svfrey — ….in which we talk about their organization, their history with TF2, and sponsorship.
For those readers who may not be familiar with you, would you mind introducing yourself?
Hello, and thanks for the interview. My name is Jason Lake, and I am the founder and CEO of compLexity Gaming. I’ve been in the eSports scene for about 9 years now.
Given that you work at pretty well-known gaming organization, you must’ve had some history with the vidya: what games did you/do you still play competitively?
Over the past couple years I’ve spent a great amount of time playing HALO and Lego games with my young son. (Gotta start them somewhere!) Lately, I’ve enjoyed StarCraft2 and Battlefield 3 when I’m not playing with him. I’ve also built a couple Minecraft kingdoms for my young kids. Guess I’m not too hardcore these days, haha.
Nowadays, compLexity is probably more well-known for their Starcraft 2 division, but in a distant past, your organization also had a TF2 team that they sponsored, which was quite successful. Can you tell us a little bit about how you first got involved with competitive TF2?
I founded compLexity in 2003 as a Counter-Strike team. Eventually we grew into a multi-gaming organization. I then sold the company to DirecTV for the Championship Gaming Series. When the economy tanked, the plug was pulled and CGS closed its doors. Following that debacle, I had to decide whether I was going to remain in eSports or close that chapter in my life. I decided it would be better to battle back than leave the scene with my tail between my legs. I bought back the rights to the company and started over from scratch (with partners Jason Bass and Alex Conroy). When evaluating what games to field, it became apparent to us that TF2 had a solid following and had become a good eSport. We already had a new Counter-Strike team that would be attending ESEA events so it was logical to build on that presence and get into TF2.
Obviously you have since then withdrawn their sponsorship of the TF2 division. At the risk of sounding hostile, what sorts of things influenced the decision to let them go?
Eventually, the cost/benefit analysis did not make sense. We had several roster changes and had a hard time finding true stability in the game. It became a chore to manage the division, and sending 6+ people to LAN events wasn’t always a cheap endeavor. When Carnage decided to sit out for awhile, we decided it was time to move onto other games. We still loved watching TF2 but felt it was wise to invest our funds elsewhere.
Over the years, other organizations have done the same (withdrawn sponsorship of TF2 divisions), including EG and CheckSix. SirScoots, when asked why EG decided to remove their TF2 team from sponsorship, cited “[A] lack of events other than ESEA, that itself gives minimal/zero global reach for the ROI spent” as a major factor in that decision. I’ll ask about ROI later, but for now, how would you respond to that?
Yes, I’d say when evaluating the ROI vs. exposure TF2 eventually got to a place (in our opinion) where it wasn’t as competitive as other eSport titles that were taking off at the time.
Outside of the various leagues (UGC, CEVO, and, most importantly, ESEA), there are very few LAN or online TF2 tournaments in the US (as compared to other competitive games, such as League, Dota (2), SC2, etc). The dearth of LANs could be explained by the logistics of getting a 6-person team to an event, but the reason for a lack of online tournaments (as in, weekend Round Robin-esque events, or smaller versions of the ESEA LAN) is less clear. What are your thoughts on this?
Any time you have a game with 5+ players the airfare and hotel costs become a concern. In order to justify the management time investment and travel costs, the game must deliver a large audience that can get your brand (and your sponsors’ brands) a great deal of exposure. Online is OK for this, but not optimal. We need star players on live video and photo streams wearing our jersey to produce the results we promise our corporate partners. As far as a lack of online events is concerned, I don’t have solid information with which to answer but would assume it is because leagues have moved on to newer games with growing fan bases. They may view it a bit as we have in the past: we love TF2 but we need to operate the organization as a business and deliver the best exposure and ROI for the companies that pay our bills.
What sort of means do you (and your partners), and by extension, other gaming organizations, use to measure RoI on a given sponsored team? Specifically, for TF2? (If you don’t want to/are contractually unable to answer this question, I understand.)
I can’t get into specifics but I feel most of the benchmarks are self explanatory. How large and vibrant is the community? What website traffic does it generate? How many viewers watch the streams and the (sponsor labeled) YouTube videos? Does supporting that game place you at the forefront of gaming or lead to irrelevance? What are the hard costs and unseen expenses (time, etc)? Those types of things all go into choosing what games to support. Of course, none of us are really in eSports because it’s some big cash cow, but we must operate our businesses with some level of objective thinking or we won’t be around very long.
On the topic of sponsorship, what sort of direction do you see competitive gaming sponsorships going in the next, say, 5 years? What roles do you think sponsors will play, and are there any sort of standards/limits that you would like to see implemented?
I think sponsors will continue to play an important role but gaming organizations will seek to find other ways to generate revenue (branded products, advertising, subscriptions, etc). I also believe more non-endemic companies will get into the space, meaning not only will computer parts be marketed to gamers but more and more we’ll see lifestyle brands like sodas, energy drinks, cars, etc.
Taking into consideration what you said earlier about how compLexity first got into sponsoring a TF2 team, what advice would you give teams in seeking monetary backing of some sort? Did you approach what was then ‘the Experiment’ (that name might not be exact; feel free to correct me), or did they come to you and pitch to be sponsored?
Complexity has always been an invite organization, so I’m not quite sure I can offer valuable advice on this. We decide what games we are going to engage with and then find the best player[s] available. However, if I were to offer advice I’d say to be reasonable with your requests and expectations. Money is tight out there and rosters of 6+ can quickly become overwhelming. Perhaps seek hotel assistance and some sponsor products, those sorts of things. If the team works hard (both in game and out) and provides the organization with solid exposure, perhaps THEN is the best time to seek more support.
If you found your sponsorship of TF2 worthwhile (I don’t know if you did), what would you say to other gaming organizations to try to convince them to sponsor a TF2 team?
Yes we really enjoyed our time in TF2 and are thankful for the community support we received. It’s always hard to walk away from a game that you love, but it’s just part of reality for our organization. If I were to try to convince someone to sponsor a TF2 team, I’d point to the passionate side of the community (forums, news, etc) and point out where exposure is available.
Any last words and shoutouts?
Thanks for the interview and best wishes to you and the wonderful TF2 community. I’d like to give a shoutout to Carnage who was a pleasure to work with. I’d also like to thank our loyal sponsors: SoundBlaster, QPad, PNY and Origin PC LOL WHO NEEDS SPONSORS COMMUNITY FUNDRAISERS ALL DAY, BABY.
Thanks again!
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2012-03-02 by svfrey.
Recovered from the Internet Archive (archived copy) as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of VanillaTV's TF2 coverage. The original site is no longer online. All rights remain with the original author; reposted for historical reference.