A Service Design Perspective on the Career of esport players

The following article is the thesis of my Master of Fine Arts degree in Service Design; the document was submitted and approved by Savannah College of Art & Design in November 2019.

Project duration

January 2018 to November 2019

Project Location

Savannah, GA

project member:

One

What is a video game? Is it only a personal hobbit that we do after a busy day? As the power of technology and social media increase, video games have moved from a product that only benefits developers to a platform that allows people who love it to as a profession; new professions, such as streamers, Youtubers, and professional video game players has become a new trend for younger generations as their future options. This article aims to understand the value of eSport players (professional video game players) for improving their working environments.

what is service design?

Before we discuss the main topic, I would like to provide a brief description for readers who may not be familiar with the term “service design.”

The fundamental of service design is based on Service-Dominant Logic (S-D Logic), which is the idea of understanding services and products as sustainable cycles; instead of a one-off product selling, S-D logic focuses on allowing a business to have the ability to shift with the market.

“Service-dominant (S-D) logic represents a departure from the traditional foundational goods-dominant (G -D) logic of exchange, in which goods were the focus of exchange and services represented a special case of goods - a logic that marketing herniated from economics a little more than 100 years ago. It represents a shift from an emphasis on the exchange of operand resources, 40 usually tangible, inert resources, to an emphasis on operand resources, dynamic resources that act upon on other resources.” (Lusch & Vargo, 2006, p. 1)

In other words, the service design perspective allows designers and developers to determine and focus on customers’ needs; an object is more of a supporting system that allows the service to be operated. For example, Netflix, one of the world's largest on-demand TV & movie broadcast platforms, is using our smartphones, computers, and TV boxes to allow customers to watch their beloved TV series or Movies in any location with internet and screen. The core service that Netflix provides is not the TV shows & movies but the freedom to watch anytime, anywhere.

Why eSport?

While I was looking for the areas that I wanted to focus on for my thesis topic, I started to look back on my life experience and look for what I enjoy the most because I would like my thesis to be something I would still love and feel connected to after I finished writing it. So, I mapped out three key elements: culture, personal interest, and emotion, which allow me to be who I am today and cross-match with my service designer knowledge.

In the end, “eSport” came out on top as my choice because it is a new/innovative industry that connects video game players from different places and ages with the same language.

What is esport?

eSport, an abbreviation for electronic sport, is the general designation for professional video game events. Like sports leagues (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL), which are formed for people who play different sports as professionals, eSport leagues allow video game players to play different types of video games as their career. Among many types of professional video games, I chose League of Legends professional league as the sample of this article because it is one of the long-lived eSport events that started in 2010 and is still operating.

eSport revenue

In the US, the sports industry is a large and stable-growing industry. In 2016, the US sports industry hit 67.29 billion USD; between 2009 and 2016, the sports industry grew 38% in revenue, a 2 billion USD growth each year [Figure 1]. However, the potential of the eSport industry can be shown in numbers. In 2012, the eSport industry had a revenue of 130 million USD. Within six years, in 2018, the industry set its revenue at 906 million USD, which is a 697% growth.

Esport viewership

The growth of the eSport industry has brought different levels of impact and benefits to its relatives, and the biggest beneficiary is the game industry. The total revenue of the US video game industry has grown 18% and hit the $43.4 billion mark in 2018. More specifically, software, which includes in-game purchases and subscriptions, has grown 18% and reached $35.8 billion; it earned an extra $5.4 billion.

eSport Investor

Investors like venture capital23, family office24, and private equity25 have become the majority of eSport sponsors; these three types of investors focus on different eSport industry categories. “In terms of subindustries, venture capital was largely focused among media platforms & advertising (45%), developers (31%), and team organizations (18%).” (Foley & TEO, 2019, p. 8) Aside from media investment, venture capital is largely focused on providing resources for advanced technology. Among developers, analytics is the key target for investors because of its ability to provide data tracks for gameplay; the data can be a key to gaming skill improvement.

