In behind the scenes stories of esports part 1, I shared some random stories of what I’ve experienced in esports. They included how rough our first tournament was, crypto guy, Tesla Kyle and SirActionslacks casting PUBG. In part 2 I’ll share a few more random ones that I hope you’ll enjoy.
Begging for money Pitching for esports dollas
Yes, when I wrote my first pitch deck (which was horrible btw) I think I went through about 30 revisions before showing it to anyone outside of my close circle. Comments included:
- Too long lol; didn’t read
- “Your financials aren’t greed inducing”
- What is esports? (2016 was a much different time)
- “Kids really watch this?”
After we started getting some positive feedback. We started pitching comments included:
- “Video games?, really?”
- I want 40% of the company for $100k xd
- We’ll give you $250k of in kind services for 3% of the company
- $150k of inflated everything.
- “$100k of marketing services, advice and meetings”.
Raising money IS NOT easy. It sucks and be prepared for a ton of no’s. I tip my hat to you if you can raise money.
Charge the publisher
At a LAN where the MAJOR PUBLISHER and GAME OWNER graced us with their presence, I heard a pretty interesting tale. I heard a comment asking why I had invited them. Confused, I asked my colleague to clarify. He had mentioned Mattheus (Totally fake name) was upset that I invited the publisher of the game and that he wanted to charge them. He was upset that I missed out on a revenue opportunity. I then asked my colleague if Mattheus was serious and he said “Yes, he’s really mad you didn’t bill them to come to the LAN.”
The reason why this is such a bad idea is because THE PUBLISHER OWNS THE GAME AND THE IP. They’ll shut you down so fast your head will spin. What a story. I still laugh about it today with my colleague.
The coldest LAN ever
January 2018, Captain’s Draft 4.0 in Washington was the COLDEST LAN EVER. It wasn’t particularly cold by Canadian standards (around -10c) but the way the stage was setup in the armory venue made it a solid 10-20 degrees colder. The captain’s draft LAN took base in where the national guard does training drills called the armory. The reason why it was so cold was because there was no heat in the armory venue (I think it broke) and there was a big draft from people opening the door and the entire week was around negative 10-15 degrees celsius. The other reason why It was so cold was because of the drapes behind the players. They acted as funnels of cold wind onto the stage and made the situation really cold. Imagine being up there for 8-10 hours a day while ensuring teams are on the up and up! The casting area was about 5-10 degrees cooler than the venue and the admin area was 10-20 due to the drapes.
Players got it bad pretty too and went through A TON of handwarmers.
Admins (shoutout to Carlo, Steven and myself) had it pretty bad as we had rotating shifts for multiple games at a time. At one point we brought out the Canada goose jackets to admin a couple of series. It was a load of fun and we had a great time. Shout out to the MD crew and my admin team. Special MVP shoutout to Conrad as he lent me his gloves so my hands wouldn’t fall off and use my phone.
A friendly deal
This story is why I always get a lawyer to draft or read over anything so I know what I’m getting into. One of our partners was “surprised at the depth of our contract” and expected a “handshake, friendly deal”.
Let me tell you why this was such a bad idea and what ended up happening. Summary:
- This friendly deal went to shit real fast. If you don’t cover your ass, friendly deals are out the window
- It’s cheaper to PREVENT legal issues than fix them afterwards
- If we didn’t spend a few grand on this contract we would’ve been out 10x that
- Partners you can trust are hard to come by
- Getting money out of people when they owe you is HARD. Legal fees are sometimes not worth it
Moral of the story is, there’s no such thing as friendly deals a lot of the times. Especially with new partners. Always get a contract written up so everyone is clear.
So that’s it! Part 3 will come out in a bit. If you have any other esports stories to share go ahead and let me know. I’ll share yours in another version perhaps.