00:00:00
three champions from Spring raising two
00:00:03
phenomenal young Stars welcome to the
00:00:05
new era a toast to our Champions
00:00:09
disguise toast was a streamer with a
00:00:12
dream he wanted to stand on the biggest
00:00:14
stages in the world I was watching every
00:00:17
game pretty much watched every scrim
00:00:19
practice trials they had just following
00:00:22
along I think dis Sky joining the league
00:00:23
is very healthy for the league and I
00:00:25
think it's very helpful for people who
00:00:27
kind of lost hope but he did something
00:00:29
no one expected he rolled into a scene
00:00:31
full of former Champions and proven
00:00:33
talent and he won the whole thing but
00:00:36
here it goes the is low F jumps in
00:00:39
looking for Smoothie smoothie is the
00:00:41
first one to
00:00:42
Fallon goes in C Falls and
00:00:46
DSG history in the
00:00:51
making but getting there wasn't easy
00:00:53
just winning wasn't enough everybody in
00:00:55
Esports is struggling and even trying to
00:00:58
compete can cost millons millions of
00:01:00
dollars we are in definitely a rough
00:01:02
period you could call it Esports winter
00:01:05
I thought about it I kind of toyed with
00:01:07
the idea but I was like it's a money pit
00:01:09
there's no lying like I've definitely
00:01:11
thought like is it even worth being in
00:01:13
it it's just a reality Esports don't
00:01:15
make money so it's just nothing but
00:01:18
stress and hope and pain mad Lions hold
00:01:22
on and the dream for disguised is over
00:01:27
Esports is changing streamers are going
00:01:29
to be a big part of its future but can
00:01:32
your favorite creators really save
00:01:40
orts over the past few years there have
00:01:42
been a slew of streamers creating orgs
00:01:45
and starting their own teams in Europe
00:01:47
huge orgs like Carmen Corb and movie
00:01:49
star Koy got started thanks to massive
00:01:51
streamers and influencers and these days
00:01:53
they can sell at stadiums all on their
00:01:55
own but building a fan base like that
00:01:57
isn't easy or cheap and neither is
00:02:00
getting into the biggest leagues in the
00:02:02
world and we're still streamer owned or
00:02:04
otherwise Esports orgs around the world
00:02:07
are finding the path to profitability is
00:02:09
very very complicated we are in
00:02:12
definitely a rough period you could call
00:02:15
it Esports winter economically speaking
00:02:17
it's definitely difficult right now in
00:02:18
gaming in general in addition to that
00:02:21
there's so many other problems like over
00:02:23
those years where a lot of the orgs
00:02:25
brought in VC money and the industry
00:02:28
wasn't profitable during those times the
00:02:30
ended up paying the players too much
00:02:31
money and now these VC firms that own
00:02:34
portions of the company they want their
00:02:36
dime back and companies like Riot are
00:02:38
working extensively to try to band-aid
00:02:41
and fix these Solutions like which is
00:02:42
why you see the classics in the game the
00:02:44
marketing that Riot did over VCT really
00:02:46
impressed me they would actively
00:02:48
advertise for the teams from a developer
00:02:50
point of view I think they did better
00:02:52
than any developer has ever done when
00:02:54
Esports was younger many of the biggest
00:02:56
teams were operating thanks to outside
00:02:58
investment from venture Capital funds
00:03:00
the teams Drew in millions of dollars
00:03:02
player salaries grew and Esports
00:03:04
exploded across North America as it set
00:03:06
down deep rootes all around the world
00:03:09
but generally speaking these VC funds
00:03:11
weren't giving away their money for free
00:03:13
they wanted to see a return on their
00:03:15
investment and Over The Last 5 Years
00:03:17
everyone has realized the hard truth
00:03:19
your favorite team is probably losing
00:03:21
money and like Sean gar said the VC
00:03:23
funds wanted to start making money off
00:03:26
the space too and when that didn't
00:03:27
happen the money dried up and without
00:03:29
funding it's hard to pay staff players
00:03:31
and well have a team in general for a
00:03:33
little while crypto companies look like
00:03:35
they might be a silver bullet for
00:03:37
Esports Orcs but one of the biggest
00:03:38
deals hundreds of millions in promised
00:03:41
money from FTX to Riot games and TSM
00:03:44
fell apart when FTX dissolved amid
00:03:46
