BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ESPORTS ECOSYSTEM

ON TOUCH DEVICES :

VAINGLORY CASE STUDY

Taewon Yun

General Manager, Asia Pacific

MrBurnz

BACKGROUND

DEPUTY GM, EA.COM ASIA

ULTIMA ONLINE

MANAGING DIRECTOR,

APAC

WORLD OF TANKS

WOT BLITZ

ONLINE DIRECTOR/

REGIONAL TECH DIRECTOR

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

STARCRAFT 1, 2

1999-2002 1997-2012 2012-2015

GENERAL MANAGER, APAC

VAINGLORY

2015 -

E.V.I.L GAME ENGINE

GLOBAL TALENT

NEXT GEN GAME

DEVELOPER

SUPER EVIL MEGA CORP

Next Gen Mobile Game

HIGH SKILL AND

TACTICSPLAY WITH FRIENDS

DEEP GAMEPLAY

CORE AND MOBILE

37 FULL TIME

EMPLOYEES

GLOBAL TALENT

Stephan / CCO

Riot Games

Q / CPO

Playfish

Kristian / COO & ED

Playfish / EA

Supercell, Glu

Jason/ Tech Art

Lucasarts

Dreamworks

Carlo/ Art dir

Blizzard

Insomniac

Bo / CEO

Rockstar Games

Gazillion

Tommy / CTO

Riot Games

Guerilla Games

+++

Taewon / GM APAC

Blizzard/Wargaming

EA US, EU and ASIA

MOBA PERFECTED FOR TOUCH

VAINGLORY LAUNCHED JULY 2

Jan 2005 E.V.I.L. console grade game engine dev startsJun 2012 Vainglory Development startsJan 2014 South East Asia Beta starts

Nov 9 2014 NA / EU / South America iOS ReleaseMar 2015 Korea iOS releaseApr 2015 Japan iOS releaseMay 2015 Taiwan iOS release, EU E-sports with ESL

Jul 2 2015 Global Marketing Launch – Regional Events

Jul 2015 First Global eSports Event in Seoul (VWI)Sep 2015 EU and North American E-Sports leagues start

TODAY

OUR DREAM IS A FRANCHISE FOR DECADES

THE FIRST MASS MARKET E-SPORT

FOR EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE TO WATCH AND PLAY

ESPORTS ECOSYSTEM IS BROKEN

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF GAME PUBLISHERS

STOP SPONSORING GAME LEAGUES?

FOOTBALL AS AN EXAMPLE

PLAY WITH FRIENDS AT

BACKYARD

SCHOOL/COMMUNITY

TEAMSPRO/NATIONAL TEAMS

FIFA WORLDCUP

CURRENT ESPORTS

STARTS WITH WORLDCUP………

SUSTAINABLE ESPORTS NEED TO

MIMIC TRADITIONAL SPORTS

GUILD

TOURNAMENTS/STREAMINGREGIONAL PRO LEAGUES

GLOBAL

CHANMPIONSHIP

PLAY WITH FRIENDS, CASUAL

STREAMING

BEFORE YOU START BUILDING

FUN TO WATCH?

NO PAY TO WIN?

FUN TO PLAY?

BROADCAST-READY?

DEEP GAMEPLAY?

START AS BACKYARD ESPORTS

COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY!

COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY BEFORE MARKETING

• No UA

• From 1:1 relationships to scale

• Key channels: YouTube, Twitch, Forums & more

• Dedicated talent vs variety talent

• All Devs are Community Managers

DESIGN FOR GAMERS – NOT MOBILE

• No gimmicks in controls– Gestures and accelerometer?

• Long sessions– 20min sessions vs 3 minute sessions

• Unapologetically core experience– D1 retention tough for any core game

– Day 30+ is what matters

SOCIAL MARKETING PLAN

OBJECTIVE : Activate Existing Community to drive awareness of Vainglory

• Reward players for tweeting “This is How I #Vainglory”

• At 10k tweets community gets a double glory weekend

• At 30k tweets community gets 2 double glory weekends

• At 100k tweets community gets 2 double glory weekendsand a TRIPLE glory weekend

RUN LOCALLY IN 10 COUNTRIES BY LOCAL

COMMUNITY MANAGERS (EFIGSP, RJKC)

ENGINE MATTERS

• Proprietary console grade E.V.I.L Engine

• Performance and precision

– 60 fps, <30ms controls, 1.3M polygons

• Speed of new hardware adaptation

– Fastest time to new API:s and chipsets

• Magnet for talent– Artistic freedom, technology culture

BROADCASTING MODE

• CO-DEVELOP WITH ONGAMENET

• MAC BASED CLIENT

• SCALABLE TO 4K UHD RESOLUTION

• 8 SPECTATORS UP TO 8 CAMERAS

• FREE CAMERA

• PRE-DEFINED FLY-THROUGH

• UNLIMITED FUTURE POSSIBILITY!

BACKYARD ESPORTS GROWTH

LEAD INTO CLUB ESPORTS

First European

Vainglory league started

13 May

First Vainglory e-sports

Talent being signed up

Deal with OGN guaranteeing

prime time TV broadcast + $14M

in mkting

VAINGLORY WORLD INVITATIONAL

• FIRST GLOBAL PRO ESPORTS TOURNAMENT

• HOSTED BY ONGAMENET IN SEOUL

• 8 INTERNATIONAL TEAMS

• USD 30K PRIZE POOL

• DEBUT OF SPECTATOR MODE

JOURNEY JUST STARTED.

• SUSTAINABLE ESPORTS TAKES TIME TO BUILD

POTENTIAL OF ESPORTS ON TOUCH?

Source: Ben Evans – A16Z

• Mobile devices are portable and

personal, facilitating play together

anywhere driving stickiness

• Mobile devices are inherently

social and always connected to

data, driving distribution

• Discoverability and installation

easier through app stores

• Touch is more intuitive to learn

than mouse + keys

• Opportunity to learn from all

previous mistakes in monetization,

community and distribution

Touch screen core addressable

PC core addressable

THANK YOU

@MrBurnz_SEMC