Leafs’ Hyman takes high-percentage shot at Fortnite riches
But does obsession with the online game hurt athletes?
TORONTO — In Mike Babcock’s three seasons as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he has offered more than a few tips to his players on surviving life in the world’s most rabid hockey market.
You know the list. “Play hard.” “Play fast.” “Play right.”
And also: “Watch the hunting channel and listen to country music.”
Along with amusing and perplexing his players with the latter bit of wisdom —
“He must have some crazy TV package at his house. I’ve never even heard of it or seen (the hunting channel),” James van Riemsdyk, the since-departed forward, remarked last season — Babcock has hit on a National Hockey League truism. Pro athletes, whose dream jobs come attached with gobs of both pressure and free time, need hobbies.
Leafs forward Zach Hyman is turning his into a business.
Long fascinated with Fortnite, the Hunger Games-style online video game into which he and teammates such as Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and Frederik Andersen have poured countless hours, Hyman has spent a big part of his summer preparing to launch e11 Gaming. It’s an esports company he co-founded and coowns along with business partner Oliver Silverstein and a pair of silent investors. The plans are big. Silverstein said the ultimate goal is to be a “virtual MLSE,” referring to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Leafs, Raptors and TFC. But they’re starting small. So far e11’s roster consists of precisely one player, the Brooklyn-based Fortnite pro known as BlooTea, who last week brought home the team’s first bit of prize money, a modest US$5,000, at a $1.5-million Fortnite tournament in Seattle.
Hyman and Silverstein, who are paying BlooTea an undisclosed salary, say their plan is to sign more players soon, first concentrating on Fortnite and then branching out to form teams competing in other popular video games where professional gamers vie for millions of dollars.
“It’s a whole different world, but it’s something I enjoy,” said Hyman, 26. “I love it, and esports is only getting bigger all the time.”
Hyman’s entrepreneurial sideline is hardly the first crossing of paths between the booming business of esports and more traditional athletic endeavours. This past week Chris Overholt, the ex-MLSE executive, left his post as CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee to become president and CEO of the Toronto franchise in the Overwatch League, which just finished its first season and bills itself as the world’s top professional esports league.
But predicting such growth is hardly simple stuff. Overwatch, a first-person shooter game specifically designed to be played by professionals for an audience, has only been on the market for a little more than two years. During that time Fortnite, a so-called third-person shooter game which recently celebrated the oneyear anniversary of its release, has become a popular sensation thanks in part to its appealing price tag (it’s free on multiple platforms ranging from iPhone to PC), not to mention its offshoot of a dance craze (check YouTube).
Free or not — and one recent survey found the majority of players do eventually spend money on various options to the tune of an average of about $85 —
Fortnite was said to be bringing in some $300 million a month back in May, and for now it remains top of mind.
On Monday, the National Football League’s Detroit Lions used the occasion of their season opener to host Ninja Night, wherein Tyler (Ninja) Blevins, a Fortnite specialist who can make a case as the most famous gamer on the planet, will hold a meet-and-greet with fans. Among gamers, Blevins is a rare crossover star; a few months back he streamed a Fortnite session in which he teamed with Drake, the hip-hop kingpin and Toronto Raptors courtside fixture. Also along for that ride were JuJu Smith-Schuster, the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, and Travis Scott, the hip-hop producer whose credits include work by Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna.
The stream of the foursome’s game was watched by some 600,000 viewers on Twitch, the streaming site. In other words, more eyeballs were interested in watching a handful of celebrities playing a video game than watching, say, the thousands of TV shows and conventional sports games that would be overjoyed with such viewership.
“That was groundbreaking,” Silverstein said. “It legitimized Fortnite. It legitimized esports. And my friends who aren’t gamers now follow it and love it. And they message me non-stop and want to know who our next signing is going to be.”
Certainly more than one Maple Leaf has found himself similarly immersed in the game.
“Days off, if I’m by myself and there’s no one around, I’ll (play Fortnite) from when I wake up to pretty much when I go to bed,” Marner acknowledged late last season. “If I’ve got the girlfriend down or buddies are around, I’ll take a little break and go out to eat.”
Ah yes, the girlfriend.
“Sometimes I’m pretty sure she wants to break the Xbox and PS4,” Marner said with a shrug and a smile.
There are other Leafs who’ve acknowledged an obsession with Fortnite, not to mention its predecessor in the hearts of dressing-room gamers, Call of Duty. But just as things change quickly in esports, so do players’ tastes. Leafs centreman Auston Matthews, once a regular in team Fortnite games, said this past week in Chicago that he’s “kind of retired” from the video game.
“People are too good. Games are long,” Matthews said.
Still, Matthews acknowledged that, come the season, he might be re-engaged.
“I know during the season everybody is going to be playing something,” Matthews said. “I’ll probably hop back on.”
NHL teams may not be thrilled with such affinity. Last week, TSN reported that some Ontario Hockey League players have been told to scrub Fortnite references from their social media feeds because NHL teams see the game as an unhealthy distraction. Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, said the league isn’t in the business of telling its athletes how to spend their free time.
“We don’t say, ‘Don’t play video games,’ ” Daly said. “Could it be a concern for some clubs? Maybe. I can tell you as a parent, it is a concern for me.”
Still, there are those around the league who see Fortnite as far less alarming than off-hours diversions of the past.
“Let’s be serious,” said one player representative. “(Fortnite) is probably a little less unhealthy than chasing (women) until all hours and drinking a thousand beers.”
Both Matthews and Nathan MacKinnon, the 2018 Hart Trophy finalist with the Colorado Avalanche, scoffed at the notion that a player’s video-game habit would be a concern.
“I think it is insane to think Fortnite is hurting players on the ice,” MacKinnon said. “It is awesome. You play with your buddies on your team. It’s (about) the camaraderie. … It’s just fun.”
Hyman figures Fortnite and other games are about as interesting an escape from the NHL grind as he’s come across. And it’s his deep passion for the virtual pastime that spurred his urge to start e11 Gaming.
“A lot of the time you go home and you don’t want to think about anything. You’re tired from the rink. You just want an outlet to relax,” Hyman said.
“And you can talk to the guys over video games (via a headset).”
Silverstein figures the debate around Fortnite’s merits can only be good for business.
“There’s a lot of things in life that are addictive, but the reality is gaming has always been around, and it always will be around,” he said.
So, presumably, will country music and the hunting channel. But with apologies to a certain hockey coach, right now online gaming seems like the marginally bigger growth industry.