The Rundown: How up-and-coming esports organizations are separating themselves from the pack

As gaming becomes a pillar of mainstream culture and entertainment, esports organizations are proliferating.

Esports Earnings’ list of teams currently maxes out at 500 — though some of the listed organizations no longer exist, and others have been absorbed by larger teams. In any case, there is a glut of active esports organizations in the modern competitive gaming landscape, with new teams forming every week in the nebulas of Twitter and Discord. 

Brands and marketers should tread lightly as they navigate this glut of widely varying options. Though prominent teams such as Cloud9 and Team Liquid have significant reach, working with smaller organizations can help brands reach dedicated communities for a fraction of the price. Digiday reached out to experts to learn how to identify growing esports organizations that stand apart from the pack.

The key details:

• Marketers should partner with esports organizations competing in newer or smaller esports that boast loyal and growing communities. One area of esports that will almost inevitably grow in the future is the mobile sector; while top-tier esports teams are beginning to sign mobile players, some dedicated mobile esports teams have been operating in the space for years. “Every publisher, every tournament organizer, wants to see SK Gaming, Team Liquid, FaZe Clan, et cetera, in the mobile gaming ecosystem,” said Oliver Maxfield, director of product management at ESL Gaming. “I think the endemic mobile esports organizations, like QLASH and Tribe Gaming, definitely have a head start.”
• Another potential breeding ground for up-and-coming esports organizations is the international esports scene — the competitive gaming community beyond the specific regions of North America, Europe and Asia where esports is already part of the mainstream. Esports journalist Aron Garst gave the example of SuperMassive Blaze, a Turkish team that competes in esports such as Valorant and League of Legends: Turkey is a rapidly growing gaming market, acting as a standalone region with its own Riot-Games-run League of Legends circuit, and standout Turkish teams such as SuperMassive Blaze are primed to gain an international fanbase as the competitive Valorant scene expands. “It looks like they are a tier-one Valorant org,” Garst said. “Turkey is just tacked on to EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] in Valorant, which is kind of weird — there could be another region that includes Turkey.”
• Players are the fundamental building block of esports teams, and organizations that acknowledge their players’ importance and support their professional development are often the most likely to succeed. A strong example of this is 100 Thieves: the organization’s well-rounded approach gives its creators a say in the trajectory of the team and its content, keeping 100 Thieves talent loyal as the team grows in popularity. And Garst flagged the Arizona-based Built By Gamers, which pays its players salaries and picked up some members of the mass-fired Minnesota ROKKR Call of Duty team, as a smaller organization that follows a similar model. “We believe that a gamer is a personality type unrestrained by gender, age or geography — a person committed to being the best at their craft, focused on continual improvement, always leveling up in life,” said Built By Gamers CMO Tyler Farnsworth. “We’re putting lots of focus on inclusion, fighting toxicity and prioritizing personal and mental health.”

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