So given recent events I thought it might be helpful to do a mind dump on Legacy’s first foray into the CS:GO scene from a Management perspective.
When we were talking with the then Animal Squad, I was doing my research, meeting people and making friends. I attended the ACL Melbourne LAN event, met the Animal Squad guys in person and assisted personally with supplies and accommodation as an in-kind transaction in return for letting me see what happens internally with a team during a CSGO LAN event.
This was more of a research endeavor, and I as Legacy Business Manager made no commitments other than to stay in touch, and to continue talks. We were actually being approached by multiple Div1 CSGO teams at the time, and while we were definitely interested in expanding into other games and picking up a team other than our League of Legends Team, we wanted to be very careful in our approach.
We had been observing the CSGO scene as an outsider and from our outside perspective we saw a lot of instability, and very little focus on longevity and player development. We decided early that if we were going to get involved, we wanted to preserve the ‘Legacy Way’ of “For the players and by the players”.
So we took our time and kept the many entreaties in our inbox waiting, with not much more than polite “thank you’s” being sent in reply.
Despite Animal Squads poor showing at ACL Melbourne, the squad maintained its roster and continued to perform as Animal Squad in the CyberGamer Premier League and FACEIT Online Qualifers (the latter I was actually not even aware of).
Over the next month the stability and performance that Animal Squad demonstrated, as well as continued discussions, led me to petition the Legacy eSports owners to pick up our first CSGO team.
We planned to announce the adoption of Animal Squad under the Legacy Banner at PAX as they would be participating at the CGPL finals being held at PAXAUS 2015.
The deal was set, the PR plan laid out, the Jerseys ordered in player sizes….and then FACEIT!
Not even realising Animal Squad were participating in this qualifier, the climactic conclusion took me by surprise. I found myself in a skype chat with the newly picked up Legacy CSGO squad and FACEIT officials asking if we were prepared to get the very new squad to Sweden in less than a month.
Given Legacy’s LOL team was at Cologne the previous year, this seemed an opportunity for the CSGO team that fit exactly the purpose Legacy was formed for: to create and promote player opportunities to develop as eSport Professionals.
So one very abused credit card, a personal family medical emergency and a lot of spreadsheets and phone calls later, Legacy CSGO was in Jonkoping and put up a respectable showing against the worlds best.
Once back in Australia, my focus turned back to the long term prospects of the CSGO team. The boys were hungry to get back overseas and there were several opportunities in the short term to achieve this dream.
Then the wheels start to come off a little. Personal conflicts between the players saw two players out of the squad, and me debriefing and mediating with players. Ultimately one of these players returned to Legacy, and the other found a new home, with me doing everything I can to assist them personally in the transition. The Legacy way may have hit a speed bump but I was doing my darndest to hold the line.
Legacy CSGO continued on, with subs from the scene filling in as required, but finding a stable 5th at the level that the roster was happy with ultimately proved our undoing. My lack of experience and understanding of the CSGO scene meant that I was dependent on the players for roster changes/suggestions, and was unable to sanity check what was going on. A few abortive attempts to lock down a stable 5 eventually took its toll on the roster and a key player decided to leave and seek his prospects elsewhere, this started a domino effect and soon I found myself a victim of everything I wanted to avoid and the dreaded “CSGO shuffle” had claimed Legacy CSGO.
The suddenness of this and my inability to prevent it, I consider to be my personal failure. I did not have the required experience or scene knowledge to properly manager a CSGO team, and was unable to step in and intervene where required, a key requirement of management in an eSports organisation.
This has definitely been a learning experience, but with the dissolution of our roster, Legacy was going to step back from the CSGO scene for a few months to take stock and plan a more careful re-engage into the scene with more planning and resourcing.
…and then two of our recently dissolved squad came a knocking….with some interesting friends!
Mentally I had moved on, I was ready to focus on continuing to resource our barnstorming LOL team in their shiny new gaming house. I was happy to let this new roster go elsewhere, and we did not actively pursue them, or enter into any bidding war.
Part of me though was wanting to do the right thing by the players I had felt I had failed, and this roster while only 40% of our original squad offered some form of redemption. Maybe this time, with a more hands on approach from the owners and management we could control the dreaded instability seemingly inherent in the CSGO scene?
So I started my research, dropped the names of this new roster with a few trusted friends I had developed in the CSGO scene, and what I heard back was that this roster, if made stable, would be a legitimate “super team”. Nevertheless Legacy is not in this for showy rosters and easy wins, could we establish our preferred player culture with this roster?
So I spoke to the players, their captain, and their prospective coach. I have been clear with my expectations (STAY TOGETHER DAMMIT!), and this time flagged nasty contracts (WITH BARBWIRE! AND LANDMINES!) and outlined what we were prepared to resource and what precisely we expected from the players.
This time I am going in eyes wide open, slightly seasoned and scarred, and with a plan to be a little more hands on than with our previous roster.
We admit to our earlier mistakes, our inexperience and overly idealistic approach. Hopefully being a little more experienced we can demonstrate to the eSports scene that longevity and stability is the key to success. That through a focus on players being developed and not preemptively replaced, and where they are supported through the whole of their life experience, the true nature of an eSports professional is able to emerge from a scene that loves to devour its own all too easily.
Here’s to Growth and Learning from mistakes!
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