Getting in on eSports’ action
Could Madden, the video game, outgrow the NFL? Some are betting on it
It is a Sunday in mid-November and the Rec Room, Cineplex’s giant new video-game and restaurant complex near Toronto’s waterfront, is hosting the Canadian Madden NFL 18 Championships.
Side-by-side big-screen TVs broadcast live NFL games and competitive matches of Madden, its videogame counterpart, and it takes a moment to distinguish between the two.
Onstage, an enormous screen is the backdrop for two stations where competitors virtually duke it out. The audience is mostly dudes in NFL team jerseys, while announcers do a live play-by-play broadcast on Twitch, the main online space where spectators con- gregate to watch events like this.
Clad in a white tracksuit, limping slightly with a walking boot, the guest of honour sticks out, almost a foot taller than most people here. Brandon Marshall is an NFL wide receiver with more than a decade of service on five teams, currently with the New York Giants. He injured his ankle this year and is out for the season, but has been pressed into service at events like this — at a time when every league in the world is working hard to tightly bind fans of real-life sports with the exploding world of eSports and competitive gaming.
“Madden is a culture,” Marshall says in an interview. “It’s not a game. My entire life I grew up playing video games and I grew up playing Madden. I think my friends and family, my teammates, we’re more competitive when it comes to Mad
den than we are on the field.” Marshall has come to a number of these events and played against some videogame pros — after he got over his surprise that competitive video gaming now has its own professionals, fans and spectators.
“I didn’t think it was real until a few years ago. I didn’t know this was a thing. Not just Madden but a lot of games. People are making it into a career. They’re making it a life. They’re making it work,” he says.
I take it one step further and ask, considering how dangerous professional football is known to be, and how many people are playing video games today, could he see a point when these video games are bigger than the real sports they are based upon?
“Wow. That’s a possibility,” he says. “I’ve never thought about that. To be honest, I don’t think you can get rid of the real thing, that’s what drives our games, but there’s a lot of people online.”
The idea that virtual sports will surpass real ones sounds far-fetched, but already the incredible growth of eSports has technology companies, broadcasters, sports teams, advertisers and brands burning to get involved. After the phenomenon took root in Asia almost a decade ago, it has only grown bigger and at a faster rate since.
Those who scoff are more than likely the types who last played games a generation ago. For a younger generation who grew up gaming and watching YouTube, eSports is the perfect marriage of the two. ESports are impressively emulating their bigleague counterparts right now and many in established sports leagues want in on the party.
For example, the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs’ parent company, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, recently launched Raptors Uprising, its entrant in the upcoming NBA2K League, with an open call for players who want to compete in the debut season.
MLSE’s brain trust said their eyes were opened in August 2016, when the Air Canada Centre hosted the North American League of Legends championships (one of the biggest and most popular eSports games) and the two-day event sold out the stadium — in 34 seconds.
“For those of us that saw it firsthand, it was quite shocking. You’ve got 22,000 people in the building, and they are electrified by what they are seeing and they are all in,” said MLSE chief commercial officer Dave Hopkinson
“People dressed up as characters, in cosplay, they’re screaming for their stars. That, for us as an organization, that was a real ‘aha’ moment that this is meaningful.”
Hopkinson points to Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals, who is a huge believer in eSports and has said that he expects them to eventually be bigger than the NBA and NHL. He’s bought an eSports team and has positioned his broadcast company to capitalize on it.
Hopkinson says he expects all of MLSE’s teams to eventually have an eSports presence. While the company is focused on the NBA2K right now, he says it’s looked at other opportunities, such as joining the new Overwatch League or starting a pro team playing League of Legends. They also hope to sign a pro to join the FIFA game circuit, emulating several European football clubs.
“If you believe that these games are going to be around for a while, and we do, that they are compelling and they have legitimate audiences and people really care about them, we want to play in that space,” Hopkinson says. “I also believe this gives a new audience, a younger audience, exposure to our brands and our game in a different way.”
According to a report from Newzoo, a game analyst firm, the global eSports audience will reach 385 million this year, with 191enthusiasts and 194 million occasional viewers. Other stats that have marketers salivating: an estimated 75 per cent are between 18 and 34 and most spend 50 per cent of their free time engaged in eSports.
While dreams of being a pro videogame player are likely dancing in many gamers heads, just like real sports it usually takes exceptional talent. As eSports grow up, there will be other opportunities, ones that Sarnia’s Lambton College wants to exploit.
Starting next September, Lambton is launching an eSports entrepreneurship and administration course, a two-year diploma program that is part of its sports administration program. The course will be a mix of business, marketing, administration as well as classes about the industry. The school has also created a team to compete in a varsity eSports league with 40 other schools across North America, and built an eSports arena in its student union building, which could also be used for birthday parties or other events.
“ESports are happening around people and they’re not realizing what it is, or what it is in their life, and then they start to look at the bigger picture; they start to realize it’s an industry, it’s a business and it’s legit,” says Yvonne Clark, dean of the School of Business and Creative Design at Lambton College.
“We have had such positive reaction from people in the gaming industry. They are desperate for people to come work for them. Up until now, they’ve been stealing from each other, because there are not enough people in this industry with knowledge about this.”
In Canada, the majority of the action remains at the grassroots and amateur level. The main players for events here include World League Gaming and Northern Arena, and Cineplex is attempting to play a role hosting several events, with technology and video game companies usually playing the sponsorship roles. The prize pots in Canada are still in the thousands and tens of thousand ranges.
The real eye-opening prize pools are for the biggest games, like League of Legends and DOTA 2, which can reach into the tens of millions. Some of the first big eSports require knowledge of playing the game to understand them; some newer games like Overwatch and Rocket League are bright, colourful and easy to under- stand, which might push eSports even further into mainstream acceptance.
But there is undoubtedly a lot of trial and error left to see what might work. For instance, the NBA’s 2K League is going to be based on fiveon-five games, with each gamer controlling one on-court player as opposed to an entire team.
The Overwatch League, which recently launched its pre-season, is trying something new. Unlike other eSports, which tend to promote teams and players depending on how well they do at events, the Overwatch League is copying major sports, launching permanent city-based teams with regular and post-seasons and an all-star event, with up to $3.5 million (U.S.) up for grabs in its first season prize pool.
There are 12 teams signed up and at the head of one of them is one of the best known Canadians in the eSports world. Chris (Huk) Loranger left his Cambridge, Ont., home in 2010 to become a professional Starcraft 2 player. He competed for years and as eSports grew, he tried his hand at game-casting and match commentary. In August 2017, he was hired by the Kraft Group, owners of the New England Patriots, to be the president of gaming and help put together the Boston Uprising Overwatch team.
Loranger knows work is still needed to get people to appreciate his passion.
“I don’t think anyone involved with eSports cares if it’s called a sport or not. I think everyone involved knows the video games have this stigma. What we’re trying to do, and what I want to do and what I hope will change over time, is to move away from the (image of a) basement dwelling, 300-pound Doritos and Coke eater and have people start thinking that these people are real professionals that take it very seriously. There are a lot of intricate and detailed processes that go into making the best team or the best player, and they have to work their asses off. And they sacrifice a lot to do that and that’s the same as anything that is done at a high level.”
He says event attendance and viewership in Canada are quite good, but there’s lots of room to grow.
“From an industry-wide sense, Canada is just a little bit behind,” he says. “And especially in gaming and eSports, these things move very, very quickly and being behind a year or more can be detrimental. I think people and companies who take risks early will get the rewards later on. This is an industry that is growing every year, and it’s going to continue to do so because at a very base level people are going to continue to enjoy playing video games. It’s that simple.”