- 5 years ago
Matt Edelman, Chief Commercial Officer of Super League Gaming, joins Joe and Norris about Super League Gaming.
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00:00hey welcome back to checkpoint esports and gaming radio we are joined now by the chief
00:10commercial officer for super league gaming matt edelman matt thank you so much for giving me some
00:14of your time today hey thanks for having me i didn't realize i was first this morning you are
00:19you're first up i get things rolling that's correct uh all right so uh we got to ask these
00:24questions to everyone who comes through i've got to know what is the best video game of all time
00:30the best video game of all time uh wow so um i i have to say uh just in everything that i've seen
00:41even though i'm not an avid player um i just i love lol i've loved learning about after my own heart
00:48loved watching you know uh so many folks in our office play we run experiences for league of
00:54legends players all over the country and the passion the strategy uh it's um the communication
01:01between players it's fantastic uh so how did you get introduced to esports like as a concept
01:08that's a great question so uh i've been sort of connected to the media business really my whole
01:13career um in and out of video games at different points uh starting back in the 90s when i worked
01:20at marvel i actually um uh worked on a project that was an interactive comic book on cd-roms okay
01:28so really far back yeah okay yeah cd-rom era and that was uh also when marvel was starting to license
01:36its titles out to partners like activision and others um and then more recently i was at a company
01:43named uh wme img now named endeavor okay uh wme img formed a joint venture with turner to create e-league
01:53ah yes okay i was uh on the on the team that got that off the ground i was not very involved in uh the
02:01ongoing operation once it was sort of set up and up and running but that was my sort of um baptism by
02:07fire and what video games had become and and what esports uh has emerged um um to be well on e-league
02:14is of course a very uh amazing presentation uh uh and and one of the first things that when people
02:20think of esports on traditional media they think oh yeah i've seen it on on turner it is it's pretty
02:26impressive uh so all time your favorite gaming memory you know that's that's unfortunately really
02:34easy when you ask a parent because it's about playing with you know with a child for the most
02:39part if you're a gamer and um you know my son is now 13 my favorite memory is really a series of
02:46memories of playing with him whether it's minecraft fortnite um uh battlefront uh even got him to play
02:55some some traditional sports games like the nhl and fifa and it's a it's a regular event in our home every
03:03saturday morning that's so awesome i mean i came from a family of uh musicians and former uh sports
03:09athletes so uh uh video games i was definitely the uh the odd man out in my family playing video games
03:15but that's that's very cool all right uh so all right so first of all we got to start with super
03:23league gaming uh tell us a bit about what you do with super league gaming well well super league gaming
03:29um it's it's a it's an exciting company that's you know still young but um we've you know we've been
03:35able to make a lot of progress over a few years we focus on amateur esports experiences and really
03:41developing uh a community of amateur players across the country um and soon internationally uh the idea
03:49is that um players of video games watch pro um competitors right uh at the highest level
03:57and aspire to have a way to play like a pro uh there aren't a lot of opportunities to do that
04:05in really a structured framework and as part of a community that is enduring over time in uh either
04:12a local venue where you live or digitally with a group of players you begin to trust and in a community
04:19that feels like a place you can belong and that's really what super league is building across game
04:24titles across uh cities and towns all over the country across skill levels all ages trying to be
04:31you know fully inclusive to the amateur gamer that likes to compete well that does seem to be one of
04:37the the difficult things about esports as much as it's growing and expanding is for a lot of people who
04:42aspire to be professional esports players or athletes at some point that kind of path to the pros remains
04:49shrouded in mystery it's it's it's you know you might think maybe i'll go to college to try to play
04:53that's starting to become an option so but it sounds like super league gaming can be another
04:57you know path to the professional scene it sure can i mean what we really have have um have focused
05:03on is that community experience so if you think of what happens in traditional sports starting at a
05:09young age you have the opportunity to be part of a community organization that is um organizing
05:16and running sports experiences uh locally and that could be on a field it could be inside a ymca
05:22uh there are a lot of options super league is becoming the primary option in the communities
05:28where we've activated when it comes to esports and then it extends all the way into um gamers who are
05:34out of college in their 20s 30s even older the same way that um somebody who's 25 26 might join a
05:41a men's uh softball league or right a co-ed soccer league whatever it happens to be super league is the
05:48alternative for them to continue gaming competitively so and and i do want to talk about this idea of being
05:53city-based for a moment uh it's one of the things that esports is only just now starting to tap into is
05:59this idea of the city-based community obviously we've got overwatch league who has finally kind of tapped
06:05into that regionalization idea uh you guys have i mean kind of before anyone figured out that people
06:12love representing their city they love representing where they're from and rooting for the team that
06:18plays in their city yeah i mean you're absolutely right it's a great point and i appreciate you
06:22acknowledging that we were the first ones to do it we we've had um our our city-based clubs for more
06:28than two years uh we recognize the enthusiasm that a player has in any sport in being part of
06:35something from their hometown and rooting for their hometown taking pride in their local team
06:39and that's really something that we're extending as widely as possible across the u.s and later this
06:44year internationally so we're big believers in that that local um affinity so matt i i do have a quick
06:51question is that a lot of times we talk about community we talk about the grassroots and you see a lot
06:57of uh big corporations and big money now getting involved in esports how does super league strike
07:02that balance between making sure that they're involved in the grassroots and getting those big
07:07communities to come in and and feel a part of the entire process without sort of uh making it feel
07:13like for lack of a better term to corporate that's a great question and and on the one hand it's such an
07:21exciting time for esports companies in general so many brands that are not native and endemic to
07:28video games and esports are starting to enter the space and prioritizing gamers as an important
