You know what they say. If you lack money, connections, and money, invent a new concept and make it work — I think Gary Vaynerchuk said it. Maybe.

This is just what we’ve done with Good Game Global. Let me give you the rundown. Read on.

Good Game logo.

For the long introduction — read My Failed eSports Project blog post (5min).

Short Introduction to Good Game Global

Short story goes something like this. Nikola is bored at Google, he is crushing targets, and has too much free time on his hands. He’s a passionate lifelong gamer, and really enjoys the whole gaming vertical, especially the eSports segment. Nikola has an idea to start his own eSports online betting website. While trying to get the whole thing up and running he runs into problems with financing the project, while learning hella lot about eSports, teams, companies and different approaches.

Due to other pressing issues the project is put on hold. For now…

Fast forward to Q4 2015. Many different ideas are brewing inside young Nikola’s head, with one particular idea standing out.

A wild idea appears out of nowhere.

‘Why wouldn’t we go for 4 wins?’ — I thought to myself.

The concept was fairly simple. Why not have various Tech and Startup companies compete in CS:GO, while raising money for charity and creating a brand new concept in eSports. So called charity eSports Tournaments for Tech and Startup companies, under the brand Good Game Global.

‘What are the 4 wins?’ — you might ask.

Competing companies have a brand new way of team building for their employees. Companies and everyone involved works together towards a cause defined at the beginning of the event. GG Zagreb had the cause of providing 12 Children’s Hospital Departments with gaming equipment (spoiler alert: it was an awesome success). Volunteers get to network and hang out with their future employers and colleagues. Companies from the Tech and Startup vertical get one day of uninterrupted fetworking. Ok, that really doesn’t work. It was supposed to be part fun, part networking — fetworking! You get the idea. The reasoning is that these companies network with each other at corporate events where everything is handled in ‘white gloves’ and everyone is super sales-y and annoying. It’s fairly hard to keep a straight face and to push your product on the other team, while there’s a flashbang flying towards your face and you’re yelling to your teammates to ‘cover the banana’. The last part is CS:GO lingo, foggedaboutit. Charities and/or causes receive direct money or inventory donations. Good Game Global gets to spread cheer and grow as a business. It’s like year-round Christmas.

Alright, that’s 6 wins after all, but who’s counting.

‘Alright Mr. Smartypants, you claimed your 6 wins — what now? How do you make it work?’

Good Game Global L(a)unch

You know how late at night you stay awake in bed and have your doubts?

No one? Ok, me neither.

Just kidding. There were loads of doubts, and I wanted to pitch the idea to a few digitally savvy people, to get their critique and feedback.

As luck would have it, I’ve had dinner with my good friend, Ivan Brezak Brkan in November 2015, where I’ve pitched the GG idea for the first time.

Pizzeria ‘Zero Zero’, Zagreb, Croatia, November 2015.

Ivan was the first one to give his positive feedback. Then, there was Luka Ciganek, CEO of Gaming Battle Ground, and Luka Sučić, the great and powerful wizard of Hub385. These 3 guys agreed to help organise Good Game Zagreb, the event which would change the face of eSports forever. (If you’re reading this in 2020 from our GG Global Headquarters Building, this is where it all started).

As any event organiser would tell you, before reaping the benefits, there is hell to be paid. And they would be right.

Preparation for Good Game Zagreb

As we had no website to date, our friends at Bamboo Lab jumped on board as our new web development partners, sketching out logo and website design ideas. You can see the end result at GG.me. The domain was also an issue, because prior to talking to anyone, we had no idea how to call the project. There were many suggestions, but our friends at .ME were kind enough to donate a very specific two-letter domain GG (short for civil ingame lingo meaning Good Game, which also means ‘well played’). The other idea was to get ga.me, but that domain was already taken (and we’re keeping an eye on it).