ESL North America CEO Craig Levine On VR’s Overlap With Esports

(Courtesy of ESL)

The following interview is part of our ongoing Expert Series that asks C-level professionals, team presidents, league executives, athletic directors and other sports influencers about their latest thoughts and insights on new technologies impacting the sports industry.

Name: Craig Levine

Company: ESL

Position: Chief Executive Officer, North America

Craig Levine is the Chief Executive Officer of ESL North America where he leads strategy and operations for the world’s largest esports company. Levine has helped pioneer the esports industry for over 15 years. As a long-time gamer in 2002, Levine founded Team 3D, the first professional and successful video game team in North America.

In addition, Levine also co-founded ESS Agency, an event marketing and technology company specializing in video game entertainment. ESS Agency was acquired by Turtle Entertainment in 2014 to expand ESL’s global footprint to North America. Levine holds a B.S. in Information Systems and Management and Organizational Behavior from the Stern Business School at New York University.

1) What is the current state of online esports competition, and how does ESL fit into that online and social/digital ecosystem?

With the booming growth of video games as entertainment, online competition is still one of the biggest opportunities for esports. Our unique advantage as a sport is that our field of play is virtual and not limited by physical boundaries. We work to build game first ecosystems that allow players anywhere in the world an easy entry point into amateur competitions. We have robust technology integration with PlayStation, Xbox and several game titles to both create a more seamless experience for players and also lower the barrier of entry. We also host over 10,000 online tournaments a year and serve over seven million players through our ESL Play platform.

Our community is a digital-first audience and is very active across social and digital. We work closely with Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other distribution platforms, to deliver content and engage with our fans.

2) If you had to invest in one technology that would change the esports landscape, what would it be and why?

There is a lot of interest around virtual reality and I think, given that esports is a natively digital field of play, that esports can be an early driver for VR adoption and content. Today, we are already seeing fans experiencing esports events in VR and, although it’s still going to take some time, I believe that it’s inevitable that we one day will see VR esports at the highest level of competition.

3) What is an area of esports or an issue within the industry that no one is talking about? Why should that issue or area be given more attention?

In my opinion, given all of the news within the space, and the continuous initiatives around esports, so much of it is being talked about constantly. Esports is still a relatively young industry, so there is a lot taking shape around us. While early, big topics like distribution, IP ownership, competitive structures, etc. and player/team dynamics are already taking form.

However, I think one of the largest underestimated complexities of esports right now is the global nature of the sport. We need to think about how we can adapt content, competitive ecosystems, etc. around the world to fit global structures while having the right level of local flavor.

4) Over the past two years, there have been NBA and NFL players — current and former — getting involved in esports. Sports team owners like Ted Leonsis, Magic Johnson and Peter Guber have also entered the space. What’s your take on all of the heightened interest around esports? What’s the value proposition with getting involved still fairly early?

It’s great to have a more diverse group get involved with esports. There certainly is a diverse and deep spectrum of subject matter expertise they can bring to help mold the space. Understanding other industries to ultimately help find the right unique path for esports is critical. Traditional sports owners also help shine a spotlight on the industry overall, which helps validate and accelerate what is already going. The value proposition for those sports groups is that there is a clear cultural and generational shift happening as young kids grow up playing video games and watching tips and tricks to their favorite games. This fuels a new aspirational fandom early on that historically had been occupied by traditional sports. They don’t want to miss out.

5) If you had to project 20 years into the future, how will most gamers compete around their favorite titles?

My crystal ball doesn’t usually work that far into the future, but it’s safe to say it will be a far more evolved and high-tech platform for competition. As technology gets better, faster, smaller and cheaper, it likely will become a more social, immersive, VR-like experience than what we have today.

6) Give us your bold prediction about a form of technology that will be integral to esports over the next 12 months and why?

I think the use of data analytics, be it to do better storytelling during broadcasts or for pros and amateurs to train, is integral to esports. The industry is still early as a sport, and as we unlock the data available, I think we’ll see the field of competition improve and depth of content become more engaging.