TEAM LIQUID EXPANDING LIQUID’S E-SPORT FAN-BASE IN CANADA A MRK-6018 report by Yvette Djiena-Engoue, Lukas Kocher, Maximilien van Gaver, Pierre Babineau & Maxime Bérubé. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

E-sport, the competitive playing of video games in a multi-player mode, has been considered, since its apparition in the 1980’s, a niche market aimed at a very specific computer-savvy demographics and without any real appeal to a larger audience.

Nevertheless, the last decade has proven this view wrong in South Korea, with the popular video game StarCraft: Brood War becoming a major trend and growing into a several billion dollar market with its own set of professional teams, tournaments, sponsors, celebrities and live matches gathering hundred of thousands of fans.

With the recent and highly successful release of StarCraft II: Wing of Liberty, which sparked a renewed interest in the franchise, it now appears that the rest of the world is trying to catch on. The number of e-sport matches and viewers have never been as high, sponsorship is becoming ever more common and even some of the American corporate giants have started organizing multi-million dollar events of their own.

As a pioneer of StarCraft e-sport outside of South Korea, is undoubtably one of the most well-known professional team. Its community is by far the largest on the internet and its website receives over two million unique visitors each month and has become the main online hub for everything StarCraft related. Although the team is composed of players of various nationalities and doesn’t wish to be considered as representing any particular country, its current fan-base is mainly American. As a matter of fact, its headquarters are located in New York City and each and every event organized by Team Liquid to date has been taking place in the USA.

However, the Canadian market seems to hold a very strong potential, albeit not fully exploited yet. More than half of its population is considered to be a gamer and the local gaming industry, which has been steadily developing into a $1.7 billion business, is expected to grow by 17% during the next two years. Furthermore, the Canadian e-sport scene has recently met a lot of success, with numerous national organizations heavily promoting it over various events all across the country.

We therefore believe Team Liquid should expand both its fan-base and presence in Canada, with the help of two main marketing actions: organizing a Canadian-players- only Tournament against the team’s players and getting involved in the growing trend of StarCraft matches public broadcasting in bars, also known as BarCraft. TABLE OF CONTENTS

E-SPORT

Definition 1 Birth and rise 1

TEAM LIQUID

History 3 Competitors 5 U.S.P. 6

E-SPORT IN CANADA

Domestic promotion through associations and events 7 Market difficulties 8 E-sport’s economic role in Canada 8

MARKETING STRATEGY

A new Canadian tournament 9 Target groups 11 State of being 11 State of mind 12 Product benefits 12 Product usage 13 Location 13 Distribution 14 Promotion 14

BIBLIOGRAPHY 17 E-SPORT

DEFINITION

Electronic sport can be defined as the competitive playing of video games in a setup similar to regular sport competitions. It covers a broad number of gaming genres, but is usually associated with real-time strategy (RTS), fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), massively multi-player online (MMOG), and racing.

“E-sport is the competitive playing of computer and video games in a multi-player mode. This can be found either on the Internet or locally (during a large organized event). E-sport means: professional players compete in strictly regulated competitions.” Andreas Hebbel-Seeger - International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship - 20121

Games are played competitively at amateur, semi-professional and professional levels, with the most popular having their own leagues and tournaments -such as , , Dreamhack and to name but a few- which provide real-time commenting of games by professional casters, live streaming on the Internet and attractive cash prizes to the winners.

BIRTH AND RISE

Video games have been played competitively since their very beginning. In fact, in 1980, the Space In- vaders Tournament held by Atari was the first Arcade video game competition and attracted more than 10,000 participants, already establishing competitive gaming as a popular and widespread hobby.2 And as soon as 1983, the American organization Twin Galaxies created the U.S. National Video Game Team, whose pro-players ran in a number of competitions worldwide.

E-sport steadily grew during the 90’s, as multi-players video games and events became more common. The company Nintendo held its World Championships in 1990, touring across the United States, with the finals taking place at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. A success that would then be repeated in 1994 with its second edition called the Nintendo Power Fest ‘94.3 In 1993, the legendary FPS Doom in- troduced multi-player death match games over the Internet and proved so successful that Microsoft held the first PC tournament in the U.S.A., Deathmatch ‘95, where national qualifiers flew from as for as Europe to play in the tournament. Eventually, 1997 proved to be a turning point for e-sport, thanks to the Red Annihilation Quake tournament. With Quake’s creator John Carmack promising his own Ferrari 328 GTS convertible to the winner, the event gathered considerable attention and gave Dennis “Thresh” Fong, the winner of both the competition and the car, a “Michael Jordan of gaming” status.4

The unexpected success of this event quickly led to new e-sport scene, with the apparition of recurring tournaments, dedicated teams, commentators and referees and its expansion to a number of other no- table video games such as StarCraft: Brood War, Counter-Strike or WarCraft. As a result, numerous com- peting organizations appeared, each trying to outperform the others and offering enough prize money for some players to actually make a living. In 2001, as the dot-com bubble burst, e-sport continued to grow, especially in South Korea, with some events such as the World Cyber Games Challenge in Seoul attracting

1 Andreas Hebbel-Seeger ; 2012 ; The relationship between real sports and digital adaptation in e-sport gaming 2 Electronic Games ; 1982 ; Players Guide To Electronic Science Fiction Games - http://goo.gl/uBhC0 3 Wikipedia ; 2012 ; Nintendo PowerFest ‘94 - http://goo.gl/7neu8 4 Salon ; 2000 ; The Michael Jordan of gaming - http://goo.gl/b9IBT players with a prize pool of more than $200,000.5 And at the end of that year, the World Cyber Games involved 430 players from 37 nations, with an overall prize money of $300,000.

