Well over a decade ago, nations cup tournaments were commonplace in esports. The best players of popular esports titles; such as Counter-Strike and even Quake, would rally together and compete as national teams in events hosted by ClanBase, WCG, ESWC and others. As time has moved forward and esports has grown, these events have become less common.
While it’s true that these events crop up, they are rarely seen among industry leading titles such as the top 3 (CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends). Recently there have been events in FIFA, Tekken and PUBG. Going a little further back you can find the Overwatch World Cup, otherwise these events are few and far between.
A case can be made regarding the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Commonwealth Games Federation and Global Esports Federation co-funded the event which had a mix of different titles and ran in parallel with the traditional sports competition. However, players who participated were overshadowed by their peers in professional teams.
This begs the question;
Can we bring back this style of event in mainstream esports?
Before assessing how it can happen, it is worth considering reasons that these events dropped off so many esports event calendars.
A packed existing international and regional event calendar makes it a scheduling nightmare for any third party hosts
To attract the most viewership possible it is necessary to have the best players in the world competing, and that isn’t cheap
Professional teams do not want to lose their edge by benching star players to compete in a national team without being compensated
With the lack of governing bodies in esports, very few game publishers have taken the steps necessary to emulate the environment they create and accommodate an event like this in their community
So, what will it take to bring these events back?
Publishers or Governing Bodies
Although more publishers and developers are beginning to take control of their games’ esports domain, it has taken a long time for sufficient infrastructure to be established to mimic what a governing body does in a traditional sport. And in the majority of games, there is still a long way to go.
The objective of a publisher is going to be based on targeted ROI across the board, while a governing body’s involvement is going to be focused on establishing a sustainable, exciting and fair competitive environment. Professional organisations are wholly dependent on game publishers being conscious of the esports ecosystem and providing a platform for them to exercise their purposes.
A first step towards having a sustainable esports World Cup in a specific game is for the publisher to establish a network of national teams that share a common goal (and follow the same handbook!). Alongside this, driving a concept for the event as well as methods of monetisation to support the investment needed.
Some of the questions publishers will be trying to answer when considering this product:
What resources are required to build this product?
What is the projected revenue via digital assets, broadcast licensing fees and sponsorship?
Will the investment add longevity to the game?
Are there opportunities to cross-sell?
Getting the Best Players
This will involve a governing body or game publisher coordinating with professional teams existing within their competitive circuit. Teams will be cautious of lending players to national teams due to missing out on practising for the main event calendar. It is likely that this will only be possible through adopting a method of financing teams accordingly for each player they must forfeit to national team obligations. For example, FIFA pays football teams a fee for each day one of their players are unable to participate in training activities associated with their club.
Furthermore, there would also need to be a prizepool significant enough to attract top players. This is difficult when in some games, they are already competing for large figures multiple times a year.
Scheduling Complexities
For several games, events will be planned multiple years in advance. And in a variety of instances, these events will be hosted by a range of different third party operators. This becomes less of a challenge for companies like Riot where they have full control of their esports and do not depend on companies like Blast, EFG and others.
It has also always left me wondering why a significant majority of esports events are planned as annual or bi-annual competitions. Why is it not possible to look at scheduling an event every 2 years like the Chess World Championship, or even every 4 years like the Olympics or World Cup?
Looking at the football World Cup, the time-intensity of the competition makes it infeasible to host every year due to other global competitions. However, with the cadence it runs by, it makes the event special, drawing a truly global viewership.
So why reintroduce esports world cups?
Besides just for my own nostalgia around old Quake Nations Cups in the late 2000’s, I believe there is an appetite from esports fans around the world. The connection drawn between players and communities when it is on a national level brings a different meaning rather than international teams. It changes the way we identify with a team we support.
In reality though, it is up to companies like Valve and Riot to execute an idea like this at scale. And when you look at it in even more detail, Riot is potentially the only publisher that is capable of bringing a ‘Nations Cup’ style competition to life. They have a highly complex and structured esports landscape on a regional level that could create an avenue for this. Adding a World Cup competition to their calendar could further separate them from other games, as they are already the industry leaders of franchised esports.
Comments