Sustainability in eSports

Despite the rapid growth that eSports is seeing globally, it is still considered a fairly young industry that has yet to mature. When you look closer to home at our own local scene, that sentiment holds even more truth.

That’s not to say that incredible strides have not been made or that there hasn’t been long standing individuals and organisations pushing the competitive gaming world, both locally and abroad, but there is still a lot to be done to take the industry as whole, into a stage of maturity and sustainability.

The Bubble

When an industry experiences the level and speed of growth that competitive gaming has in recent years, it’s easy to forget about how much hard work was put in to get it to where it is and just how fragile those foundations can be.

You look at how prize pool records were shattered when Dota 2’s Valve went with a crowdfunding approach to its major tournaments. Only last year, the winner of Valve’s The International 2016 won $9 139 002 (R120 131 267).

You look at the League of Legends scene and the amount of venture capital (VC) money that is flooding the scene. Whilst finances are still shrouded in secrecy for the most part, many insiders have confirmed that player salaries and buyout costs are increasing exponentially with the influx of money-stacked organisations funded by deep pockets.

Avoiding the burst

A word that is not often bandied about in eSports is “sustainability”. Riot Games brought it up when it defended its decision not to follow Valve’s route of crowdfunded tournaments or when it chose to create its regional leagues. (LCK, LCS, LPL etc.)

Sustainability, from a career point of view, is something many players from a multitude of games and scenes, have often brought up when discussing competitive gaming. The lack of sustainability and unstable nature of eSports for competitive players is a large reason many have called for player unions to be formed.

It this is idea of sustainability and long term growth that is the cornerstone of Mega8’s approach into the local eSports scene. Big money tournaments are important to the growth of any scene, but so is consistency and sustainability.

Creating steady sources of income opportunities removes the volatile nature of competitive gaming and creates the foundation for growth. A stable foundation also allows for more long term development of the scene by removing risk and uncertainty. Passing knowledge down from the elites of games to those aspiring to be like them creates future stars and players.

These are avenues that may not be sexy nor create headlines, but are critical to forming an industry that can grow long term and create serious, sustainable opportunities for everyone involved.