Mentioned in this article Teams: Immortals Games: Overwatch, Vainglory

As the esports industry continues to grow, so too do opportunities beyond the traditional PC platform. No company is more aware of this than Super Evil Megacorp, whose mobile MOBA Vainglory has established itself as a competitive title for mobile devices.

One need look no further than the recent Summer NA & EU Unified Championship to see the influx of prominent esports organizations breaking into the scene, as Cloud9’s Vainglory team bested that of Immortals in the final before a sold out crowd at Los Angeles’ Globe Theater.

To discuss the growth of Vainglory esports and the title’s competitive future, The Esports Observer spoke with Evan Denbaum, General Manager Editorial & Esports, and Heini Vesander, Executive Producer Esports & Marketing Director.

How do you and the team feel about Vainglory as an esports title today?

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Evan Denbaum: “Mobile gaming has 3 billion users accelerating to five billion. It’s growing with such size and rapidity that someone’s going to get this right.”[/perfectpullquote]

Evan Denbaum: I’m excited about the growth of Vainglory esports. It’s grown much faster than I imagined it would. We approach the game thinking we have to make a great game, and the community will tell us if we have something worthy of esports. It’s been fun to see the growth. We’re completely focused on our game, growing the game itself and making the experience in the game better. More players will follow esports as the overall player base grows.

Heini Vesander: This year we’ve seen a lot of the more known esports franchises join the scene as well.

How do you best go about growing Vainglory as an esport title?

ED: We really try to make the best game experience possible. If you want to make something that can also translate to a spectator sport, you need moments where players and fans can anticipate moments that are about to happen, anticipate that drama, and then see how it plays out. Like, in American football, when a quarterback throws the ball to the receiver and you wait to see if the ball is caught. The care and attention to detail put into the game is why it’s been so successful.

Our feeling is we should continue to invest in our proprietary technology, which makes us the choice partner for hardware makers to demonstrate new devices because our engine is powerful and agile enough that you can do whatever you want in it. We feel we have the best possible technology, so it comes down to making good decisions around that.

Do you look at working in the mobile space as a boon or a hindrance to your efforts?

ED: We are on the right platform. Mobile gaming has three billion users accelerating to five billion. It’s growing with such size and rapidity that someone’s going to get this right, and not just have an esport but a mainstream sport.

Left: Evan Denbaum Right: Heini Vesander



It was recently announced that Vainglory would be formally supporting mouse and keyboard controls through a partnership with Samsung. How do you balance that with the existing touch-based controls?

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Heini Vesander: “We’re seeing the marriage of our engine technology making it possible to bring super precise controls at the same level as PC controls.”[/perfectpullquote]

ED: We are fully committed to Vainglory as a touch-based game and esport. We find there are some inherent advantages to touch screen and the game’s been optimized for touch screen. Internally we’ve previously had the ability to use mouse and keyboard and we’ve never found there to be an advantage to it, although in some cases (with mobile) there aren’t things like an attack move command.

HV: Even a few years ago the capability of handheld devices wasn’t at where it’s at today. We’re seeing the marriage of our engine technology making it possible to bring super precise controls at the same level as PC controls, because the hardware is now there and our engine is great.

ED: We’re going to watch it very closely and we’ll address that if need be, but in the current competitions it’s not even an option to use mouse and keyboard and we’d be surprised if players wanted to anyway.

What about the use of different types of phones or tablets?

ED: We have some players who deliberately play on an iPhone 5 or an iPhone 5c because they want the screen to be as as small as possible so that they can be as precise as possible with the phone held right up to their eyes.

It comes down to personal preference and what works for people.

For Vainglory, how have you gone about encouraging players to take part in the game competitively?

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]ED: “..we created a franchise program so that we’re real partners with our big organizations. We have a competitive counsel through which we meet with all of the franchises.”[/perfectpullquote]

ED: We have a very close relationship with our community and we feel like we co-created this game from the beta. By talking to the players and understanding what they want and what they’re looking for, we’ve understood what they’re looking for and we try to bring that to our events.

At the Summer Championship, we deliberately made that a very intimate environment with ringside seats. You can really get up to the players and see what they’re doing. Making players feel like they’re a part of the experience adds to the aspirational quotient.

HV: We do spend quite a bit of time thinking, because we don’t have to hide our players behind monitors and headphones, how do we make the players more accessible? That allows us to do some fun things.

And how can you best promote Vainglory esports to your mobile player base?

ED: Our first focus was to see if we had enough for a legitimate esport. Once we establish an upper crust of players, we worked on things like making players into stars.

We’re able to use our in-game editorial structure very effectively to this extent. We feature the players in the game itself, trying to introduce the teams and the players to our overall player base. For some, they get really into the sports aspect of it, and for others they just want to improve, and by watching the best you’re able to see how they rotate and all the little things they to do be a better player.

On the game side, the focus has been more on investing in our intellectual property. In our characters, our story, our artwork, things that make players invest in the characters. Similar to how Overwatch has created characters that players get very attached to.

We’ve now seen a number of prominent esports organizations come into Vainglory. How has their presence affected your mission and the way you go about your business?

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”We feature the players in the game itself, trying to introduce the teams and the players to our overall player base.”[/perfectpullquote]

ED: The influx of organizations has been a huge opportunity to learn from all of their experience, which is why we created a franchise program so that we’re real partners with our big organizations. We have a competitive counsel through which we meet with all of the franchises. It’s an opportunity to talk about collectively learning and to gather feedback.

I really lean into these partnered organizations and their knowledge to grow the game and the competitive format and make this the best it can be based on what these organizations have learned from being through all this before. I can bring a lot to the table regarding what works in more mainstream professional sports, but those aren’t always the best things in the esports context. Having these conversations helps us to inform our decision-making moving forward.

Evan, coming from a more traditional professional sports background, what’s something you’ve found lacking in how esports are organized, or something that needs to be made more clear for a mainstream audience?

ED: There are things in the world of esports that are very common here that people inside esports just don’t think twice about.

Double elimination or swiss formats can make for a scintillating event, but if you’re just coming into the esports community, you may not know what these things are and you may not understand it.