In 2005, companies started getting involved into e-sport and sponsorship got more common, eventually allowing the e-sport scene to become fully professional. That year, Intel organized the CPL World Tour, setting a new landmark with an unprecedented total prize money of $1,000,000. At the same time, pro- fessional teams began to gain momentum, with the biggest South Korean ones paying annual salaries of more than $200,000 to some of their best -players such as Lim “BoxeR” Yo-hwan.6 And, as a sad but true proof of e-sport’s rise to the professional league, even match fixing scandals were discovered.7

“In Korea, pro-gaming started to get popular around 2000. I thought it was just going to be a fad, but it eventually stuck. Nowadays, going to a “PC Salon” with friends is more or less like going to a bar and it is nothing unusual to talk about games at school between friends. The older generations don’t understand it much, but to me pro-gamers have a great job, just like other professional athletes.” SeunYung Kim ; Université Laval ; 20128

Since then, e-sport has been steadily growing and proving its financial viability. Nowadays, there are more than thirty professional leagues currently in activity around the globe9, and major international companies such as the computer hardware manufacturer Razer10 or even the energy drinks producer Red Bull11 -al- though traditionally associated with more extreme kind of sports- have realized the importance of e-sport as an entry-point into an industry now worth more than $25 billion worldwide.12

5 Team Liquid ; 2011 ; : A Short History of Nearly Everything - http://goo.gl/Crbt6 6 Los Angeles Times ; 2007 ; Gamer is royalty in S. Korea - http://goo.gl/GrJ0K 7 Korea Realtime ; 2012 ; Players Charged In Match-Fixing Scandal - http://goo.gl/fKWjb 8 SeunYung Kim ; 2012 ; Face to face interview. 9 Wikipedia ; 2012 ; Electronic sports - http://goo.gl/y9jpk 10 Razer ; 2012 ; About Razer - http://goo.gl/IOiuR 11 Red Bull ; 2012 ; Pro Gaming - http://goo.gl/bHs3B 12 Entertainment Software Association ; 2012 ; Industry Facts - http://goo.gl/1KxdD TEAM LIQUID

HISTORY

Founded in 2000 by Victor “Nazgul” Goossens, one of the best Dutch professional video gamers by then13, Team Liquid’s debuts were far from ambitious. At a time where professional gaming was still in its very infancy14, TL was in fact only created as an amateur team, also known as “clan”, simply designed to provide a way for the best players of StarCraft: Brood War, a hugely popular video game that sold more than 11 million copies worldwide15, to connect and play together in a non-competitive way.

“Team Liquid as a team started out as a fun team of top players to hang out with and feel connected to. […] Most of the Team Liquid members from StarCraft: Brood War had Team Liquid as their fun clan and another team that actually sponsored them.” - Team Liquid - 201016

Around that same time, StarCraft: Brood War quickly attained a cult status in Korea and set a complete new trend in e-sport. Matches there started being broadcasted on dedicated TV channels, live competi- tions in front of audiences of thousands became a common sight and the best Korean StarCraft players suddenly gained a public notoriety comparable to movie or more traditional sports stars. Even huge Ko- rean conglomerates started investing into this sport of a new kind, and duels between the official Samsung or South Korea Telecom teams became the norm.17

“Video game competitions [in Korea] draw hundreds of thousands of avid fans who watch on mas- sive indoor screens, or on one of two game-only cable channels broadcasting 24 hours a day. [Ko- rean StarCraft progamer] Choi has 90,000 members in his fan club. He pulls down $190,000 a year in salary and winnings combined, in a country where the average annual income is $16,291. At 23, the boyish-looking professional gamer has achieved a level of fame bestowed elsewhere on movie idols, soccer stars and Olympic champions.” Vanessa Hua - San Francisco Chronicle - 200618

Indeed, Victor Goossens quickly realized the huge gap that separated South Korea from the rest of the world when it came to StarCraft and e-sport in general. Whereas Korean-speakers had plenty of media coverage about their favorite game through TV channels, radio, magazines, or websites, the rest of the world wasn’t so lucky and the Team Liquid founder was acutely aware of that disparity. Therefore, in 2002, while moving to Korea, he and his partner Joy “Meat” Hoogeveen launched Teamliquid.net in an effort to bring high-quality StarCraft-related contents and information to the English-speaking world.

