You may have heard that the AFL has been acquiring a bunch of esports teams recently, leaving the sport’s wider fanbase asking why they would be interested in something so far removed from its traditions.
To me – a gamer since the age of 5 – it’s great news. Finally, competitive gaming is being given the platform, attention, and resources it deserves and better yet, it’s an established platform that’s throwing its weight behind the booming digital sport.
But despite the move, mainstream AFL fans are still struggling to understand why folks like the AFL are keen to bring esports on board. To clear the air around the subject, we spoke with Darren Birch, AFL General Manager, Growth, Digital and Audience.
“Esports is no different to any other sporting event or competition,” he told PEDESTRIAN.TV via email. “It is just that it is played in a different domain with different equipment.”
“It still maintains all the elements of traditional sport such team work, strategy, commitment to training and excellence, team management/communication, coaching and talent identification. I think if you took someone new to Australia to an AFL game it may make as much sense to them as League of Legends.”
Funnily enough, League of Legends makes more sense to me than AFL does, but then again, I’ve never really been the sportiest of blokes. By acquiring esports teams and partnering with publisher, Riot Games, it opens up opportunities for both sides to share information and experiences, as well as extend club brands to new audiences.
“Similar to clubs who now have an AFLW team or a netball team bringing a new fanbase, esports has the same potential to do that for our AFL clubs,” he said.
And it’s not like they walked into the whole thing blind, either. According to AFL research, about 21 per cent of the sport’s fanbase have an interest in gaming already, so it’s not completely foreign to everyone.
“If the AFL, and by extension the 18 Clubs, can be relevant in the gaming community, it helps to build the brands of each club by broadening the audience and fanbase,” Birch said. “This in turn allows for an extension of all of our existing activity and relevance in an ever increasing digital world.”
But there’s still a lot of people out there who liken gaming and esports to the whole ‘nerds in the basement’ stereotype and trash media like The Big Bang Theory. That view certainly isn’t helped by the kind of behaviour from sports commentators in the video below, either. Skip to about 2:50 to see what I mean.
The victorious Bombers rooms set the stage for an EPIC #RoamingBrian. No script, no direction, no safe passers-by. #AFLDonsCrows #7AFL pic.twitter.com/39Cdd3LFAF
— 7AFL (@7AFL) March 23, 2018
Not only does commentator Brian Taylor take the piss out of the entire situation, you can hear his fellow commentators giggling in the background like a couple of dolts egging on a schoolyard bully. “Have a look at em,” he says in the clip. “Not the normal football following type, but very good at pushing buttons and going left and right.”
Birch says that the AFL plans to tackle this kind of mentality and make the shift away from outdated stereotypes.
“I think this is already happening with both Adelaide Crows and Essendon FC taking an interest in this area and highlighting that the players are more than just a stereotype,” he said. “We will be working hard with Riot Games and our teams to ensure that we position the athletes through broader content and storytelling to be relevant beyond that stereotype.”
It’s awesome to see the AFL taking esports seriously and I can’t wait to see it continue to grow and expand as more people and organisations show an interest. And if I could somehow relay a message to Brian Taylor, it would be simply this:
