Other than becoming a professional player in e-sports, there are many other ways that you can involve yourself inside of the community. Bryce Blum, who you can find on Twitter @eSportsLaw, is an example of someone who took the education that they were working on in college and graduate school to apply it to the e-sports world. I was given the opportunity to conduct an interview with Bryce to talk about how he got involved in e-sports, his current role in the scene, as well as his future plans going forward.



Picture taken from his Twitter: @eSportsLaw

First of all, I would like to thank you Bryce for doing this interview. To begin, I would like to give you the opportunity to give the readers some background information about what types of law work you did before becoming a strict e-sports attorney.

Bryce: I started off my legal career as a commercial litigator, so I did dispute resolution for a wide array of cases, ranging from an environmental contamination action to a conflict surrounding the management of a partnership. I practiced mostly in Washington State, at both the trial and appellate level. I also did significant transactional work for major motion pictures—talent agreements, location agreements, financing, etc. It was an interesting, diverse set of legal work that definitely set the stage for my transition into becoming a fulltime eSports attorney.



What would you say was the pivotal moment in your career where you made the choice to only take on e-sport related cases?

Bryce: I always go back to my very first white paper. I published it back in 2013, and it wound up doing well on the League subreddit. Much to my surprise, some relatively major community figures got in touch with me shortly after that and asked me if I would be willing to help out with some contract work. I loved getting to work on those projects. I’d honestly never even thought about combining my career with my passion for gaming, but once I got a taste of it I wasn’t letting go.



After making that choice, was it difficult for you to go “all in” into this industry? What were some challenges you had to overcome?

Bryce: There were quite a few challenges along the way. I built my practice within the confines of a large corporate law firm. There were definitely people within that firm who supported my efforts, but early on the majority of people just didn’t get what I was doing. It’s not typical for a younger associate to focus on building their own practice, particularly in an industry most partners have trouble believing could possibility exist. Trying to convince people I wasn’t wasting my time, and getting the necessary runway to devote time and energy to esports projects was definitely a challenge. Time was also a huge barrier for me. I had a full case load and the same billable hour expectations as every other associate. Those minimums can be hard to hit for anyone, but when you add on top all of the work I was doing to become an active member of the esports community—let’s just say there were a lot of sleepless nights.



Was it difficult selecting classes in college and graduate school that would further your knowledge of the law, while also providing good knowledge to allow you to work in e-sport related cases?

Bryce: I didn’t really pick any classes with this particular career in mind. I was an International Relations and Environmental Policy double major in college, and in law school I dabbled in everything. The reality is that courses do very little to prepare you for the actual practice of law. The constant trope in law school is that it only teaches you to think like a lawyer. Practicing law is another beast entirely. I was extremely fortunate that while growing my esports practice I had the support of very experienced attorneys with close subject matter alignment, including emerging businesses, sports, and entertainment law.



Have you limited yourself to only League of Legends related clients? If not, what other games do you plan on expanding to?

Bryce: I’ve done work for almost every major esports title, including League, Dota2, CSGO, COD, HOTS, Smite, and some fighting games. My work definitely started with League, but I’d say only 30-40% of my current work is in League. I love getting to work in the various games—each ecosystem has different strengths and weaknesses that keep things interesting.



In your experience, do find yourself working more with players on an individual basis or organizations as a whole?

Bryce: It’s shifted quite a bit over time. I got into the scene in large part because I wanted to help improve the legal underpinnings in order to promote sustainable growth. From the outside looking in, it seemed like the biggest flaw was the lack of player representation. This remains a big issue, to be sure. But over time I realized that, at least in the current environment, advising teams allowed me to have the type of impact I envisioned. When you represent the player, even if you fight for hours to get them fair deal terms, the other players on their team will almost always just sign the original, slanted version.

By working with teams I've been able to sell them on the concept of proposing initial deal terms that reflect the ending point of the negotiations that can and should happen, but seldom do. I think there is a common misconception throughout the industry that team owners are evil and out to screw players. From my experience, that really isn't the case. When I describe these issues to teams and walk them through my various player contract templates, pointing out opportunities to make deal terms more favorable to teams yet explaining why I haven't drafted it that way, they almost always come on board. Also, when they don't, I'm under no obligation to continue to work with them—the beauty of private practice.



