They have a training routine and, in some cases, the members of the team live together in a ‘gaming house’. The behind the scenes of a million dollar business.
The structure and organization of esports somewhat resembles that of other mainstream sports. There are companies behind the clubs, there is a coaching staff with coaches, great advertising interests move and the key piece of the gear is the players.
To become a good player requires a lot of practice and this translates into endless hours in front of the screens . Some teams have developed high performance centers to train the team. In other cases, the players, in addition to sharing a work space, live together in a gaming house , as this type of residence is called.
This is the case of G2 Arctic, a team from the League of Legends video game. Luis García, CEO of Arctic Gaming, the company behind G2 Arctic (in 2020, they launched the team after an agreement with the giant G2Esports), explains the day-to-day life of the five main players who work and live in gaming . club house : “The players have a fairly marked routine, although with flexibility and adaptations according to the needs of each one. Every morning they do individual training supervised by the coach and the sports psychologist, and in the afternoon they do scrims (group training) against other teams in the same category”.
Contrary to what it may seem, this profession is also governed by a fixed schedule , although the tasks to be performed are far from what can be understood as office work. The working day begins around 10 a.m. for the G2Arctic players and, according to Luis García, “they work individually at a technical level and make a stop to eat around 1 p.m.
According to Statista, e-sports reached a global audience of 465 million viewers worldwide in 2019, a number that is projected to reach 580 million by 2024.
At 3 p.m., they do group training again until 6 or 7 p.m. Once their workday is over, they have total freedom to do whatever they want in their free time. The house is currently rented, but the company plans to have its own space in Granada shortly.
Movistar Riders, another consolidated Spanish club in the e-sports industry, organizes its players around two different spaces. On the one hand, there is the work center, the Movistar eSports Center (MeC) and on the other the “sports residence ”, as the company has baptized the house shared by the players and some members of the staff.
Both spaces are rented and the company has invested “in creating the center and all the necessary infrastructure for the development of the company, players and teams”, comments Fernando Piquer, founder and CEO of Movistar Riders.
The club, which has just celebrated its five years of existence with the entry of Movistar into the company’s structure as a partner with a 15% stake , focuses its professional activity on the Movistar e-sports Center (MeC), located in the Madrid’s Paseo de la Chopera. The space has an area of 1,000 square meters and is open to the community, also broadcasting celebrations and electronic sports matches. The team points out that it is the first high-performance eSports center in Europe.
When it comes to organizing training, a routine is very similar to that of other clubs : “The players usually arrive at the MeC around 11am to focus the morning on individual routines such as sessions with the club psychologist, talks with the coach or individual improvement routines within the game. Around 1:00 p.m., the team eats in our dining area. At approximately 2:30 p.m. the group training begins until 8:00 p.m. There, a final meeting of the day is held and a normal training day would be over. Explains Luis Filgueira “Resett”, Sports Director of Movistar Riders.
Protect mental health
Mental health cannot be a pending issue in an industry where nearly all esports gamers (overwhelmingly male) are centennials . For this reason, many clubs complement training with sessions with sports psychologists .
In the case of G2 Arctic, Luis García points out that “the team has the assistance of a sports psychologist practically 24 hours a day. This profile is vital to keep them in their best possible condition throughout the season . In addition, they have the support and backing at all times of the team’s coaching staff so that, not only mentally, but any need they have, they can resolve it as soon as possible”.
At Movistar Riders they have two sports psychologists “who work with the players every day, improving all possible routines . And logically they are available to our players at any time”, comments the team’s sports director.
The esports industry is expanding on all fronts. And the growth of your audience is the best proof of the interest you arouse. According to Statista, e-sports reached a global audience of 465 million viewers worldwide in 2019, a number that is projected to reach 580 million by 2024 . At the moment, it already gathers more public than other traditional sports, such as golf, with a worldwide audience of 390 million people.
