Graphics by Nick Lupo

Think back to your very first team that you ever joined, remember the fun that you had and just because you lost in a scrim, match, or even clan war, it was not that big of a deal to you and you kept on playing to get better; of course there were frustrations but not pack up your stuff and leave a team because you lose. Some of us miss those days; and probably should keep that “have fun” attitude after we get down after a hard loss. Players are not the only ones to lose site of this but managers sometimes do as well. Throughout my decade of playing and managing I have seen managers make countless mistakes and releasing teams and players because of their lack of performance; I have even done this myself once or twice. When you get caught up in the business aspect of eSports you must compete at the top levels to receive the spotlight; you have to have the best team to receive the necessary sponsorship money to travel around the country.

The problem today with eSports professionally is ninety percent of all players jump from team to team on a monthly basis. An example would be in the game Counter-Strike Source, if you’re not a CGS franchise squad then you’re doomed eventually as a team. A team that stayed together for a very long time was Devastation, I was sad to see them break apart. However, their new team seems to be clicking. Counter-Strike 1.6 for that matter is very similar. Professional players think that the players they play with are not up to caliber so they leave their squad for one that has better chemistry. When the team realizes the chemistry is lost with the new player coming in, he is released, and goes to yet another team. For eSports to grow and prosper we have to have more players stay together for a long period of time even though times get tough; if drama happens you have to work through it. We need more professional teams to stay together.

For the game Call of Duty 4, I think the idea of the game is great; however there are a few things that are wrong with it. The first thin is that Activision comes out with a new COD game every two years, this does not give their games enough time to grow professionally. The second thing is there has always been a huge drop off in the COD games with professional teams. You will see teams like Pandemic, EG, and maybe a few others then there is a huge drop off. Like Counter-Strike Source and Counter-Strike 1.6 more teams need to stay together and develop into a top rate team. A team that is doing a good job of this is PHG I praise them for that.

When we get more teams to stay together in various games you will see eSports more on the grand scale. The Championship Gaming Series is in the right direction with the games they support. Contracts for every team are appropriate in eSports, it establishes a dedication to a team, a binding agreement amongst certain individuals, and finally makes it harder for teams to break up. There is a reason why professional organizations use contracts, not just for signing players, but to keep the team from breaking up or dying upon their arrival to a certain organization.

Managers undergo as much drama as the average player or more. Managers have to deal with the business side of eSports and the player side as well. Whether it be hiring new staff and doing interviews, writing emails to companies for sponsorship, the public’s viewpoint of the team, bringing in new teams, or having to listen to the drama that is going on within the teams. A person that I am going to praise after being at the CGS Combine in Austin was Kat Hunter. I was impressed with the way she handled herself, she walked into that combine all business and put all friends aside. Her display of managing was very good; all managers take note, if you want to become a great manager, put friends aside in eSports. Loyalty is one thing, but if you want to get where they are, you have keep it all business.

Finally, people bash managers for spamming articles, making useless threads, and being a completely annoyance. However, that is their job; and if you are a manager not doing that then you are not doing your job right. The large scale of eSports is in the amateur community, amateur teams tend to consistently bash on other players, managers, and leagues. These amateur teams get better, start to play on the professional scale, and continue to show immaturity. We begin to make these teams our hero teams and the new amateurs coming in think that it is cool to show that type immaturity because their hero teams are doing the same thing. Do we really want this trend to continue to expand? I think something needs to be done to stop this; you do not see any CGS teams or players showing this type of immaturity.