re:Think Games — May 20, 20 Esports Industry Observations
There is one other aspect of esports games that is worth thinking about. Is the game single-player or team-based?
Games like Smash Bros Ultimate, and Mortal Combat, and to a large extent Fortnite are all single-player games. Like Golf, or Tennis, or track, recognition usually comes from individual excellence. While the players in these sports can compete in “teams”, they rarely do. The sports simulation games are almost all entirely single player.
Other games, like League of Legends, Rocket League, and CS Go are played by teams at the professional level. It is interesting that players often develop their skills through individual play. Top Rocket League players come through the singles brackets and are often “recruited” to join top teams.
Yet, the fact remains that ultimately, a large number of esports titles mandate team performance. This creates a real challenge for someone trying to organize an esports program.
I am personally the most familiar with leagues and programs that focus on individual play. When we have used team games, we have done it in a recreational format. The fact is, out of necessity and simplicity we have almost always focused our esports efforts on individual competition.
Individual Competition
Why do we focus on individual competitions? For the simple reason that it delivers the most flexibility for participants. Practically any group of strangers or any one individual can be formed into a bracket, a round-robin, or any other form of organized event competition. If people don’t show up, only the people who did not show up are disqualified.
Further, if you are focused on player development, individual competition means that any shortcomings a new player has, only effect the new player.
Finally, with individual competition, odd numbers of competitors are easily solved with byes in the bracket. People are not left out for more than a single match, and being “left out” is usually seen as an advantage because they get to advance through the bracket without having to risk losing.
The challenge with individual competition? Individual leagues are rarely sticky. Yes, there can be some dedicated players, but you as an organizer have to do more to create connections across the group to give people a reason to stay. When the barriers to entry are low, the commitment is also low. It turns out the people who are not committed, are not committed. And the emotional delta between the core gamers and the gamers just seeking out a game for the first time can be enormous. In fact, the heart of the community, if not managed properly can become a kind of barrier in itself.
Creating bridges, connections, and “on-ramps” for new players to grow a community is essential for the health of any organization, especially one defined by mutual interest.
Team Competition
The one major advantage of team competition is that teams, in general, are more sticky. When people work together to achieve a common goal, there are many more opportunities for comraderies and human connections. What’s more, the natural human tribal instinct is reinforced by teamwork, and players can experience more commitment faster in this environment.
These are powerful forces and they stem from our deep-seated psychological needs for connection.
For the program organizer, however, Teams are significantly more work. In one of our earliest and most successful events, we held a 2 player Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tournament with the Boys and Girls Club in Chandler Arizona. We had roughly 250 participants from the local community. We learned a lot that day. One of the challenges was how to handle:
- Teammates who did not show up.
- Teammates who left the competition early.
- Teams where one player was disqualified for bad behavior.
- People who wanted to participate but did not have a teammate.
Over the last 100 tournaments, we’ve operated for colleges and universities around the country, two-player teams for Call of Duty, and Rocket Leagues have generated the most work for the Tournament Organizers and Moderators.
Growing the team size from 2 to 3, or 4 or even 5 only compounds the problems. That is not to say these problems are not worth solving. Not at all, but you have to think about your program differently when you make the commitment to move to teams.
Conclusion
When you are looking into esports, there are a wide variety of variables to consider, not the least of which is are the games you want to build your program around single-player or team-based games? Single-player can be easier to get started and have and feel more inclusive to begin. However, individual esport titles can have problems of generating long term commitment from the players as well as trouble growing the community if the individual competitors become too intense. Team-based programs can generate excellent persistence and more human connection, yet these can be hard to start and struggle to handle odd numbers of players, or individuals wanting to get involved from the beginning.
What is often overlooked in esports is the tremendous amount of time individuals spend on their own learning and getting into a game. There is a saying that you need to play 50 games of League of Legends before you can actually begin to learn the game. 25–50 hours of concentrated play, just to start is an enormous amount of effort on your own. In an entire 8 week little league season the total amount of practice we were able to get with the players rarely exceeded half of that.
Recognizing the individual commitments along with the team dynamics can begin to help you design a program that will be inclusive, persistent, and healthy. The reality is that people have been playing both individual and team sports for a long time. The opportunity I see is for the human to human organizational expertise to come alongside the technology-driven video game systems and augment the player community experience.