“I just became more and more annoyed with all the [Brood War] sites around. The quality of the very biggest sites was just so bad that I thought this community deserved more. That is when we started teamliquid.net and focused on our news section and our forum. I definitely felt like it was going to be the biggest [Brood War] site in the non-Korean scene, but those days [it] wasn’t that big of a goal.” Victor Goossens - Team Liquid - 2010

13 Team Liquid Pro ; 2012 : Victor “Nazgul” Goossens - http://goo.gl/DmVVi 14 Wikipedia ; 2012 : Electronic sports - http://goo.gl/sCPJP 15 Edge ; 2009 ; Blizzard Confirms One “Frontline Release” for ‘09 - http://goo.gl/Ajcuq 16 PCWorld ; 2010 ; eSports Update: Interview With Victor ‘Nazgul’ Goossens - http://goo.gl/CBA30 17 Spiegel ; 2006 ; The Boys with the Flying Fingers:South Korea Turns PC Gaming into a Spectator Sport - http://goo.gl/L07l4 18 San Francisco Chronicle ; 2006 ; Video game players score big money in South Korea - http://goo.gl/CbQvQ Two Global StarCraft II League players during an on-stage interview ; Korea ; 2010.19

Global StarCraft II League audience ; Korea ; 2010.

19 Photographs by GOMTV - http://goo.gl/7nTNQ Much to their surprise, the public reaction was highly positive and Teamliquid.net rapidly grew into one of the largest StarCraft community on the internet. In 2010, the extremely successful release of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty20 gave it another major impulsion, definitely cementing Team Liquid as the major English StarCraft hub and providing the team’s staff with the opportunity of changing their passion into a paid job and open an office in the USA.21 Sponsors also began to express interest in the Liquid universe and the involvement of companies such as The Little App Factory, Razer and TwitchTV22 made possible the creation of the Liquid professional team and the hiring of several full-time StarCraft players23 who quickly became successful.24 Nowadays, the website receives over two million unique visitors each month, while providing fans with everything they need to keep in touch with both StarCraft’s general news and Team Liquid specific information.

“We have become more than just a news and message board. TL runs its own tournaments like the $25,000+ prize pool TSL and other live programs like Liquibition exhibition matches and the fan favorite TL: Attack! where pros chat and play with TL members. Our site also functions as a central hub for tournaments, StarCraft-related events, and offline meetups. […] Powered by over 100 staff members from all over the world, we maintain a StarCraft Wiki called Liquipedia, a database of every professional StarCraft game ever played in the TLPD, and an extremely active forum where thou- sands of users interact every minute of the day.” About TL.net - Team Liquid - 201225

COMPETITORS

E-sport being quite a new field, there aren’t many American teams to compete with Team Liquid. EG, an American team founded in 1999 that has been particularly successful over the years26, is nevertheless often viewed as their “archnemesis”, even though EG’s players aren’t restricted to StarCraft only but actually compete in a wide range of games.27 And at a broader level, since e-sport is inherently virtual and knows no real frontier, it could be easily argued that Team Liquid is also competing with every major StarCraft II e-sport team that provides services in English, such as the Russian Team Empire28 or the British Team .29

However, being one of the pioneers of non-Korean websites devoted to StarCraft gave Team Liquid a real first-mover advantage and it has pretty much no real competitor when it comes to providing news and information on the game itself. In fact, nearly all the players from concurrent teams have an account on Teamliquid.net and are an active part of the Liquid community. And even professional e-sport casters and commentators -a skyrocketing profession30- such as Sean “Day[9]” Plott31, while providing analysis and commentaries that might compete with the ones available on Teamliquid.net, actually use the Liquid website as their primary way of interacting with their fans and make sure to have their broadcasts listed in Team Liquid’s “Now Playing” streams.32

20 Eurogamer ; 2010 ; StarCraft II sells 3 million in a month - http://goo.gl/sBoNb 21 Team Liquid : 2010 ; TeamLiquid HQ - http://goo.gl/fn5R6 22 Team Liquid Pro : 2012 : Sponsors - http://goo.gl/jBG9z 23 Team Liquid Pro ; 2012 ; Team Roster - http://goo.gl/9jYHv 24 Liquipedia ; 2012 ; Team Liquid - http://goo.gl/czWpI 25 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; About TeamLiquid - http://goo.gl/Npv8O 26 ; 2012 ; About Evil Geniuses http://goo.gl/5KIkK 27 Evil Geniuses ; 2012 ; Divisions & Players - http://goo.gl/QYb1a 28 Team Empire ; 2012 - http://goo.gl/71bSP 29 Team Dignitas ; 2012 - http://goo.gl/qab9o 30 Eurogamer; 2010 ; The Men Who Stare At Protoss - http://goo.gl/MRG33 31 Day[9]TV ; 2012 - http://goo.gl/cFQEG 32 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; StarCraft 2 and Brood War Live Video Streams - http://goo.gl/SykkV What’s more, each and every StarCraft event managed by another team or organization, such as the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship for example, gets heavily discussed and analyzed on Teamliquid. net33 on a day-by-day basis34 and is covered in details in Liquipedia.35 Even South-Korean-only events are no exceptions, thanks to the work of volunteer translators.36 As a result, Team Liquid actually deeply benefits from a strong e-sport scene and an active competition, since they eventually bring regular new contents to its own website and therefore permanently reinforce the interest of its very own community.

