AG E -sports Chairman Le Ke Deng: There are "hidden barriers" at the e -sports club, which will continue to expand "e -sports+industry" in the future

In 1999, Valve released the "Counter -Terrorism Elite". This game and the "StarCraft" released by Blizzard together set off a wave of global e -sports games.

It was that year that China's first e -sports team = A.G = came out. Two years later, = A.G = Team's players won the first gold medal in the history of Chinese e -sports in the WCG StarCraft project. To a certain extent, this oldest in China's most popular e -sports club has gathered the common memory of a generation of e -sports people.

From the beginning, it is regarded as "flood beast" to constantly "rectification" for its own. Now that e -competitions have become one of the professional events that symbolize glory and can fight for the country in the minds of the younger generation. A large number of well -known e -sports players and e -sports clubs emerged, while attracting capital to accelerate the entry, constantly changing the original business model and industry ecology.

What is the development trend of Chinese e -sports? What new business models are germinated?

On July 20, "Daily Economic News" reporter entered the star players who had gathered dreams, Yinuo, 70KG, Peerless, etc., known as "China Faze" AG E -sports Club, and conducted the chairman Le Ke Deng A in -depth communication.

"E -sports club should get rid of‘ use love to generate electricity ’”

From the ASUS ROG player country, to the founder of the RW club, Le Ke Deng had been associated with e -sports early.

In the early stages of the development of e -sports, e -sports players and e -sports events have encountered many criticisms. Le Ke Deng had already advocated "Sunshine E -sports" in the industry long and shouted for him. In his opinion, e -sports should not hide in the corner, but should connect more young people to bring you honor and pride.

"When I did hardware equipment in the old Dongjia, I started sponsoring many e -sports teams. At most, dozens of teams in domestic and surrounding countries have been sponsored. At that time A huge market that can be connected to hundreds of millions of young people, "said Le Keiden.

However, at the time, many of the large and small e -sports clubs belonged to the nature of "playing tickets", and it was difficult to achieve large -scale and branded development. This was the "common problem" of e -sports in the early development process.

Generally speaking, the revenue of e -sports clubs mainly comes from four aspects: brand sponsorship, league distribution, player transfer and anchor, etc., but the revenue model of traditional e -sports clubs is difficult to support its high competition expenditure.

"I have sponsored many teams, have a happy experience, and have a lot of unpleasant experience. I hope to form a team that I like and be favored by business partners, rather than relying on the" power generation "team." Le Ke Deng bluntly said, "The club is a" machine 'that requires a certain commercial return to continue to run. "

Photo source: Provided by the respondent

In the 2018 KPL Spring Tournament, the AG Super Play will be downgraded from the first KPL to the second league. In the summer of the following year, the club re -adjusted the high -level organizational structure, acquired BA Black Pineapple Club King Glory Division and bid for the KPL fixed seat, and finally returned to the KPL professional league after a lapse of 438 days.

In 2019, at the time of AG Super Play, the founder of AG Fifi found Le Kodon and invited him to serve as chairman. "I saw the opportunity to reorganize AG at the time, so I resolutely resigned from the position of the previous executives and decided to join AG." Le Ke Deng said.

At the beginning of AG, Le Kodon faced a huge challenge -how to unite people with different backgrounds, find the values ​​that converge, condense consensus, and at the same time, in the process of club operation The subtle balance between the three.

"The commercialization of the AG club has been relatively restrained. Once the club conflicts between training, operation and commercialization, the executives of each center will make careful decisions through meetings and voting." Le Kodon said Essence

Picture source: "Chengdu AG Super Play Club" official Weibo

"It's not a club that simply chase traffic"

For a long time, the e -sports club itself has a huge traffic effect, but it is difficult to realize vertical realization. How to tap the club's own traffic value and expand more "e -sports+" business models have become the key to the e -sports club to keep the "card table" and avoid the outbound situation.

In December 2019, the AG Super Playing Club after the "Blood Change" won the first KPL professional league championship trophy since the establishment of the team. In the Spring Spring Tournament, the AG Super Playing Club landed on the home of Chengdu and officially changed its name to Chengdu AG Super Play. In the same year, the title of "Most Popular Club" was won in the three major games of King Glory, Peace Elite and Crossing Fire. At the beginning of last year, Chengdu AG Super Play will be honored by the "King Glory KPL most user -value club".

Picture source: "Chengdu AG Super Play Club" official Weibo

After Le Kozen joined the Lord, AG's many years of heritage began to outbreak. With its excellent training strength and operating capabilities, the attention has risen, and it has taken the lead in realizing the number of e -sports self -media fans in the country to exceed 200 million.