Scandal and fraud and these days there's
00:03:49
no two ways about it the industry is
00:03:52
shrinking the last six months of 20 24
00:03:56
2023 this past year was probably the
00:03:57
hardest six months that I've ever had we
00:03:59
went through three rounds of layoffs in
00:04:02
a year and a half I just needed to sit
00:04:04
back and step away so that I could be on
00:04:07
the outside looking in again and be a
00:04:09
fan of 100 thieves the financial
00:04:11
problems facing Esports organizations
00:04:13
are very very real so why exactly are
00:04:17
creators pouring money into it I was
00:04:19
really in a smash and that's how I
00:04:21
started streaming and I ended up earning
00:04:24
a good amount of money and there was a
00:04:26
point in early 2020 before Co where one
00:04:29
of the largest smash events Genesis one
00:04:31
of the best players at the time Zayn got
00:04:33
dropped by his sponsor and he was just
00:04:35
looking for someone to help pay him to
00:04:37
go to the event and I did it without
00:04:40
like this idea of a grand Esports team
00:04:42
but just like hey I like smash you know
00:04:44
I want you to go without losing money so
00:04:47
I made this Esports team and I called it
00:04:48
Mogul moves and it was it was mostly a
00:04:50
joke and I bought him like Gucci shoes
00:04:52
and I made him wear an on stage he's
00:04:54
outside of that um grab into Tipper
00:04:57
range so he's doing a beautiful job just
00:04:59
maximiz where he's supposed to go he's
00:05:00
going to do it again and he does it
00:05:02
again 89% sa playing on fire right now
00:05:06
that was a m move that definitely wasn't
00:05:09
MOG shout out to lwi shout out that's
00:05:11
the only shout out I'll ever give to lwi
00:05:12
in my life and it's definitely the
00:05:14
highest my heart rate has been I think
00:05:16
in the past 10 years and I got into a
00:05:18
motorcycle accident recently that was
00:05:20
lower cuz it was just like the tension
00:05:22
of like a game five set where you know
00:05:25
you have zero control outside of setting
00:05:27
this person up for success by just
00:05:30
trying to get him a nice hotel or
00:05:31
whatever and lo and behold he won the
00:05:33
event tried to catch him with the up air
00:05:35
going real
00:05:38
high takes Genesis 7 to that was just a
00:05:42
great feeling that I was able to share
00:05:43
with him and I'll never be able to
00:05:44
personally do
00:05:46
it cuz I'm
00:05:48
busy but yeah so you know I thought
00:05:51
about it I kind of toyed with the idea
00:05:53
but I was like it's a money pit and so
00:05:54
actually Zayn went off to sign to
00:05:56
another team and I backed out of Esports
00:05:59
guys we've been watching ing the Corona
00:06:00
virus for weeks now uh continuing to see
00:06:02
the market action trade around the
00:06:04
updates we get but the Corona virus is
00:06:06
also hitting eorts the co pandemic hit
00:06:09
Esports hard with events and tournaments
00:06:11
forced online in a period of uncertainty
00:06:14
but online the audience was bigger than
00:06:16
ever and a few years after Zayn's run at
00:06:18
Genesis 7 ledwick got another chance to
00:06:21
contribute to the scenes he loved I'm
00:06:23
joining as the co-owner of moist Esports
00:06:26
to which you might say aren't you being
00:06:28
dumb aren't you being a hypocrite isn't
00:06:29
is how you're going to burn all of your
00:06:30
money to which I
00:06:32
say maybe and I was like okay well I
00:06:34
would take the headache away of like the
00:06:37
starting you know cuz like 0o to one in
00:06:40
Esports kind of sucks and I'd also be
00:06:42
sharing in this journey with a guy who's
00:06:45
in a very similar situation to me so it
00:06:47
felt like a right fit and uh and that's
00:06:50
why I started it but lwig had a tough
00:06:52
job to do the bottom line is if you want
00:06:54
to compete at the highest level of any
00:06:56
esport you have to win in convoluted
00:06:59
tier 2 systems and sometimes winning
00:07:01
isn't even enough he got to work
00:07:03
eventually signing an upand cominging
00:07:05
roster of valerant Pros with the help of
00:07:07
FPS Legend sha Gars ladwig's dream was
00:07:09
to roll through tier 2 working his way
00:07:11
into the highly competitive Ascension
00:07:13
tournament and then the VCT but in
00:07:15
Esports things don't always go the way
00:07:18
you
00:07:18
plan meanwhile toast was learning that
00:07:21
even a definitive win in tier 2 isn't
