On Aug. 23, G2 Esports announced a funding round featuring major investors, including Barcelona FC midfielder André Gomes, venture capitalist Eric Mindich, and Hollywood media company MACRO Ventures.

theScore esports spoke to G2 Esports owner Carlos "ocelote" Rodriguez about how the capital will spur their growth, Gomes' appreciation for League of Legends and why actions will speak louder than disclosing how much money they raised.

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How did G2 get into contact with these high-profile investors?

Throughout the last year and a half, I've been travelling quite a lot around the world and I've been having the chance to meet with high-profile individuals and entities. And in all those meetings — or most of those meetings — I could see the simple conversations about the industry, about what I was doing, were sparking a lot of interest and as time went by ... I identified together with other shareholders.

I identified that it was a really good moment to start pushing forward and utilizing capital even increase the growth speed of the company. Y'know, hire more people and increase infrastructure in different regions. Overall just put the growth on steroids. As soon as we identified this, we reached out to these people that we were meeting and it was really quite simple and easy to get them convinced enough to invest.

Because, they were essentially waiting for that to happen, and all of this group of investors have been quite "eyes open" in regards to what's going on with esports and they definitely wanted to make the right moves with the right partner and as I understand, they always felt like I was the right party, which led them to end up joining us.

How did you guys connect with André Gomes?

He actually watches League of Legends. He actually watched some of our run in MSI with the League of Legends team. Furthermore, he has played back in the day, Counter-Strike in cybers. This is not something that he spends a lot of time on, but he definitely knew who I was and what G2 was.

He sent me a Twitter DM and contacted me directly. He was praising me for all the good work I've done as a player and then as a team owner and he wanted to meet with me, so he invited me to one of their games and I got to meet the whole team, or a lot of people from [FC] Barcelona essentially. And then we took a plane and we kept talking for a few days and he just really clicked.

So, yeah, he was the one approaching us and he was generally interested in being part of this whole ecosystem. He's been looking at it, not only himself, but also his business partners, looking at it very closely and yeah, he was super happy to connect with us and see what could be done.

It was really cool actually. I mean, it was unexpected, because typically, the position I am right now, of course, within esports you can argue we are well-known and I've been there for 12 years right? So, chances are anyone who's in esports knows, right? But outside of esports, we haven't really done that much. It's surprising and honoring that someone like André just directly contacted me and starts praising me and kind of watches the games of my team and so on. So it just means a lot.

Will the investors have any hand in the running of the company?

When it comes to running the company, they absolutely trust what we've built. Especially considering the fact that I built it with my own money as a player.

Unlike what people may think, many people look at G2 as the team that overspends and you know, "They have a lot of money," because of whatever reason, but truth is that the only reason we spent more than the majority of other clubs — I would say we're top three in terms of spending — is because we make sound business decisions.

We generate pretty good revenue in what has only been two years and a half of history, we have been able to close different, new partnerships. We are, I would say, the club in esports with the highest renewal rate from sponsorships. Every single partner that has worked with us has wanted to renew with at least the same amount of money. This is really odd to see in esports. Typically, you don't see this kind of partner retention.

So things like this make us very, very good at deliverables, make us very, very good at drawing business in general. Y'know, getting the right players, getting into the right games that are growing in a fast pace before they are too expensive to join and so on and so forth. Every single new investor, the security that if they just put decisions in our hands, we will make them good money in the long term ... These people come from Hollywood, come from finance, come from many different kind of industries and none of those industries actually is like esports. Esports is like a unicorn, it's really hard to to find an industry like esports that is so specific and so special.

So the fact that there are different games and five years from now, maybe there are different publishers and different games and so on, makes it a very niche industry and makes it for esports clubs such as G2 to be the common denominator in the hundred years to come. Because it doesn't matter which game is gonna be relevant, it doesn't matter which league is gonna be relevant. The teams are always the common denominator. So this is something that the investors get and this is something that the current investors that have just joined G2, they absolutely get.

Can you disclose how much capital you guys raised? Are we talking six figures or seven?

When it comes down to getting into the numbers, I'm not comfortable sharing it. The reason is because I really don't want to sound like boasting. I don't want people to read how much money we raised or anything of that nature. I want people to focus on the names we got on board, I want people to focus on what we actually do.

All these teams, especially for North America, they come in with their big, big, big numbers y'know? And it's just many times it's laughable. Because they come with a big number and then months and months and months go by and they don't actually make anything tangible.

They don't actually get into a new game, they don't actually put together a fantastic content piece or combination of content pieces. They don't do anything they haven't done before, the only thing they do is to boost player salaries to the max. They don't actually raise money, they just utilize the news of "we raised eight digits," whatever, and at the end of the day you don't see anything tangible follow that, except player salaries going through the roof.

So I would rather not mention any numbers, I keep operating my business and I keep making sure every single day we have a new fan from a different region, every single day we have a new content piece that fans have goosebumps with or that fans can laugh their asses off with. And every single day I look to have another team that can kick ass. Those are the tangibles I'm working for, and I don't want to dilute the message of those tangibles by telling any numbers, any valuations or anything of that nature, which I very well could and it would probably sound like boasting.

How would you say G2's content creation compares to other organizations'?

When it comes to content, the vast majority of relevant teams are not good enough in this area, which frankly makes the industry grow at a slower pace. Because many times, it's not about the game you watch, it's about the production quality of the game you watch. It's about the storylines of the game you watch, it's about all those things that happen before and after that game you're watching.

I like to call them "parasites" that don't create, don't generate enough storylines and drama. you're essentially making the whole thing overly serious. You're essentially doing what Formula1 did for many years and that's essentially the reason why Formula One is being watched by less and less people.

And the main reason is because they're taking themselves too seriously. There's no drama between the Grands and there's not that much drama between the racers. There's not that much content surrounding what happens before and after the races. It's always the same thing, right?

If every single relevant team were to put a lot of effort into growing their social media presence by just creating their own character. Imagine WWE, they're all characters. In kind of promoting or embracing their players being at times more vocal or at times just — look at Dyrus, he was never vocal right? Dyrus TSM, he was never vocal, but he was special. He was Dyrus. There was no one like Dyrus.

The same happened in the past with Froggen, with ocelote, with XPeke, with Alex_Ich, you had these individuals that were being pushed by their teams back in the day far more than they are today. It seems to me that with all this money, with all this investment coming into the industry, with all these traditional sports entities and players and individuals coming into the industry, it feels like we are losing one of the things that made us special and I have no doubts in my mind that everyone is aware of this and within the next few months and years teams will improve this aspect.

The press release mentioned Inner Circle Sports will be working with G2 as a strategic advisor. What can you tell me about that relationship?

These guys are an eminent boutique from New York. They're extremely well-known in the sports world and they're extremely respected in the sports world. They're fantastic people, extremely talented, incredibly well-networked. They're leaders in the sports industry. they've done multiple different deals with different high-profile entities. They're just fantastic.

So working with them, when we ended up closing this relationship, we were both very happy, first of all because they were definitely looking for a while for the right party — the right esports team to work with — and at the same time so were we. So finding each other was just wonderful. They will be helping us moving forward, what we released yesterday was just the beginning.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Is there anything you'd like to add?

The League of Legends team this very last split hasn't went all that well after MSI, that's not a secret. But I've never seen the players more [driven] right now, even before MSI, which they worked a lot, and they're just giving their absolute best to remain the kings of Europe, even after this complicated split. So I'd like to appreciate officially all the fan support, because it really means a lot to the players and to me personally.

Sasha Erfanian is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.