Creating A Semi-Pro or Pro team and what would be required monetary wise

RushIsPrimary·7/12/2015, 3:12:25 AM·2 votes·2,771 views

Hey, i had an honest question about creating a pro team/semi-pro team.

Does anyone have experience with creating a team and how much money one should have to appropriately start a team up with? I know getting them popular and merchandise sales would have quite a bit to do with it. I was just curious, however, about the amount it would cost to get a team going/pay a salary for a semi-pro/pro team. Also, any additional information that would be pertinent would be greatly appreciate. Thanks!

11 Comments

YOU SO BAD7/13/2015, 2:37:55 PM2 votes

I can Shine some light on this for everyone :)

The most recent Example is NME. Dan clerkie started Enemy esports with a investment of 50,000 (He did pick up a few other investors over the 8 months) and in 8 months had them in the LCS and was offered 1,200,000 million dollars for his team. He then laughed and politely turned it down.

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/34vmhk/enemy_esports_decline_12mil_offer_to_sell_team/

http://esportsgo.com/enemy-esports-turned-1-2-million-league-legends-team/esports/

Thats the most recent example.

As For "what it takes to Make a Semi-pro team?"

This inst the right line of thinking really.

You are creating a brand when you undertake something like this. The team or teams will then fall under your brand. There is a plethora of cost and expenses associated with brand development and marketing. Which is another topic.

But as far as

costs associated with a Semi-pro team:

Relatively low as players live in their own houses and compete virtually.
Some form of sponsorship and pay is industry standard as well as paying for all travel expenses when they go to events.

So over all its cheap to start a team/brand but the more capital you put into something the better off you will be.

Feel free to ask questions.

Hope this helps,

You So Bad

TheGrandAlliance7/12/2015, 3:43:25 AM1 votes

You need to win... that is all. If you win things (such as lower sub tournaments and the like) people will notice.

"IF you build it, they will come..."

RushIsPrimary7/12/2015, 3:53:13 AM1 votes

Gotta love troll comments. anyone with a brain cell that works? Well, actually, the 1st response was not THAT troll.

BTW to clarify, i am not trying to find ppl to play with me. I am debating on investing into a team.

TurquoiseYoshi7/12/2015, 12:48:09 PM1 votes

Honestly, if the players don't mind it, you really only have to pay them enough so that they can live decently comfortably on their salary and winnings from tourneys. That, and good computers to play on, preferably on the west coast.

IllllllIIIIlllll7/12/2015, 3:35:11 AM1 votes

You will need a top laner, a mid laner, a jungler, a adc, and a support. That is 5 people. You will also need to make sure you have a top lane main, a mid lane main, a jungler main, a adc main, and a support main. So altogether 5 people in total. Also, make sure that your team is balanced AKA it has a top laner, a mid laner, a jungler, a adc, and a support. This is very important because that is 5 people and there are 5 people in a team. Hope I helped!

Beerstein7/12/2015, 6:16:19 PM1 votes

I've played at the top level in other games and won a lot in tournaments so I have some experience at the top end.

I'd say the most important thing is admitting your deficiencies and finding a player in the top end of the community that is comfortable around his peers, you need a captain you can trust to help you build your team. You can't try to build it on your own from the forums, there are a lot of players at the top and the skill level can vary greatly in ways that silver players really can't see. So to me the biggest key would be finding a serious player that puts serious time in and can maintain a certain level of gameplay to help you build your team.

As far as monetary advice I have no practical experience on the matter and wouldn't drop assumptions.

Minrog7/13/2015, 7:41:07 AM1 votes

I think the only way to learn this is to ask someone who has done it. Also you need to figure out which way you want to build the team in order to know how much it will cost.

Unicorns of Love started in a college dorm room with no income investment, I think. It wasn't until they won their Promotion tournament that they started to involve money and work on merchandising.

LA Renegades had capital investors from early on (MonteChristo is one of them I believe), but they also salaried in existing Pro talent.

Depending on which way you are looking to go, I would try to get in contact with somebody who has been through those steps. Maybe ask Riot games Esports administrators if they could forward a query about it from you to a team owner.

Libriss7/12/2015, 6:08:47 PM1 votes

I dont think you need any money at the beginning of the journey. If you are a player yourself and want to create a team that can compete at highest level, you need to gather good players around you and make sure you motivate the team and have good chemistry. If you want to invest in a team only as a manager, you still need that silver-tongue to motivate high calibre players that joining your team has the highest potential. Money wise you only need to make sure that your team gets practice in offline tournaments every now and then, so that means covering travel expenses and hotel if neccessary. Other than that, i dont think you need to pay salary until your team reaches Challenger series.