Managing an Elite eSport Team

An anonymous reader writes "Ever wondered what it takes to run a world class stable of pro-gamers? In a new profile, 4Kings general manager Jason Potter takes the time to explain his duties — they're remarkably like what's required of other sports managers. It's up to Potter to manage a team of FPS gamers scattered across the continent, getting them to events, arranging sponsorship, and even making sure they play nice together. 'It's a 24 hour job,' Potter says. 'If there is something that needs to be done, you do it.'"

Comments

I was born in the wrong era...

[GregC63]

I still find it difficult to believe someone can get paid for gaming...

Re:I was born in the wrong era...

[h4rr4r]

How do you feel about people getting paid for playing other games?

It seems people who are good at playing games is already common. There are leagues for all kinds of games. A lot of it is even aired on TV.

Re:I was born in the wrong era...

[Antipater]

People got paid to play chess even in your day. What's the difference?

Re:I was born in the wrong era...

[Baloroth]

The number of people who actually make a true living playing chess (and they still get paid today to do so) is really small.

So is the number of people who make a living for playing video games.

But I see a difference between getting paid to be good at a mentally challenging game and being good at playing a game where you "blow stuff up".

Why? FPS playing is a combination of physical and intellectual skill (mechanical skill at actually shooting the enemy, and intellectual at outplaying them by finding better positioning and out-maneuvering them). If anything, the fact that eSports is more heavily reliant on physical skills makes it vastly less surprising that they'd get paid for it, considering all the people who play conventional sports professionally.

Then tell me, exactly how many millions of dollars has IBM or a similar company invested to design a computer that can beat the best human players at what 4Kings plays?

None, for the same reason IBM hasn't invested millions in a baseball playing robot. Chess is an interesting mathematical problem, and the question of how much computer power is required to beat a human consistently is an interesting question in the area of intelligence and AI theory. The actual game in question is practically irrelevant. Chess was chosen because it's fairly popular and extremely thoroughly studied, which not being so complex as to overwhelm any current computer (unlike Go, for example).

Re:I was born in the wrong era...

[Antipater]

I don't know about whatever game that 4Kings plays. However, League of Legends has a functioning league, complete with player salaries, endorsement deals, ads, and yes, a large and loyal viewer audience. And don't get me started on the Koreans.

The "akin to bingo" system is true when there's no audience. But as gaming grows more mainstream, the audience comes with it. With the audience come all the other bells and whistles you mentioned with regard to baseball.

Re:I was born in the wrong era...

[Synerg1y]

Starcraft's GSL league had it's own channel in S. Korea.

As far as American culture goes, you're right though, I watched a Halo tourney once and couldn't finish it because it was just well... boring. Playing Halo = fun, watching "pro's" play it = boring. Some Starcraft games were fun to watch on youtube back when I played it.

They also have several major multi-game pro-gaming tournaments. People show up to those like to events such as comic con for example.

I think, it's got a future small time, but will never go maintstream like say baseball and football.

Obligatory analogy: football player vs pro-gamer in rugby action.

Re:I was born in the wrong era...

[Antipater]

But I see a difference between getting paid to be good at a mentally challenging game and being good at playing a game where you "blow stuff up".

And there's your problem. You don't understand the competition involved. Gaming can be "challenging", both mentally and physically. Is it as mentally challenging as chess? Well, that's a topic ripe for debate, given the amount of strategy and improvisation involved in many multiplayer games. Is it as physically demanding as football or boxing or any other athletic activity? No, but then neither is skeet shooting, which many also consider a sport.

Anyway, the whole point boils down to the question: are people willing to watch someone else engage in an activity? Competitive chess? Yes. Competitive crocheting? Probably not. Competitive gaming? Apparently so. If you don't like it, why do you care?

Re:I was born in the wrong era...

[flayzernax]

Even nightmare bots that have all the aimbot data on you are able to be killed.

But people like Esports for the intellectual interaction between one or more players and the game. If you think winning consistently against skilled CTF'ers is easy. I say go play quake live in a pro clan. Heck get recruited first. To a real pro clan.

Though I wager IBM can make some pretty brutal AI. And even simplistic AI can overwhelm individual humans in swarms with ease (such that it is dumbed down to kindergarten level in most games on purpose).

Even the simple AI of Everquest was nerfed repeatedly from alpha, to beta, to expansion after expansion until it was meaningless. If you read about the tests the developers did though, they had a lot of fun. And at release the interaction between different AI's in the world made the game interesting and somewhat thought provoking. And EQ was a SIMPLE game.

I eagerly await that game with brutal AI that takes years of training and experimentation and a dedicated team to "game". Nothing beats real life yet though.

Re:I was born in the wrong era...

[CanHasDIY]

It's easy to design computers that are good (or even close to perfect) at FPS

I have to disagree; while it might be trivial to design the AI to take advantage of being part of the computer (i.e., able to read plot data on player position, take advantage of the physics properties of weapons/environment), I'm hard pressed to believe there is a method of programming AI intelligently, where it could outmaneuver highly skilled human players on an equal playing field, without cheating (doing things and having knowledge of programming variables the human player couldn't possibly do or know).

Notably, humans have a power that no existing computer can compete with nor compensate for: the ability to act with complete, true randomness.

That said, I'd love to see some research or experimentation regarding the topic.

Esport?

[Holi]

What the hell is an esport?

You mean gaming? Because gaming is not a sport no matter how you try and word it.

Re:Esport?

[TheNastyInThePasty]

Challenge accepted. Wikipedia entry on sports: Sport is generally recognised as activities based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity. Wikipedia entry on dexterity: the coordination of small muscle movements which occur in body parts such as the fingers, usually in coordination with the eyes. Moving a mouse, clicking a keyboard, and using a controller all require dexterity. Therefore, gaming can be considered a sport. You can also look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport#Definition

Re:Esport?

[CastrTroy]

Personally, I look at how much training is required to compete among the elite of the sport, and how far off from the elite the average player is. For games like Golf, its amazing how much better the pros are than the average Joe who goes golfing every weekend. Most golfers will never break 100, which puts them about 28 above par. Which is just dismal. Compare that with something like darts, billiards, or bowling, where it's not uncommon to see a "pefect game". To me, the whole concept of an achievable perfect game means that the game/sport isn't difficult enough.

Re:Esport?

[robthebloke]

..... and some people think 'sport' involves shooting the brain out of a helpless fox with a bloody big rifle (having ridden a horse for a number of miles, whilst following the pack of hunting dogs you set on the fox earlier that morning). To me, there is a difference between 'sport' and sport, and I'd say that e-sports is definitely a 'sport'.

I Was Surpised! You're Wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

I felt the same way until my son showed me a new world.

Have a look at Twitch TV for a start. There they have live streaming of gaming "events", with commentators, advertisers, sponsors, recaps, replays... It is truly no different than professional sports or these televised poker competitions.

I find it a sad little world, watching other people playing a video game(especially such lame ones), but it does exist and is increasingly popular. Truth be told though, I don't feel very much different about professional sports. Sitting and watching other people play a game is of no interest to me, unless I have some attachment to the game like my own son playing. I'd rather read obfuscated javascript than watch NFL football.

But millions of people love watching NFL football and a rapidly growing number like watching "professional" video gaming.

My rule

[Nidi62]

If you can drink while playing it/competing in it, it is not a sport. Sorry golf, curling, gaming, etc.