Nouns League of Legends

Hello, my name is Griff. As a huge fan of competitive gaming and a long-term esports operator I became nouns-pilled by Sasquatch when he started the DotA 2 team. Since then, I have been actively involved in Nouns Esports as a member of the pod.

Below is an “audacious proposal” (thank you 142!) from myself and other highly experienced esports operators. We are excited to receive your feedback.

Goal

This proposal will help Nouns become a top global brand in the gaming industry. Specifically, our goals are:

  • To proliferate Nouns via the most viewed esports title in the world, League of Legends.
  • To build a team out of Australia the can qualify and compete at global events from within the League of Legends Circuit Oceania.
    • Further referred to as the ‘LCO’ for the remainder of the proposal.
  • To create a sustainable esport initiative on a two year timeline.

Description

By installing a team in Australia’s LCO for the next 2 years, Nouns will have an opportunity to build a sustainable foundation around the largest game in competitive gaming.

League of Legend’s Popularity

  • League of Legends is the fastest growing global sport and arguably the pinnacle of esports entertainment.
  • Globally, it has more than 100 professional teams and over 860 professional players.
  • Accessible on over 30+ TV and digital platforms, it is one of the most watched forms of sports entertainment.
  • In July 2022 League of Legends hit an all time high in active users

Competitive Circuit

  • Professional teams compete in 12 different regions across the globe.
  • Each region plays in a spring and summer season.
    • In each region the top performing teams from Spring split qualify for the Mid Season Invitational (MSI).
    • In each region the top performing teams from a combination of Spring and Summer split qualify for Worlds.
    • Both MSI and Worlds are two of the biggest esport tournaments in the industry.

Why Australia?

  • Australia is the only primary English speaking region in the world where you can qualify for MSI and Worlds without having to purchase a $35+ million franchise slot. (Team Heretics acquire Misfits’ LEC spot - Dexerto)
  • Australia is one of the most crypto native countries in the world.
  • A Nouns team in Australia allows for proliferation opportunities towards a different region and timezone.
  • The content of the team may be worked on in close conjunction with Nounish and Goldy due to the proximity of the team house in Melbourne, Australia and the ability to bring in seamless Nouns specific content.

Proliferation Opportunities

In-game
  • Being part of League of Legends Esports provides in-client branding opportunities and match day promotions. In-client branding means that whenever you launch the application, the images are visible on the landing page within the game.
Competition
  • LCO
    • The LCO is Australia’s Professional League that is produced by ESL and Guinevere Capital.
    • The largest esports organizations in Australia compete within this league and have been a part of League of Legends within Australia since 2015.
      • With these teams being a part of this ecosystem for as long as they have, it allows for continuity and rich story lines.
  • MSI
  • Worlds

Case Studies

League of Legends is the catalyst to many successful esports brands.

The Upper Bounds

TSM (Team Solo Mid) - founded as a League of Legends team, today is valued at over $500 million USD. This past year TSM secured a $210 million deal with the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

Australian Presence

Chiefs ESC (Chiefs Esports Club) - League of Legends continues to be the game of focus for Australian based organization, “The Chiefs”. It has secured deals with brands such as; L’Oreal, Energizer, Optus, McDonalds and others.

Localization

Dusty - A small esport organization from Iceland. They currently carry a second tier League of Legends team competing in Europe that recently won their division. A second tier team is defined by the level of league that they are involved in, as they play in a regional based European League, the equivalent of a Minor League compared to Major League in traditional sports. It allowed them to secure a deal with Nike, Domino’s and energy drink brand Nocco.

Operating Team

  • The operating team from Wildcard Gaming (additional Wildcard details below) will be executing this proposal.
    • Ben Merritt - 9 years of esports experience. Current COO of Wildcard Gaming. Background in business and marketing. Consulting for Nouns Esports since its formation.
    • John Griffin - 15 years of esports experience. Current CEO of Wildcard Gaming. Former DotA professional player. Degree in Sports Management. Consulting for Nouns Esports since its formation.
    • Matt Dillon - 10 years of esports experience. Former CEO of Ghost Gaming sold to Atlanta Hawks ownership. Current legal counsel for West Coast Cure.
    • Charles Conroy - 17 years of esport experience. Former co-founder of Complexity Gaming, sold to the Dallas Cowboys. Current business development at Unikrn.
  • Sasquatch and other contributors from the Nouns Esports Pod have also agreed to be hands-on with the proposal to ensure it’s well-integrated into ongoing operations.

Wildcard Gaming - Past accolades in League

Wildcard Gaming has an extensive history within League of Legends inside North America. We have been the launching pad for many of today’s top players and staff such as: Blabber (Cloud 9), ic0nic (Golden Guardians), Dhokla (CLG), Bradley (Team Liquid Academy), Kayys (TSM Head Scout and Strategic Coach), and Myra Davis (CLG Faith Manager). We also had the unique opportunity to work closely with Paramount Studios in 2021 while they recorded the show ‘Players’ since our player Noh ‘Arrow’ Dong-hyeon was selected for a role in the show. We are familiar with the Riot Team that manages North America and oversees Oceania; and have a longstanding and collegial working relationship with them.