League of Legend

League of Legends (LoL) is a tower defense MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game in which players would go 5v5 against each other. One team must destroy the opponent’s towers and base to define a game-winner. Until 2017, LoL had a total of 11 direct servers that covered 145 countries and had about 81 million active players. The successes of League of Legends had set their revenue to 2.1 billion USA in that year.

Lol eSport league

the League of Legends eSport league is now divided into six major regions: North America, Europe, Korea, China, Taiwan/ Hon Kong/Macaw, and Wildcard, which include more than 52 teams. Each year, teams from all over the world compete in tournaments to look for the opportunity to play in the championship tournament, to which the top 3 or 2 teams from each are invited. The prize pool for the LOL championship in 2017 was 1.54 million USD for first place, and the total viewership was 75.5 million. In addition, each player will receive 1.5k USD per game from Riot.

The reality of esport

According to the information above, the eSport industry seems like a growing industry, and the organizations and players should have a good income like NBA players. However, the reality is that eSport players are not a profession that allows them to have a stable life. If we compare League of Legends players' income and career length with NBA players', the LoL players are not compatible.

In order to understand the reason for the gap in player salary and career length, I have mapped out a user journey through a League of Legends and an NBA player’s career path to see what the differences between these two industries are.

NBA vs. League of Legends Player Career Path

The paths between these two careers are similar after players enter the professional field; players become employees of organizations and play until their skills and bodies do not fit the pro world. So, I looked into the period when players work to become professionals while they are students.

Basketball players in school

After a player reaches the age of entering school, they would be able to join a school basketball program, which would help the player to learn the fundamentals of basketball; in a school team, a play would receive basketball knowledge, training, and play game with teammates; to allow a player to join a school team, the school administration would have to accept and allow these players to become a part of the school team. While playing high school or other levels of basketball below high school, college scouters would be the key providers, allowing college basketball teams to receive information from talented players. In addition, If a player cannot cooperate with the school basketball program or requires more training time or opportunity, there are also third-party basketball clubs organized by other communities; the third-party basketball clubs cooperate with the local gym and provide players with suitable environments to play basketball; this type of basketball club would also provide coaching staff and teammates to allow the third-party basketball players to have similar experience as a school basketball club. The above process usually takes place for players between 0 and 18 years old or between a player starting to play basketball and a high school senior. After high school, a player would have a choice to play in a college basketball league, play a professional basketball league in the US or overseas; a college basketball team has a similar support crew as high school or other school teams, and a college team includes coaching staff and teammates, and school administration is in charge of recruiting players to play in college. If a player chooses to join a developing league or other professional leagues, a player has to hire an agent to help him negotiate with the team organization. In addition, NBA scouters generate and provide players’ information to the NBA organization in preparation for the NBA draft. While playing in college or other professional leagues, players would be competing in higher level to help them to compete in NBA level, also, players must spend more time to train themselves in the professional or college facilities, even sometimes a private trainer is required. In private training, players cooperate with other coaching staff, teammates, and other training environments financially supported financially by family.

ESport player in school

A player could attend high schools with an eSport training program or associate with a private coach for training purposes; high school programs and private coaches operate with coaching staff and teammates, and high schools are also supported by their administration. During a high school career, a player can be spotted by an eSport scout and hired by an eSport organization to become an eSport player. Suppose a player does not successfully become an eSport player in high school. In that case, he/she can join a college team, which allows him/her to keep competing and training in the League of Legend college league and be able to learn other professional knowledge in school; a college eSport team is also supported by coaching staff, teammates, and school administration. The possibility of joining a professional team mostly happens when a player starts his/her high school and ends when he/she graduates from college, the age take place between 15 to 22 years old.

What Do I discover here?

After generating data from my research process, I listed two significant design opportunities for my solution.

1. Create a service or develop a new training method that helps decrease " burnout” for eSport players. Two major reasons for a short career time for eSport players are long working hours and the dormitory living style.

