Julia Hiltscher and Tobias M. Scholz eSports Yearbook 2017/18 ESPORTS YEARBOOK Editors: Julia Hiltscher and Tobias M. Scholz Layout: Tobias M. Scholz Cover Photo: Adela Sznajder, ESL Copyright © 2019 by the Authors of the Articles or Pictures. ISBN: to be announced Production and Publishing House: Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt. Printed in Germany 2019 www.esportsyearbook.com eSports Yearbook 2017/18 Editors: Julia Hiltscher and Tobias M. Scholz Contributors: Sean Carton, Ruth S. Contreras-Espinosa, Pedro Álvaro Pereira Correia, Joseph Franco, Bruno Duarte Abreu Freitas, Simon Gries, Simone Ho, Matthew Jungsuk Howard, Joost Koot, Samuel Korpimies, Rick M. Menasce, Jana Möglich, René Treur, Geert Verhoeff Content The Road Ahead: 7 Understanding eSports for Planning the Future By Julia Hiltscher and Tobias M. Scholz eSports and the Olympic Movement: 9 A Short Analysis of the IOC Esports Forum By Simon Gries eSports Governance and Its Failures 20 By Joost Koot In Hushed Voices: Censorship and Corporate Power 28 in Professional League of Legends 2010-2017 By Matthew Jungsuk Howard eSports is a Sport, but One-Sided Training 44 Overshadows its Benefits for Body, Mind and Society By Julia Hiltscher The Benefits and Risks of Sponsoring eSports: 49 A Brief Literature Review By Bruno Duarte Abreu Freitas, Ruth S. Contreras-Espinosa and Pedro Álvaro Pereira Correia - 5 - Sponsorships in eSports 58 By Samuel Korpimies Nationalism in a Virtual World: 74 A League of Legends Case Study By Simone Ho Professionalization of eSports Broadcasts 97 The Mediatization of DreamHack Counter-Strike Tournaments By Geert Verhoeff From Zero to Hero, René Treurs eSports Journey. 114 By René Treur Family Matters: Explaining Why Parental Involvement 117 in eSports Is Changing and Why It’s Important By Joseph Franco From Casual to Professional: How Brazilians Achieved 121 eSports Success in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive By Rick M. Menasce How DotA is Getting Deeper 141 By Sean Carton Competitive Gaming Between the Oceans 148 By Jana Möglich - 6 - The Road Ahead: Understanding eSports for Planning the Future By Julia Hiltscher and Tobias M. Scholz Publishing the eSports Yearbook seems a lit- amnesia due to the current hype. Nothing can tle bit like Groundhog Day – Still we have to stop the growth of eSports; at least, it seems say it: what a turbulent time to be involved in like that. eSports. However, the contributions of this eSports We have both been part of eSports for nearly Yearbook show a specific critical discourse two decades, but still it amazes us just how about the future of eSports. Topics about much eSports is evolving. The amount of governance, institutionalization, power, pro- money invested in eSports each year is still fessionalization, and even nationalism high- increasing while more and more sports teams light potential obstacles for the future of eS- like the Golden State Warriors add eSports ports. Simon Gries analyses the debate about teams to their portfolio. eSports being part of the Olympic movement and focuses in-depth on the IOC Esports Fo- The International in Dota 2 had a staggering rum and how it developed. In the context of prize pool of $25,532,177. Viewer numbers institutionalization and governance, Joost are rising as well as the prize pools and spon- Koot researched the existing governance sorships. Yet, this massive eSports hype structures and highlighted their failures. This might distract us from possible crises in the focus on institutionalization highlights the future: corporate power in the eSports industry, es- Franchising in leagues is something that the pecially from the game developer. Matthew people responsible should be careful with. Jungsuk Howard describes this corporate Franchising may be reasonable for a steady power through the censorship in the profes- and stable growth, but it removes a lot of mo- sional world of League of Legends. Still, eS- mentum from eSports teams. They cannot ports shows excellent potential for the future. develop themselves as freely as they could Therefore, Julia Hiltscher explains how eS- without franchising contracts, which limits ports may become the number one sports in possibilities of new eSports organizations be- the upcoming years. Moving towards the pri- ing born out of eSports teams that made a mary source of income, sponsoring is, still, name for themselves. highly influential in eSports. Bruno Duarte and his team looked into the literature on Rumor has it that franchising fees between sponsoring and derived several benefits and $30 and $60 million are typical in the Over- risks of sponsoring in eSports. A similar ap- watch league. This led to teams that became proach was made by Samuel Korpimies, and backed by corporations with deep pockets. hereby, he is analyzing the process of spon- These companies want to see a return on their soring