The GuildOS Insider Chapter 1: The Rise, & Challenges in eSports
Introducing — The GuildOS Insider
Introducing — The GuildOS Insider
While the engineering team continues to build GuildOS, our product team has been monitoring existing trends, as well as both existing and potential problems that could be resolved with feature development.
In this new series, GuildOS Insider will look to uncover the inner workings behind GuildOS with topics and discussions based on what the team is currently working on. Taking a closer look into our thoughts and ideas, from process implementations, to product updates, interviews and more.
For our first set of insights, GuildOS Insider takes a closer look at the billion dollar competitive gaming industry, covering the issues and possible solutions specifically for talent scouting, as well as players looking for opportunities to enter the scene.
From the rise of eSports, to ecosystems and also the challenges surrounding player opportunities and recruitment.
The Rise of eSports
For the last 70 years, since the 1960s, eSports have been experiencing a stratospheric growth, especially from the 2000s to date. The global eSports market was last valued at USD 2 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9% from 2022 to 2030.
Credit: Newzoo.com
The total number of viewers including both casual viewers and eSports enthusiasts contribute to a significantly large audience size of 577.2 million that amounts to approximately 14% of the global population.
Over the last year, audiences have been rising in regions such as the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Viewers in nations like Brazil and India have increased the uptake of mobile streaming. Mature markets such as North America and Western Europe have also seen a steady growth in the last couple of years.
The eSports Ecosystem
Credit: Nielsen.com
eSports Federations across the world such as the North America Scholastic eSports Federation (NASEF), the International eSports Federation (IeSF) based in South Korea and the Singapore eSports Association (SGEA)have been developing eSports ecosystems.
These ecosystems have initiatives such as:
The organization of eSports events and tournaments for students
Additional resources to support the foundation of new eSports clubs in schools
Mentorship and Coaching opportunities
From these findings, insights can be drawn to cultivate new ideas or features to help enrich the ecosystem:
Tournaments are not only a gateway to glory for players, but serve as a scouting platform for teams
Developing a regular player into a professional draws similarities to that of any athletic sport — through a schooling system, drafting, etc.
Motivations (intrinsic, extrinsic), goals and the learning styles of professional esport players change during the training process, leading to a heavier emphasis on mentorship and coaching to efficiently take on team dynamics and expertise
The Largest Prize Pool — Compelling Case of Dota 2 — “The Internationals” Tournaments
Tournaments such as the Dota 2 TI have seen its prize pool increasing year on year due to the huge demands from the audience. Unlike most tournaments, the prize pool is not provided by sponsorships. Instead, a crowdfunding campaign created specifically for the fans with exclusive features and rewards through their Battle Pass was created, with 25% of the sale price added into the total prize pool.
What this tells us is that the demand to watch the best battle it out is something that audience members alone are willing to contribute to and make happen.
While the best teams are able to stay profitable from consistently winning the top-loaded prize pools from tournaments, less experienced teams in the competitive scene are struggling to continue sustaining operations, which make it challenging for talented, aspiring teams to stay relevant.
eSports as a Career — Becoming a Professional eSports Athlete
With increasing interest in eSports, many players aspire to be the next Faker in League of Legends, or the next S1mple of CS:GO, holding relentlessly onto that ultimate dream of eventually walking in the shoes of a true eSports champion.
Credit: nerdstreet.com
Similar to traditional sports, to be successful in eSports , individuals must possess talent, intuition and cultivate their skills over time. Being a part of a strong organization or team, provides them with the resources and guidance to compete regularly in tournaments and win consistently.
This entire journey to reach the top of an eSports Championship may sound daunting to many; but what if we could provide a platform that minimizes the existing barriers to entry whilst providing unlimited opportunities?
From the building blocks of networking, increased accessibility for players, to team management and fan support structures, it guides our research direction.
With these insights, creating personas of end users and figuring out their needs will then begin to slowly take shape in the form of possible future additional features on GuildOS.
Challenges of Player Opportunities and Recruitment
eSports organisations typically hold recruitment challenges or scout on various streaming platforms for players of the right fit, for their teams.
While somewhat effective, these methods have their limitations as not everyone has the means to join tournaments, or the character to stream online in front of a live audience, which may result in talented players losing out on the opportunity of being scouted and recruited.
Food for Thought — Possible Solutions
Having performance trackers that regularly update and are easily accessible by organisations, making it easy for the end user to get listed will no doubt increase the talent pool accessible to organisations, as well as opportunities for aspiring eSports athletes.
While guild management is still the core feature and basis for GuildOS and our goal is to support these guilds in terms of scholar management, our team believes that eSports will play a huge part in GameFi as well as blockchain gaming.
The performance tracker element existing in GuildOS today could be tweaked to account for competitive gamers, and with a few adjustments possibly resolve a problem not only for Web 3.0 competitive gaming, but eSports in general. This feature could increase accessibility and provide opportunities for gamers to network and get recruited not only as a scholar, but also potentially as an eSports athlete.
Based on the insights the GuildOS team have gathered, here are some key takeaways that we could potentially be expanding into and building next:
A centralised platform within the eSports ecosystem to handle players and team needs
A possible decentralised method for fans and organisations to connect
A way to analyse team dynamics and statistics to enhance team performances
With the above in mind, the team at GuildOS will be heading back to the drawing board to propose new and improved solutions that would tackle the many pain points that players experience within the eSports industry.
Tag us on Twitter @guildosio to let us know your thoughts, comments and what you would like to see more of!
Don’t forget to keep your feature requests coming in and if you have any suggestions to help us improve, drop us a line at support@guildos.io
Till next time, onwards!
Team GuildOS.
References:
[1]: Grand View Research. eSports Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Revenue Source (Sponsorship, Advertising, Merchandise & Tickets, Media Rights), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2022–2030 https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/esports-market
[2]: Influencer Marketing Hub. The Incredible Growth of eSports [+ eSports Statistics] by Werner Geyser https://influencermarketinghub.com/esports-stats/
[3]: Esports.net. Dota 2 The International 2022 Prize Pool https://www.esports.net/news/dota/the-international-prize-pool/
[4]: Decrypt.co. Why Brazil’s Top eSports Team Loud Sees ‘Massive Opportunity’ in Web3 by Andrew Hayward https://decrypt.co/108743/brazil-esports-loud-massive-opportunity-web3