FEATURE: Politicians, celebrities back rising e-sports

By Ho Shih-chang, Chen Ping-hung and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporters, with staff writer





Professional gaming’s rising profile in Taiwan has gained the attention of politicians as a promising sector of the economy that could boost employment, raise the nation’s international profile and stimulate spending.

The Legislative Yuan on Nov. 7 passed amendments to the Sports Industry Development Act (運動產業發展條例) that formally recognize digital gaming as a sport, qualifying it for subsidies.

Electronics manufacturers have also thrown their weight behind competitive gaming.

In June, Samsung Electronics Co’s Taiwan branch was rumored to be organizing an e-sports team, with salaries and benefits modeled after South Korean standards, including fashion stylists, posture training and subsidies for plastic surgery.

Another sign of competitive video gaming’s rising profile is celebrities, including Jay Chou (周杰倫), Jeremy Lin (林書豪) and J.J. Lin (林俊傑), investing in and linking their brand names to e-sport teams.

Hong Kong-based China Digital Licensing Group has played an important role in linking celebrities with professional gamers.

After signing an agreement with Chou, China Digital in April last year helped him acquire Taiwanese e-sports team Taipei Assassins, which has been renamed J Team and is managed by Chou’s JY Entertainment Co.

The team in 2012 won the League of Legends world championship, claiming a US$1 million prize.

China Digital has also signed deals with with Jeremy Lin and J.J. Lin, creating VG.J and SMG respectively.

Each of China Digital’s celebrity-owned competitive gaming teams specializes in a different game, with J Team focusing on League of Legends, VG.J on Dota 2 and SMG on Arena of Valor, which appears to reflect the firm’s business strategy of maximizing profit and impact on the competitive gaming scene.

However, professional gamers have said that a career in professional gaming requires substantial personal and economic sacrifices, and very few people possess the innate talent to become a successful competitor.

“Playing as a professional is not as fun as playing in an Internet cafe. Professionals sacrifice their youth, school, the chances to have a girlfriend, even health,” industry expert Chang Yu (張宇) said. “This is a good trade off only for a chosen few at the top of their game.”

Chang, better known by his handle “4Leaf,” is a former professional gamer and e-sports coach who is now manager of Flash Wolves, arguably the nation’s most prestigious e-sports team.

Flash Wolves have over the past two years been the victors in the Legends Master Series, a professional league in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau for League of Legends, the game of choice for Taiwan’s professional gamers.

They competed in this year’s world championship, finishing ranked between No. 9 and No. 16.

League of Legends has more than 850,000 players in Taiwan, of whom virtually all top-ranking players are members of the nation’s eight professional teams, according to League of Legends Battle Records, a Taiwan-based game statistics tracking Web site.

Gaming groups need to scout for talent, who they train and help to rise to the fore as professional competitors, to put together a team, Chang said, adding that League of Legends developer Riot Games organizes annual competitions to stimulate the gamer base, with big cash prizes for the top players.

Riot Games requires professional teams to hire players who are at least 17 years old and regulates the standard of pay, he said.

As a result, Flash Wolves scout for promising gamers aged 15 or 16 through the game’s tournament ladder rankings, he added.

However, Taiwan’s e-sports teams are at a disadvantage due to the comparatively small pool of players on the local server, which limits the chances of finding talented players, Chang said.

Most scouted talents do not become professional gamers, because the training is hard and requires an ascetic lifestyle, he said.

“Gamers give up going to school, spending time with family and friends,” Chang said. “They train to the exclusion of anything else.”

Flash Wolves members play from 10am to 8pm to practice and improve their rankings, he said, adding that most of them practice on their own after work until midnight.

“At a minimum, they game 10 to 12 hours per day and up to 16 hours. Many kids cannot take it and a few quit in less than three days,” Chang said.

Flash Wolves A-listers can go toe-to-toe with any player in the world because of the rigorous selection process and training, which requires focus, spending time in the bull pen, making personal improvements and resilience, he said.

“Gamers who do not show enough initiative or technical improvement in their evaluations wash out or are transferred out,” Chang said.

“At their age, they have to give up school to become competitors. We cannot let them get stuck with the team for one or two years without making it professionally. That would be personally disastrous for them,” he said.

The nation’s professional gaming environment has been improving because of relaxed military service requirements and better post-retirement prospects, he added.

Gamers who make it through the training process with a good record have more options after they retire, such as hosting Web channels, working as support crew for a team or working at game developers, Chang said, adding that some universities and vocational schools have hired retired gamers to teach classes in fields related to the industry, while others saved up to start their own business.

Competitive gaming is a professional sport and players need to make clearheaded career choices related to financial management and retirement plans, said Owen Hsu (歐文余), brand manager of Twitch, the corporate owner of Flash Wolves.

While retired gamers can use their celebrity status to make money streaming games, active professional gamers cannot take full advantage of the option due to a lack of time during the season, he said.

“For the most part, an active e-sports competitor makes more than NT$1 million [US$33,332] per year, counting salary and winnings, while those who have recently entered the business make about NT$35,000 per month, like most college graduates,” Hsu said.

However, the active career of a gamer is short compared with other jobs, he said.

For example, the average League of Legends professional gamer starts competing at 17 and retires at 24, he added.

Twitch operates competitive teams in three games — League of Legends, Overwatch and Hearthstone — who employ 20 professional gamers and trainees, Hsu said.

The teams do not make enough to be self-sustaining, and they diversify their revenue streams through sponsorships, endorsements and merchandise, he added.

While sponsorship is a professional team’s most important source of income, most of the nation’s businesses have shown reluctance to sponsor e-sports teams, because they are not familiar with the industry, Hsu said.

Developers and other businesses directly involved in the professional gaming scene are an exception to the rule, he said.

However, the passage of the amendments to the act have raised hopes that things will change for the better, he added.

“Globally, e-sports is a maturing industry. From historical experience in North America, business investment and sponsorship have been crucial to the development of the NBA, MLB and NFL, but we are not yet seeing those things in Taiwan,” Hsu said.