To the best of your knowledge, how similar are e-sport player contracts to typical professional sports contracts?

Bryce: Not particularly similar. There are certain parallels—rights grants, certain termination language, competitive obligations, etc. But it’s important to understand that player contracts in almost every major professional sport exist within the construct of collective bargaining. A collective bargaining agreement removes the deal from standard employment law. Professional sports contracts contemplate free agency periods, trade restrictions, salary caps, and so much more. These really aren’t a part of a typical esports player contract (though my player contract templates borrow more from these concepts than others I’ve seen in the industry). The standard esports deal is much more akin to that of an actor working on a small budget film.



There has been talk in your AMA’s on Reddit about the possibility of a “Player Union” forming to ensure the safety and security of players in e-sports. How would you find this to effect the industry

Bryce: At the outset, I want to be clear that I don’t think we’re at this stage just yet. Unions are expensive, and extremely complex. If you track the history of professional sports, each one existed for quite some time and developed a strong, self-sustaining infrastructure before the players unionized. That being said, there are certain interim steps that can and should be undertaken, which serve similar interests without undertaking full-blown unionization (I discuss this in my white paper, linked below). All that said, your question was about the impacts of a union, so let me dive into that…

There are some really important threshold considerations here—for instance, whether the union would impact all of esports or just be formed surrounding a particular game. But for whatever game(s) the union covered, there is no doubt it would fundamentally alter the scene. The power dynamics would shift and players would acquire a meaningful voice in structural decisions making, minimum contracts terms and conditions, and so much more. The formal economic tools of unions would also become available (strikes, lock outs, etc.). I actually wrote a fairly long winded white paper on this subject, which delves into the topic way more deeply than I’ll be able to go into here: http://www.foster.com/documents/foster-pepper-white-paper/collectivebargainingwhitepaper-fosterpepper.



Switching gears a little here, what has your work with Unikrn entailed when you became there Director of e-sports? How does that differ from your legal work with players and organizations?

Bryce: It really depends on which hat I’m wearing. My full title at Unikrn is actually Director of eSports and In-House Counsel, so I’m still doing some of Unikrn’s legal work. That tracks pretty similarly to work I’m doing for other third parties in the esports space—sponsorship contracts, negotiating deal terms, website terms of service, general business work, etc. My non-legal work has been a really fun change of pace though. I’ve been heavily involved in business development efforts, helping establish strong relationship with key entities throughout the industry.

I’m also spearheading our competitive integrity certification program, which I’m hoping will be a game changer for the industry—the goal is to establish a minimum threshold, coupled with incentives to go much further, for competition organizers to promote and protect competitive integrity. I want this to be a collaborative process, so we’ve already begun reaching out to stakeholders throughout the industry who I’m hoping will provide feedback from development through launch of the initiative.



Do you think that online gambling system that Unikrn has come up with will be a positive impact to the industry and how so?

Bryce: Yes, I do. Gambling can make esports even bigger and better—there is ample evidence that shows it increases viewership and enhances engagement. The esports industry needs the courage to think about this problem differently. It needs to integrate wagering into the fabric of the community, regulate wagering activities, promote competitive integrity, and work collaboratively to combat any consequences that may arise. I actually wrote an op-ed on this for the Daily Dot: http://www.dailydot.com/esports/gambling-esports-benefits/. I recognize my biases on this subject, but I hope people will take the time to read the article and evaluate my arguments.



Thank you for your time! To conclude this interview, do you have any final comments? Is there anyone or anyone organization you would wish to shout-out?

Bryce: I don’t have any sponsors, but I’ll give a shout-out to my clients, contacts, and everyone who helped get me to where I am today. I love my job, and I never want to take for granted the fact that I get to wake up every day and work in an industry that is exciting, engaging, and a hell of a lot of fun.