We believe that the Indian Valorant scene has what it takes to enter the international arena: Philippe Wong, Head Of Marketing at ESPL

The ESPL or the Esports Players League has had a significant impact when it comes to developing the esports scene of a region from the grassroots level, and India is no exception.

However, not many are aware of the organization’s origins, and even fewer know of the vision that went into the making of this incredibly successful TO.

In an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda Esports’ Abhishek Mallick, Philippe Wong, Head of Marketing at Esports Players League, opened up about the thoughts that went into making ESPL what it is today.

He even shares his opinions on the current Indian esports scene, and how Riot Games’ Valorant will be able to help the nation gain that much-needed international momentum.

Here is an excerpt of the conversation.

Q. Philippe, can you tell us a bit about the Esports Players League (ESPL™)? How did the organization come to fruition, and what were some of the thoughts behind them?

Philippe Wong: ESPL™ is co-founded by executives with years of experience in the esports, gaming, and media industries – former eSports.com CEO Mr. Michael Broda, founder of iCandy Interactive Limited (ASX: ICI) Mr. Kin Wai Lau, and Datuk Azrin Bin Mohd Noor of behavioral data and technology firm Sedania Innovator Berhad. eSports.com is a leading global esports media company while iCandy Interactive is a mobile game developer that serves a community of 350 million gamers.

In early 2019, our founders realized that global esports was too heavily focused on the professional scene; nobody was doing anything meaningful to facilitate the growth of amateur esports. The pyramid was top-heavy, whilst the wider base below was underserved.

It was from this idea that the Esports Players League (ESPL) was born. Incorporated in Singapore, ESPL’s mission & vision is to become the go-to hub for aspiring esports talents around the world who are just beginning their journey.

With ESPL's proprietary cloud-based tournament platform, ESPL has flourished and expanded across 13 countries (with more countries to be added soon) since launching operations in early 2020. To date, we have had a global presence that encompasses 5 regions – Latin America, South Asia, South East Asia, MENA, and Scandinavia.

For our operations in India, ESPL™ works with exclusive Country Partner Paytm First Games Esports (PFG Esports) to form ‘ESPL India’.

Q. Can you shed some light on some of the goals that ESPL has when it comes to the competitive esports scene of South Asia?

Philippe Wong: South Asia has an incredibly large and diverse player base across multiple game titles and platforms. Although esports has been growing more popular in the region, the industry is still not as mature as that of North America and Europe’s markets. It’s worth noting that organizations such as Global Esports & Team Mahi have bootcamps which nurture and provide budding esports athletes with a great start.

However, the best way for talents to hone their skills in the global esports arena is still through competitions. Through our experience developing esports in various countries, it is evident that any healthy esports environment usually has a large pool of participating teams, all of whom are fighting to climb up the ladder.

Increased competition keeps esports athletes on their toes, knowing that at any time, another team might take their spot. Although tournaments that invite top teams often garner the most views and traction due to their existing fan base, this only serves to create awareness of esports for the region but doesn’t help build the foundation needed in creating a large enough pool of competitors.

With ESPL’s presence in multiple countries and an experienced team of industry veterans, we have been able to observe and implement the best practices when building the foundation for esports in different countries. By establishing grassroot activations that create a competitive ecosystem, ESPL awakens and nurtures hidden talents in any country – just like how the world’s best movers and shakers often rise from the bottom, taking down the titans of yesteryear.

It is with this credence that ESPL has heavily invested in our new intellectual property, the PowerUp Series. We have officially launched ESPL Valorant PowerUp in both India and Bangladesh, creating opportunities for many lesser known teams to participate. Even players who had never played competitively gave it a shot and 'powered up.'

Q. The recent ESPL Valorant PowerUp tournament saw history being made, as Global Esports provided India’s best Valorant roster, Team Mahi, with the second Grand Final loss of their career. How successful was the tournament in terms of both viewership and community participation?

Philippe Wong: During the entire period of the ESPL Valorant PowerUp India event, ESPL’s community of players on the platform grew by over 20,000, with over 100,000 unique visitors. With multiple popular teams, as well as new and lesser known teams participating in the event, the demand was evident for an open format grassroots tournament.

This gap that ESPL identified in that region’s development of esports was part of the reason why partners such as Skyesports saw the value in collaborating with our tournament as production partners, alongside other partners such as RedBull, LOCO, Akamai Technologies, and HyperX.

We are certainly happy with the participation and huge support from the Indian gamer community. Our platform, ESPL.GG, saw a huge spike in activity as they used our ‘team finder’ feature to either find players for their new team or to match with already formed teams who were looking to fill up their final slot.