“As for the community I think our place is pretty solid right now. There doesn’t seem to be so much competition. Competition is good to keep everyone striving for improvement but it should be our goal to do so regardless so it’s not a major concern for us.” Victor Goossens - Team Liquid - 201137

U.S.P.

This community is, in fact and by far, Team Liquid’s real Unique Selling Proposition, that allows both the team and the website to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Team Liquid’s staff takes pride in being tailored to its community and interacting with it in open and direct ways. This honest communica- tion with its community is also reflected in Team Liquid players’s attitudes that are known for being nice, positive and personable individuals, often interacting with their fan-base.

Indeed, this kind of rarely seen behavior can only give birth to a die-hard community full of loyal fans, who then turn into “consumactors” and become “co-creators and ambassadors of the sports brand.”38 It is therefore no wonder that the community involvement is extremely high, with more than 200 volunteers giving their time for free to Team Liquid while writing or designing new articles, keeping Liquipedia up to date, moderating the forums, translating Korean news or even programming new features on the website.

Recently, this passion and commitment for the team even translated into the successful launch of a line of merchandising items, such as T-shirts, mousemats, pins, or posters displaying the Team Liquid logo.39 To nobody’s surprise, most of those got sold-out in mere hours after their introduction40, proving once again the uniqueness of this fan-base and the strength and appeal of the Team Liquid brand, still unheard of in the Western e-sport market.

“Our forums are home to one of the most passionate, loyal, and active userbase in video gaming. We feel that our community is an anomaly. We’ve grown larger and stronger every year even as StarCraft aged past a decade. With the release of StarCraft 2 this summer, our registration and user levels are growing at a frightening pace, throwing casual and hardcore gamers together in a big mosh pit of StarCraft love.” About TL.net - Team Liquid - 2012

33 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; [IEM WC] Group Stage Preview - http://goo.gl/Av5eI 34 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; IEM WC] Day 1 Recap - http://goo.gl/WHHua 35 Liquipedia ; 2012 ; IEM Season VI - World Championship - http://goo.gl/V4jYz 36 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; [SPL] Round 3 Week 5 - Playoffs Here We Come - http://goo.gl/GmbBn 37 Gamelux ; 2011 ; Starcraft2.nl interviews Victor Nazgul Goossens - http://goo.gl/9kKW0 38 André Richelieu ; 2012 ; A journey in sports marketing - http://goo.gl/LCjTp 39 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; Store - http://goo.gl/T63Jg 40 Team Liquid ; 2011 ; [Sold Out] Liquid Team Shirt Batch 1 - http://goo.gl/ktX92 E-SPORT IN CANADA

KEY FACTS ABOUT THE CANADIAN GAMING INDUSTRY Estimated direct economic impact $1.7 billion Industry growth in the past 2 years 11% Projected growth over the next 2 years 17% Average age of a Canadian gamer 33 years old Percentage of Canadians considered gamers 59% Percentage of the market (Male ; Female) 62% ; 38% Canadian households that own a computer 96% Number of video game companies 348 Percentage of gamers who use a computer 49% *Is considered a gamer someone who has played a computer, or video game, in the past 4 weeks ESAC - 201141

The current market in Canada for the e-sport industry is fairly limited. Although foreign presence and local interest are both growing and influencing trends, the local scene for e-sport exposure is still very narrow. Few statistics and researches are available for this industry (even less for the specific game StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty), but we will nevertheless offer an overview of some local e-sport organizations.

DOMESTIC PROMOTION THROUGH ASSOCIATIONS AND EVENTS

Some organizations, such as the E.S.C. (E-Sports Canada), are leading the charge in promoting e-sport in Canada, as quoted from their website:

“[E.S.C.’s] immediate goals are to increase awareness of the Electronic Sports market in Canada.” About E-Sports Canada - E.S.C - 201242

Their strong expansion across Canada has made finding new partners a priority. Among other services, they organize and coordinate events, offer updates on the international industry, and provide live stream- ing of events with English commentary.

You can also find websites such as esportscanada.net, which offers a podcast called The Meta-Game, that covers the Canadian and international Starcraft II scene. Their efforts are focused on their local, Vancouver BC area, in hopes to bring the competitive gaming community in BC and Canada together to grow the E- Sport market and awareness.43

Another organization, the ESC (e-Sports Championship), aims to “[…] build a sustainable and diverse e- sports ecosystem […].”44 Their events, usually bi-monthly, are primarily held in Canada, and are open to all participants, hence attracting a large number of Canadian gamers. LAN ETS (3,000+ members), a compe-

41 ESAC ; 2012 ; 2011 Essential Facts About the Canadian Computer and Video Game Industry - http://goo.gl/ZXe6w 42 E-Sports Canada ; 2012 ; About E-Sports Canada - http://goo.gl/UAQsS 43 eSports Canada ; 2010 ; About Us - http://goo.gl/NPBW8 44 e-Sports Championship ; 2012 ; About Us - http://goo.gl/HkNuM tition held in Montreal each year, is another example of Canadian competitions. This year, the competition had over 750 participants and a payout of $15,000.45

