Part I: Choosing the right team | Hosting your own eSports Tournament

(Updated on June 23rd, 2022)

Thanks for taking the time to read this. This is part 1 of the series on “How to host an eSports event” which shows my trajectory in building eSport events for up to 650 people (180+ players). To see the entire series, go here.

At its core, the team is what makes or breaks the execution of the event. Don’t compromise. My eSports hosting company, Pro Gaming Arena, PG Arena (pgarena.com — now deceased) had its team rebuilt 5 times (More on that in another post). I had a lieu of good and bad team members and I wanted to share my insights during this process.

I’ve come to develop a startup mindset across the years: PG Arena transformed itself from an eSports company to an eSport hosting startup, and I had the experience of working on 4 other (failed startups) that helped me shape up my thoughts and look at past experiences with different eyes.

During these years, I had to research and learn a lot. Along it, I stumbled upon something along these lines (Don’t know if was Paul Graham or someone from Y Combinator who said it)

We don’t know why a business succeeds, but we know the things that do not work. If we work by negating those things that don’t work, we should be closer to succeeding.

This works the same way when it comes to teammates or co-founders: A great team with exceptional traits may not guarantee a win, but those with the wrong ones will guarantee your death. Therefore, I’m sharing what I believe, from experience, the traits or characteristics you must avoid at all costs.

Characteristics of a bad eSports co-founder or co-host.

• Weak work ethic. Any business requires hard work. If people are lazy or not committed, please don’t bring them aboard. This has happened to me several times (especially to people who were promising). It’s going to be detrimental for everyone and you’ll end up in a fight and/or parting ways. Don’t take pity on the other person. Bring “evidence, not hope” (Darren Hardy).
• Doesn’t bring any skills or value to the table: This happens a lot when you start pitching your idea to people, and they seem to fall in love with it. They’ve seen the banners, the high numbers of concurrent players in League of Legends or Fortnite, and they think it’s a massive business. They just want to stick with it if something good happens; the problem? They don’t bring a special skill or the desire to work to make this happen. This leads to the problems outlined in the paragraph above.
• Has a huge thirst for short-term wins or money. eSports hosting companies take a while to build up. In addition,
• Instant gratification mindset. Like with any business, building a brand and reinvesting in it will require a lot of grinds, little income, and ways for you to reinvest the money over and over again until you reach certain heights. Having someone that wants to earn a substantial amount and drain it from the company in the short term is a no-no (if you’re planning on doing this for the long term).

Having a well-rounded team

Besides avoiding the bad, what good traits should you find? To be honest, the reality is that you need people that will get the sh** done. That’s it. No fluff or anything. Just make it happen (seriously). Have the desire to win. Nonetheless, here are some characteristics and skills that I personally believe the team members should possess (note, that a single person could have multiple) that would likely increase your chances of success.

1) Clear understanding of the video gaming community you’re currently targeting. The person should have an understanding of:

• a. Psychographics of the community: What makes/breaks the community apart: likes/dislike. What would they expect from a tournament? How much are they willing to pay for it? What is the game that they’re currently playing? Is a new game coming out soon?
• b. What are the tournament systems that they’re used to playing (Pool, brackets, Single or Double Elimination, Round Robin, etc.).
• c. Which are the groups (social media, and IRL such as clubs) that have previously given support to the game or community… or have made/participated in tournaments.
• d. Previous tournaments that have been executed in the past, their prize pool, and rewards (if applicable). When was the last one executed? Is there going to be a new tournament coming around: This can have a serious impact as people may use their money for a tournament and have no money left for the next one. This is also imperative as you should avoid big-name events that happen on the same day!)
• e. The size of the community and its engagement rate.

2) Budgeting. Basically revenue and costs. Some Google Sheets or Excel will suffice. The team member should be able to calculate:

a. Operation Costs (Utilities, supplies, cost of personnel, prizes, venue cost, etc.)

b. Earnings (What will you sell? How much is the entrance fee? Projected — Remember: The only thing that you are certain of is, costs. Don’t fall for the 1% trap. More on that in future series.)