07:34consumer segment they want to reach and they want to have be interested in their products and their
07:39services the the most important part of those activations and those partnerships is really about
07:46doing whatever you can to enhance the player experience if you focus on the player super league
07:51is um committed to being a player first company so when we bring a partner on board we want to make
07:58the player experience better whether that's at home whether that's in a venue whether that's the
08:03prizing whether that's the content whatever it is it's about the player experience and if we can
08:08keep true to that we think it will remain authentic and exciting and not feel overly commercialized
08:14so uh currently you guys have four games league of legends clash royale fortnite and minecraft and
08:19i i i'm going to get on more on that in a sec but i do have to start with competitive minecraft
08:24because us uh us older people look at minecraft and go how does how does that work but i know of
08:30course the younger demographic says absolutely so can you tell us a little bit about competitive
08:34minecraft sure you know minecraft by nature is is built to be a game that can be enjoyed on a on a
08:40number of levels really it's legos it's what you make of it yeah it's what you make of it
08:44great way to say it and and what a number of businesses have done super league included
08:49um uh is is have that we've created competitive mini games so game modes that leverage what you
08:57can create in minecraft because it is an open environment and then using those game modes to
09:02establish the competitive experience so we have a series of proprietary game modes we bring uh players
09:08into a venue a movie theater etc and we um create a competitive structure around multiple game modes
09:16during that event um and we're able to have players in one location a movie theater in las vegas for
09:23example playing against players in a movie theater in los angeles right um and we we create a scoring
09:30mechanism and visualization uh to make spectating interesting for the parents who are in attendance and for the
09:37kids who might get knocked out early in a given round um and we we build the competitive experience
09:43really to be similar to what they'll experience as they graduate beyond minecraft into other games
09:49like league of legends where competition is part of the everyday experience of the game well i mean it
09:55sounds like uh it's it's analogous to uh t-ball or uh where people start when they're trying to learn
10:02how to play baseball you you learn the fundamentals of esports communication and and and performing on
10:08a stage and things like that in the in the in games like minecraft and then like you say when it's time
10:13to graduate and move on to maybe more complex games like league of legends the players have the context for
10:19the skills that they'll need that's absolutely right i mean we see uh great uh demonstrations of
10:24teamwork we see different players start to become leaders on their team we see them um in between
10:30rounds enjoying strategy sessions and talking about who they have to target as another team in order to win the next round
10:38we also see the camaraderie and the friendships that develop there are players who have met in super league events
10:44who now um spend time hanging out as friends on weekends their parents bring them together because they met in our esports league
10:52exactly what happens in traditional recreational sports whether it's little league or ayso and both at the
10:58at the youth level and at the adult level we have players who are part of our league of legends communities
11:03who have met and gotten married who have met and become roommates who have met and formed permanent teams
11:08right they um that they stay with uh in um other league of legends uh competitions so uh talking about
11:16league of legends uh for a moment uh typically speaking riot games has been has played league of legends
11:21esports very close to the chest they choose to run most of their own stuff what has it been like
11:26getting involved in running league of legends tournaments well riot's been a a really terrific
11:32partner for us they they were gracious to give us a chance to prove that we could honor their ip
11:39and and provide good experiences to their community and we've been able to deliver on that so they've
11:47continued to trust us and we we work very collaboratively in thinking about what programs
11:51to bring to the amateur competitive lol scene um and so you know for us running league of legends um
11:59programs has has really been about making sure we understand what the players are looking for
12:05when they're not um otherwise just going to go into solo queue and a lot of times that has to do with
12:11the in-person experience um more than 60 percent of of players in general look forward to playing with
12:19others in a physical location outside of their home right and we're trying to that land event getting
12:24to be in the room on the stage competing like it's exciting well and you also you learn um um more about
12:31the game when you're playing together with others right skill progression occurs faster when you find
12:36people you want to play with you end up playing the game more often and so it really feeds
12:41the enthusiasm that players have um by running these events in a way that is a really um um exemplary
12:50uh to what you know i think riot would want um to see more of their players enjoying uh through
12:56partners like super league so last question uh more and more we're seeing esports beginning to appear
13:03in places like high schools we're seeing high schools adopt a varsity model we're seeing colleges offer
13:07scholarships what advice do you offer to maybe a parent out there whose kid has said you know
13:14what i want to try to be competitive in in esports and video games and the parents wondering like
13:19oh okay what does that mean like what advice can you offer well it's advice that that i have
13:25to take uh personally because again my my son i'm not sure that he's gonna try to get on a high
13:30school team um or a college team but he loves playing video games he loves competing he loves
13:36the thrill of victory he loves learning and what i would say to parents is uh try to think of esports
13:44as a legitimate sport think of the ability to bring your child or to encourage your child to leave
13:52the home and participate in esports experiences as actually an antidote to too much screen time
13:58because when you go play together in person with other gamers it is a social experience and you are
14:03learning all of the skills we've just talked about communication skills teamwork leadership there is a
14:08there is a high propensity of avid video gamers going into stem educational programs and choosing
14:16to end major in engineering there's a higher graduation rate at the college level for gamers
14:21than there is for non-gamers broadly defined 30 of avid gamers are women so there are you know an
14:29inordinate number of of reasons there are ample reasons for a parent to encourage that behavior
14:36and at the same time when children are younger to use a reasonable filter for how much screen
14:43time is too much screen time matt edelman chief commercial officer for super league gaming has
14:48been our guest here today matt thanks so much for your time man really appreciate it thank you