"There are three waves of e -sports era in China. The first wave is the PC era, and the second wave is the era of" League of Legends "and" Crossing the Fire ". The third wave is the era of mobile e -sports. Bonald AG has eaten. Today, the number of fans accumulated by AG has begun to exert a certain index effect. "Le Kodon said," In the future, the number of users who want users to pay attention to will increase to 300 million to 400 million. "However, some e -sports enthusiasts say that AG is just a club chasing traffic, and its record is incompatible with fame. In this regard, Le Kodon does not deny, "In essence, we are a cultural enterprise, and we operate e -sports culture. We hope to build ourselves into the 'connecter' between different users and different industries. The fan foundation is the basis and foothold of our business expansion. "

In fact, whether it is the first listed e -sports club Denmark Astralis, the Guild Esports listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), or the FAZE club with the most fans in the world, has successfully achieved the "card" of financing and expanding business. It is inseparable from hundreds of millions of fans.

Talking about the future business tentacles, Le Ke Deng said that in addition to traditional e -sports events, it will also deploy e -sports programs and e -sports music to gradually form the content production capacity of full -chain in the field of e -sports. "What we have to do is to use e -sports as the core cultural enterprise. Only by improving the ability of content production and IP operation can we effectively fight the volatility of the e -sports industry."

记者梳理发现，在电竞俱乐部的业务演变中，除了以电竞MCN和电竞经纪业务等人才资源为变现的业务之外，电竞内容平台、电竞酒店、电竞教育等“电竞+ "Fields are important expansion directions.

At present, AG is focusing on "e -sports+people" to cultivate e -sports talents, including cooperation with Shanghai Jiaotong University to obtain a license to open an e -sports EMBA training class.

"We also focus on the" e -sports+content ", layout variety shows, and set up a game MCN subsidiary. In addition, explore the" e -sports+scene ", and create a new social and entertainment scene for young people through cross -border integration." Le Kodon said.

Chengdu AG E -sports Club King Glory Division AG Super Playing Specification Live Picture Source: Interviewee provided

"Currently seeking a new round of financing B+"

Last year, the e -sports drama "You Smile" and "You Are My Glory" launched a new round of "e -sports+" investment boom.

From e -sports leagues to e -sports clubs, big -name sponsors such as Mercedes -Benz, L'Oreal, Paris, Vivo, McDonald's, have "increased", and dozens of domestic listed companies have also deployed the e -sports industry chain.

The "2021 China Game Industry Report" released by the China Soundlord Association Working Committee and others shows that in 2021, the actual sales revenue of the Chinese game market was 296.513 billion yuan, an increase of 6.4%year -on -year. The number of Chinese game users has also maintained a stable growth, and the number of users has reached 666 million.

Speaking of players in the field of e -sports, Le Ke Deng said, "There are hidden industry barriers in e -sports clubs. In the past few years, those investors who have taken place have basically 'exit'."

"First of all, the ability to understand e -sports, this understanding ability is related to the team formation and training. Secondly, the ability of the user must have a strong business user. The essence of e -sports is a 'content product'. It needs to connect the user , This accurate access to users' operating capabilities is very important. Finally, it is necessary to have the ability to commercialize. Because the previous two capabilities need a lot of 'spending'. If there is no commercialization ability, most e -sports clubs will be difficult to do Following. "Le Ke Deng said.

In his opinion, the above three capabilities are integrated together, which constitutes the hidden industry barriers of e -sports clubs. "Actually, our industry also has an apparent barrier -the limited distribution of the seats of the league, to some extent, the vast majority of non -professional players have been separated."

In 2020, AG received tens of millions of round A financing led by Ruiyi Investment. On December 15 of the same year, he received tens of millions of strategic investment in Sanqi Mutual Entertainment. "We are very strict with investors' selection, not money. In addition to profitability, we will focus on considering the complementarity between the two parties. For example, the accumulation of Sanqi Interactive Entertainment in the game field is exactly what we need. "Le Ke is called.

However, Le Ke Deng also admitted to reporters, "Indeed, with such huge traffic, we have indeed been excited about many" making fast money "projects. But we always think that a cultural company must spread positive content, and You cannot deviate from the original direction to get continuous vitality. "

At present, the main source of revenue of AG e -sports is divided into 5 major sections, including income, diversified income, commercial income, content income and "e -sports+industry" income. "Diversified income is our core revenue source, but in the future, I am more optimistic about 'e -sports+industry'." Le Kodon revealed, "The market actually underestimates AG's profitability. At present, we are starting the B+round of financing. Realize in 3 to 5 years. "

In the end, Le Keeng suggested that "Chengdu should introduce more influential clubs and game projects in order to better form the e -sports industry chain here."

Daily Economic News

- END -