   • Working as a pro player requires a high level of focus on gameplay every day. Players currently require 12 to 15 working hours, which include video game playing and team meetings a day; the consistency of this lifestyle has caused many pro players to retire after a short period of professional career. In this case, eSport organizations should develop new training methods that can decrease work hours and maintain the same training quality.

   • In the eSports industry, majority of the organization requires players to live in a dormitory lifestyle which allows easier team management, in other word, players are surrounded by their co-workers who are following the same daily schedule. Furthermore, most organizations have designed the working environment as part of their living spaces; players only require staying in the same building to live and work. The other reason this living style appears in eSport is because many eSport players are under 18, and these players are not allowed to live by themselves. The dormitory style might be a solution for easier team management and allows under-age players to work as eSport players. Still, it also causes many players to burn out of their passion and leave the industry quickly. To stop this scenario, eSport organizations can separate the working and living environments to allow players to “escape” from work after working hours.

2. Becoming an eSport player is not yet a standard path as the rest of the professions; a person aiming for this path has to decide between education and professional life as a teenager or young adult. Instead of adopting both the education and eSport systems, redesigning these two and making them user (pro player) friendly may be a better solution that helps potential players learn the skills, knowledge, and minds required to face a relatively short career and early retirement life.

   • A strong eSport player’s prime time is combined with a great understanding of the game, quick adaption of patch updates, and short reaction time, and a player’s prime time usually overlaps with their college, sometimes high school education time. As a result, people who go to 63 and become pros must make life decisions when they are teenagers. In this case, the education system should be a system that helps them instead of forcing them to decide between what they want at the moment and what they will have in the future.

   • In high school, most students experience general education, which includes different subjects that allow them to choose what interests them, whether in college or in a professional field. But since eSport players usually have their professional career begin at this moment, these students should not only have a general education but also professional training, which does not only on the skill and knowledge of the game but also mental preparation to allow them to see the dark side of the professional eSport; the potential downside of choosing this path. In addition, when an eSport event conflicts with the school schedule, a solution should be created between the eSport and the education organization.

   • For eSport players, 4-year college might be too much time to contribute to school. Instead of spending much time on a college degree, college education should cooperate with the eSport organization to create a different program that provides a similar level of future training to college education from these players. This program should be focus on training the relative skills that a player might need for his/her retirement life to help a player to have a skillset to live after retirement.

After evaluating the possibility of my list of design opportunities, I have laid out my first choice because the redesign of an eSport organization might be prohibitive because most of the players are under age 18, which is not allowed to live without adults, and allowing all eSport players (including underage players) to have total control of their daily lives might go against the law.

Solution

The solution is shown as a journey map to help compare with the current professional player career journey that I first mapped out to generate research data. The potential eSport player journey has removed the original high school and college program to a special education for eSport to allow students to better understand the industry and have a chance to learn a secondary skill.

The key change in the solution is the cooperation between the eSport organization, high school, and college education; in the current high school and college, even students have the eSport league in high school and college, students who intend to become professional players still need to look for balance their education and practice time; students that want to be professional usually needs to sacrifice their chance of education. Furthermore, the image of eSport event is colorful that many students that are looking up for their eSport idols sometimes only see the glamorous side of these players, what they could not witness is that the time, lifestyle, and media critique that they have to bear with. All these negative effects of eSports have become a big “surprise” after they entered the field. With the cooperation between eSport and the education system, they can create a special education/eSport training program that can design classes that help train students to learn how to face these negative sides of the professional field. eSport training is not the only focus of the eSport education system; as mentioned, students have to make a sacrifice in education to become pros as teenagers, and compared to traditional sports and other “regular” professions, eSport players have a relatively early start on their profession. Still, unlike traditional sports, eSport has shorter career and less income. And because most of the players would face retirement in early or mid-20s, their second careers are limited to industries that are related to eSport; most retired players became video game YouTubers and streamer or other professions that are strongly associated with eSport; retired players might not have the choice but to stay in eSport industry because they do not have other professional training that can open up their life decision to other fields. In this case, the eSport education system can provide programs with similar training as college programs to help players have secondary skills to survive. In addition, eSport events mostly happen on weekends and are off-season; the secondary professional training can be done in spare time. The eSport education system might not be able to solve the burnout issue in the professional field. Still, it not only creates an opportunity for potential players to understand the industry and be prepared for their future but also allows potential players to choose another professional program to be prepared for retirement life.

