From left to right: Jack Etienne (Owner of Cloud 9), Noah Winston (CEO of Immortals), Mike Milanov (COO of Team Liquid), Arnold Hurr (Chief Growth Officer of Gen.G), Christopher “Monte Cristo” Mykles (Overwatch League caster and analyst)

Team Liquid COO Mike Milanov: “Props to Jack (Cloud 9) for consistently putting together super good rosters in literally 10 games, and he was never a pro player” Izento Follow May 29, 2018 · 7 min read

The 2018 Inven Global Esports Conference was a refreshing event. As Inven’s mission statement, this conference was held for the esports community, not for the general world populace. As such, I got to listen to multiple figures within esports discuss their own vision and explain their area of expertise; from players, to coaches, to owners, we got an array of perspectives that we wouldn’t otherwise get if this was an event which touted that we are yearning the praise of mainstream media.

In this 3-part series, I will bring you specific info of the panels I attended and the knowledge which I garnered from them, along with my opinions on each panel.

Noah Winston, CEO of Immortals, Jack Etienne, Cloud 9 Owner, Mike Milanov, COO of Team Liquid and Arnold Hurr, Chief Growth Officer for Gen.G (formerly KSV) all gathered to talk about their journey in owning an esports team and guided by their host Monte Cristo, current Overwatch League analyst and former League of Legends analyst.

All of these knowledgeable figures discussed what it takes to break into esports and their difficulties running an esports team.

Arnold Hurr spoke praises for Blizzard and their efforts producing Overwatch League.

“One thing that I can kind of reveal behind the curtain of (Gen.G) is, how do we enter the esports space? How do we find the right opportunity to enter? Luckily, our first team was the OWL team because we saw a structure which had a chance at changing the dynamics of esports. You know those Facebook relationship statuses where it says ‘it’s complicated’? And then you move into ‘in a relationship’? That’s what is was. You might fight even more with the gaming publisher, but at least you know the incentives are aligned and you’re structured in a way where you all want the league to be really successful…What I would love is more structures that offer possibilities for partnerships where the incentives are aligned and somebody wakes up thinking about that league and making it successful”.

Similar to what Riot is going with the NA LCS, Gen.G really does value the benefits of having a franchise system and the security it gives to teams, as the game publisher has more incentive to work with teams to drive up revenue and increase the profits of the entirety of the league, instead of just trying to sell things for in-game monetization that only fills the pockets of the game publisher.

Monte Cristo adds in, “unless you are currently an owner or an exceedingly wealthy or connected to exceedingly wealthy people, you’re probably not going to be able to afford the franchise buy-ins, which is seemingly the model of the future. What we can do, since we are at a college right now (UC Irvine), I think we can all agree that there is a dearth of competence in this industry and there are many needs to fill that are not ownership. Many people look at collegiate esports and it is definitively not on the path to being a professional gamer. Most of these owners would agree that you generally want players that are younger, there’s not really a point for them to go through collegiate esports until there is a deep infrastructure across the world that goes from being coached in high school, to college and then maybe that’s the point we start taking players outside of college”.

It’s clear that esports needs more than just players to operate, as we have a plethora of positions that need to be filled. Monte accentuates that point and basically has stated that the goldrush of esports ownership is slowing down and it’s going to require large sums of money at this point, but potential prospects looking to get into the esports space at some capacity shouldn’t lose hope quite yet.

Noah chimes in, “If I get another resume that lists ‘loving esports’ as a primary qualification for an esports job, I’m done guys (laughs). From my perspective, loving esports is great. I entered this space as an esports fan. All of us entered it for this reason. If we didn’t love esports, we wouldn’t be here. But, if you’re going to work in esports, you need to develop incredibly specific and clear qualifications or competency. If you want to be an esports videographer, train on that and show me how you’re the best at that. Oh, and also you happen to love esports and know who all my players are and know what my organization is. Become as good as you can at that specific thing, and then have that supplemented by loving esports. But if you come to me and say ‘I love esports. I’ll literally do any job in your organization’, that doesn’t tell me what you’re good at. That doesn’t actually tell me that you’re qualified. I’m sure you’ll work hard, but that’s not enough anymore. That was enough 5 years ago maybe, but we’re at a different stage in esports. When you’re looking for a job in esports, you’re not just competing with other college kids for that job, you’re competing with some of the best from traditional sports, entertainment, finance and media. If you want your skillset to shine there, having an authentic root in esports is great, but you also need to be good at the job you’re applying for”.

All of these management figures agreed that you must have a hard skill in which to showcase and prove your worth to organizations. Passion alone is not enough to make it within esports. Some of the younger generation have wide eyes for esports and are running off of dreams and envy, but that’s most certainly not enough. They also iterated that esports is a growing scene and many job positionings may not adequately represent what a team potentially needs, because they don’t have the forethought to know exactly what they need at a given time. This is a great way for someone to present their unique skillset and show how it can add value to an organization.

I asked the question, targeted towards everyone except Team Liquid, do you owners feel a disadvantage against teams such as Team Liquid, TSM or Counter Logic Gaming because these orgs are owned by former professional players?

Noah replied, “I think that comes with both positives and negatives consequences. I mean, Jack spent a good couple of years or so working with Andy (Reginald) and as with everything, life experience leads to a lot of things. An easy example would be Andy. Through his time as a pro player, he probably became one of the best leaders that came up in a grassroots way in esports. Andy learned all of his leadership skills by being a pro player and interacting in a competitive environment. If he wasn’t the CEO of TSM, he’d probably be the best LoL head coach, maybe in the world, maybe just in North America, it’s not for me to say. Andy spent a lot of his time focusing on how to play LoL better. That doesn’t necessarily afford the time, for instance, like Mike Milanov (TL COO) get a good understanding of how a PNL functions, or how do I, like Jack, understand a professional sales cycle from a sponsor. That’s something that I had to learn. I came into esports with a certain set of skills, none of which involved operating in a competitive environment, so when I entered, I had to look towards the guys like Andy, Jack and Steve, that had that competitive team experience to shore up my weaknesses”.

Mike Milanov additionally gives his take on the matter.

“I want to compliment Jack for a little bit. Jack is actually super bad at LoL (laughs). There’s a compliment in here. But, Jack, on a global stage, is one of the best owners that exists today, that understands how to scout players and understanding how teams mesh and what rosters to put together. He was never a pro player. I think if you’re a pro player and you’re running a singular game org, let’s say, you’re just a LoL org and that’s all you’ll focus on and you don’t want to be a global brand, I think sure, you have some advantages, like how a 17-year-old thinks, what do they get emotional about? What are they raging about in their head during team discussion? Or how to have them ‘get something’ and have it stick. I think when it comes to a global stage and Cloud 9 and Team Liquid being a global brand, there’s still the 13 other games that you weren’t a pro player in and sure pro players sometimes act the same in these different games and sometimes they’re the same age, but props to Jack for consistently putting together super good rosters in literally 10 games, all at once, and he was never a pro player!”

Jack responds, “yes, I’m silver in LoL” (laughs).