Finding like-minded gamers to test the competitive waters of esports can be a difficult task, so we were happy to see players find value in that unique feature. The event achieved a peak of approximately 15,000 viewers, with over 1.6 million total views across multiple channels.

Q. Can you shed some light on some of the issues that your team faced when organizing the Valorant PowerUp tournament? Did you face issues during the span, or was it smooth sailing for you?

Philippe Wong: Entering a new market comes with its own set of unique challenges. Our tournament platform is ready to scale and localize easily, anywhere across the globe. However, the insights of the market and player behaviors are important points of interest for every country. Our country partner PFG esports not only played a pivotal role in helping us understand the market, they were also able to provide us with the reach and tools at their disposal through the Paytm First Games app.

As a new organization to the Valorant community in India, it was important for us to quickly connect with the players. We are glad that the team at Valorant South Asia entrusted us with such a large scale tournament and supported us throughout the event. As this tournament was officially licensed, it was important for us at ESPL to give an amazing title such as Valorant with the quality treatment it deserves.

Q. How do you feel about the current Valorant esports scene in India?

Philippe Wong: We certainly have a positive outlook on the performance of talent in India. There is an unquenchable thirst for competition, as evident from our ESPL Valorant PowerUp India event. ESPL has already planned a roadmap of follow-up events with our country partner PFG Esports, which will be available soon on ESPL.GG.

We look forward to curating and hosting many more exciting tournaments for Indian gamers, giving them immediate access to connect with our global esports network and finding other like-minded gamers through our platform’s team finder feature, along with many other features we plan to roll out in the future.

Q. How far do you see the Indian Valorant scene developing in the next couple of years?

Philippe Wong: We believe that the Indian Valorant scene has what it takes to enter the international arena with some of the talent already available. MVPs like Sk Rossi really stood out amongst many others in our tournament.

Through the use of ESPL.GG, we are certain many more teams and talented individuals will rise and provide India with a robust competitive ecosystem that may one day lead to the crowning of the first Indian world champions for Valorant. Perhaps it will be an existing organization that has been dominating the scene, or perhaps a casual-cum-pro team that found each other through ESPL.GG.

To nurture and celebrate talent across the world, we organize a yearly multi-country, multi-titled tournament called the ESPL Amateur Championship. This is a global event made possible through our existing networks across multiple regions who are all connected by our platform. Unfortunately, due to the conditions caused by the global pandemic, we were unable to have a global final in 2020. Hopefully the situation improves this year, so we may crown the first ever ESPL Amateur World Champions.

Q. Apart from Valorant, can ESPL fans look forward to tournaments in other games in the coming months?

Philippe Wong: Yes, we absolutely loved our time with Valorant. The research and development invested into new intellectual property such as ESPL PowerUp was not a one-off stint for us, and we look forward to hosting many more in the future.

We have also received multiple enquiries from players throughout the entire event regarding future Valorant tournaments and those of other game titles. We recommend that all gamers, whether competitive or casual, to visit our website ESPL.GG and register a free account. Players will be able to join a vibrant and passionate community on our growing platform. We currently have many ongoing and upcoming tournaments, as well as activities for players to participate in.

Q. In terms of production costs, and the difficulties that arise from bringing every aspect of a tournament together, which type of titles would you say pose the biggest challenge?

Philippe Wong: As ESPL is present in multiple regions, we have had opportunities to learn and innovate at a rapid pace. ESPL.GG has hosted a multitude of game titles on different gaming devices in many countries with its own challenges. We frequently receive and listen to feedback from our ESPL community and country partners.

We also adapt and learn quickly to resolve new and exciting challenges on a daily basis. Through this consistent inflow of information, we are able to improve our platform and develop solutions which are then applied to ESPL.GG, therefore extending these improvements to our players and partners on a global scale.

Hosting an esports tournament can be challenging in different ways, depending on the game title. These challenges range from tournament operations, to livestream production, and publisher requirements. Our tournament platform, ESPL.GG, helps with the process of registration, finds teammates through tools like team finder, provides updated tournament results, communicates tournament progressions, and more as we continue to add exciting new features. These features are designed to improve and elevate the user experience and are cost efficient.

When it comes to production, some games might have fewer layers of complexities than others. However, fewer complexities mean more opportunities to innovate. The difficulty of producing a broadcast is reliant on the extent to which organizers are willing to go to entertain their audience.

At ESPL, we are all gamers. If a game has room for creativity in terms of esports production, we take that challenge head on. An example of this was the virtual stage our team built from the ground up, especially for the event.