The eSports industry is currently experiencing an unprecedented level of growth. A market that was once measured in millions, eSports is now a multi-billion dollar enterprise encompassing all areas of the globe. While traditional sports are suffering from falling viewership, the complete opposite is true of eSports. Aggressive projects like Blizzard’s Overwatch League bring competitive gaming into the mainstream by mimicking the structure of traditional sports. New teams are city-based and invoke the kind of team spirit necessary to truly make eSports competitive against their traditional counterpart.
However, there still exists a critical hurdle for eSports to pass. While the professional scene has developed around pioneering players, the industry lacks the infrastructure needed to support player growth truly. Where traditional sports have varsity, college and minor league teams from which to draw talent, eSports suffer from the lack of a similar player pool. A focused approach to building amateur leagues is necessary for long-term success in this space.
DreamTeam aims to do just that, by creating a networking platform for all levels of competitive gaming. Their project will create a full ecosystem for team formation, hiring coaches and attracting sponsors. Local teams that were once forced to depend on their own business skills and marketing resources can now use the DreamTeam platform to facilitate their success. This frees up valuable time for practice, liberating players from diverting time and energy away from the game.
The key to DreamTeam’s success lies in its ability to manage all aspects of an eSports team within its platform. Amateurs can form their own teams by finding other local players using a robust set of networking and team management tools. Once they have established their team, players can then seek out coaches that are willing to help them on their path. Local businesses that want to support eSports can use the platform to find teams, in the same way, that they would sponsor a high school or minor league teams in their areas. At the top, professional teams can headhunt from these amateur teams using the provided statistics functionality. This all-encompassing platform offers a solution to the persistent problem of finding new eSports talent.
Further, DreamTeam is using blockchain integration to support its new platform. The inherently trustless system of a distributed LEDGER allows the company to create a payment ecosystem free from the risks of fraud and non-payment. Player salaries can be distributed by smart contract, with the funds held in escrow by the blockchain itself. Tournament winnings can be verified ahead of time through the same process – preventing the all-too-common situation of tournaments failing to pay out to winning teams. This easily verified process also encourages greater credibility in the entire industry. Players, coaches, teams, and tournaments will all be held to a high standard through verified transactions. Those that abuse the system will now have a track record.
In order to bring this system to life, DreamTeam has assembled a ‘dream team’ of advisors and team members. CEO Alexander Kokhanovskyy – himself having created the highly popular eSports team Natus Vincere (Na`Vi) – brought together a strong cross-section of eSports and technology pioneers. These include Sundance Digiovanni, the former CEO and a co-founder of the Major League Gaming (MLG) organization. MLG has been crucial in bringing eSports into the mainstream. Also signed on is Ralf Reichert, CEO of ESL Gaming, one of the oldest eSports organizations still in operation. On the financial side, Emmanuel Aidoo serves as the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Strategist for Credit Suisse. Along with a development team boasting decades of experience, DreamTeam also secured the help of a team of eSports marketers and promoters that will help create the ultimate platform for eSports team management.
DreamTeam is well on its way to a full product release, with their test net now up and running for early adopters and developers. Users can access the Blockchain User Wallet and Smart Contracts system to test the monetization features that will be available in the full release.
Currently based on the Ethereum blockchain, the platform will allow users to set up smart contract based payments for players, coaches and support personnel. Further, sponsors and team organizations can pay into the system to fund these escrow accounts, allowing verification of funds before any agreement is made. This level of support for player organizations is unheard of in the amateur and mid-level eSports world and will go a long way towards fostering new talent.
Additionally, DreamTeam partnered with payment processing giant Xsolla to help with entry points into the system. Xsolla is easily the largest payment processor for the gaming industry, most notable for their Twitch.tv integration. Users on the Twitch platform can pay through Xsolla to help support their favorite streamers and eSports organizations. Many of the star streamers on Twitch depend on this revenue source to allow them to game full time.
Since the release of the DreamTeam beta platform, over 50,000 users have registered to participate in the platform. This level of traction for a prototype speaks volumes of public confidence in the project, and numbers are projected to triple over the course of the year. Millennials grew up playing games on a competitive level, and they are free of the perceptions of previous generations. eSports and competitive gaming are seen as a perfectly viable and even attractive career choice. However, a platform like DreamTeam is desperately needed to help create the support structure for professional gaming.
When new players feel that they have a clear path to the pro leagues, they will be more willing to invest the time and effort into their skills. If they are forced to rely on their own promotion and marketing, their gaming skills will atrophy proportionally. DreamTeam provides them not only the platform to get recognized, but a reliable payment method that may bring us some of the eSports stars of tomorrow.
BTCManager does not endorse any content or product on this page. While we aim at providing you all important information that we could obtain, readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor this article can be considered as investment advice.
