Formula E eSports In Las Vegas | THE NEXT LEVEL 015
Your Friday June 24 eSports News
FORMULA E BRINGS ESPORTS AND $1M PRIZE TO VEGAS
My Take: I’m either somewhat lucky, somewhat right or a little of both. On stage at the Cynopsis eSports Conference yesterday, I asked Seth Schorr, CEO of Fifth Street Gaming, about the importance of geography and location in eSports and can Vegas lead the way. Looks like it’s already starting to happen.
Although Formula E uses the the term eSports, I’d be cautious lumping that in with eSports, as that’s already an amalgamation of different genres, games, and teams. Anyone entering the space needs to consider the amount of time and effort that it took to get eSports to the stage it’s at — with a lot more structure needed to support its growth.
Although the ridiculous $1M prize to the winner is not fully confirmed, Chief Executive Alejandro Agag said the amount would be “significantly above six figures”. I’m also not sold on Formula E’s “formula” of using 20 pro drivers against fans as eSports needs stars to drive viewership.
The missing detail that’s interesting to me is what game is being used?
Back in March, Formula E did another race with Microsoft’s Forza — which was being watched by a whopping 51 viewers when I checked — however to qualify for Vegas, users will “sign up and compete online”. The wording of that seems to be a free racing game which could provide a unique twist.
I think it’s a great experiment — I’m just glad I’m not writing the check.
VICE HIRES GIANT BOMB’S EDITOR TO RUN NEW GAMING VERTICAL
My Take: I should have bought a lottery ticket this week. Also yesterday in ESPORTS DAILY 02 I wrote about the dearth of cool content in eSports that this younger audience — myself included — has not found. Will Vice be the Vice for eSports?
Well it looks like they’re they’re thinking along the same lines. Vice hired Giant Bomb editor Austin Walker to run their new Gaming vertical. While they’ve been running gaming and eSports content for a year now, the new vertical will have its own dedicated site.
I’ve been a fan of Vice since I lived across the street from their Brooklyn office in 2001 and watched them grow from a punk magazine to a multi-billion dollar, global media company. I consume 90% of Vice video content and their first gaming documentary on eSports is well done:
I really think there’s an opportunity for someone other than a large media company to enter this area. Just look at Echo Fox’s deal to produce a documentary series on the team. You’re going to hear a lot more about niche eSports content soon.
ESPORTS MONEYBALL MOMENT
My Take: Kill Screen has a great look at the growing role of data and analysts for DOTA2 teams. Although not a panacea, I firmly believe that data driven decisions provide better outcomes and ROI for most business or product related problems. The use of data in Sports is now completely commonplace:
It makes complete sense for this to come to eSports as it’s even easier — you can capture gameplay data directly from the game for processing.
The challenge is how to monetize this. NBA teams can pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per year or you have greater scale with high-school and colleges of which both Hudl and Krossover are trying to capture the market. How much yearly revenue could you possibly make if you had 100% of the market for pro teams? Not enough to build a business.
If you go to the end consumer like I covered with Dojo Madness in eSports Weekly #7, the market potential rises greatly.
BRANDS
HONOR PARTNERS WITH ASPHALT 8 MOBILE GAME
My Take: This is great and ironic at the same time. I wrote about Asphalt 8 in relation to Twitch’s first mobile SDK integration when looking at the live streaming competitors. As the SDK needed individual integration, it wasn’t a scalable product, never took off and allowed others like Mobcrush to enter mobile live streaming.
The great aspect is to see another new brand like Honor invest in eSports and especially on mobile. The irony is that Gameloft partnered with YouTube influencers on this brand deal — on a game that had previously been integrated by Twitch.
I’ve spoken for a while on the mobile eSports opportunity and for brands to get in early. Good to see Honor taking the plunge.
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