Other smaller local organizations, such as GO (Gaming Ottawa), host local tournaments to residents inter- ested in e-sport. GO, already with 500+ members, is a great example of local implication to raise aware- ness.46

Finally, Team Liquid’s website has a list of BarCraft events across Canada. For example, the next upcoming BarCraft event is this coming March 25th for the MLG Winter Championship. There are 12 BarCraft events across Canada, and many of them already have 100+ confirmed attendees.47

MARKET DIFFICULTIES

Just like any other given industry, some companies may not survive their market. That has been the case for PGL (Pro Gaming League), who’s activities lasted less than 2 years through 2007-2009.48 With a com- munity of over 5,100 members49, the organization had tournament payouts of up to 10,000$ with 4 main games used for competition. Their average attendance of 290+ participants and 100+ audience members weren’t enough for owners to continue investing, and the league competition ended after only 4 tourna- ments.

E-SPORT’S ECONOMIC ROLE IN CANADA

The ESAC not only reports that nearly 16,000 people are directly employed in the 3rd largest video game industry, here in Canada, (compared to 32,000 in the USA), but also that almost 70% of the large Canadian video game companies are located in Quebec! That’s 8,236 employees in 86 companies, with over $733M in yearly spending (market expected growth at 16%, with historical growth at 13%). When comparing the Quebec market to the overall Canadian market, the latter has a lower growth rate, with a past growth of 11%, and a projected growth of 17%, a point short of the Quebec market.

Computer gaming hardware sales increases illustrates a growth in a market directly linked to the E-sports industry. As Figure 1.1 shows, the overall growth in the world’s market is in a steady incline, as North America’s market has gone from an approximate value of 6.5$ Billion in 2008 to an estimated 10$ Billion in 2012 (Pollack & Peddie, 2007). The ESAC (Entertainment Software Association of Canada) reports that the Canadian retail’s sales of software and hardware in 2010 was of $1.7B, of which $513M was for gaming hardware.

45 LAN ETS ; 2012 - http://goo.gl/4qr2y 46 Gaming Ottawa ; 2012 - http://goo.gl/vxiov 47 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; BarCrafts and Meetups List - http://goo.gl/8YItn 48 WIkipedia ; 2012 ; Pro Gaming League - http://goo.gl/tneId 49 Pro Gaming League ; 2012 ; Forums - http://goo.gl/NhHvS MARKETING STRATEGY

Our goal is to implement a strategy that will build a strong Team Liquid fan-base in Canada. Since the team is still rather unknown there, we believe in the need to develop a strategy that will both strengthen the existing bond with current Canadian fans while attracting a new audience.

A NEW CANADIAN TOURNAMENT

Tournaments are a big part of Team Liquid’s current marketing strategy and are already used to reinforce the involvement, commitment and participation of its fan-base. Current Team Liquid’s events are:

• TeamLiquid StarLeague (TLS) With the help of the company Razer, Team Liquid launched in March 2008 the TeamLiquid StarLeague, where every registered user could participate to this tournament with prizes going up to $10,000.50 The TSL is free with a live broadcasting. The best players are exposed to all the community, as stated in its website: it is the “time to be a super star.”51 This tournament strengthens the feeling of belonging to the community as they can all participate to matches, hence practicing the e-sport they love.

• Team Liquid StarCraft 2 Open (TL SC2 Open) This is another tournament opened to every registered user since 2010. Players of all levels can play against each other, and the games are broadcasted after the event.52 This contest focuses on Star- Craft 2 lovers. TL SC2 Open targets a certain type of fans and users, and offers them only StarCraft 2 matches. Consumer segmentation appears to be another marketing tool used by Team Liquid to tailor their offers and products to each segment.

• Team Liquid Attack (TL Attack) Started in 2008, the TL Attack, a rip-off of the Battle.net Attack made by South Koreans professional teams, is a single elimination game where professionals and top foreign players play against ordinary players (usually fans) “while talking to the commentators.”53 To make the game harder, the identity of the player is hidden so that the adversary may not guest the gaming style of his/her opponent. TL At- tack allows the humanization of those players, as they are asked to comment while playing. These Star players may appear more approachable. This competition gives a human touch to the whole industry.

• Liquibition Created in 2002, Liquibition is a small series of matches opposing Team Liquid players and foreign professionals (especially South-Korean) to help develop the team’s gaming style and international exposure.54 This seems to be a great marketing tool that might have increased the visibility of this successful non-Koreans team, and still helps to improve Team Liquid’s awareness all over the e-sport industry.

