Lunch with Leviathan #2: Professionalism in eSports

Cloud 9 – Professional League of Legends Team (courtesy of euw.lolesports.com)

Building A Professional Scene

The first player to become a “professional” in Hearthstone was Trump. He gained a sponsorship from Razer during the early days of the game when the landscape was changing pretty rapidly and the beta was chugging forward. I can’t say that I’m as deeply familiar with other professional scenes, since I wasn’t around to see how they grew and started, but this, for me, feels relatively expedient. The willingness of a major company in the gaming industry to support one of the quickly rising personalities of a brand new game would seem to suggest that they believed it a sound business practice to invest in the potential of Hearthstone becoming a viable eSport as soon as possible. If Trump were to just sit at home all day and stream, sure, Razer gets some exposure there, but if he can then travel to global tournaments and spread the brand name through appearances, wearing their gear in different places than it might normally be seen, and putting his own name out there, then that makes their return on the investment all the more potentially powerful.

Next came teams. Despite Hearthstone being a game that is (currently) only played 1v1, it became rather clear that the minds of many would develop greater strategies and decks than the mind of one grinding away at the task. With this knowledge in hand, top-tier players set out to forge alliances with each other for the betterment of their own skills in Hearthstone. We saw the very first culmination of this at BlizzCon’s Innkeeper Invitational where, after Artosis snatched victory from the hands of Kripparrian, he went on to say how he couldn’t have done as well as he did without the help of his friends/teammates strategizing which decks to use and which particular cards to run. Again, this is more development of the landscape in the early stages of the life of Hearthstone, where the game was still only on the precipice of open beta. This watershed moment seemed to open the floodgates as, from here, and especially with ESGN pushing the team format, professional Hearthstone teams started cropping up left and right and with sponsors and partnerships backing them, too.

Players are no longer representing themselves when they travel to something like a Dreamhack Bucharest or an IEM Katowice, but they are now also the representation of their sponsor(s); their actions and behaviors have to be taken into consideration when the consequences of what they say or do carry a price tag.

Artosis’ jacket is laden with sponsor logos. (courtesy of teamliquid.net)

Carrying It Forward

In the end, my discussions with friends fell mostly to speculation and agreement to disagree. I tried to lobby for the importance of establishing protocols of professionalism from now – Day Zero – so that the bar will only be raised higher and higher as the Hearthstone eSports scene takes off and most of my friends essentially stated that I was worrying about nothing and that things would figure themselves out. While I don’t disagree that the future of Hearthstone as an eSport won’t be anything but a bright one, I feel my investment in it is almost similar to a sponsor’s in a player or team. Yes, I haven’t placed any actual dollars into this machine outside of my own collection of cards, but I want so badly for Hearthstone to achieve the same levels of grandeur that we saw with Starcraft II in its heyday and that we currently see with League of Legends. It seems that each month the stakes and prize purses for Hearthstone tournaments continue to escalate, and that’s fantastic. I would hope, too, that the calculated level of professionalism and seriousness towards the competitive scene would similarly increase in tandem.

People want to be entertained; that’s not even a question. However, what’s going to help this thing truly take off in terms of dollars and backing is if a company can tune in, see well-dressed and well-informed casters making dynamic play calling while also keeping the mood entertaining and light (without having to make light of players in order to do so), with a glossy and finished product on screen that is clear to follow and easy to throw oneself into. All I’m arguing for is ease: Make it easy on all of us to have nothing but positive things to say about the scene. Make it easy on all of us to promote this eSport and have it taken seriously by saying, “Look at how dedicated these guys are. This isn’t even a thing yet and they’re treating it like it’s a thing.” We only have everything to gain if we can just make the focus about the sick plays, which create their own drama, and the storylines as rivalries between teams and players develop. Hearthstone is only going to get bigger and bigger from here. You want to be on this train.

The pinnacle of professionalism. It’s about what you say, do, and represent. (courtesy of teamliquid.net)