In the 2021 Summer Split, Wildcard Gaming won all three Path to Pro Tournaments and earned the highest seed for non-franchised teams. In the postseason tournament, Wildcard defeated multiple high level teams and ultimately lost to 100 Thieves Academy, the eventual tournament champions.

Competitive Structure

Players:

  • Australia currently operates as a talent farm for North America. This is because the OCE region does not count as an import slot towards LCS rosters. With Wildcard’s unique understanding of the North American and Australian esport markets, we are uniquely positioned to properly source talent. To give Nouns a competitive advantage in the region we plan to target top Australian talent and pair them with high-end imported players from around the world.
  • Through the Wildcard operating teams vast connections and understanding of talent we will be hand picking the best available players that fit the budget. These players will also fit the style of play and culture most conducive to a positive winning environment.

Support Staff:

  • We will source a Head Coach, Analyst and other necessary staff to best support the players.

Budget: 420 ETH for two years (estimated $750,000)

Use of Funds

  • Player/Staff Salaries - 183 ETH
  • Operations - 126 ETH
  • Housing - 59 ETH
  • Content - 37 ETH
  • Travel/Visas - 15 ETH

Revenue

League of Legends is the most desired esport for endemic and non-endemic partners due to its popularity amongst multiple demographics while being one of the most brand safe games in the esports industry.

Wildcard has been in operation since 2017.

  • Wildcard already operates teams in
    • Rainbow Six: Siege (Australia)
    • DotA 2 (North America)
    • Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (North America)

Adding a League of Legends roster to this marketable esports package allows us to source sponsorship deals at a higher value and we have proposed the following revenue split to work towards making League of Legends self sufficient in a two-year timeline.

Proposed Partnership Revenue Breakdown

  • Wildcard partnerships that also include the Nouns League of Legends:
    • 80% Wildcard 20% Nouns esport treasury.
  • League of Legends or Nouns esport specific partnerships curated by Wildcard:
    • 80% Nouns esport treasury 20% Wildcard.
  • Any potential-partnership deal that would include Nouns League of Legends as a deliverable, would be disclosed to Nouns, and Nouns would have the ability to refuse any agreement that involves Nouns.

Two Year Transition

  • After two years we believe the League team will be self-sustaining via revenue streams such as partnerships, league revenue share, merchandising and player buy-outs.
    • In this situation Nouns has the opportunity to renew branding rights on a per year basis at no renewal cost. If the League team is still running at a deficit, Nouns has the ability to renew branding rights at a 50% operating cost, split with Wildcard.
  • If Wildcard decides to sell their LCO League slot, Nouns has first right to purchase at current market value.

Future

  • The Wildcard operating team for Nouns League of Legends prop would be an entry point in working together on esport initiatives.
  • Funding would allow us to further integrate our operating team and consulting on Nouns esports initiatives.
  • We want to create a sustainable esport ecosystem for Nouns through monetization strategies such as sponsorship, strategic partnerships, in game sales, product and merchandise among others.

Funding this proposal expands the potential for Nouns Esports. The Nouns brand resonates perfectly inside esport communities which thrive off meme content. We believe that with a good vision and proper execution, Nouns esports has all the potential to become just as valuable as the most popular esport brands today, some of which are valued at over $100 million. Nouns League of Legends is a great next step into propelling Nouns esports to hitting this potential.

Testimonials

e-sports has been one of the highest ROI proposals (in terms of attention generated) thus far…the success of nouns e-sports clearly demonstrates the power of handing the reigns to the community
-Nounder 4156

I was a bit skeptical at first I’ll admit but it was our Dota team that got my brother (a perennial crypto skeptic) to go from “all NFTs are a scam” to “all NFTs except for Nouns are a scam” … which to me felt big
-Nouncillor brianj

3 Likes

I’m hoping my comment will help bump this and get seen by more people. I’m not very familiar with how to quantify these kinds of props, but I know LOL is a really big deal. Have you ever looked into the previous esports props? They have a large capable team that would probably be very willing to bring in interested people and look at combining efforts once the current ‘season’ of prop money runs out.

Here’s the last prop for reference: Nouns DAO

You can of course keep it moving forward on your own, but I bet @maty and the team would be very helpful for something like this.

1 Like

Yes, we’re currently working on integrating this prop within the esports pod, and both Ben and myself have been involved with the pod since it’s inception.

We have also been in discussions within the pod for a few weeks to work through any points where the prop could be strengthened before presenting this to Nouncil on September 1st.

2 Likes

Good stuff! Looking forward to seeing it at Nouncil.

1 Like