Here's the story of 18 year old Timmy, he was a stellar student in high school, and part of the basketball team. During his downtime he would play video games and got so good at one character that pro players noticed him online, told their team, and sent him an offer to go play pro in LA.

He gets to the gaming house and learns about the structure of a team, the league and his new home. Everything is centered around him being able to practice as effectively as he can with no distractions. Meals, laundry, travel, everything you can think of is taken care of.

In his first match he kills it. The team is happy. What a great rookie! He sees that his game was broadcasted online and that there were people commenting on it in a live chat. He sees that his peers, teams, league and everyone in this new environment engages in these streams, and it's the same for social media and forums. He's getting a lot of recognition for his play today, for coming out of nowhere and that because of him his team did so well! But he's a pro, he's been competing all his life so he knows not to let the praise get to his head.

The following week, a patch comes out and his character was nerfed. He tries it again, it’s his best pick, but this new team has done their homework and shuts him down. He returns to the same places who praised him only to find comments like "What were they thinking getting a 1 trick pony?" "Wouldn’t be this team without shit players"."I bet Timmy is gone by next year, anyone wanna bet?" He’s confused, were these the same people that praised him? He decides to brush it off. But then he sees his teammates, coaches, peers and owners looking in the exact same places. They have seen those comments as well. "Do they think the same thing of me?" He decides that these comments are a slippery slope, and that it’s best not to mind them.

For a year he keeps his head down, disengaged from social media and found his stride as a promising player and the team wants to re-sign him.It comes time for him to renegotiate his contract and contrary to expectations his salary barely increased.

Why is that he asks? "I've put in all the work, I've improved so much, did everything that was asked of me and more."

"Well you barely stream and your social media numbers are really low. If you had x amount here and x amount there we would be able to offer you more."

He re-signs and starts streaming and engaging in SM actively. But now he has to focus on his public image a bit more, his team obviously cares about it, and it seems that everyone around him does the same.

Revitalized with a clearer understanding of the space, he plays again and has a great game, but the team loses anyways. Timmy proceeds to the forums and it turns out that they are blaming him. But during VOD review the team acknowledges that he played his heart out. He's confused, and overhears a big wig in the org, the guy will all the money talking to the coaches and owners asking if Timmy is the problem. He puts 2 and 2 together and realizes that most people do not have an adequate opinion about the match, but instead take the online public opinion as their own, the very same opinion which affects his salary.

"Fuck it" he says. There's no winning here, the public opinion is always solid of good players so he decides to get good to rise above it. But he finds that there is no standard of good. Who does he look up to? Who is relevant? The legends of the past are of no use now, the characters, maps and strategies are always changing. Legendary players seldom make it past a few years of peak performance.

And we arrive at the root of the problem. It's that many esports titles lack solid fundamentals that persist through the erratic profit driven changes the devs make. And in fact, most of the time, each patch introduces a new fundamental or makes you change your old one altogether.

Why is it that games like Starcraft, CSGO, and Smash are still around with players well into their 30’s? It’s because those games have underlying mechanics which will ALWAYS be relevant and of the most importance to every game and every single patch.

Those games have a FOUNDATION in which a player can strive for and build his skills upon regardless of patches. In Starcraft it’s always going to be relevant for you to gather minerals, scout your opponent and build and control your units quickly. In CSGO your aim is always going to be relevant, in Smash you have abilities that exist for every single character.

So what’s the foundation of games like League and Overwatch? "Mechanics?" That’s an ambiguous foundation for games with so many different characters, especially with the constant introduction of characters with completely different kits. "Learning" and "Adaptation" would be the core fundamentals, but here’s the catch. Everyone learns differently, and when the game changes so often the lines of what’s relevant to learn and what’s not are blurred further.

In conclusion, the core of player burnout is two fold. One, there is no specific foundation of skills for a player to fall back and practice upon with a set long term goal. And two, the player’s value and perceived value are directly influenced by their online engagement. The latter is an unfortunate aspect of esports as a marketing tool that may be alleviated as esports globalizes. But my suggestion to both these problems has always been to encourage the development of character and the joys of responsibility by the organizations. If you’re living a fulfilling life outside of the internet, it’s a lot easier to roll with the punches of online scrutiny, and in fact, one may learn to enjoy it.

We are wasting a HUGE opportunity for growth as human beings within esports orgs. Instead of hiring translators, to aid the one Korean speak English? Why not teach the whole team Korean and English? Why not have the Chef give a lesson once a week where the players can make a meal for themselves? If you're an org whose core foundation behind a game is learning and adaptation, why wouldn't you put the players in situations where they must constantly learn new skills and adapt?

There’s a lot of angles where this problem can be tackled from. But for today I chose this one, and as a former player, coach and caster I am speaking from the angle I know best. It’s imperative that we start seeing the driving force of the industry not as games or patches or leagues but as people.

P.S. On the union topic. The amount of capital and manpower necessary for this is is giant, let alone the complications of international work and legal loopholes with the internet being new territory and all. It’s highly unlikely.