Houston, TX – April 4, 2016 – NRG Stadium: Shaquille O’Neal during the 2016 NCAA Men’s Final Four Championship game
(Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
The merging of traditional sports and eSports continued Thursday as five organizations, including Fnatic, Echo Fox, Rogue, NRG and Immortals, announced the formation of eSports teams for mobile game Vainglory and will begin competition in March for the spring season. Echo Fox, NRG and Immortals all have ownership ties to some of the major U.S. professional sports leagues.
Four-time NBA champion and current NBA analyst Shaquille O’Neal co-owns NRG along with ex-MLB player Alex Rodriguez and 17-year veteran Jimmy Rollins. Sacramento Kings co-owners Andy Miller and Mark Mastrov also own a piece of NRG. Immortals saw Memphis Grizzlies co-owner Steve Kaplan double-down on his investment last Fall as he increased his stake in the eSports team. Finally, former Los Angeles Lakers forward Rick Fox owns Echo Fox.
“Echo Fox prides itself on being on the leading edge of eSports,” Fox said in a statement. “Vainglory caught our attention due to its explosive growth and Super Evil Megacorp’s dedication to building a thriving competitive ecosystem.”
Kristian Segerstrale, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Super Evil Megacorp — developer of Vainglory — explained that the addition of the five teams adds both professionalism to the gaming title but also legitimizes what he and his staff are trying to build with the mobile platform, which saw viewership increase 10-fold over the past year.
“It’s become very important to us to evolve the competitive ecosystem to a place where players are being taking care of, there’s a layer of professionalism — where everyone from players, teams, to sponsors and tournament organizers — are being taken care of and are part of a sustainable ecosystem,” he added. “First and foremost, organizations like Immortals, Echo Fox, Rogue, NRG and Fnatic who are getting involved adds that layer of professionalism to the actual competitive scene. That is a great win for Vainglory. Professional players will have their health and careers taken care off. That is a great thing on its own.”
Added Patrik Sättermon, Chief Gaming Officer for Fnatic in a statement: “For Fnatic, to join the game and pro-circuit of Vainglory can be best expressed as ‘one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’. Since the launch of Vainglory, we’ve been closely following its development into a great and mature eSports title. We believe there’s a bright future for mobile based eSports which signals a shift from the PC-dominated titles until now. Fnatic and its very talented Vainglory roster are looking forward to excite our fans straight out of our main base in London.”
None of the five new organizations joining Vainglory had to pay a fee to secure their spot, according to Segerstrale. He cited teams opted in “because of the long-range opportunity to be part of an ecosystem with a rapidly growing amount of players and sponsors.” Still, Segerstrale discussed that conversations are currently on-going from last year to explore a franchise program to share in the revenue and proceeds of “hopefully building the most competitive ecosystem for a game anywhere.”
Just over the past 18 months, eSports and traditional sports have collided from both an investment and coverage standpoint, as the likes of Turner and ESPN have established their growing interest in broadcasting the sport as well. Now, the question remains for Segerstrale: will the revenues and business of eSports, including Vainglory, “catapult itself” to that of traditional sports?
“Managing a group of athletes that need sponsorships, player contracts, taking care of, all of the things that traditional athletes need, it is the same with eSport players. … There’s a fair amount of overlap,” Segerstrale said. “I think we’re seeing the meeting of two worlds which have previously been separate. It’s going to be super fun to see what the end result is.”