3) Art design: For digital/physical banners and ads (It can be outsourced). Some of them can be:

• Social Media posts (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Discord)
• Ads for social media. (Avoid printing)
• Video promotions.
• Placing sponsor logos

4) Marketing. This is technically the #1 skill before the event. It’s not only posting stuff on social media, it’s understanding the keywords, tone of voice, and the type of content that your customers will engage with. In addition, having a well-rounded strategy (on how, when, where, what, and why post what you post) will make a night and day difference. Who is also going to be building the community for the enterprise?

5) Negotiation: who makes the connections? Who is contacting the sponsors or creating partnerships? Who will be the one nailing down the venue? This is going to be crucial as it’s one of the backbones of the entire event. It doesn’t need to be anything fancy, but having clear objectives and outcomes on what you want to achieve will make a huge difference.

6) In-event logistics: From layout design to role assignment. You will need an individual who is capable of fulfilling the event based on current resources. This is probably one of the most important skills as the entire event execution will fall under this umbrella. We will be devoting an entire post to covering the preparation.

7) Technology: How will you set up the Internet for the stream? How are you going to be streaming it? What’s the minimum network speed that you require? Latency? WiFi or Cable? Does the place have network entries for you to extend? How about the electrical outlets? Do the devices need Internet connectivity? How much? How are you going to register the players? Who is going to be advancing the matches?

Technology plays a major role. You need someone who understands that world and can craft a solution that will make it happen (In this series we will be talking about possible free tools you can use).

8) Handling meetings. You will be having constant meetings with your teammates, sponsors, and more. From taking notes (This can be a different person), moderating the discussion to set the (S.M.A.R.T.) goals for each individual. This is a critical skill to have as it will define how well the entire flow goes by.

9) Legal knowledge. Generally, this is an area you can just not pay attention to if you live in a jurisdiction that any of the video game makers can’t reach you… but, it’s very important as this can have dire consequences. You will need someone who will be able to define contracts with sponsors and partnerships. How can you get a legal permit to run the eSport tournament?

If by any chance you don’t have someone with one of the skills above, don’t worry. Look for someone who offers those services, an online software that can aid you or outsource it (generally I’d avoid the latter, but it can be reasonable).

10) Art designer. This is a crucial part that can be outsourced, but it would be a huge win for the team. You will need to produce flyers, banners, communication messages, and much other art that will define the brand and the experience of the event. Today, you have incredible tools like Canva that can make it possible to create amazing flyers, banners, and communications to bootstrap your events.

Assigning Roles

Work in reverse. Before you bring very enthusiastic people, see which of the traits you’re lacking and then bring people in. Again, don’t just bring people because they find the idea cool, bring them because they bring something to the table.

Assign key role(s) to each individual (from the traits above — adapt as you see fit). That person will be the one in charge of executing everything that happens in that regards.

Example: If your assign your partner Tom as the Art Designer, he will be the one to oversee its production, scheduling, and execution.

Yes, the entire team is able to bring ideas to the table, and yes, if there are other people that have skills that could help Tom (in this case) they are more welcomed to do it.

The point that I want to make is that there must be someone responsible. Failing to do so will delay deliveries and the event will be in peril.

Assigning the leader

Once you’ve assigned the roles, you must assign the leader. The leader is going to be responsible for making the final decisions, conducting the meetings, and overseeing the team. He will check that everyone is doing their job. (Optional) The leader can be rotated per event or per project phase (The latter one is tricky) if certain team members are more capable than others.

Understand that the leader must be trusted by everyone and is able to communicate with each one of the team members with enough clarity. He/she must also establish the vision, and mission of the event, and be capable to make everyone committed and motivated to see it through.

Solving team issues

These are going to arise, and you better be prepared. You will be coming back and forth with people. I’m going to talk more in-depth in the next section, on planning. Whenever there’s a problem, face it asap. Bring it to the table and discuss it with other teammates. Always criticize the action, and never the person (unless the circumstances require it).

Ask what is going on with your teammate’s life. Life happens, and there are numerous factors (personal finances, family problems, motivation loss, etc.). What you want to identify is the main cause of the conflict. If it’s a logistic one, it will be covered in the next section. If it’s a personal one: finances, family, motivation loss, etc, offer help.

If the team member has lost motivation, try explaining the vision, and mission again. Remember him/her that he/she is a crucial part of the mission, and his/her role is vital for the success of the project.

If this behavior (motivation loss, invalid excuses) keeps up after several meetings, you should let that person go.

Next up... Planning

Part 2 of the series can be read here.