• Team Liquid Arena (TL Arena) In this instance, professionals star players play against common or regular registered fans. Of course,

50 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; Razer TSL - http://goo.gl/blS5A 51 Team Liquid ; 2008 ; TeamLiquid StarLeague - http://goo.gl/btsSk 52 Team Liquid ; 2012 ; TL StarCraft 2 Open Tournaments - http://goo.gl/VGAix 53 Liquipedia ; 2012 ; Team Liquid Attack! - http://goo.gl/9TjtF 54 Liquipedia ; 2012 ; Liquibition - http://goo.gl/iE6fY to make this game fair, the professionals have handicaps that hinder their game.55 Moreover, they do not know which handicaps they will have. Contrary to others sports where athletes may appear dis- tant, with these types of tournament, the distance between regular or common players and Star play- ers seems blurred. They are all part of the same community: either Star Craft or general e-sport lovers. TL Arena, like the others contests, emphasizes the feeling of belonging. Moreover, this competition has a special twist (the professionals’ handicaps) which reinforces their humanization, hence making their skill level more-or-less similar to the average player’s.

As detailed in the history of e-sport section, past experiences have shown that events are a great way for e-sport to raise its awareness and visibility, and we therefore believe the best way to address both fan segments would be to organize a Canadian StarCraft tournament where amateur would compete against each other in order to get the chance to play against one of Team Liquid’s pro-players in the finals.

The event will be set up as a tournament where everybody can sign up and buy a seat, similar to a poker tournament. These tournaments last usually for one weekend and the participants will be provided with food and a place to stay overnight. In order to cover these costs, an entry fee of $50 will be charged. Due to the space limitation of the tournament, “the first come first served” rule will be applied for the ticket distribution. The gamers will have to bring their own equipment, the way it is usually done.

The structure of our tournament would be the same as most of the current TL events, with one-on-one matches. The games will be held in a hall and there will be a stage for important games. To attract the existing fans, the best 8 players of the qualification tournament will have the chance to play against one of the 8 members of Team Liquid, who will be on site.

The winner of the whole tournament will get a one-year contract as a player of Team Liquid, since he/she has proven that he/she can compete with the best.

In order to attract new fans to increase the fan-base, the fans will be provided with introduction courses and background info. An experienced shout caster will comment the most important games live (and via online stream) and explain basic facts on the gameplay and the strategy. This will give the inexperienced fans a good start and make them familiar with the game.

Team Liquid’s sponsors, such as Razer, will also be given space to exhibit and sell their equipment and ac- cessories. This will provide existing fans with a more enriched experience and will introduce new fans to the world of e-sport. On the upside, this will also be another stream of income for the event coordination.

55 Team Liquid ; 2010 ; TL-Arena VII - http://goo.gl/ZVw8c TARGET GROUPS

First of all, we can divide the target groups56 in two different sections of state of being. On one hand we have the existing fans, on the other hand there are new users which are unknown of Team Liquid yet, and which we are trying to introduce to the world and community of Team Liquid. Since 96% of all Canadians have access to a computer, accessibility cannot be seen as a restriction.

STATE OF BEING

Dimensions Existing Fans New Fans Geography Canada Canada Age 12-45 12-45 Income Low-Medium Low-Medium Education All All Gender Mostly male Mostly male Sexual Orientation All All Race/Ethnicity Mostly Asians Mostly Caucasian State of being.

The state of being of the two different target groups looks very similar. Since we focus on the national market, all consumers will be in Canada. Whether from a city or a rural area is not very important since computer games can be played everywhere and Team Liquid’s website can be accessed from all over the country. Nevertheless, we expect the population of urban areas to be more receptive to games and tech- nology in general.

Furthermore the event will take place in a city. Therefore, the inhabitants of a town will have lower travel costs, which make them more likely to attend the event. Having the event in a big city is common for quite simply any type of event, as the population is denser, hence increasing the physical accessibility to a large amount of potential consumers.

We are thinking the typical age of a potential Team Liquid fan is about 12-45 years old. Whereas the aver- age computer gamer is 33 years old, a very high percentage of young people spend their time with com- puter games.57 Younger (less than 12 years) individuals don’t show the skills and the financial means yet to participate in a complex strategic game. Older individuals tend to focus more on family and career and will likely to lose interest in computer games.

Education and sexual orientation doesn’t have a major influence since Team Liquid fans could be found in all school levels (Pupils, Students etc.) and all sexual orientations. The typical current consumer-base is built on Canadians from Asian descendants. Our new fans will mostly be Caucasian since this ethnicity represents a large proportion of the accessible market (approximately 60% of the population58). Therefore, the larger pool of accessible consumers will enhance our chances of expanding Team Liquid’s fan-base.

56 Bernard Mullin, Stephen Hardy, William Sutton ; 2007 ; Sport Marketing - 3rd edition - P. 133 57 ESAC ; 2011 ; Essential Facts About the Canadian Computer And Video Game Industry. 58 City of Toronto ; 2012 ; Toronto’s racial diversity - http://goo.gl/J66ib STATE OF MIND

The target market can also be segmented by its state of mind, that is its personal traits and lifestyle. Ac- cording to the Values and Lifestyle typology, the following segments can be found: Innovators, Thinkers, Achievers, Experiencers, Believers, Strivers, Makers, and Survivors.59 The two different target sections can be assigned to different segments.

Existing Fans New Fans Segment Innovators, Thinkers, Strivers Experiencers, Believers State of mind.

