Gaming
esports
An insight into what it takes to run a local esports organisation
The real story behind the people who continue to build successful brands and find the next esports history makers.
South Africa’s most successful esports organisations have seen some of the best gamers in the country wear their shirts and play for their teams. But what is the story behind the people who continue to build these successful brands and find the next esports stars?
Bravado Gaming, White Rabbit Gaming and Goliath Gaming are three of the most successful esports organisations in South Africa. All three have, in some way, been responsible for setting the foundations and creating the opportunities for players such as Red Bull athlete Thabo 'YvngSavage' Moloi, exCloud 9 players Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek and Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou (who found themselves in the USA and on the Cloud 9 radar courtesy of Bravado Gaming’s Project Destiny) and Dota 2 sensation Travis 'Castaway' Waters.
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The people behind these historic esports names tend to avoid the limelight and focus more on the business of esports. Bravado’s Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali, WRG’s Alwyn 'SwiTch' Venter and Goliath’s Michele 'Stickalish' Brondani pull the curtain back and show us what happens behind the scenes of running an esports organisation - as well as what they look for when signing new competitors.
“Management” is a broad term for a job description. What is it you do at an esports organisation when you’re in “management”?
Detrony: I am a director and shareholder of Bravado Gaming. I also simultaneously captained and played for the Bravado Gaming Counter-Strike roster for more than 10 years, up until the beginning of 2019 where we parted ways with the title. Currently I help manage and micromanage the teams and members under the brand, ensuring sponsorship deliverable tasks are met and really just involved in the day-to-day decision making with regards to the brand and organisation being run at the highest level possible.
SwiTch: As the Managing Director of White Rabbit Gaming, I head up the organisation from a strategic point of view and provide direction on where we need to go, what we want to achieve and be part of, as well as how we plan on doing it. In terms of specific tasks, there are quite a few things I need to look after but some of my main activities include: brand strategy and direction, annual brand planning and sponsorship executions, creative direction, social media platform management, corporate identity, new business development, reporting, athlete portfolio management, event management and contract management. We also have other shareholders who look after specific parts of the organisation in terms of its operations. Things like finance, tech, website and security are things I do not have to worry about from an executional point of view but rather check-in and monitor.
Stickalish: I am a co-founder of South African Multi-Gaming Organisation, Goliath Gaming; as well a team manager within Goliath Gaming. Some of my main tasks consist of player management, running of day to day operations, player development and scouting for new players.
When someone suggests their “job” is in esports, people assume it means all you do is play games all day… Do you play games all day?
Detrony: It definitely doesn’t involve just playing games, at least not as much as it used to! I really had my work cut out for me when I was playing competitive CS:GO, where I had to balance the task of running the organisation in a way, or needing to do certain tasks and also competing, trying to maintain the two at the same time. By choice, it’s become a lot easier in the last 1 to 2 years, where I’ve taken a step back from playing games and fulfilling my role of running the brand and organisation.
SwiTch: This made me chuckle because I get asked this a lot as people assume that running White Rabbit Gaming is my main source of income and where I spend most of my time. I work full time (09:00 – 17:00) for a global corporate information, data and measurement company. My education and career foundation were established in brand strategy and market research which I have been doing full time for more than 17 years now. I also love sport and exercise which I try to do as much as I can (I train 6 times a week). A typical day for me starts at 07:00 when I get up and prepare for work which starts at 09:00 until 17:00 which means many of my meetings require me taking leave or scheduling these outside of work hours. After work, I leave for training and get back home around 19:00. I then start cooking and catching up with my wife and we usually watch TV series while we have supper. I start working on all WRG stuff around 20:00 (meetings, contracts, proposals, agreements etc.) and then play some games with friends or go to bed when I am done working. Over weekends I tend to rest and catch up on global esports events, spend time with my wife and two Boston Terriers (Arwen and Aragorn) as well as seeing family / friends now that lockdown is lifted.
Stickalish: I can honestly understand the common misconception that gamers just sit around and play games all day, but in actual fact there is much more to competitive gaming than just sitting around and playing games. For each gaming title, there are so many different strategies that come into play. There is the mentality aspect which is a huge part of gaming. Players put in a lot of time, effort and commitment. Sacrifices are made. The players' adrenaline pumps during close and intense games, as do the supporters and fans of the gamers cheering them on (live gaming events have an electric atmosphere where a crowd is cheering on). Being in good physical health, eating healthy, getting quality sleep and maintaining good mental health are all key aspects to succeeding as a competitive gamer. At the end of the day, competitive gamers have aspirations, goals and dreams they are working towards - just as players in traditional sports do.
You’ve all mentioned scouting for new players is part of your job description. How do you “find” the right player or decide what competitive title to explore?
