I wouldn’t call myself a successful esports manager by any means. I was the only person on the team as a “staff” member and didn’t have a team of people to help me. To be honest, the team was really owned by my boyfriend at the time, now husband, who was also the captain. I just managed it. As the team manager , my goal was to make sure that my players only focused on playing. I didn’t want them to worry about scheduling scrims or looking for tournaments. That burden was on me. Because of this, my players were able to put all their energy in the game itself. So let’s get right into what I did as the manager.
Scrims
One of the main things I did was scheduling scrims. To make the most of our time, I asked my players their availabilities every week rather than having a set schedule. Once I have their availabilities, I would create a scrim schedule for that week and made sure the team knew by Sunday so there are no surprises. Creating a scrim schedule every week wasn’t hard at all, it was making sure everyone gave me their availabilities on time. That was the real challenge.
Once a scrim schedule was made, I had to go out looking for scrims. This was usually done on Discord. If there was a team I wanted to scrim against, I’d reach out to them directly and let them know our schedule to try to get them in. But even when we had a practice partner scheduled, it didn’t mean my job was done. There are many times where there were a lot of last minute calls that needed to be made. Sometimes, my own players had something come up and they couldn’t make it. That means I had to find a ringer. Other times, the other team canceled on us a few minutes before scrim time and I had to find a replacement. It was only when the scrim started that I was able to relax for a little bit.
I also kept track of all our scrim partners. There were times when I scheduled a scrim with a team that we easily beat or they were messing around too much. I kept those teams on a blacklist to keep from booking with them again. There were also teams that I wanted to keep scrimming against because they challenged my players or we played against them at an equal level. I made sure to try to book with them first.
One of the things I wished I did more was socialize and network more with other team managers. I did join a Discord server full other managers and that’s the most I’ve networked to be honest. I just knew I could have done more.
Tournaments
One of the other things I did was sign the team up for tournaments. The first thing was to research on different Overwatch tournaments. I had to find which ones were worth participating in, which had prize money, and which was being broadcasted to an audience. There were some tournaments we joined that weren’t broadcasted or had prize money because we knew good teams had joined it and it would have been good on our record if we bat them.
Once I researched on different tournaments and knew my team was available to play in them, the next thing was signing up. Tournaments required teams to register on different websites. Sometimes it was on SmashGG, sometimes it was on Battlefy and sometimes it was just reaching out to the tournament contact. I had to make sure the rosters were current when registering and making sure the players were registered as well.
After the team was registered, the next thing was to make sure I knew the rules as much as possible which included knowing the map pools. That way, in scrims, we knew what maps to practice. Also, by knowing the rules, the team could come to me if something happens and they don’t know what to do. For example, how long to wait if a player disconnects or what the in game settings need to be set to.
On tournament day, I had to make sure all my players were online and warmed up. Sometimes I’ll look for a warm up scrim if we were all available, which we usually were. While the team warms up, I usually reach out to connect with the other team so that we can get set up quickly. I was always on standby in case the team had questions about the rules.
One of the things I kept was record of our tournaments to show off how well the team had done. To those who are curious, here is the link to our tournament results database: bit.ly/TKEResults
Roster Management
Aside from keeping record of tournament results, I kept management of the roster. I kept track of when the players joined, how long they stayed on the team, the month/year of when they left and why they left. Sometimes I’ll note what ended up happening to them. For example, I had a player who ended up being an assistant GM for an OWL team and another player who played for an OWL Academy team. Majority of my players just didn’t like the game anymore and never played it again. Other times we just cut them from the team and occasionally, they wanted to pursue higher opportunities.
Another thing I managed was tryouts. My role was to scout and schedule tryouts to prospecting players. I wasn’t and still not very good at the game so when it came to deciding which player got an offer, that was up to my team instead. They determined who they connected with well in addition to their skills.
The hardest part was telling players they were off the team. Honestly, most players left on their own accord for only a handful of players we had to let go which majority of them I had to let go personally. It was hard, especially if they were someone we had a good relationship with.
Game Data Management
We didn’t have a coach nor was I good at or knowledgeable about the game. For the most part, my team did a lot of in game thinking but I did what I could to help. For example, I kept track of what maps the team won and lost during scrims. From that I can let the team know which maps and game type are their strongest and weakest. While the team do VOD reviews, I take notes of important information like different compositions so they can review it later.
What I Could Have Done
Looking back, I knew there were more things I could have done to ensure the success of my team. The first, I wish I was able to find a good coach. I knew we needed one for some time but it I never really looked hard enough. I also wish I did more marketing for the team. I did some social media stuff but wasn’t really invested in as much as I wish I did.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this post and I hope it provided some information to those looking to start in being an esports management. That is it for me and I will see you all next Saturday!