00:07:24
always enough to catapult an Esports org
00:07:27
forward DSG winning Challengers in North
00:07:30
America was definitely a feather in
00:07:32
toast cap but it also didn't really
00:07:34
change much for the fledgling
00:07:35
organization in League of Legends at the
00:07:37
time winning Challengers did not qualify
00:07:40
you for the franchised LCS other than
00:07:43
buying a spot after another team left
00:07:45
there was no way to work your way into
00:07:48
tier one in North America so despite his
00:07:51
success with no path to the LCS in sight
00:07:53
toast through most of his attention into
00:07:55
valerent I was watching every game
00:07:57
pretty much watched every scen Rim
00:07:59
practice trials they had just following
00:08:02
along holding on to cat holding on from
00:08:05
behind that Aftershock and now scuba in
00:08:07
a 1 V1 does he have any idea that there
00:08:09
that there's a man back has no idea
00:08:13
disguised toast has made it to
00:08:16
Challengers I was very excited and I
00:08:19
would say it was one of the best moments
00:08:21
of my career watching the team qualify
00:08:25
seeing how happy they are 2v2 it's clear
00:08:30
and nerve to try to hold this one back
00:08:33
double Nano swarms one of the mollies
00:08:34
has already been
00:08:36
utilized neither one of the two Nanos
00:08:38
are on site they're finally able to
00:08:41
start diffusing the lock down is done
00:08:43
for Bor catches one clear with an angle
00:08:47
can he actually take away blackard
00:08:48
blackard
00:08:49
diffusing defend win mad Lions hold on
00:08:53
and the dream for disguised is over one
00:08:58
enemy remaining run there for disguised
00:09:01
as well it's been a tough season for
00:09:03
them overall up mine with a lot of
00:09:06
shuffling around on this roster the
00:09:09
biggest thing was just team cohesion um
00:09:13
we started losing a couple of times and
00:09:17
then we kind of created this culture of
00:09:19
like every time there's a loss wow who
00:09:20
are we eyeing next and made the players
00:09:23
kind of scared even under more pressure
00:09:26
so we were good but I think we just
00:09:28
didn't know know how to handle losses
00:09:31
very well and it kind of just was never
00:09:33
able to recover and snowballed and so
00:09:36
ultimately after investing more than a
00:09:37
million dollars into his valerant and
00:09:39
League teams only to be relegated from
00:09:41
the Challenger league in North America
00:09:43
toast moved his efforts to Southeast
00:09:45
Asia signing a team based in Singapore
00:09:47
and this time it was enough and now it's
00:09:49
down onto jenson's shoulders a one on
00:09:53
four almost impossible to ask do see is
00:09:57
here he cleans it up a very decisive win
00:10:01
we're going to Ascension well done well
00:10:04
done to all the players there was a
00:10:07
sense of expectation that they would
00:10:10
because if this is quote unquote the
00:10:12
Singapore super team then you're
00:10:14
expected to win your region by get
00:10:16
margin now before we jump into them more
00:10:19
I want to introduce reintroduce this gu
00:10:21
toast our Singapore Squad it was
00:10:23
definitely more nerve-wracking the
00:10:25
competition was higher just the first
00:10:27
time traveling to an Ascension event
00:10:29
playing on land because in Singapore you
00:10:31
don't get to play on land for your
00:10:33
finals and the other regions both of
00:10:35
them have a land event so for a lot of
00:10:37
them it's the first time playing in
00:10:38
person a lot of superstition starts
00:10:40
kicking in it's like oh you know I was
00:10:43
sitting like this when we won and I was
00:10:45
sitting like that when we lost I'm going
00:10:47
to sit like this and maybe that'll make
00:10:50
a difference you know a lot of dsg's
00:10:53
future rides on the success of these
00:10:55
games right and the players know that so
00:10:57
it's just stress it's just stress it's
00:11:00
just nothing but stress and hope and
00:11:03
pain and Jubilation when they win it's a
00:11:06
roller coaster it's just a reality
00:11:08
Esports don't make money only I would
00:11:12
say one out of 10 Esports work makes
00:11:14
money it's very unfortunate it's it's
00:11:17
definitely becoming more of a passion
00:11:19
thing and it's it's a hard to ask for
00:11:21
players to kind of like give up their
00:11:23
youth to chase a dream that has such a
00:11:26
