Esports is considered a global industry in every sense of the word. Not only are organisations and companies based in countries all around the world, but it’s not uncommon to see teams from Asia, Europe, and North America all coming together to compete at a single event.
This level of accessibility is undoubtedly amazing in terms of representation, but for the growth of esports too. The industry isn’t confined to a set number of countries, as long as you have a computer, a console, or a mobile phone, you can compete against fellow gamers.
Conversely, the international scale and exposure present many challenges. One of which is for organisations, the entities that house the very products that fuels esports – the players. How do you access such a vast audience, in which the comprising regions very much have their own languages, cultural differences, and expectancies?
Is regionalisation the way forward?
Immortals Gaming Club is perhaps the most prominent example of an organisation looking to capitalise on the multi-regional nature of esports – though it’s going about it differently than the uninitiated may be aware.
Instead of having one brand that’s aiming to accommodate for multiple regions, it has created separate brands for each of the games it competes in.This, in terms of esports, goes against traditional norms. The likes of FaZe Clan, TSM, and Team Liquid all choose to house teams all varying nationalities and fan bases under one banner. Immortals Gaming Club operates separate entities.
MIBR (Made in Brazil), Immortals, Los Angeles Valiant, and OpTic Gaming Los Angeles are all operated by IGC. The first of those brands very much caters to the plentiful, loyal-to-a-fault Brazilian fan base it has accrued over the years, whereas the remaining three brands mostly cater to the United States. Los Angeles Valiant and OpTic Gaming Los Angeles, however, are hyper-localised to the US state and have their own miniature battle of a similar nature; how can you market regionalised brands to a wider audience while staying authentic to their roots?
Not being confined by geolocation
Another example of such a challenge is prominent in the Overwatch League. The league, devised by developer Activision Blizzard, was based in North America for its first three years and the majority of its 20 teams are based in this very region. There are Asian and European teams in the league too, but we’ll focus on the former in this case.
The likes of Shanghai Dragons, to maximise its appeal and reach, ideally needs to cater towards its home city of China, the country itself, as well as North America as that’s where the competition’s origin and homebase is. This is a complex problem that requires more than simply translating tweets into different languages. As already mentioned, countries have varied quirks, demands, and expectations.
All-in Global can help
All-in Global‘s bread and butter when it comes to esports is helping companies to overcome this obstacle in an effort to better unlock the global potential of esports, even when regionalisation and geolocation is in play.
Going above and beyond the simple ‘solution’ of reposting social media posts in several languages, All-in Global’s offering goes deeper and wider. It offers translation services for all kinds of content, and understands the contextual and regional demands of such services. This understanding is what separates it from the competition.
Its team is full of more-than-capable writers, so you can offer native-language content – whether that be for your website, your marketing material, your social media posts, your SEO, or your branding. Ensuring your brand is understanding and welcomed as an authentic member of a region or country is paramount, and having a team on-hand to deliver this can really open up a whole host of opportunities – opportunities not yet fully-grasped by those in the industry.
Disclaimer: This piece is sponsored by All-in Global