Existing fans belong to the category segment of innovators, thinkers and strivers. They are mostly indi- viduals who spend a lot of time with their computer and try to improve or adjust their hardware or even to write program codes. Furthermore, they like to read or post news and facts about Team Liquid since this is a unique feature of Team Liquid’s community website. Therefore, they can be categorized as thinkers who are part of a living community and try to shape it with their personal ideas. People who tend to socialize through forums and chats are likely to be introverted issue oriented and have a profound knowledge in their field of interest.

New fans that we will attract to the event will more likely belong to the category of experiencers and be- lievers. They are not part of the Team Liquid community yet, and are looking for a fascinating show and an unforgettable experience.

PRODUCT BENEFITS

We can assign several core equities to the single target groups that were introduced by the NFL.60 Both target groups have will have different benefits from the event.

Core Equity Existing Fans New Fans Action/Power Epic Battles Entertainment History/Tradition Short History No History Thrill/Release Tension, Cheering Teamwork/Competition Gaming teams Authenticity Computers, cables, Neon-Light Unifying Force Equal minds, socially accepted Fan Groups Product benefits.

Existing fans will expect more Action in the sense of battles between other gamers. Since they are familiar with the game and the teams, they will appreciate strategic moves and tactics. They will also focus on coherent teamwork and an authentic environment in the sense that they are interested in the technical as- pect of the event. Additionally, existing fans can meet with their community and be part of a small society with equally minded people. Since e-sport is a relatively new and upcoming sport, the history of the team is not very important to nei- ther of the fan groups. The new fans will benefit from spectacular entertainment rather related to a good

59 Bernard Mullin, Stephen Hardy, William Sutton ; 2007 ; Sport Marketing - 3rd edition - P. 140 60 Bernard Mullin, Stephen Hardy, William Sutton ; 2007 ; Sport Marketing - 3rd edition - P. 141 show and emotions. They may form fan groups and cheer for their new discovered favorite team and ap- preciate an unforgettable experience.

PRODUCT USAGE

Consumers can be divided according to their usage of the product. In many markets, 80% of the consump- tion comes from 20% of the consumers. In our case he existing fans are most likely to be heavy consumers and will account for the lion’s share of consumption.61

Segment Existing Fans New Fans Heavy Watch every game, spend sev- Entertainment eral hours gamin a day Medium Follow some games, game oc- Follow some games, game oc- casionally casionally Light Watch games sometimes with friends, played StarCraft a few times Product usage.

LOCATION

In many aspects, the decision on the place where to conduct the event is the most important.62 Even though, in our case, it has no long run implications since it is a one-time event, there are several factors to be considered.

Since there is lot of equipment needed such as the computers, the network, the screens and an indoor hall, the event will be held in a city. As previously mentioned, this will also simplify the access to the event for a lot of people. The city should be able to provide up to date infrastructures and be receptive for techno- logical contents. Furthermore, the best place to conduct the event will be a place where we can find the average consumer as described in the “Target Group” section above.

As the largest city in Canada, and as a hub for surrounding cities like Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Buf- falo, Toronto will be the best city to conduct the event.

This city has a high ethnical diversity – close to 25% of the population in Toronto is of Asian background, which answers to our “existing fans”. Further factors to be considered are the accessibility, the experience and the comfort. The location should provide parking spots and be easily accessible by public transport for people that come from far away.

Since the participants of the tournament are staying there for a whole weekend, the location should pro- vide enough comfort (bedding, toiletries …). Also, considering that this will be only a one-time event, the design will not play a major role because it has no long term impact.

61 Bernard Mullin, Stephen Hardy, William Sutton ; 2007 ; Sport Marketing - 3rd edition - P. 142 62 Bernard Mullin, Stephen Hardy, William Sutton ; 2007 ; Sport Marketing - 3rd edition - P. 342 DISTRIBUTION

Team Liquid’s current promotion for their events, as well as their ticket distribution, is mainly done through their website. However, since we want to optimize and maximize the outcome of the event with the larg- est showing of participants, we will be using extra distribution/promotion efforts. In order to simplify the access to the event, the tickets will be distributed though several channels.

• First, there will be online sales of the tickets on the Team Liquids homepage to address all the existing fans of Team Liquid (such as the current strategy).

• Second, there is already interest for e-sport associations in Canada to develop partnerships (such as GO, E.S.C. and others seen in the section of “E-Sports Market in Canada“). One possibility would be to provide these organizations with a specific amount of tickets and enable them to distribute them to their members. This would generate easy access to their fan-bases, and would outsource a part of the promotion.

• Thirdly, we could have partnerships with current establishments that have BarCraft events (these will be discussed in the next section). In short, these bars and pubs could be another distribution channel, and would offer another direct link to existing fans.

Overall, these alternative distribution channels will take pressure off online promotion through the TL website, and offer an alternative to access a high number of potential participants at limited -or no- costs.

