How Esports is Creating New Career Opportunities Beyond Gaming
It's as important to find your spot in the scene whether competing in the game or working behind the scenes. What drives you: the competition itself or the statistical analysis?
Major tournaments fill stadiums and prize pools amount to millions - Esports has now become an international phenomenon.
Marketing
The development of esports in the last decade has been so marvelous. High-speed Internet and PCs specifically meant for gaming have made all forms of competitive sports more accessible to everyone, encouraging more participation among gamers. Hardware manufactures and tech tycoons are raking in resources from various points to support the new scene and even producing new games that are tailored with esports in mind.
These elements, among many others, have resulted in possible figures of viewership of esports that could rival that of other traditional sports. This industry does not only draw in audiences but also has a wealth of profusely opportunities out there, besides being a high-level gamer.
Year-long work and burnout are factors in the lives of esports players. They are much sought after in sponsorship contracts or other lucrative opportunities.
Passionate about gaming and want to see it improve? Work as a marketing coordinator or event manager; you'll help organize events to promote the sport. Those interested in writing or videography can use this medium to continue their love for the genre.
With such a massive audience, esports offers fantastic potential for sponsorship, so if you've got the gift of gab, esports might just give you a foot in the door with big-tier sponsors like Mountain Dew or Red Bull, then go networking to find teams looking for partners like yours and convince them that their products would fit best for said tournaments and teams.
Sponsorships
People often tend to think that the professional gamer needs to work only in esports. This, however, holds true for only a few occasions, as the same individual also has a lot of other fields from this industry, such as Marketing, Management, Operations, Sales Coaching, Social Media Coordination, Travel, etc.
Esports is growing so fast that sponsorship becomes one of the essential things in maintaining such growth. Companies now realize that and invest money to pour into sponsorship contracts to be present before a young audience.
It has not been long since Red Bull and Mountain Dew began sponsoring events and teams along with the increasing involvement of "endemic" companies like these. Mercedes-Benz signed on as non-endemic sponsors of esports, as many saw it as a gateway to unifying themselves with gaming fans along with elevating their vehicles.
Majorly, sponsorships ensure good favorable conditions for the athletes in esports. With the help of sponsorship, an athlete can equip himself with top-end equipment in the name of the sponsoring corporates and show the same thing on his jerseys and say the same in their streaming session, and thus, exposes your brand to multiple social media platform audiences and reaches out to youngsters like Gen Z, who otherwise will find it difficult to engage with your brand into future business opportunities from both ends.
Event Management
But, like every other sports industry, the esports industry has its drawbacks as well. It takes an extremely high level of distinct skill to compete at elite levels - very few make it all the way. Gaming being such an immersive activity as well can have stress levels soaring for gamers, leading to paths they should not go down, like poor health, depression, and suicide as with all industries; however, the esports industry is evolving to fulfill the market demand through better support systems for its players.
An established regulatory framework is also necessary for esports to maintain fair play and reduce instances of cheating, match-fixing, and other illegal activities. In addition to ensuring that, this will allow increasing opportunities for gamers to secure good-paying, reliable jobs.
Event Management is sure to go increasing as the industry of esports grows. Events require well-devised and orchestrated planning - from venue selection to technical setups - and so Event Managers will be instrumental in organizing competitions to be fun for spectators.
Esports tournaments are indeed difficult events and require a lot of planning before they can succeed, such as cost analysis, expense tracking, and resource allocation. Risks will have to be reduced for safety reasons by an event manager, as well as the appropriate skills to anticipate future needs while changing plans accordingly.
Streaming
Esports have turned out to be a global industry in a very short span of time, boasting millions of spectators across the world, with revenue projections above $4.3 billion. Esports promise ample growth potential even beyond just being a professional gamer.
Teamwork: Being a close ambassador and teammate working very closely with other individuals brings the highest out-of-class level of effective communication and association abilities further developing the critical and organizational skills that will be priceless in any career field.
Strategic Thinking: Strategies are analyzed starting from understanding the situation to judging against competitors, so really forming an effective approach-you can't succeed in esports without it. But this qualification far transcends the gaming world and goes into other real-life settings-from investment decisions to creating new ideas at work.
Time Management Learning to juggle practice, tournaments, and schoolwork requires little more than efficient time management skills. Thus, the way students learn how to prioritize and schedule their tasks for the day is invaluable in any working environment.
Technology:
The knowledge that is followed in the construction of the computer specifications that the Esports industry needs is worth having a close idea on with regard to any approaching future career stream in STEM areas such as engineering, coding, or graphic design.