E-Sports is an ever changing niche industry in the Gaming industry. With new players, games, events and fans every so often, it’s hard to guide something so volatile in a positive direction. With so many problems plaguing this industry, and nothing being done about fixing them, it is a wonder E-Sports has survived as long as it has.

It seems as though the same problems that were here from the start, are the ones still hindering E-Sports’ overall growth. With teams not doing any sort of competitive sharing, no steady development of players, teams, companies and fans; an inherent lack of E-Sports Unions or comities, no governing body to delegate events, trades, pro status, etc. and no one realizing that E-Sports is a niche industry comprised of thousands of other niche’, it’s a wonder E-Sports hasn’t imploded yet.

It seems that teams intend on being some sort of monopoly, not realizing that to survive themselves, their competitors need to as well. The competition between teams has taken an unhealthy turn; from teams trying to just beat each other at events, to teams trying to beat each other at acquiring sponsors. Which begs the question, why are you trying to destroy yourselves? E-Sports is built on competition, yes, but you need that competition to go on, for a very long time. And trying to beat out another website in terms of hits, or another team in terms of sponsorships, etc. is just absurd. Without the other teams in your niche in E-Sports, you yourself would not exist; there is no such thing as a team monopoly in E-Sports.

Without a union to delegate problems such as these for teams, teams will come and go, sponsors will come and go, and so will E-Sports. There is nothing stopping any organization from torpedoing another organization. An E-Sports union that openly address’ the concerns of teams, fans, players and sponsors and helps direct things in a positive manner would go a long way to smooth things over. This would allow for problems to be solved in a way that everyone involved benefits.

On top of everything, there is no governing body to say ‘this is right, this is wrong’. Different from a union in the sense that the union is more of a comity of the teams/sponsors/players/fans and presents their cases to this ‘governing body’; the governing body would delegate trades, sanction events, determine pro status’, delegate payment of prize money/salary and other things that are, as of now, left up to each individual to try and work out for themselves. E-Sports is an industry with no rules or regulations, anyone can do anything they please; a model which has not worked out that well thus far.

The growth of E-Sports has been developed by a few key people, the rest just coat tailing them. This sort of mentality leaves many fans, players, teams and companies in the dust. Teams today are treating players more and more like mercenaries; hire them for a few tournaments, and when they get too expensive or underperform, teams just drop them. Not many people take the time to teach the players outside of the game, teach them how to market themselves, how to handle media relations better -Interviews, posting comments, writing blogs, etc- players are left to believe that they only need to perform well at events and their careers will be fine; and that sadly is not the case.

Teams as well have been left in the dark, with only a few surviving the test of time, the mentality of today’s young managers is that ‘money solves problems’ and that of course, just is not true. Teams don’t start off with a couple hundred thousand dollars so they can acquire talent, staff, build a website, pay for tournament fees, travel costs, and salaries. Teams need to develop their staff, their players and their portfolio and business plan. Managers need to learn to put their players concerns first, to develop the marketing of the team’s brand, as well as the players’ faces. Not to mention take care of the players needs, not necessarily the players’ wants. Teams need to groom their players, show them the ropes and that it is just as important to be able to market themselves, as it is to win trophies.

Along side the teams and players are the fans. People that didn’t grow up with E-Sports and would like to learn more, can’t. There are no real tools for newcomers to learn about E-Sports. With no guides on the basics of the games, no set resource center to explain terms, teams, games, rules, events, etc. how is someone who wants to break into E-Sports supposed to learn? Just join one of the scenes? How long did it take for the scene to get the way it is now for any set game? And people expect newcomers to just pick everything up in a short amount of time with no help whatsoever from ‘experts’ in E-Sports?

Last but not least are the companies. E-Sports as we all know is run on sponsorship monies, there is no way around it at this point in time. How are new companies interested in joining our nice little niche industry supposed to learn the ins and outs of how to market within it if the only people trying to ‘help’ them are the same ones trying their hardest to snag that sponsorship in the first place? If that is the only example of marketing that that company sees –the team trying to acquire the sponsorship- how well an impression do you think that company got of E-Sports as a whole?

As a niche industry comprised of many smaller niche’, companies have a very unique opportunity with E-Sports. They can reach people of any sort of demographic, nationality, and income bracket. Outside of E-Sports there are very few ways a company can do that for such low prices for such a large range of advertising opportunities.

With problems such as these, E-Sports will be caught in a never ending loop, never getting closer to breaking into the mainstream. Teams will come and go, as will sponsors, the scene will never mature, and general happenings in E-Sports will go unregulated allowing people do as they please, good or bad.

E-Sports is a unique industry with many benefits to those involved and those who may become involved. E-Sports has its problems like any other struggling industry starting out, problems that will undoubtedly change the future of E-Sports forever. It is our responsibility as E-Sports enthusiasts to solve these problems that are plaguing the industry we helped create, otherwise we might not have an industry to call our own.