Esports vs Sports. Tendencies & Slants

What distinguishes them from each other?

In the run-up to what esports have become a few years back, there’s one fact glaring over the sight of those who observe the scene in search of new opportunities, that so generously present themselves as of late. I’m talking about the inroads of new design solutions made into esports. Say what you will about differences between two industries, this one I’m going to talk about is the one obvious and not widely discussed. And yet one that positively impacts the business environment of esports.

Though traditional sports have been around significantly longer than esports, they are both similar, each featuring leagues, teams, and fanbases. There’s a rationale behind comparisons between these two behemoths of industries. Both have connected in a grand way recently and became more similar than ever.

And yet the roads of the two diverge in a wood and that… that will have made all the difference. Robert Frost sentimentalities aside, the ways growth is projected on esports and traditional sports are too different. We previously talked about the viewership surge in esports and how traditional sports played their role in the growth of the industry’s fan bases around the world. An argument can be made that both industries grow into each other.

What’s left out of the picture sometimes is an absolute abundance of ways the industry gets in touch with the audience. For example, 27 Nerds made it a point of its existence to enhance the experience of both the audience and businesses when they get in touch.

And what affects it more than design?

Aesthetics of esports is a huge subject that makes up the identity of the entire industry. Visual identity is the core of everything in esports. Creatives and teams have their distinct brands and their esthetics is something we remember them for. You can say the same about football clubs and their emblems. Footballer’s jersey has a number that is another brand — this number signifies a certain player. The sponsor has its logo on all team’s outfits. The same goes for esports… But it’s taken to a new level:

• Branding for teams, print/web items, event materials, jerseys… That’s only the tip of the iceberg.
• Illustrations and posters is another aspect of design in the industry.
• Stream graphics.
• UI/UX for products and landing pages for teams, etc.
• Twitch emotes help to communicate ideas faster during streams.

There are other types of designs that are not mentioned in the list.

Regardless of the design solution at hand, it’s there to make esports easier to understand for the public. It transfers the thrill of experience to the players. The audience stream these experiences from their rooms, through channels like Twitch and Youtube with high data transfer rates in real-time. There are some design solutions to be implemented there.

In fact, the esports industry emerged as a response to the need of showing competition to ever-enlarging audiences. And to have the audience engaged had to make the show aesthetically pleasing.

Esports players can own their channels and produce live content for their teams. Players, teams, organizations, agencies, outfits, and game development companies have to be represented by suitable branding for their channels, profiles, and websites. All these give room to the massive design work of the scale unseen before or during the advent of esports.

Another aspect of the matter is the audience’s short attention span, which demands the refresh of brands and identities. This demand is gigantic and the industry is in constant need of artists and designers. The latter is a separate niche in esports. What’s intriguing is that esports designers often create their magnum opuses making designs for competitions and esports brands, that propels them to the top of professional clout. And many of these designers don’t even have formal education. Observation and practice is what they are all about. This niche provides for the look of all esports competitions. The artists often find themselves in music, fashion, and commissions, interface design, etc. They learn their craft in the sphere of esports and grow in the confines of the industry.

27 Nerds are aware of volumes of work one single product may need. We’ve been producing designs for esports brands for as long as we have existed. Our experts know how all esports markets function, which gives us an advantage over many actors in the arena. Be it North America, South-East Asia, Europe, Central Asia, there are designs for you to claim the crowd and ensure loyalty to your brand. Being in the heart of esports, we understand the propensity of the market in any region and strive to win any mountain peak where the flag with your emblem belongs. We invite you to respond to this call because there are no places in esports where we can’t take your brand.