in-depth by utilizing interviews. investments. Simone Ho is tackling an important topic in There are many obstacles in the future of eS- eSports: Nationalism. It is undeniable that we ports, and the “old-school” eSports people link eSports teams with their nationalities still remember the franchise system of the and even if they are international, we often Championship Gaming Series and how this talk about the roots of the organization. In one league devastated the eSports world. The this chapter, she focuses on the Chinese Case eSports industry recovers as it always does, in League of Legends highlighting the na- but did we learn from those mistakes? At the tionalistic value in eSports, although borders moment, it seems like eSports has historical are technically irrelevant. In the next chapter, - 7 - Geert Verhoeff is discussing the profession- stressing the potential peril of an impending alization of eSports broadcasts deriving that crisis by researching benefits and risks in e- the mediazation is an integral part of the pro- Sports. This underlying pattern in the chap- gress of eSports in recent years. This medi- ters shows that we have to learn from our azation logic can be linked to René Treurs mistakes as well as from our success. eSports eSports journey becoming a prominent com- is an industry of trial and error where just like mentator in eSports. This autobiographical in a video game, we try again and again until story highlights the importance of people in obstacles are overcome. Yet, eSports is an in- eSports and how they influence the broadcast dustry that is no longer a hobby. Therefore, it experience. Still, eSports is in a niche if it is essential to learn from our mistakes and comes to the public interest and especially understand the competitive advantage of e- for the older generation, eSports seems Sports. Consequently, eSports is not like any strange. However, Joseph Franco accentu- other sport, any social movement, and any ates that parental involvement is crucial for other business, the question is: Will we make the success of young eSports players. There smart decisions and benefit from its unique- is a chance to make a career in eSports, but ness in the future, or will we make the same similar to traditional sports, not everybody old mistakes? can make it. Yours, Furthermore, Rick Menasce gives an in- depth analysis of the success story of Brazil- ian Counter-Strike. Especially in Counter- Julia Hiltscher (Christophers) & Strike, the Global South usually is not part of Tobias M. Scholz any success stories, but Brazil is exception- ally successful in Counter-Strike. Sean Car- ton discusses the evolution of Dota 2 and how it changed over the patches. By that, he ... keep on gaming! is emphasizing the impact of these changes P.S. Although there is an ongoing discussion on the game and gameplay. Finally, Jana about the way how eSports should be written, Möglich is reporting about the success of cre- we are staying with the path we chose ten ating a bridge between eSports and politics. years ago. The Guardian is still writing eS- She focuses on the case of Schleswig-Hol- ports, and, at the moment, the scholarly stein, a federal state in Germany. world is preferring eSports as well. There is It becomes evident, that, despite the seem- a linguistic as well as the cultural topic in this ingly blind hype, many researchers are wording that may be interesting for an article. Julia Hiltscher was born in 1983 in Westerstede, Germany. She established eMAG – an online e- Sports magazine – with Tobias Scholz in 2004. She has been a working student at the Electronic Sports League (Turtle Entertainment GmbH) since Feb. 2006, achieved her Master of Arts degree in International Comparative Literature and Media, English and German at Bonn University in June 2009 and has been working at ESL since. As Vice Director Community Management, she has helped to create and run lots of successful tournaments such as the Go4 series, IEM or ENC. She can be contacted at: [email protected] Tobias M. Scholz is currently holding a position as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Siegen. After graduating from universities in Germany and the U.S., he has worked as a research and teaching assistant. His field of research is human resource management and organizational behavior. In 2018 he initiated the University of Siegen eSports team Siegen Bisons and he founded the eSports Lab of the University of Siegen in 2019. He recently published the book “eSports is Business – Management in the World of Competitive Gaming”. - 8 - eSports and the Olympic Movement: A Short Analysis of the IOC Esports Forum By Simon Gries eSports have come a long way in the last dec- and non-endemic companies that have iden- ade. 2018 marks yet another milestone in the tified eSports as a valuable advertising plat- history of this young phenomenon, which has form.