead of saying ‘loser’, wouldn’t it be helpful to say, ‘you’re not on the right course here’. 

What I suggest he’s thinking is that: ‘We don’t need control, we don’t need you to tell us what to do.’

Therefore, what I’d say to that gentleman is: This isn’t for you, because you’re really knowledgeable in esports. This is for the communities around the world that haven’t had your privilege and are still starting their journey [in esports]. We don’t need to do a framework on esports for British esports, we need to do a framework for the other 100 countries that want to participate. 

‘We’re not for those who are really knowledgeable in esports. We’re for the communities around the world that are still starting their journey in esports. We don’t need to do a framework on esports for British esports, we need to do a framework for the other 100 countries that want to participate.’ 

Paul J. Foster, Global Esports Federation

So when a chap says losers, you’re sitting in a privilege, you’ve worked in various places and have a lot of knowledge. You can help share and educate, not necessarily make everyone listen and follow your exact words. This is not a monarchy where you have to do it this way.

And how cool is that? Straight away [after Adam’s tweet], the community responds and mentions we have some good people. I think Caleb is a legend but I also think [Adam Fitch] is brave and maybe a bit grumpy.

Thanks for your answers Paul and I hope this piece will give the community more insight into Global Esports. 

I loved the interview and it was a pleasure to speak with you.

You can follow the Global Esports Federation on Twitter and Paul Foster on Twitter here