PROMOTION

Team Liquid is what we commonly call a “born global” company or team. From the beginning, Team Liquid aimed to have an international appeal and visibility. Form its website to the BarCraft sessions to the events, this team’s marketing actions fall in line with its marketing strategy with goals as international appeal, ex- pansion and visibility. Promotion can be seen as being an overall strategy for the event, because most of the activities - from distribution channels to the website – are part of the promotion for the event. Team liquid created a community through its website, TeamLiquid.net , where fans can gather and share information about this sport. Professional players can also participate to the conversations via the forum. Furthermore, this website allows fans to see all the different upcoming events in this sports industry. This website is well-developed and maintained with features such as forum, events, BarCraft, and also Liquipe- dia and is currently a strong promotion tool for the brand. They offer, amongst other things:

• Broadcasting LiquidTeam.net offers live broadcasting of sporting events, videos of games and full coverage of major events. Liquipedia, as indicated by its name, is Team Liquid’s own Wikipedia page filled with docu- mented information about Team Liquid, Brood War, StarCraft and StarCraft 2. TeamLiquid.net was developed in 2001 by Victor Goossens (founder of the team) and Joy Hoogeveen (one of the first four members). Via its website, Team Liquid offers interesting, original features, such as Liquidbet and Fantasy.

• Liquidbet Liquidbet allows fans to simply register or create an account and bet on players and teams during matches and competitions . Before each game, a registered fan can log in to vote for a player or a team, and then follows his/her picks and the number of points he/she has cumulated through his/her wins. It is a free competitive betting tool used to make e-sport and e-sport betting more fun, to create competition between e-sport lovers, and to attract e-sports friends that loves competition. This free betting site allows the fans who bet to compete against each other for points and to be placed first (ranking) . Because it is free, it is less demanding and procures no stress. Fans also love to compete and be a part of the community. The feeling of “belonging” is reinforced, and this tool is in line with the mission of the company which is to serve the e-sport lovers and not to make profits from them.

• Fantasy As stated on its website, TeamLiquid.net, “TL Fantasy StarCraft is a system that allows you to create your own fantasy StarCraft team in either the Korean Proleague (Brood War) or the GomTV GSTL (StarCraft 2)” . Every fan that has an account with TeamLiquid.net can create his/her team with players to which he/she wishes by spending an allocated amount of points, and then manage the whole team. The team gains and losses points each season while competing with other fantasy teams; moreover, the team manager (fan) can trade and buy players. At the end, the winning team receives a “trophy icon on his/her account” . This is another great marketing tool used by Team Liquid to increase the commitment and participation of the fans. First, it improves their number of users as fans need to be registered to manage their own team. Fans create and manage their own teams as their idols do. This brings them closer to their idols and Team Liquid appears more appealing to its fans.

• BarCraft events In order to increase the awareness and the fan-base of Team Liquid, promotion plays a major role. One way TL promotes their events is through BarCraft events. The BarCraft section of the website presents the list of all the BarCraft events in the world. “A BarCraft event typically involves watching a tourna- ment in a bar, similar to how sports bars operate” Fans can watch StarCraft games and tournaments while enjoying drinks and snacks.

According to Liquipedia, the BarCraft phenomena begun in April 2011 by the initiative of one Team Liquid user (“primadog”), the redditor “o_Oskar” with the help of the Chao Bistro in Seattle (USA) . Barcraft quickly expanded to others countries in North America and Europe. The barcraft idea did not come from the Team Liquid marketing team, but came from a fan and user; this proves that this team’s marketing strategy (through website) was able to increase fans’ involvement, identity and commitment to the team and that fans are part of the management team as co-creators and ambassadors. Team Liquid is associ- ated with BarCraft which helps reinforce the crafting community and increase its visibility and popularity.

For our event, collaboration with existing bars that conduct BarCraft events could be established. During BarCraft events leading up to the event, there would be a strong potential to inform current fans of their upcoming opportunity to participate in our event. As previously mentioned, these locations would also play the role of distributors in the weeks leading up to the event, and the event itself could be broadcasted live there. This allows a quick access to the existing fan-base and a spread promotion of the event.

During the BarCraft events, as well as our live event, there will be a live connection to the different partici- pating bars in order to create an intense bond between the event and the bars. All participating bars will be part of a competition among the “Liquidest” bar. This means the bar that can show the most support for team liquid in any form (Shirts, banners, cheering etc.) will win free merchandise of Team Liquid. TL currently offers a wide variety of merchandising through its online store on their website. We can find: • T-shirts • Posters • Mouse mat • Key pad • Lapel Pin • Team Liquid App Moreover, this team had the great idea to propose a Team Liquid application that helps fan follow the team and the Star Craft sport industry on their I-phones and others mobile devices.

One way to address new fans would be to distribute a leaflet with an introduction to the game and the most important rules.

If our event is successful at creating a larger fan-base for Team Liquid, a BarCraft bar in Toronto could be transformed in permanent Fan-Bar, similar to the concept of the Cage aux Sports in the province of Québec. A similar concept could be established for the Team Liquid followers. This would be a long-term goal of the strategy because in order to be sustainable it needs a strong fan-base. Also, once we reach this level of success in Toronto, we will be able to expand to other cities in Canada (most likely to Vancouver: High ethnic diversity, its proximity to Seattle, the birthplace of BarCraft). Our future expansion is still to be determined, as our current plan in Toronto already ranges for 5-7 years. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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