WePlay AniMajor, the Dota 2 tournament hosted by WePlay Esports, got shortlisted to compete for the Livestream Event of the Year title by Ragan’s 2022 Video, Visual & Virtual Awards. The winner in the category will be announced on August 24, 2022. 

Every year, Ragan’s Awards celebrate the most successful video, visual design, and virtual events that managed to engage with audiences remotely. This year, WePlay Esports became a finalist in the Livestream Event category with the WePlay AniMajor case.

WePlay AniMajor, a Dota Pro Circuit Major tournament, took place on June 2–13, 2021, at the WePlay Esports Arena Kyiv, Ukraine, during the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Despite strict sanitary restrictions and the absence of a live audience, the event went down in history as the most popular Dota 2 Major during the pandemic era. According to Esports Charts statistics, the tournament got 647,214 peak viewers, and the general number of hours watched exceeded 37 million.

“One may think there is no significant difference between organizing an offline event and an online one. However, the atmosphere of a LAN tournament with spectators is a blast. Our task was to create an event that would be remembered by our viewers forever, even if they couldn’t attend in person. The music, the setting, AR, and other details all made up a new world where our viewers wanted to stay longer. For us, getting recognition for our work is so much needed right now when it’s impossible to make this event happen in Kyiv again due to the Russian invasion,” says Maksym Bilonogov, chief visionary officer and general producer at WePlay Esports.

“For over 50 years, the Ragan’s Awards have celebrated excellence in internal and external communications, and our team is thrilled to be one of the nominees for this year’s award. Being on the list side-by-side with world-famous brands, whose cases are admired by the whole world, is a source of great pride for us. 

Recognition of our efforts by leading experts in the field is an incredible motivation for new achievements, as well as the implementation of new projects in esports,” comments Alena Dalskaya-Latosiewicz, chief communications officer at WePlay Holding.

The winners of the Ragan’s 2022 Video, Visual & Virtual Awards will be announced on August 24, 2022. They will be selected by the responsible jury, who have great experience in the communications sphere. 

About WePlay Holding

WePlay Holding is an esports corporate group with headquarters in Los Angeles, U.S., and Kyiv, Ukraine, which has offices around the world together with its affiliates. The multi-brand holding company is bridging the gaps between entertainment, esports, and technology through its innovation strategy. 

The organization accelerates industry development with interdependent creative solutions in broadcasting, augmented reality, interactive experiences, data mining, and other tools. WePlay Holding empowers businesses with personalized products and services created through merging concepts. This produces quick-impact outcomes required in the competitive world of entertainment.

Since 2006, the WePlay brand is well-known for the high-quality organization and broadcasting of esports tournaments. It grew into WePlay Esports, a world-class tournament organizer and production company with studios, talent crews, and arenas operating across multiple continents. 

WePlay Holding puts together its technology ecosystem to create unique results. It aims to bring together brands, investors, nonprofit organizations, industry experts, and other stakeholders into a playful prosumer environment. 

The days of brands engaging with their audiences through TV commercials or product placement in movies are over. Now, companies can tell the world about themselves in a different, creative way by collaborating with different industries. And if soccer or car races have long since become popular advertising platforms, esports has so far remained a blind spot for many.

The esports industry is growing fast. According to analytics provider NewZoo, the global esports audience will reach 577 million by 2024. It is predominantly made of men aged 18 to 35 with medium and high incomes. These people are open to innovation, know all about the latest tech gadgets, and are actively seeking new experiences. That’s why brands should take notice of esports as a new platform for communicating with potential customers. Representatives of esports organizations and tournament operators will tell you how best to integrate into this area.

Let’s consider one such case of interaction using the example of energy drink brand Monster Energy and WePlay Esports. Monster Energy has been using esports as an advertising platform for 10 years, but integration with WePlay Esports is the brand’s first step in the Ukrainian market. The Russian-language broadcast of the BLAST Premier: Fall Season 2021 group stage was chosen for the interaction.

BLAST Premier is a global tournament series in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), the 2021 Fall Season of which took place from September 16 till November 28, 2021. The total prize pool of the season was $1,737,000. The Russian-language broadcast of the event was organized by WePlay Esports, the flagship company of the WePlay Holding esports corporate group.

Esports offers a ton of creative ways to interact with your audience, among other things. For instance, as part of the Monster Energy case, a mechanism was developed that encouraged viewers to support teams. Here, we are talking about the “comeback” button. A comeback, or a turning point in the game, is what loyal fans want when a team begins to flounder. By pressing the “comeback” button, the audience would share their energy with the favorite team. When the viewer support dial was full, the hosts would make an announcement to that respect. Thus, the players would know of their fans’ support without ever seeing them.

One should also keep in mind that advertising of any product should look native. There are brands for which integrations with esports are natural, for example, gaming equipment manufacturers, and brands for which the choice of esports as an advertising platform seems less obvious. Monster Energy is a representative of the latter. While energy drinks are not a necessity for gamers as a computer or headphones would be, they are an integral part of esports competitions and a companion of gamers’ sleepless nights. Monster Energy drinks give an energy boost to gamers, fans, and talent (esports commentators and analysts) alike. As WePlay Esports talents Oleksii “уХо” Maletskyi and Yuriy “Strike” Tereshchenko discussed the game, every now and then, they would mention the key messages of the brand. Thus, the viewers’ attention was drawn to Monster Energy, but at the same time, they weren’t distracted from the game itself.

The most classic integration format esports can offer a brand is product placement. In the case of Monster Energy, online viewers could see energy drink cans placed around the studio throughout the broadcast. The fridge, which featured the bright green Monster Energy logo, drew particular attention.

When choosing a language for communicating with the esports audience, it’s important to remember that the community itself consists of dynamic people who crave their fix of creativity. When they are interested in a tournament, they can watch it non-stop and share their excitement in chats. They have their own fan clubs, celebrities, and influencers. For this audience, video games are not mere entertainment — they are a lifestyle.

In view of this background, a brand’s task when entering the esports niche is to surprise the viewer, make its impressions blend in seamlessly, and create high-quality, vibrant content. You can create an SFM video, use AR technology, or come up with engaging activities within the broadcast. Under this scenario, a loyal audience and great results are guaranteed.