Please visit https://library.scad.edu/screens/theses.html and search Peng Hsuan Liaw under service design catergory for the compelete article.

Reference

2019 Official Rules LCS and LACS. (2019).

About Us. (n.d.).

Alvesson, M. (2001). Knowledge work: Ambiguity, image and identity. Human Relations, 54(7), 863–886. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726701547004

Ashton, G. (2017). What is the Optimum Training Time for Esports Players?

Athletic Scholarships: Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ncsasports.org/recruiting/how-to-get-recruited/scholarship-facts

Bateman, C. (2010). Game Design as Make-Believe: Imagination. Retrieved from https://kotaku.com/5528166/game-design-as-make-believe-imagination

BURROW, G. (2013). Not Just a Game: The Impact of Sports on U.S. Economy. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from http://www.economicmodeling.com/2013/07/09/not-just-a-game-the-impact-of-sports-on-u-s-economy/

Carp, S. (2018). Nine esports companies worth more than US$100m, says Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/esports-companies-most-valuable-cloud-9-forbes

Collegiete Varsity Esports Programs. (2019).

Cork Gaines. (2013). CHART: The Average NBA Player Will Make A Lot More In His Career Than The Other Major Sports. Retrieved May 9, 2018, from http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-the-average-nba-player-will-make-lot-more-in-his-career-than-the-other-major-sports-2013-10

County, M. B. (1996). Advanced Design Methods, 8, 193.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research Design:Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (4th ed.). Sage.

Curtis Baugh. (2018). eSports Go To College. Retrieved April 6, 2018, from https://thebestschools.org/magazine/growth-college-esports/

Edward N. Zalta, Uri Nodelman, Colin Allen, Paul Oppenheimer, Jesse Alama, Emma Pease, & Hannah H. Kim. (2016). Gadamer’s Aesthetics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/gadamer-aesthetics/

eSports Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2016-2026. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/esports-market

Feng, E. (n.d.). Nature vs Nurture: The Odds of Playing College Basketball. Retrieved from https://thepowerrank.com/2013/03/29/nature-vs-nurture-the-odds-of-playing-college-basketball/

Foley, & TEO. (2019). The eSport Observer, (April), 17.

Forbes Releases 21st Annual NBA Team Valuations. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbespr/2019/02/06/forbes-releases-21st-annual-nba-team-valuations/#7ded6fe011a7

Ganos, T. (2013). What is A Family Office. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/toddganos/2013/08/13/what-is-a-family-office/#1b347b8ba13f

H.B. DURAN. (2016). Playing The Game: How Much ESports Players Really Make. Retrieved April 27, 2018, from http://www.alistdaily.com/media/playing-the-game-how-much-esports-players-really-make/

Hansen, T. (2018). Gaming is Not A Sport. ISTO. (2019). League of Legends patch schedule.

Kane, S. (2019). The Common Characteristics of Millenial Professionals. Keizer, P. (2014). The Concept of Institution : Context and Meaning The Concept of Institution : Context and Meaning 1 Piet Keizer, (August), 8–22.

KETCHERSIDE, S. (2018). The Real Reason Games Need Updates.

Kirby, C. C. (2016). Symposium: Philosophy of Play Gadamer, Dewey, and the Importance of Play in Philosophical Inquiry. Reason Papers, 38(1), 8–20.

LCS Players/Current. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://lol.gamepedia.com/LCS_Players/Current

Li, X. (2018). NA LCS salaries average over $320K a year according to OpTic Gaming manager.

