About a million people like watching the broadcast of cyber sporting matches and visiting large-scale esports events. It brings a completely different level of emotions. That’s why organising an event for esports is the next new level for event organisers to achieve.
Reasons to organise an event for esports
The industry of esports has surprised the world with its rapid growth, showing that the development of games never slows down. Other forms of media entertainment, such as film and television, risk being left far behind. Computer games provide us with unlimited opportunities to compete with others around the world. That is why, if you plan an event for esports, it is a good opportunity to promote high technologies, raise funds, create brand awareness, increase attendee engagement, and many other purposes.
Such events are beneficial for any institution, as they allow for the increase of profits, additional loyalty to computer clubs, and make it possible to shine a spotlight on all portals dedicated to esports, which further promotes cyberculture.
What is expected of esports events?
First of all, the talent level of teams that play in championship matches is highly professional. If you create a regional tournament with low-level teams, the requirements for the organisation are quite moderate. For example, it’s not very important to broadcast the event. If we’re talking about a major international tournament where the teams are already famous, they will have certain conditions or riders. The schedule is coordinated, and it’s quite difficult to host an event. There are big crowds, and queues are inevitable. Therefore, flawless onsite support is a must.
Types of events
In esports, tournaments and competitions prevail. You may occasionally need to organise entire festivals or esports exhibitions or handle the event management of trade shows and more.
How to plan an event for esports in Asia step-by-step
If you want to set up an esports event, it may be quite challenging if you’re new to the industry and don’t have a wealth of great ideas. Here are some steps that may help.
Decide the budget
Plan your budget based on your real opportunities. Identify the average price for placing a tournament announcement on popular esports portals and add it to your budget.
Define event objectives
Understand the needs of players, sites, and sponsors. Define your goals. If you want to earn, you must be patient. Take a year or two to develop your brand and focus on reputation. Come up with ideas for charity events.
Decide on the prizes
It’s necessary to discuss the availability of not only prizes in the form of the sponsor’s products, but also a cash prize fund. Without it, your tournament runs the risk of remaining one of the hundreds of sponsorship events that are organised for the sake of PR: the organisers have earned, the managers of the company have reported to the authorities, the attendees experienced positive emotions, and everyone is happy…except for the players.
Create a guest list
In events for esports, you should create a list of players in addition to the guest list of attendees coming to watch the competitions. The tournament list must be clear and easily moderated by the organisers in the case of force majeure circumstances. Site hosting for the tournament must be able to handle the simultaneous use by the estimated number of viewers, which could be in the thousands!
Find a venue
The selection and rental of an event venue is an important thing. It can be anything: a cinema, an exhibition hall, or a cyberclub. If you want to save money and organise a tournament on the outskirts of the city in a cyberclub, it’s better not to hold an event at all. Save time for yourself and the manager of the sponsoring company.
Select your ticketing or registration platform
If you’re planning a tournament that will be held online, it’s necessary to decide which platform will manage an event. If the chosen gaming discipline is popular, then the number of participants on the list can be thousands of people!
Approach sponsors
You should take into account the costs of promoting the tournament in the media. It’s important to remember that no one will write about you for free, much less mention your sponsors. In an announcement, you can post detailed information about the event as well as sponsors’ logos and links to them.
Marketing and advertising
You cannot forget about social networks when you want to run an esports event and promote it virally. Many are still skeptical about this type of promotion, but the experience of conducting several hundred gaming events indicates the absolute dominance of social media in relation to tournaments. To increase interest in tournaments, organise broadcasting and streaming games on the major esports portals.
Final preparations
Hire vendors if you need extra help to plan a successful esports event. When the competitions are over, notify all the winners about where and when the finals will be held, collect all the frequently asked questions and rapidly respond to any emails. This will save time for yourself and the participants.
Event planning checklist
What to do and where to start if you want to hold a tournament? Let’s review the key preparation items:
- Decide on the budget
- Define the event objectives
- Decide on the prize
- Create a guest list
- Find a venue
- Select your ticketing or registration platform
- Build your event website and registration page
- Invite event guests
- Approach sponsors
- Organise marketing and advertising (email promotion, etc.)
- Identify and hire other vendors (if you need any)
And always remember the fact that sponsors may refuse because they’re not interested in the non-professional organisation of events involving their brands. So, next time, rely on professional Gevme organisations.
Best practices for organising an event
In Asia, the best practice for organising an esports event is to get government support for the business. Despite the idea that businesses must be self-directed and self-sufficient, governmental support means certain obligations, which you may feel are limiting, but that can provide different perspectives. It’s possible to receive state support because eSports works for young people aged 17-18, and this audience is important for the state.
Tips on how to make your event successful
A Pro Tip:
First, you need to decide what you need the tournament for. If you enter the role of a penniless tournament organiser, then there’s no way to operate without good sales skills and generous sponsors. As with any other sport, planning an event for esports and holding competitions, as a rule, is only possible with the support of companies, in the following cases:
- There is a game and the need to promote it, to give additional content to the community;
- Sales of professional peripherals, accessories and other products for gamers;
- Esports is interesting as a business, due to revenue from sponsorship contracts and ticket sales.
- Offer the managers of leading e-gaming companies all possible ways to promote their products at events.
Furthermore, don’t forget to connect all event participants and provide them with easy way to register and buy tickets on the chosen event platform. Also, be sure to consider cultural differences. There are a number of Korean and Chinese Esports developers, but it’s incredibly difficult to bring their games to a single market through tournaments due to their cultural differences.
Last but not the least
First and foremost, rely on the experience of Gevme esports event planning professionals: companies that cooperate with us have gone into the esports market and done very well. We can share with you what goals they set for themselves, and what results they achieved.GEVME Esports event planning will also tell you how to organise an Esports event, effectively interact with a cyber sports audience, and determine which products have the highest potential on this market. Contact us for any organisation queries!
Feel free to leave your ideas or feedback in the comments below!
