Past The Casino
Research is a cornerstone in Esports 2.0
Fink’s Fables
Maybe you’ve picked up on a trend in my writing, but my esports management perspective is deeply tied to my trainings in historical methodology. Sorry if that’s not your cup of tea, but I’m glad you’re taking the dive with me 🙏.
High school, college, and graduate school have one thing in common for me. The old adage: “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Okay, maybe more than one thing in common, but this singular lesson is one of the most important throughout my entire life.
One of my biggest weaknesses is trying to do everything myself. I’m a terrible delegator…but I’m trying to be better. I remind myself every single day that it’s okay not to do everything. We struggle with our value being tied to productivity, and delegating feels like being less productive, but in reality its wildly more productive. It’s a mistake I have made over and over again. I know I need to learn from it, and as long as I keep that history of mistakes alive in my thought processes, I’ll have a constant reminder to delegate.
For managers, history is a powerful tool. Even Yale’s School of Business talks about the importance of studying history. It’s why a large number of CEOs have humanities degrees. Not only does it teach us about successes and failures in the past, but we learn how to think critically and to analyze situations at both a macro and micro level. This was very much missing in the esports boom over the last decade.
The Esports Connection
History is something that esports executives failed to study. New concepts are often met with disdain, confusion, and skepticism. Esports wasn’t even known, and still isn’t viewed well by the general public, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise. While those of us on the inside see the sport, community, and educational aspects, the general public sees ads for esports betting, predatory brands, or its strange connection to crypto, which is shown in its own negative light. I mean, look at the whole FTX crypto scandal or the PlayVS debacle in scholastic esports. To the general public, the industry isn’t viable, and it’s not surprising.
The problem? People in these new industries, and especially when it came to esports, run on the ‘casino’ model. It’s all smoke and mirrors. They take advantage of people and their lack of understanding surrounding new technology. It’s built on the mindset of making people feel like they’re winning, and make money fast. It adds no value or stability to an industry, and it absolutely doesn’t give any new technology or industry a good name. But, the most ironic part…it’s happened so many times in history and should be obvious. People were skeptical about the first moving pictures, airplanes, and of course…the internet. The dot com bubble happened precisely because the industry was over inflated in value and saturated with nonsense companies looking to make a quick dollar. Sound familiar?
Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened with esports and is just now in its final stages. It’s always hard to witness a collapse in a brand new industry and have no power to correct it. But, that’s how much of life flows. We aren’t quite sure what to do about certain situations. Hopefully, with collegiate esports, and then professional esports, we can build and correct based on what we’ve learned.
It’s said that the curse of students of history is to predict something and sit through it without any ability to stop it, but what can we say…humans are predictable. The esports collapse was entirely predictable, but managers don’t often learn about their own industry history, let alone that of wider society. To esports executives, and their detriment, there was no way to see this coming. Proper research would have created a stable foundation from which these brands could grow and thrive. As the collegiate scene continues to flourish, the same lesson could be learned…hopefully not the hard way. We don’t want a collapse, and if university teams build the right foundations based on research, they will continue to stabilize and thrive.
The Cornerstone of Research
Hopefully I made it clear, but it’s fundamentally important to understand what’s happened in the past and how we can avoid it again in the future. With esports, research should have been done on more than just ‘how to create a competitive gaming team’ or ‘how to entertain a streaming audience?’ While these are obviously big parts of esports, they aren’t the questions that provide industry stability or generate reliable revenue. And, for university esports coaches and directors, who are typically newer to esports, professional esports organizations are not great examples to emulate. Researching is the first step toward good organizational/team management, and for university teams, understanding your recruitment needs is a great place to begin. It just so happens to be the first stage in my RADCL process as well 😉.
Recruitment Research
Esports, like any business or team, starts with understanding your customer base. Who that base is was merely assumed by most esports organizations to be all gamers. Esports tried to reach general gamers, but each game has a different play style, lore, and persona types attached. On top of needing to specify by game type, esports adds the competitive element and relationship engine to the mix. Trying to retain a customer base like a game publisher isn’t the model to follow, but esports teams routinely follow solely an entertainment vertical for audience activation and retention through connection and community. Esports uses gaming, but it is not just about gaming. The right customer base is step one for stable revenue generation, and for a university, this means the first priority is to determine what types of gamers you have on campus and in your recruiting region.
Gaming is regional - Find out your recruiting zone gaming demographics. For example: there’s a high correlation between baseball players and Rainbow 6: Siege. Low income areas tend to be more console based. Domestically, League of Legends isn’t super popular. Take all these factors into consideration when building an esports program/team. You will have to recruit year after year, so setting up the program for success with the right games is crucial.
Don’t rely solely on recruiting sites - These sites are great for finding specialized recruits, but a majority of students in the United States play video games, and most aren’t on these recruiting websites yet. Don’t limit yourself to online only recruiting. Host community events, attend high school tournaments, and find those great gamers in your own backyard. Research here can be a game changer and a major part of building reliable revenue streams.
Expand internationally - Many coaches/directors know they can recruit internationally, but few attempt to build that pipeline. There are an incredible number of international students that would jump at the chance to attend college in the United States. Find out how those international students get to your campus, and research organizations that can help facilitate international recruitment. Check out Esportian as a prime example.
Bottom line…don’t limit yourself to what you see as traditional gaming stats or recruitment methods and don’t follow the trajectory set by professional esports models. Each university and esports program is unique. Build the right recruitment plan for you by doing the right research. When you’ve solidified recruiting plans, researching organizational methods and program structures is your next step. For that, definitely look to history for the successes and failures to learn from. Don’t assume you know it all, and like me, try not to do it all yourself. Not sure what your first step should be? As always, I’m here to help. Send us a note/email!
What extra research tips would you provide coaches/directors when setting up an esports program? Let me know in the comments!
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