My country doesn't have a lot of succesful or big e-sports organisations and the market is booming...

My country doesn't have a lot of succesful or big e-sports organisations and the market is booming. CSGO (counterstrike) just had a Major (that also aired on American TV) with over 1milion viewers. It broke Twitch records.

With prize pools going over 1 million dollars, the idea of esports being a fad and bullshit is just wrong and not of this time anymore. It's here to stay and it will only get bigger.

I've been giving it a lot of thought and I truly believe that such an organisation can be started with the low amount of 150k EUR (a years salary for 5 players + couch included). After the first year I think an organisation in esports would become self sufficient because of prize pools and sponsorships.

Does anyone have any input regarding this? Am I overlooking anything?

I'm going to start up a draft to talk to investors but to be honest, 150K is peanuts for the amount of exposure your org will get by being associated with an esport.

Half the viewers are bots farming drops. Also, the business model still relies mostly on ad income.

You need a lot of connections to boot, plus don't chase gains in industry. Is there room for growth? Yes. But probably not feasible to get into CS:Go/LOL at this point. Trust fund kiddies in China drive up player salaries too much for you to find entry into the market.

Look at other games that are growing quickly, have potential for longetivity, and you have an advantage in. Hots & Overwatch you're already late to the party, the big boys are in.

Wait for the next game...

The argument that half the viewers are bots isn't something I believe. If you look at the stats you can see that viewership always increases by the end of a map or final map, or when it is more popular teams. I've seen an internet analyst deduct that maybe 100-150k of the 1 million viewers of last tournament were in fact, bots for drops.

Ad income is a viable way to sustain a business. The idea is to get 5 players that are still young/unknown but deserve a chance. They don't need nor deserve big salaries yet. I'm talking about starts that are 18-19 years old and get amazing ratings and have good game sense, but want to stick around in uni because arguably that is still their best bet. An organisation structured around the younger players giving them a chance to shine but also help organize a useful schedule to play/compete/study

While I understand where you are getting at, I don't necessarily think that is the case for existing games. A new org can take a chance and get young players and help them, guide them and let them compete. There is a lot of untapped talent still out there.

I'm saying you need massive amounts of money to even qualify for LoL challenger series, you can lose everything so easily and even if you get in, your spot will fetch maybe 500K max.

For LoL, yes. But there are other games out there and, yes, you are also correct that new games can be used once they are out.

The thing is, I think the LoL/Dota/CS competitive scene will reign supreme for a long time to come.

Usually e-sports are regulated by the developer or independent leagues like ESL even though you already provide a "couch".

competitive quake/unreal was so much better than the shit nowadays :(

>$150,000 for salaries, coach

What about travel? Hotels?

Also, 5 players + coach, you're gonna pay them $20,000 a year?? You know top teams like North, Astralis, VP etc make $20,000 a month right?

This is true. And they made nothing in comparison.

Yes and they are established players. I'm talking about getting and sculpting young talent that hasn't really done anything pro because they didn't get the chance. If after the first year (which in esports is a LONG time) it works out, salaries would get an increase.

Ah, just likes in the movies, get 5 young kids and turn them into champions... oops but when they get good a big firm will just lean over and offer them $$$. What will you offer in return?

Nothing. Accept the buyout that is stated in the contract and retire in the bahamas. Movies should end like that more often. Everyone wins.

I currently own an esports team on the rise, it's by no means easy and you need to be extremely dedicated (and lucky) for it to work. It's been two years and it was only a few months ago that we started landing sponsorships, fans, big giveaways, and steadily rising number of twitch followers.

How did you get into it? What game? Care to share some insights / stories?

CS:GO, my interest in the game started when the beta was released and I loved the game. Through my job I met a guy who also loved cs, and we went to a big LAN tournament in Denver where we met big teams such as fnatic, cloud 9, liquid, etc. He shared with me his big dream of starting a gaming organization and we brought two more people in on it. After about 6 months in, and a very promising young team representing us, it dawned on me that the other three guys were stupid as hell and I could easily run it all on my own.

The team had a bad cevo season in late 2015 and my business partners wanted to get rid of the team and focus on heroes of the storm and hearthstone, keeping in mind my partners have missed every single deadline they had and we were falling drastically behind. So I left and took the CS team with me.

The hardest part about it is having five players who won't get sick of each other and quit over a long period of time. I had one very impressive, mature, and competent player so I made him the team captain. He is in charge of the roster, players, and decides on what tournaments to compete in. He is also the "bad" guy and will berate players for doing dumb shit in and out of game. I'm the "good" guy and will compliment the players, tell them how great they're doing, negotiate sponsorship contracts to their best interest, stream their games, provide funding for esea accounts and tournament buy-ins, and so on.

The way it's been successful is that I don't treat it like a business to them, I treat it like a family. I hide the business aspect of it from them so that all they have to do is win and get paid. This also makes them reliant on me, so that they are less likely to leave.

I could go on and on all day

I would love to hear more about it because it seems you are living my dream. How much money did you pump into the org? Do you still have your dayjob? How hard was it to find players (did you pick up single players or use an existing team in need of representation?)

I don't really want to treat is as a business but as a family like you describe.

Damn, the more I think about it, it really seems you are doing what I want to do and I envy you! This is good, because it gives me hope and motivation!

As a European I think my chances of getting decent people are high because NA CS lul

I've pumped approximately $3500 into it so far, which isn't much at all. I plan on pumping in about $30,000 towards the end of the year if the team does well in its next two seasons. If we keep up our current success it'll start turning a profit mid 2018. I keep 5% of stream revenue from all the players and our one dedicated streamer (including donations). I get a substantial percentage from tournament winnings but it varies on the amount won.

You can find a team that needs representation and sign them up, but your team would have more longevity if you start it yourself. I'm not saying you should play, but you need to find at least one all around good player, share your vision, and get started from there.

My teams very first season I had two players quit the day before it started. So the first few games i had my friend and I play in them. I've subbed in as an emergency player a couple times in the early days of the team. I haven't quit my day job yet, but I will in October so long as we can continue dominating ESEA

Very nice. I'm happy for you man!

How did you find your players? By playing yourself or did you actively looked for people using forums and stuff? How old are your players and what mentality do they have?

You're assuming they actually succeed.

What's more likely to happen is that you're going to blow a lot of money.

Travel and housing costs are going to be a huge pain for 5 players for a start. You can be sure that one of them at least will have to be replaced for a reason or another, group dynamic could be shit, they could not be good enough...

At that point there are so many things that can fuck you up that add revenue is probably the least of your problems to consider.

I would offer them housing and food + budget for events including travel and hotels + cut them in on future potential profits. It's less of a risk, easier to control and a good source of motivation. Maybe not attractive enough though.

the bussiness model of any sport-entretainment relies mostly on ad income, doesn't it?

I've done everything imaginable to get players to start out. Forums, friends, talking to people at LAN events. Finding players to get started is the hardest part. I'm at the point now where I can post an add on a few forums and set up tryouts for 30+ people. We tried out 40 people last July and that was not everyone who applied. Players are 18-20 years old and they have a strong mentality of wanting to go pro, I let a player go last November because he was going into law enforcement. Nothing personal, just makes no sense to have him on the team.

I make use out of everyone who is removed from the roster on good terms. If they can do graphic design, I'll pay them to continue working for me in that way. Edit YouTube videos, stream games, anything.