Esports on the Fly

Yes, Esports Is Different From Other Sports, But It's Not Separate.

The Reason

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again…we have to learn from history. This has become more and more relevant as I talk with esports professionals across the nation. There are so many amazing people with amazing ideas, but many other individuals are seeking to divest esports from anything remotely similar to traditional sports. They feel that esports is so unique that we can’t use anything from sports or other industries to build the structure for esports itself. While I agree that esports is drastically different in many aspects, this idea that nothing in the world today can help us create a better esports industry is…well, just wrong. I hate saying that. It sounds like I’m just dismissing these perspectives, but the truth is that nothing is created alone. The video game industry and esports are so intrinsically connected, that we’ve blurred the lines between the reality of esports and the perceived idea that it developed completely on it’s own, that it had its own “big bang”. Esports is not its own universe. It doesn’t have a trajectory of evolution completely separate from the rest of the sports world.

Think back to your days in school where we learned about the development of unique species in Australia. These species don’t exist anywhere else because the continent of Australia became isolated. Esports has developed from the most connected place in the history of humankind, the internet. No idea within esports is completely revolutionary in the aspect that it was invented from nothing. We need to come to terms with the fact that esports, while unique, doesn’t exist apart from the rest of the world. Perhaps if we embodied this better, the majority of the population would have actually known about the Esports World Cup or even the announcement about the Esports Olympic Games. Anyhow, I recently met with Cody Dragon, who works in a variety of spaces, but I was curious about the idea for the Esports History Museum that he developed. It’s a really cool virtual walkthrough of important esports moments that most gamers don’t even know exist. It was in that conversation, and many others over the last few months that I’ve developed quite a few thoughts on the trajectory of esports and how to continue building sustainable structures to support the community-led movement that will eventually culminate in a national sanctioning body for esports. In order to do this, we have to understand esports in its full context and scope. You need to know the history and how esports fits into society at large. That’s why esports education is so important in general. Not just esports history, but using esports in all facets of education. The combination of esports with education is booming, and its because they’re learning how esports fits within our culture as a society rather than trying to separate it or pretend it will forever be a niche segment.

I think you get the idea at this point, but why have I been thinking about this so much? It turns out, I had a few hours of nothing else on my mind for once 😂.

The Story - Fly Fishing

For many, summer can be a more relaxed and laid back period, but for me, this year wasn’t didn’t follow that cadence.

I spent a decade in higher education. I loved the summers. You still had work, but you had ample time for vacations and rest as students were gone from campus. You were able to research, plan, and develop during this period. Having this time to get things in order was always a blessing. It was a nice “calm before the storm.” My wife, being a high school teacher, still gets the summers off (not that watching kids at home is relaxing by any stretch of the imagination 😅). But, I’ve been plugging away working on multiple projects and in my new full time role as the Director of Esports Operations with Fantastic Athletes. We’re launching our platform, FantasticWE in September, so it has been a busy period as we ramp up for deployment. On top of that, our oldest daughter is starting kindergarten this week, and we managed to get our other daughter into full time pre-k. Needless to say, life is changing for us this year, and summer has been all about preparation and laying the groundwork for this fall.

The summer even started off with my brother’s wedding, which was amazing and stressful all at the same time. Our hotel at the wedding was struck by lightning so the power went out in 100 degree weather. Just before that, I had to travel to a funeral for my grandmother. It started off in a typical universe-crushing fashion as our daughter vomited all over her car seat on our way to pick my wife up from her school and hit the road from Virginia to Illinois. I had to quickly pull off, couldn’t even begin to clean the carseat, so I threw it out in a dumpster, then proceeded to use every spare outfit we packed for our daughter as she continued her violent lurching all the way to the high school where my wife works. We grabbed another carseat from Walmart, a storm started whipping the winds up, and a torrential downpour fell from the sky. Then, we ran over a cute fluffy groundhog as we tried to make it down the road back to our house to drop my wife and our youngest off before I took the other one with me to Illinois. It was one of those days you will never forget.

So, when the time came for us to go on our little weekend fly fishing trip a couple weeks ago, we were excited but hesitant that this would be any sort of reprieve from the craziness. Thank goodness that after waking up early, driving an hour, and realizing we forgot to bring our water bottles, we entered a serene mountain stream and left all our cares behind. I would’ve been perfectly content if we ended up catching no fish that day, but we hauled in quite the number! For the first time in a long time, it was just nice to have no external stimuli pecking away at my brain for several hours. I had time to stop, ponder, and assess against the backdrop of cool, steadily flowing, waters of an Appalachian river.

I would encourage everyone involved in esports to find a place to stop and think for awhile. The industry has been driving full steam ahead without blinking for years now. It didn’t even stop to reflect on its own collapse. Instead, these groups continued to try to make their way on sheer willpower. For those of us on the grassroots and community side, we’ve all been pushing forward to build sustainable practices and structures; trying to match the pace of those continuing to push towards bad industry standards. We want to fix it so badly. We want to stop these bad actors from hurting others and leaving people without a future. These are good goals, but I think its time to stop and breathe.

I’ve talked with hundreds and hundreds of directors, coaches, professionals, and players in my quest to help develop methods and structures that will change and standardize the esports industry. Whether it’s working on a way to build a national sanctioning body, develop a platform of true value for coaches and players, or help create esports spaces that truly meet the needs of teams, the mission has been the same. Let’s change esports from the bottom instead of assuming the trickle-down approach has any substance to it. At a time of incredible turbulence, I think we could all do with learning a bit of patience, taking a step back, and reflecting on where we’re at. It’s an election year, the esports/gaming/technology industry is still laying off tens of thousands of people, and everything is still wildly expensive. Universities still haven’t given staff members their budgets as they hold off on making decisions that could have any affect on the enrollment cliff coming up, and millennials are finally tightening their belts as we realize Airbnb costs have risen 36%, so it’s not like we can afford a vacation anymore. Our family has started to forgo eating out at restaurants because a single meal costs a third of our entire trip to the grocery store…not to mention those grocery prices have doubled or even tripled now. We are in one of those periods of society-altering events, and while esports is still trying to move from crawling to walking for the first time, these culture shifts don’t make it easy to figure out the best direction to pursue.

As many of us take this pause and reflect, take a minute to learn where esports came from. Read a book or two from other industries. Start to ask the hard questions. Get outside, and get passionate about esports again by taking time away even for just a moment. Gain insights, broaden your horizons, and then, when you’re ready, take that newfound perspective back to esports and let’s build something amazing. Let’s stop supporting the siloed approach to esports. Let’s acknowledge that we need help and appreciate those who provide outside perspectives. Esports is on a journey of self-discovery as an industry. We’re in that awkward teen phase, but soon…we’ll mature and have a firm foundation. I for one am excited at both the successes and the challenges the lay ahead.

Take a break, enjoy your moment of reflection, and I can’t wait to hear your ideas when you come back.

Tools to Help

Acorns - I’ve realized that with all the job loss, shifting economy, and general change taking place that a lot of people in the esports space don’t have good financial planning in place. I’m a big proponent of this, and Acorns is a great way to get something started without insane brokerage fees. Take control of your future, and encourage your staff/players/students to do the same.

Missive - Personally, I love using this tool to collect all my work and consulting emails in one place. It has great team features to top it off and works seamlessly across all your devices.

My Work

Fantastic Athletes - Building a new standard in esports management and player development. Platform launching in September. Pre-orders out now.

SERENDIPTIY gaming - Providing services that truly help university coaches and directors build uniques esports environments and help their players and programs thrive.

As always, if there’s anything you need, feel free to reach out to me!