Esports Must Lose: The Remix
It’s the epic recap you need. Let’s put a pretty bow on this.
I just wrote the most viewed and discussed story of my esports writing career. It spawned the kind of chatter I always wanted. People debating my points amongst themselves in the comments section while I just sat back and watched.
Those conversations led me to this follow-up post, and, like the remix of an extended deep house track, it’s shorter yet still hits many of the high points of the original.
Fragmentation Is Real And Good And Wonderful
No one really took issue with my points here because they’re all true. What surprised me about that is the fact no one cares about it. We’re apparently fine with fierce competition for all the eyeballs.
I like that. I really do. Competition brings out the best innovation, the best people, and the best funding as we all race for the unreachable mountaintop. I’m certain in about 20 years esports will look more like traditional pro sports. There will be a more defined structure and entrenched brands with lore we can all accurately appreciate.
Our Emotional Issues
Here is where I got the most pushback. Some said I didn’t understand the new reality of streaming and gaming. That what we cared about the most happened on the video screen and the game action itself.
What those people are really saying is the competitors don’t matter. The people who play the games don’t matter. That somehow we care more about the first person view of an Overwatch game rather than the person playing D.Va racking up kills while creating an endless flow of memes.
I can’t accept that. I just can’t. So let’s ask these questions:
- Why do the best, most popular streamers have cameras? We just sit there and watch them stare at their screens anyway.
- If the games mattered more than the players in the heat of the moment, why do casters cut to the person seated at the keyboard and the coach pacing behind them during high points of the competition?
- Why do we put them on a stage at big events just to sit there and stare at them?
- Why do we care about player transfers, cuts, trades, and other organizational moves? There’s a budding industry that spends hours talking about roster composition of each Overwatch squad. Just like sports talk radio. Welcome to the hot take club, esports.
People care about people before, during, and after the competition. We need to see their focus, intensity, and reaction to the games. That’s why we need to see the faces of our heroes.
In spite of everyone’s comments to the contrary, I stand firmly behind my beliefs that esports is a boring visual from a people perspective. We don’t have a deep, visceral connection to the player’s actions like we do with the NBA and NFL that transcends societal and class boundaries.
Not yet, at least.
It’s Confirmed. We’re Cheap.
This is the one where I’m not entirely convinced of responses to the contrary, but I’m still interested enough to listen.
Most agreed that we are generally cheap consumers. I did, however, get a few professionals who said they have success monetizing esports yet didn’t elaborate.
I can’t blame them for not giving me better details. Exposing how solid revenue streams are created in a space where that’s not a common occurrence is business suicide. Besides, there is actually better, more consistent money to be made teaching other people how to make money than actually doing the task itself for money.
These people are called consultants.
Exposing trade secrets without getting paid for it is dumb so I don’t blame those who are purposely vague. I’m in a wait-and-see mode on this one.
I still stand by what I said because I don’t see anything new and special out there that gets people to care about brands enough to pay for stuff. The formula hasn’t changed. There aren’t any new ideas in the space that have hit a serious home run.
And, of course, if I’m wrong someone will set me straight. They always do.
Moving On Now. . . .
Posts like this always create side conversations based upon the comments. The one which interested me the most revolved around Intellectual Property and its effects upon esports.
I find this topic an interesting one. On many levels. Traditional sports, while they have governing bodies and the associated professional leagues, have no real corner on the market. Anyone can start a football league and set up the rules in any fashion they choose sometimes drastically altering essential game functions.
The best examples of this are the Arena Football League with its vastly different field and structure. As well as the first iteration of the XFL and how it handled the coin toss.
However, no one can just take Call of Duty and alter fundamental game mechanics like adding a character with four arms and a bigger loadout. Activision owns the right to everything about that game and would never allow it.
I’ll work on that. I also have other thoughts in mind.
I’m working on a post called Esports and Boobs. It’s something I ponder often (and not in the way your dirty little minds want to believe) that seems to create convenient outrage when the moment suits us best.
Until then. . . . .
Bill Wagner is the Chief Relationship Officer for Esports Labs. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
