Schalke 04’ s entry into eSports endeveaurs wasn’ t the best to say the least. Ironically I predicted that Schalke would most likely end up in a relegation battle, and join the Challenger Series at worst. As we all know, I ended up being right about that one. So it’ s only natural that people fear another huge Sports club joining the eSports scene ending up failing. But alas, In the same way that I predicted Schalke 04’ s unfortunate downfall, despite them admittedly doing well in Fifa, I hereby predict that Paris-Saint-Germain will have a massive impact on the world of eSports. A positive one that is.
Paris-Saint-Germain’ s entry into the League of Legends scene, at least on paper, seems well thought-out: Rather than buying a very expensive spot in the highest League and risking losing it within the first season, like their football rivals Schalke, they instead decided to buy up Team Huma, who were in the EU Challenger Scene. Only considering numbers, PSG paid $ 70,000 for their spot, whereas Schalke 04 presumably paid upwards of $ 1,000,000. Granted, this discrepancy seems irrelevant when looking at what PSG’ s football team spends on new players( Depending on the season, more than $ 150,000,000), but within eSports the difference is pretty huge. The money can be used for new players, coaching staff or facilities that PSG might need.
Additionally, time can be a very important factor as well: This approach, of joining the Challenger Scene rather than the EU LCS, gives PSG and its members the time to adapt to the World of professional eSports, if some of them need this time in the first place. It also gives players the time to adapt to a potential new coaching staff or new players joining the team, which can be a huge factor for success.
With teams like Splyce or Unicorns of Love, we’ ve seen how important it can be that a team sticks together for a certain amount of time, and in the NA LCS Spring Split 2016, TSM showed that buying fantastic players and simply putting them in a squad doesn’ t always work out as good as you might think. Time is a luxury within the world of sports, and the more time you give your team to bond, the better your team will perform.
PSG also sets standards with their choice of staff: YellowStar is one of the most renowned eSports personalities in history, few players overcome him in terms of abilities, game knowledge and leadership. Despite the fact that his last season wasn’ t a successful one, not being able to perform whilst at TSM and failing to qualify for Worlds after