This week, Activision Blizzard announced that it will lay off 190 people. Fifty of those affected will be in its electronic sports division, the main responsible for the Supervision League and Obligations League.
It is the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the famous game developer’s dismissal. The decision to ditch the staff came after lessons learned by Activision Blizzard leadership in 2020, its sports and entertainment president Tony Pettiti told the SportsBusiness Journal, who broke the news earlier this week. While Pettiti’s group observes a barrel of uncertainty, its business model destroyed by the global pandemic, it has decided to reduce its activity in electronic sports.
2020 was destined to be a banner year for the company, filled with dozens of live events around the world and the first of its geolocated business model. Ultimately, his goals would be met, money would be earned, and the question from peers and critics would be answered. However, in a flash last March, COVID-19 turned the future of Activision Blizzard’s esports upside down.
The company weathered the storm: working through Obligations lag and lag issues online; figure out how to break the Supervision League in two hemispheres; and eventually, be able to host a set Supervision League playoffs on the South Korean server.
But you can’t ignore what was lost and what was desperately needed by industry analysts, commentators and Activision Blizzard’s reputation.
All fingers pointed to 2020. The OWL and the CDL received a great deal of criticism from fans, the media, and veteran industry figures alike. Their franchise prices, $ 20 million per team for the first season and $ 30-60 million per franchise for the second season of Supervision League and $ 25 million per organization for the inauguration Obligations The league season made them the butt of jokes. It would be worth it, Activision Blizzard assured team owners. Live events were right around the corner and they would be massive.
For some they were. New York and Dallas filled two middle spots for the Supervision Opening weekend of the League last February. In Minneapolis, the RØKKR put rear in the seats and over the weekend set up some of the fiercest rivalries of the season.
But COVID forced Activision Blizzard to spin. And now your employees are paying for it.
Those employees have worked day and night realizing a dream that may never come. The model continued to change under the inconsistency of leadership. Closure of the diligent work of the now unemployed, while under immense public scrutiny, will never come. And the burden of seeing through the future of these two leagues will fall on those who remain, many who were not there when the Supervision The big dreams of the League were planned four and a half years ago.
The naysayers will continue, and Activision Blizzard’s next moves will be crucial for the future of not only its perception, but also that of the industry.
2021 will be a difficult year for Activision Blizzard in esports. There is still no indication that it is safe to attend major sporting events anytime soon, even as vaccine launches increase in the United States and other parts of the world. However, Activision Blizzard has to figure out how to meet the contractual commitments it has received: $ 300 million in Obligations and probably somewhere north of $ 400 million in Supervision—From some of the most prominent figures in traditional sports, media and technology.
There are no other leagues like the Supervision League and Obligations League. There are as many people who want them to fail as there are those who want them to succeed.
On some basic level, you can’t blame them: the message behind the leagues, especially before the first season of the Supervision League, it was horrible. Big-name sports team owners and executives praised how esports would be the next big thing and how they were going to revolutionize it, all while pouring millions into a game that, for all intents and purposes, had done little to propel the industry in that regard. . time. Certainly not compared to its peers.
Now, two people who weren’t there at the time will have to make amends for their predecessors.
At the center of Activision Blizzard’s esports future is not only Pettiti, but his right-hand man Johanna Faries. Faries, a former vice president of the NFL, is now highly respected among esports top brass, someone who after a long line of former sports executives alienated endemic entrepreneurs has done the exact opposite.
You’ve been listened to, you’ve taken notes, and received feedback along the way, and most importantly, you’re not afraid to admit what you don’t know.
His efforts have rebuilt much-needed faith after disagreements over the vision between Supervision La Liga team executives and Pete Vlastelica, the former leader who left the company’s esports department in October. Vlastelica left many of the Supervision League and Obligations The league team executives I spoke to were frustrated after founding commissioner Nate Nanzer, a favorite among league owners, left for a great job at Epic Games. Faries’ successes and good comments as a commissioner during Obligations The league’s first season resulted in his promotion to help oversee both initiatives.
Now Faries and Pettiti, a former MLB executive who joined the company last August, have a big task ahead of them in 2021.
They will face critics for every decision they make and the effects of those made by their predecessors. They will draw fire every time Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is delayed during a broadcast (“$ 300 million league by the way”). And how they handle a post-COVID esports world will be the center of media attention. That is their reality, although they did not necessarily make it that way.
Mainstream commentators will tell you esports did it in 2020, about how when the NBA and NHL stopped, there were still esports competitions all over the world, even if they were just online. Hear this, hear that. Some of that is true. But esports is not yet a profitable business for most team organizations, and certainly not for teams. Supervision League and Obligations League.
I’ve said this for years, but ultimately we need the Obligations League and Supervision League to succeed. Our industry will continue to exist if you don’t and those who will lose money if they fail will still be fine: either they are super rich or they are involved in safer prospects within esports. However, there will be those who cluster in all esports with two very high-risk companies, and that stigma will be difficult to remove.
The lack of live events last year has saved team owners and Activision Blizzard millions of dollars, even if it wasn’t originally planned. Where he Obligations League and Supervision League go from here, however, is still up in the air. They have been on the drawing board for the better part of a year and that planning will continue unabated. With an uncertain world, Activision Blizzard needs to figure out how to capitalize on that investment of more than $ 700 million.
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