The Esports pay-to-win problem - is it a rich man's game?

Recently I found an opportunity to observe for a university level League of Legends tournament. This would have been a great way to get my foot in the door of the esports industry and begin to build my portfolio. When it came to rehearsals, my equipment was not up to par and meant I could not achieve the desired quality for the stream. This was heart-breaking for me as this opportunity was an incredible one and so losing out due to financial restraint, not my abilities, was tough to deal with. At the time I bought my setup I was still in university and so could not afford a high end PC to stream with. This got me thinking about how the esports space really was a rich man’s game and a place where money talks.

Esports is a movement which is captivating the world in a way which can only be compared to the growth of traditional sports. Whilst millions of people worldwide watch the spectacle, entering the scene is not always as easy as it seems. Whether competing or working behind the scenes, esports more so than most has the appearance of a pay-to-win wall. When young children decide to go outside to play football, they need a ball and open space and can play for hours for free, but this is not always the case for esports.

The huge growth in PC gaming contributed to this boom in the pay-to-win nature; framerate, graphic quality or faster loading times all seemingly come behind a pay wall. For example, the latest generation of gaming consoles cost around £450, where Nvidia’s latest 30 series graphics cards can cost upwards of £700 alone. PC gaming also requires a more advanced set up than the in the box set up for a console, requiring a keyboard, monitor and mouse which all come with their own price tag. When many of the biggest esports titles are pc based, such as League of Legends or Fortnite, it is understandable why the next generation of gamers all want to migrate to PC.

At a smaller level, there are arguments for pay-to-win even in games’ skins and visual packs. Some people have argued that certain skins give competitive advantages. These advantages can take different forms such as cleaner animations, smaller hitboxes or more camouflaged characters. Some games do seem to suggest skins are merely cosmetic, such as weapon skins in Counter-Strike which do not change the statistics of a weapon. Cosmetics do sometimes offer competitive advantages, however. Rainbow Six: Siege pro Niclas ‘Pengu’ Mouritzen expressed his issues with skins in the game as he suggested they ruined the “competitive integrity” of the game. His argument suggested the skins made it hard to know what specialists you are killing and that they sometimes blend into the environments due to the colour schemes. When a game includes a cosmetic which changes the competitive integrity of the game, people wanting to win will always pay for it.

Costs do not get any cheaper for people who want to enter the industry from behind the scenes. Production and broadcast also requires high end set ups to ensure stream quality for the viewers. While someone can sit at home and write a blog for free, those wanting to do production do not get that luxury. Tournament streams must ensure professional level quality in order to grow viewership and entice sponsors for future events. An old PC simply will not provide that standard. This issue has only been further emphasised by the current world pandemic and the move to remote broadcasting. Now everyone involved needs high end home set ups to replicate the quality that broadcasting studios could achieve. For example, the LCS, North America’s League of Legends professional league, has moved entirely to a remote set up. All casters are working from home, and need good internet alongside studio level lighting, microphones and cameras to ensure the same quality from the LCS studio. Amateur level casters simply cannot recreate these set ups due to financial restrictions and so run the risk of not being taken seriously.

With the shift to remote broadcasting, the idea that esports is a rich man’s game has become even more evident. It will be interesting to see how the future growth of the industry shapes the need for financial investment or whether the growth will see a shift towards new and dynamic ways for people to shine.