low chance of paying off now since the
00:11:28
end of the 2024 season a few things have
00:11:31
changed for toast his League of Legends
00:11:32
team has been granted a guest spot in
00:11:34
the reformed LCS now LTA so he'll
00:11:37
finally have a spot in a tier one lead
00:11:39
but he's also stepping away from his sea
00:11:41
valorant team despite their success last
00:11:43
year since Riot has announced that they
00:11:45
won't be allowed to stream their games
00:11:46
on any platform other than sup and toast
00:11:49
isn't the only one who's been struggling
00:11:51
with the brutal highs and lows of
00:11:56
Esports I mean it's it's all or nothing
00:11:58
I think it's a pretty flawed system you
00:12:00
know um but I guess it makes it more
00:12:03
sweet if you qualify but it's also more
00:12:05
heartbreaking if you lose I definitely
00:12:06
think at This Moment's time Challengers
00:12:09
is kind of disappointing at the moment
00:12:11
just because there's no incentive for
00:12:13
orgs to actually invest into the
00:12:15
challengers especially with it being
00:12:16
such a gauntlet like it's actually like
00:12:18
cruel you're choosing a career that is
00:12:21
extremely competitive like choosing to
00:12:22
be an actor or a musician right the
00:12:24
employment rate in these fields like .1%
00:12:27
the same thing is true for organization
00:12:29
you need to come into something like
00:12:31
challenges and you need to have a plan
00:12:33
on how you're going to survive and how
00:12:35
you're going to exist in the space and
00:12:37
what we've seen in the past couple of
00:12:39
years there's really only two ways to
00:12:40
make it work one you either have Deep
00:12:43
Pockets and you're willing to make a big
00:12:44
bat CU you're looking at ascending as
00:12:47
that big payoff or you run a scrappy
00:12:50
creative small team with a small
00:12:52
infrastructure small footprint the idea
00:12:55
of coming into Challengers and spending
00:12:56
a lot of money hoping to make a lot of
00:12:58
money it's just it's not realistic and
00:13:00
it's not going to work so teams need to
00:13:01
really adjust how they are
00:13:03
operating looking at this moist mogul's
00:13:06
roster this team is on the rise even
00:13:08
higher than they've gone already now
00:13:10
they're here in playoffs and they're
00:13:11
coming off of a dominant group stage run
00:13:13
Planet cannot come through though not
00:13:14
immediately orbital strike to get called
00:13:16
in that's all use over towards lamp side
00:13:18
go to P he's been a playmaker for a
00:13:20
squad tries to deal with the barrier orb
00:13:22
is this the moment Spike still not
00:13:24
planted yet it will come down though
00:13:26
eventually Trent doesn't stop it in time
00:13:28
down to Brock one V2 both players going
00:13:30
to swing this likely together there's
00:13:32
the challenge bang Brock gets B and it's
00:13:36
an eay clutch fromo bogles to strike
00:13:39
down the guard and make it to the
00:13:41
winners finals yeah so the reality is we
00:13:45
were the best team going in by record
00:13:47
not only were we the best going in we
00:13:49
won we made it to Winner's finals and
00:13:51
then we went up against M80 which we
00:13:52
knew would be tough and we lost and then
00:13:54
we get eliminated no mistakes no
00:13:56
mistakes in this post plant it's already
00:13:58
been after once that's a big kill he saw
00:14:00
the second Sim needs something else here
00:14:03
and he's not going to get it which was
00:14:05
tough man it was tough cuz like we were
00:14:07
one game away for making it to the
00:14:09
Ascension tournament twice and lost both
00:14:13
so lck's team came painfully close to
00:14:15
making it to the Ascension tournament in
00:14:17
2023 right now in valerant that's the
00:14:19
only way for an upand cominging team to
00:14:21
make it into tier one the system is
00:14:23
brutal and falling just short twice was
00:14:26
a blow but it was also clear that his
00:14:28
team had potential so heading into 2024
00:14:31
they made some changes they had a chance
00:14:33
to be acquired by Shopify who have
00:14:35
started to put some serious money into
00:14:37
eorts lwig joined up with the same man
00:14:39
who helped him sign his team in the
00:14:40
first place sea Gars and they called
00:14:42
this new org moist X Shopify and after
00:14:45
several roster changes they went into
00:14:47
2024 with big expectations but that
00:14:49
