A diverse panel of eSports industry leaders met today at PAX East 2017 to answer questions from the audience and discuss at length the future of eSports. Many topics were on approached, but the majority of the questions involved the benefits of partnering with traditional sports teams, maximizing the strength of a professional player, and the future of eSports broadcasting.

Panelist:

Bryan de Zayas [Global Gaming Director, Dell]
Steve Arhancet [Co-CEO, Team Liquid]
Jonathan Kemp [CEO, Team Dignitas]
Christina Alejandre [General Manager, ELEAGUE]

■ How can eSports learn from traditional sports?

Jonathan Kemp, CEO of Dignitas, explained that the credibility and legacy of traditional sports team is invaluable. Team Dignitas benefits from their partnership the 76ers in a number of ways, but the most valuable is adopting the sports culture of supporting athletes every step of the way. Dignitas is learning how to offer their teams resources that make it possible to “squeeze the extra 2-3% performance” out of a player.

These resources are what allows professional athletes to worry less about their personal life and thrive alongside their team. Dignitas players enjoy auxiliary support staff that help them with all aspects of their life, including their finances, sleep schedule, and even their diet. These resources make players happier and perform better, allowing them to focus 100% on their game.

Kemp went on to stress the numerous benefits the 76er’s have added to Dignitas, including media training for their players and the development creative and sophisticated ways to attract more fans and grow their audience. Traditional sports understand the value of true fans (as opposed to just viewers) and have made it a science on how to best attract them.

Christina Alejandre, General Manager of ELEAGUE, doubled down on the importance of learning lessons from traditional sports, focusing on the storytelling and myth building that ELEAGUE has brought to their broadcasts with great success. ELEAGUE’s twitch channel just recently broke a world record, exceeding 1 million concurrent viewers during the grand finals of their 10th ELEAGUE Major. Alejandre thanks the focus on quality storytelling for this.

"Enabling the aspiring pro-gamer would help elevate the entire industry."

Steve Arhancet, Co-CEO of Team Liquid, added that the value of wisdom coaches and general managers from traditional sports bring to eSports coaches is immeasurable. Questions on how to deal with stubborn players, big egos, or problems within the roster have been analyzed ad-nauseum in the traditional sports world, and Team Liquid’s partnership with sports legends like Magic Johnson provides this insight.

■ On maximizing the Pro Player

Kemp revealed, if given the resources, Dignitas would love to research what it takes to bring the above-average players mechanics to the professional level. Citing the statistic that claims professional gamers on average need to make 7 decisions a second, Kemp explained how, with eye movement and APM tracking devices, it would be possible to further understand these rapid decision making and train players with increased precision.

"LoL is a game about predicting as a team and acting in unison."

Bryan de Zayas, Dell’s Global Gaming Director, explained that the journey to become a pro-gamer can one day be streamlined. He went on to state that investing in ways to “enable the aspiring pro-gamer” would help “elevate the entire industry” and help eSports grow even faster. As it stands now, YouTube videos, user-generated content and grinding games played is the best way for players to improve, but the future could easily include training regimes backed by science, or even courses for those looking to improve.

Arhancet thinks that one of the problems eSports organization have to understand in the future is the fundamental difference between a good player and a professional. He thinks it is much more complex than mechanic skill and believes more studying needs to happen on the topic.

For example, he cites that visual screening (the ability to predict what will happen based on visual information) is a crucial factor in being able to identify a player’s ability to ascend to professional skill level. Older competitive cultures like the professional Chess scene already understand this and routinely test and train players' ability to enhance visual screening processes.

■ On closing the skill gap between Asian and Western team

Arhancet spoke from experience and used Team Liquid’s LoL team as an example. Team composition and understanding what type social agreement a team benefits the most from is vital. Some teams have 1 dominant personality and 4 followers. Some have a more even 3-2 split. Before a team looks to improve, they must understand whether or not the structure of their team is hurting them or helping them.

"Western teams are at risk of burning out when introduced to the Korean training culture too quickly.”

He claimed that LoL is a game about predicting as a team and acting in unison. Because of this, LoL teams need intense scheduling and a regimented training culture to grow this automatic response-- Korean teams know this and it is engrained in their eSports culture. Team Liquid’s star LoL player, Piglet brings this culture with him and Arhancet is working to provide that for all of Team Liquid.

Kemp agrees with the importance of a regimented schedule, but concedes that managers can’t burn their players out. The Dignitas LoL team has Mondays off and, if teams put the work in adhering to a regimented schedule, organizations must keep in mind that travel, resting, training, and social lives must all be balanced. Western teams are at risk of burning out when introduced to the Korean training culture too quickly.

■ The future of Broadcasting

Alejandre talked about the easiest viewing experience for TV audiences and claims fighting games as being one of the most intuitive. In general, 1 vs. 1 games are great stepping stones for eSports newbies, and ELEAGUE is embracing Street Fighter 5 for this and many other reasons. However, one of the lessons she has learned that it is up to the broadcaster to find “clever ways” to explain the game with the depth it deserves while still letting the audience know what is happening.

ELEAGUE thinks that premium broadcasters that get viewers to watch tournaments because of the quality of the broadcast, not necessarily their investment in the game, is crucial to worldwide growth. She wants ELEAGUE to be Starbucks of eSports broadcasting, not just coffee.

Kemp spoke of similar worldwide aspirations, but emphasized the importance of wide broadcasts that are able to find and convert as much fans as possible. Traditional sports benefit from fans in ways that transcend the actual broadcast and eSports can look to that for undiscovered revenue streams and growth potential.

Lastly, de Zayas wanted to remind the streaming and live audience that gaming is inherently about fun. This is why everyone started playing video games and it’s easy to lose sight of this with so much money and investment within eSports, but it is still paramount towards gathering larger audiences and growing the scene.

You can watch the full panel at this past broadcast and more PAX East 2017 panels at twitch.tv/pax2.