Mark Elfenbein of X1 Esports & Entertainment: 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In eSports
Be flexible to finding your unique entry point within esports. You may be trained or have a college degree for one specialty but the industry is changing so quickly you need to be able to adapt to where the demand lies.
The eSports market size is now more than a billion dollars. Teens and even children as young as 6 can now earn hundreds of thousands of dollars competing in eSports. What does one have to do to succeed as a player in eSports? What are the challenges and opportunities that pro gamers face? What does the eSports lifestyle look like? How is it similar to traditional athletics, and how is it different?
In this interview series, called 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In eSports, we are interviewing professional gamers, eSports coaches, esports tournament organizers, and executives from gaming companies who share lessons from their experience about the “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In eSports.”
As part of this series, we had the pleasure to interview Mark Elfenbein.
Mark Elfenbein is the Chief Executive Officer at X1 Esports and Entertainment Ltd. He attended University of Manitoba. Mark previously was a co-founder of Fun Technologies which traded under the symbol FUN on the TSX. FUN was a roll-up of 8 different pay-to-play, Esport, and mobile gaming assets. FUN was acquired by Liberty Media for $484M.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to ‘get to know you.’ Can you tell us a bit about your background and your backstory?
Yes, thank you. I have been involved with many media and emerging technology start-ups in my career, either as the CEO or CRO typically. I co-founded a publicly traded gaming start-up called Fun Technologies, which grew to become the largest online pay-to-play skill gaming business with over 30M users and was eventually sold to Liberty Media. Fun was a roll-up of various video game, esport, and fantasy sport assets. Additionally, I have spent many years in the music industry. During this time, I was a voting member of the Grammy music awards and also won a Billboard music award one year as Executive Producer. From there, I have gone on to start new A.I. companies using image recognition to facilitate a better shopping experience in the fashion world with a company called Slyce and have spent considerable time with various e-commerce entities.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this particular career path?
They say things come full circle. in the 2000’s I co-founded a publicly traded gaming company called Fun Technologies which was a holding company of Esports, fantasy sports and mobile gaming assets. Fast forward to 2022, X1 is effectively a remix of that business with updated assets in the video games sector.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you first started? What lesson did you take out of that?
When I first started my professional career I was in my early 20’s in the music industry, executive producing music albums. One year I was notified that I had won the Billboard music award for the best Latin Dance album of the year and was asked to accept the award that year at the Billboard Latin awards. When I accepted my award I realized I was the only award winner that spoke in English and not in Spanish (a little embarrassing but this was a good life lesson in being prepared and investing the time to learn other cultures and languages).
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
I always say to never stop being curious and always be prepared to reinvent yourself. As a result of this I have been able to move around from music to gaming to artificial intelligence to e-commerce to food tech and back to gaming!.
Can you please share “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In eSports?
1) Be flexible to finding your unique entry point within esports. You may be trained or have a college degree for one specialty but the industry is changing so quickly you need to be able to adapt to where the demand lies.
2) Make sure you are very up to date on all trends hitting esports and how an organization could take advantage of those in the market.
3) Join online groups such as LinkedIn industry esport groups and start participating in online discussion forums and building your online presence.
4) Start attending industry events such as Twitchcon and your local Esports events to make face to face relationships
5) Never stop the learning process in terms of your own professional development both in and out of esports. Continue following all esport developments but also continue improving your non-esport specific skill set such as your general business skills.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting new projects you are working on now?
We are very focused on the creator economy, which now counts over 50M content creators worldwide. Our focus here is on video game creators through an acquisition we just made of Tyrus.TV, which is an influencer agency with over 65 creators. We are very bullish on the trends with the creator economy. Additionally, we are very enthusiastic about the signing of another acquisition we recently made with a top Rocket League community called ShiftRLE, which is becoming a hub for all your Rocket League news. Rocket League is a very popular soccer-style game played with cars on consoles and PCs with over 90M monthly players.
What would you tell a young person who aspires to follow in your footsteps and emulate your career? What advice would you give?
Always continue to listen and learn. Today, there is very easy access to sources who have most likely already attempted to do what you are considering for yourself. Also, be very well-rounded and curious. The business world is changing very quickly, and keeping up to speed with new ground-breaking technology, in general, is very beneficial for almost anything you may want to do in the future.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Many of our readers may be familiar with gaming, but they haven’t been exposed to the culture of professional gaming. What does the eSports lifestyle look like? What is life like for a professional gamer?
1) A day in the life of a professional gamer is similar in many ways to that of a traditional sports person. It consists of a healthy sleep pattern, good eating habits, and constructive practice of the specific game title. A typical practice session can be between 4 and 6 hours but may vary if a tournament is coming up.
2) Professional gamers have the ability to travel and network all over the world. Many major championships take place in Europe, North America, and Asia.
3) The esports industry is an incredibly competitive field, and with this comes a large amount of pressure that falls onto players’ shoulders. They are competing against thousands of individuals that would give anything to be in their position. There are very few that could be considered close to untouchable.
4) Sleep, eat, practice, and repeat. These are the common attributes of any competitive event, whether it’s traditional athletics or esports.
5) The esports industry is incredibly similar in this aspect. Due to how competitive the field is, organizations will scout out the next ‘big thing’ in an attempt to lock them in under their banner. The usual process of scouting talent is through reviewing tournaments, watching YouTube content created by the player, or by watching it happen live on a website like Twitch.
6) There are two parts to being a professional player in the grand scheme of things. On the one hand is the talent that can be nurtured with dedication and a constructive practice regime. And the other hand is the brand. Focus on social media presence, be involved in your chosen game title, and network with your peers.
7)
a — Passion. Whether it’s turning passion into knowing everything about the game or screaming at the top of your lungs when you win a round, it’s a must.
b — Personality. The best and most successful players are the ones that develop a likable brand that can serve them well in the long run.
c — Perspiration. Dedicating a healthy amount of time to improving is vital. If you ever believe you don’t need to improve at something, then you’re not ready to be the best.
d — Punctuation. Timing is key in this industry. There’s an aspect of it that falls under ‘right place, right time,’ however, if you treat it like a job and make sure you act in the same manner, you’ll find yourself faced with more opportunities.
e — Practices. This covers your daily tasks to take care of your body and mind. You can’t play to your full potential if you’re lacking sleep and not eating correctly.
Wonderful. We are nearly done. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
As a Canadian and a huge hockey fan, this question is very easy. It would be Wayne Gretzky — the greatest hockey player of all time and perhaps the greatest athlete who has also evolved into a great entrepreneur — it would not get much better than that!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/markelfenbein/
https://twitter.com/MarkElfenbein
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