season wound up feeling eerily similar
00:14:52
and once again they fell just short of
00:14:54
making it to Ascension a 4v4 rolling
00:14:56
thunder Hunter Fury waiting
00:14:59
for a sound q but it's fly it's rolling
00:15:01
thunder that comes out first and no
00:15:03
checks the corner under pressure it's
00:15:05
Sim yet again and now it's only fly and
00:15:10
it's a 4K from SIM to send boy Shopify
00:15:14
out of playoffs TSM Ascend but Ludwig's
00:15:18
attitude was different after two years
00:15:20
of almost at the end of the day I found
00:15:23
out through that first year that more
00:15:24
important than maybe this like
00:15:25
far-fetched goal of mine is like setting
00:15:28
up these kids man like you know teens
00:15:30
early 20s like these young pro players
00:15:32
careers to be the the best careers they
00:15:35
can be and like setting them up right
00:15:37
you know making sure they're they're in
00:15:39
a good situation they're they're playing
00:15:40
well and then they're also like taking
00:15:42
care of themselves I grew much more
00:15:44
attached to the individuals than I maybe
00:15:46
would have expected going in for me like
00:15:49
mxm was very secondary to like you know
00:15:53
I mean back then it was like flya and AO
00:15:55
and Brock and all the guys so if one has
00:15:57
a bad game it's like I hope feels
00:15:59
confident still I hope he still thinks
00:16:01
he's the the [ __ ] cuz he should Mo
00:16:03
Shopify and disguise like it's
00:16:05
definitely like God's work like they are
00:16:07
putting in a lot of money to just kind
00:16:09
of develop the scene and obviously
00:16:11
there's no like real incentive to it you
00:16:13
don't really get rewarded for it but it
00:16:15
definitely is really good for the scene
00:16:16
and it does help like all these really
00:16:18
young talented players develop now the
00:16:20
question is are we now taking too much
00:16:23
time away from these players like ma who
00:16:26
was number one player in Challengers if
00:16:27
you ask any player in Challengers from
00:16:30
expanding his career from going to the
00:16:31
next level right after this year I was
00:16:34
totally hands off and I let them feeli
00:16:36
as many tier one offers as possible cuz
00:16:38
I understand it's unfair to the guys to
00:16:40
not let them explore the best career
00:16:42
path for them possible NRG announced
00:16:44
their roster they've added ma who's been
00:16:47
kind of a demon in tier 2 for quite a
00:16:48
while everything seems lovely there
00:16:50
Esports is a tough industry it's brutal
00:16:54
it wears you down it's competitive it's
00:16:56
expensive and sometimes it feels like
00:16:59
it's impossible to succeed but it's also
00:17:01
a place where fans and Gamers can feel
00:17:04
connected part of something bigger at
00:17:06
the end of the day that's a big part of
00:17:08
what we do every day it's probably a big
00:17:10
part of why you're watching and for big
00:17:12
creators some of that connection is
00:17:14
built in lwig and toast aren't the only
00:17:17
ones to have noticed that in Europe
00:17:19
kadril is months into running his own
00:17:21
League of Legends team it's early days
00:17:23
but hey the bous solo killed Faker and
00:17:26
huge organizations like caring Corb and
00:17:29
star koi have their Origins with
00:17:30
creators too ebi Kam and Prime just got
00:17:33
started a little earlier but today they
00:17:36
have thousands of fans who are happy to
00:17:38
fill stadiums and cheer for their teams
00:17:40
look Esports wouldn't exist without a
00:17:42
lot of work but it takes a lot of
00:17:45
passion too and there's a good chance
00:17:47
that your favorite creators are where
00:17:49
they are because they started out by
00:17:51
loving something in much the same way so
00:17:53
maybe it's not crazy that they're the
00:17:55
ones stepping up and investing in the
00:17:56
spaces they love even if the return turn
00:17:59
on that investment might not be there
00:18:01
yet can streamers overcome all the
00:18:03
problems facing the industry as a whole
00:18:05
of course not but they might be able to
00:18:07
get some new fans to start watching and
00:18:09
whatever Esports looks like in a few
00:18:11
years time one thing is never going to
00:18:14
change we need fans exciting and vibrant
00:18:18
communities we need people to laugh and
00:18:20
cry and cheer that's what it's all
00:18:23
though it's all about you
00:18:26
[Music]
