Taking a look at the growing platform of e-sports
Let’s flashback to four years ago, we see a younger Matteo with a burning-hot Pizza Pop or ketchup-covered Pogo stick glued to the computer screen, watching screaming announcers declare the winner of the Global Starcraft League, or World Championship Series. A lot has changed since then: my enthusiasm and involvement with professional Starcraft has diminished, and, apparently, so has the world’s interest. The winds have shifted to League of Legends, a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena – better known as LoL – with 67 million plus players worldwide.
If you’re a gamer, you’ve most likely taken your hand at LoL and played it loyally at one-point, or still do today. If you’re not a gamer, chances are you’ve never heard of it. The only exposure you’ve probably had to LoL is quick glances to that cartoonish-looking game you see on people’s laptops at the library or Thornbrough.
Here’s a little rundown of how the game works: teams of five fight in three lanes to destroy each other’s towers, and try to reach the enemy team’s base to destroy their Nexus and win the game. Each game lasts anywhere from quick 20-minute landslides to hour-and-a-half wars, with battles shifting the momentum at any moment, giving the game depth and complex dynamics. Riot games, the developers of LoL, keep the community on their toes and the game balanced by providing updates to “buff” (improve) or “nerf” (worsen) specific characters, giving the game an element of innovation and creativity. The best professional teams take the best advantage of this. Yes, there are professional players. And yes, they make hell of a lot more money than you’re thinking.
Most professional players are signed to professional teams. Cloud9 and Team SoloMid (TSM) are the LoL versions of the Toronto Maple Leafs or Montreal Canadians. Teams pay for their players to put in the 14-hours-a-day of practice: the required time to play at the highest competitive level. The average salary is around $85,000 – $100,000 a year, and the Sidney Crosbys or Lebron James make a lot more.
On top of salaries from their teams and endorsements from energy drinks and gaming-product companies like Razer or SteelSeries (the Nike and Reebok equivalent for e-sports), players stream their day-to-day practice on Twitch, a live-streaming website. In December alone, Twitch saw a shocking 68,855,644 viewer hours – that’s a good 7, 860 years, for you math majors. TSM’s own WildTurtle had an average 18,222 viewers, while his teammate Bjergsen, had a fat 27,050 on average.
This viewership for single players is in North America, where e-sports is seemingly big, but not anywhere close in popularity as in Asia; specifically in Korea. 80 per cent of LoL players are in Asia. In Korea, where last year’s World Championship Series was held, there is a nightly television show dedicated solely to League of Legends. In Korea, pro-players are held to the same level of fame as our hockey players are here in Canada.
The fourth season of the World Championship Series were held in Seoul, South Korea on Oct 19. It was held in a stadium built for World Cup soccer, with over 40,000 in attendance, and millions more watching from their computer-screens. Imagine Dragons contributed the theme song, Warriors, and performed at the event in a similar fashion to what you will see Katy Perry do at the Super Bowl this year. The World Championship Series equivalent to the Lombardi Trophy is a 70-pound chalice that you would expect to see in Game of Thrones. Riot Games funded the event with a 2-million prize pool. The winning team, Korean-based Samsung Galaxy White, walked away with a $1 million victory. Second place earned 250,000; with third and fourth placed team earning a still lottery-like winning of $150,000.
Riot Games’ success has contributed to their mantra: “Experience first, and profit second.” LoL is free, giving an all-inclusive playable experience to anyone who takes the time to download the game. Much of Riot Games online profits are a result of the in-game microtransactions players make to buy skins for their favourite characters. Players purchased up $122 million in August alone. Some would judge this as pointless, as it adds little to gameplay experience, but those who pay to swag out their 1998 Honda Civic might understand.
Riot Games, unlike other developers, puts their community at the forefront of their priorities, providing a progressive and economical game for players, without charging $80 for a yearly update. And it has paid off. Big-name sponsors like Coca-Cola and Korean Air are interested in sponsoring the next League of Legends World Championship, and the fan-base is only growing.
Good game Riot Games, gg.