Liao, H. (2016). Why is the average LoL career so short?

Lien, T. (2014). Why E.T. wasn’t the worst game in history. Ploygon.

Luke Christou. (2018). Esports is set to become a $1bn industry in 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2018, from https://www.verdict.co.uk/esports-revenue-report/

Lusch, R. F., & Vargo, L. (2006). Service-dominant logic: What it is, what it is not, what it might be, (January 2006), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.5849/sjaf.10-039

Manhães, M. C. (2013). Breaking Down Service Prototyping. Zeitschrift Fur Psychologie / Journal of Psychology, 221(3), 124–144. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000142

Manhães, M. C. (2015). Innovativeness and prejudice: designing a landscape of diversity for knowledge creation, (March), 401. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.1385.3520

Mats Alvesson, Cynthia Hardy, & Bill Harley. (2008). Reflecting on Reflexivity: Reflexive Textual Practices in Organization and Management Theory. Journal of Management Studies. Retrieved from http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=436696F8DE4E09545E14

McDowell, S. (2016). 9 Important Insights about Generation Z.

Michael G Wagner. (2006). On the Scientific Relevance of eSports. Ethics.https://doi.org/10.1086/290752

MINOTTI, M. (2014). The history of MOBAs: From mod to sensation.

North America sports market size from 2009 to 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars) (2017). Pannekeet, J. (2018). Newzoo: Global Esports Economy Will Reach $905.6 Million in 2018 as Brand Investment Grows by 48%. Retrieved from https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/newzoo-global-esports-economy-will-reach-905-6-million-2018-brand-investment-grows-48/

Park, H. (n.d.). MONEY’S ROLE IN SOCIETY. Retrieved from http://scripts.cac.psu.edu/users/h/w/hwp5131/Assignment 5.html

Peaches232664. (2015). Starting an eSports Organization – Part 2 (Management Team). Retrieved from https://dotesports.com/league-of-legends/news/starting-an-esports-organization-part-2-management-team-6552

Petersen, R. (n.d.). What’s the average career length of a professional eSports player? Retrieved May 10, 2018, from https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-average-career-length-of-a-professional-eSports-player

Phil Owen. (2016). What Is A Video Game? A Short Explainer. Retrieved April 6, 2018, from https://www.thewrap.com/what-is-a-video-game-a-short-explainer/

Quora. (2016). How the U.S. became a sporting culture.

Rouse, M. (n.d.). Gartner hype cycle.

Schumpeter, J. A. (1927). The Explanation of the Business Cycle, 18(70), 286–311. sport. (n.d.).

Statisa. (2015). Average age of selected eSports games players in North America in 2015 (in years).

STREELMAN, E. (2016). The Role of Sports in the American Education System. Retrieved from https://www.workinsports.com/blog/the-role-of-sports-in-the-american-education-system/

Syracuse Staff. (2017). With Viewership and Revenue Booming, Esports Set to Compete with Traditional Sports. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from https://onlinebusiness.syr.edu/blog/esports-to-compete-with-traditional-sports/

The Media Learning of eSports. (2016).

Translated, J. G., & Schmidt, L. K. (n.d.). Play, Festival, and Ritual in Gadamer.

Troy Ruediger. (2017). 17 colleges with varsity esports programs. Retrieved April 15, 2018, from https://blog.starters.co/17-colleges-with-varsity-esports-programs-ce01b5c4f3ce

U.S. Video Game Sales Reach Record-Breaking $43.4 Billion in 2018. (n.d.).

Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2008). Why “service”? Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36(1), 25–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-007-0068-7

Vargo, S. L., & Lusch, R. F. (2015). Institutions and axioms: an extension and update of service-dominant logic. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 44(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-015-0456-3

Video Game History. (2018).

What Are The Game Types? (n.d.).

Where the NBA Players Come From. (n.d.).

Wood, R. (n.d.). The History of the 3-Pointer.

2019 Official Rules LCS and LACS. (2019).