Detrony: Finding new competitive players in South Africa is relatively different to finding higher calibre players internationally, naturally. I say this because the general competitive communities are a lot smaller and thus the higher skilled group or players with potential will stick out a lot more, making it easier to spot and grab talent, if that makes sense. At Bravado we have team captains who not only compete but also help manage our players. We have our overall team manager Wassim who came from a FIFA competitive background and competed for us as well as Zozu our Fortnite captain. They give an immense contribution with regards to the current status of the title, suggesting why and who we should pick up or consider to pick up. It’s really about players coming up the ‘ranks’ and making noise, proving themselves in competitions, being consistent and making a name for themselves. Preparing for competition I feel evolves and gets more serious every single year. Trying to catch up and keep up with what the Tier 1 international individuals do. It’s become borderline as serious as any high level worldwide traditional sport. Sleep, diets in a lot of cases and overall in-game preparation well before competition time are essentials. From an organisation perspective, we do everything we can to ensure the players have everything they need and require to compete at the best of their abilities, ensuring no setbacks from that perspective. This includes any equipment, gear, facilities and overall support.
Deciding on titles to enter into is little different. Our model is very different to the international model. One example is that we do not have access to servers with low-er latency for some titles the way the other regions such as North America and Europe do, thus being a disadvantage and causing the title not to be anywhere near as popular here, on a competitive level, at least. As a brand and organisation, we need to focus on what works here and what makes sense. We have taken a step back from certain active local titles, such as CS:GO, to focus and put as much emphasis as possible on what we believe is or was ‘more current’ at the time locally, seeing potential in those titles.
SwiTch: Watching events and scouting talent throughout the year is probably the most common here. When there are smaller LAN competitions (obviously not in 2020), we attend some of these as well to scout for some low-key talent we can work with. We work with the team captains to identify talent (if needed) and then approach them (or the organisation if needed) to facilitate the transfer. Regarding preparation, most of the players are already familiar with the environment in which they play so we need to determine at which level we need to get involved. Mostly, the team works with the new player to update them on the type of game that needs to be played and the new player’s role in this. It is then up to us as the organisation to ensure they are equipped with the best tools (peripherals, software, individual or team coaching etc.) to ensure they can deliver their best performance.
Most of the time, when choosing new titles to pursue, this is guess work. I do not think there is a clear science here. We look at how quickly the title is taken up, the number of competitive teams, number of competitions and interest from TOs and also things like global growth / declines over time along with viewership and participation from individuals like content creators in order to decide where to get involved. Some titles take a bit longer to establish themselves so sometimes you just need to be patient and take the risk.
Stickalish: When looking for new players, the process differs for the different gaming titles. When scouting for FIFA players, for example, we would look at the players from South Africa who are doing well in the international FUT Weekend League, as well as in local tournaments. Regarding preparations for tournaments,1 week prior to all major tournaments we host a bootcamp for our players at GGHQ. The main aim of our bootcamp is to allow our players to solely focus on the upcoming tournament and to be as prepared as possible.
FIFA 21
© EA
Our bootcamps do not only consist of our players practicing their respective games. We have implemented a physical element where our players will go for a run in the morning, followed by a team breakfast, a weight circuit and fitness session, some meditation, followed by a yoga session - with everything being done together as a team. Our bootcamps are conducted by our team yoga instructor and mental coach – because good physical and mental health is essential to perform at your peak as a competitive gamer.
What is that one thing about running an esports organisation that always seems to surprise people?
Detrony: Not competing anymore, I guess. I find that not playing comes across as a surprise to quite a lot of different people that often ask me when I will be back to compete. There is potential though… if the right opportunity comes for me with regards to Bravado Gaming and not going out my way to look to compete for another organisation, my lifestyle could completely change again and go back to what I used to do, hopefully at an international level again, or to have some sort of presence there and compete abroad. Right now, I’m enjoying what I’m doing, it’s very different to what I used to do full time for many years and more solely focusing on this. Things may change, time will tell!
SwiTch: I work in a predominantly female environment and have learnt most of the work skills I have from female coaches relating to organisation skills, analytical skills, using your intuition and building winning teams. I also used to travel a lot through Africa for work, helping some of the biggest brands on the continent position their products and services in the right way to the right target market.
Stickalish: Probably the fact that our players don't just sit and play games all day! Jokes aside, I would say people are most surprised at the fact that one can become a professional gamer, and that there are so many different career options (outside of actually being a pro gamer) within the gaming and esports world. This was not a possibility when I was younger, but as the world progresses, so do career options. Graphic design, PR and marketing, content creation, team fitness and wellness coaches - the list is endless! It might also surprise some people that running a Multi Gaming Organisation is literally running a business – it’s not all fun and games all day; it takes a lot of hard work, passion, sacrifice and commitment.
