Gaming
esports
Immortals Is Leading the Charge for Player Welfare
Immortals is making some structural changes to keep their players fresh and ready for competition.
The North American esports scene has long been plagued by the grind of competitive gaming. Long hours and unhealthy habits burned players out and defined the scene at the start, but that’s changing as the League of Legends Championship series (LCS) continues pushing esports toward legitimacy. Pro gamers are no longer kids slumped back in a chair for 12 hours a day as they fight for a chance at a meager living.
The industry is booming, and these young adults are being introduced to proper scheduling and the potential of making an esports career longer than a few years. As the scene grows, it only makes sense to want to bring even more structure to a steadily maturing ecosystem. Organizations like Immortals are hoping to continue the recent trend by bringing the esports world closer to the standard working world.
Immortals is increasing player quality of life
© Riot Games
Making the change
Pro gamers have generally been a nocturnal bunch, waking up later in the day and scrimming in the afternoon while usually streaming later at night. Scrim hours and solo queue often stack up to consume a pro-gamer’s schedule, not to mention streaming if they want to make extra money on the side. Traditionally, if a player wants to be the very best, they have to forgo a healthy portion of their life to do so.
Immortals and its GM Nick Phan are tackling a relatively small, but crucial staple of the North American scene — wake up times and scrim hours. “The players wake up around 10, scrim from 12-3, take a one hour break and scrim for 4 till 7 and sometime scrims would run over. Theoretically, the players would finish around 8PM which didn’t really leave them with a lot of time to pursue social interactions.”
Seeing that schedule as damaging, Immortals are challenging the esports clock with something more comparable to standard work hours. “So right now, everything is moved back a few hours. We’re getting up earlier, it mimics working 9-5 and leaves a lot more options for the guys to have a social outlet, find a hobby, play sports, interact with friends as well as still having time to play solo queue and get a more regular sleep schedule.”
Immortals are spearheading a new movement in esports, but a movement is nothing without its supporters. “Every single team has pretty much bought in at this point. To make change, you need more than one team obviously. The offseason became an agreement between all the teams. Right now, everyone is scrimming from 10-1 and 2-5.”
So far, Immortals's Sports Psychologist Robert Yip is pleased with what it has allowed his players.
“The feedback from the players, yeah they’re still tired and still complain, but they seem happier and healthier. There’s time for some of the players to go to the gym earlier in the morning or in the evening; they still have time, so they don’t feel rushed. They can play solo queue, they can still stream and they have a little more time to do normal people things.”
Players need to maintain social outlets
© Riot Games
Player relations
As time is made for more normal activity in players’ lives, organizations can seek to plan to make more extracurricular activities a standard. Immortals specifically scheduled a day for the team to play socialize and play soccer with Team Liquid, a step that Nick believes is key for the overwhelmingly young demographic in esports.
“What I realized when I started working in esports and with Immortals is that teams don’t interact as much outside of LCS. Korean players and coaches will sometimes meet up in the evening to socialize, do karaoke, stuff like that. But social outlets can vary [from] player to player.”
The competitive nature of esports fosters a great amount of stress in players so social outlets are a key part of any pro gamer’s life. “We want to invest in relationships with other teams so players can feel like there’s a bond with their players. It’s not just 5-7 guys practicing super hard everyday. They can share experiences and stories from players in other teams. It makes their career and job a lot easier knowing that everyone is going through what they’re going through.”
Burnout is being addressed in League of Legends
© Riot Games
Burnout
Free time and social outlets are key to improving player welfare, but are also the key combatants in the face of burnout. Burnout is an issue for people in all fields, but Robert sees it as a bigger issue in esports. “I think burnout is pretty problematic in esports because of the fact that players will, on average, practice between eight and 10 hours a day. The way the game is set up is that whenever there’s a new patch, players have to play even more of the game to re-learn what’s strong and improve their skills.”
As Riot continues to work within a system that changes the game on a bi-monthly basis, LCS players have to re-learn the game regularly — their career livelihood depends on it. If the resulting stress isn’t properly managed, it can eat a player alive. “Burnout is particularly big in a sense that without social outlets and with the high competitive stress that’s involved in competition, players that don’t have an outlet for releasing these anxieties or pressures will find issues in terms how they play. Decreased performance, emotional difficulties, frustration, anger, inability to focus on goals, all can result in problems with coaches and teammates.”
Burnout is not only an inhibitor of short-term success in the LCS, but also of long-term success for a professional in a burgeoning industry. “I think what’s really important is creating an environment that can be competitive, but also one where player can have a long career so there are no ambiguities surrounding what they’re good at. They know they can play for three, four, five, six years without risk of burnout.”
Future of esports
The phenomenon of esports is booming, the players are rising stars and they need the best support they can get for the scene to grow healthily as it enters the limelight. Player managers like Nick will be key in bridging the gap and giving the players their best.“The goal is to really build up the way that players develop and the way player sustain themselves throughout their career, however long that is. ”
Not every player can be dynamite, but every player deserves a chance.
“There’s so many different factors, but our goal is to just really experiment a little bit and create the best system of growth for these players to help insure they get the most out of their careers, however long they will be.” IMT jungler Xmithie also agrees that its more of a “case-by-case basis, since it’s all about the player’s drive and mentality,” but the setup still has to be there.
It may be a case-by-case basis, but Nick and Immortals are still looking to make the most out of each case. “Hopefully players can see careers that are longer than one or two years. Trying to make that more the norm, is what we’re going for.”
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