Credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Last week, Gen.G Esports 
became the latest esports organization to announce a significant infusion of capital, raising $46M USD from a wide array of investors. Actor Will Smith is the most prominent name in the group, and he’s joined by LA Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong, Silicon Valley Bank, Stanford University, and New Enterprise Associates, along with additional firms and individual investors.
In an interview with The Esports Observer, recently-promoted chief operating officer Arnold Hur discussed the team’s plans for the additional funding, the importance of investing in long-term infrastructure, and what he sees as the difference between Gen.G and other organizations.
A Global Mindset
“We’re continuing our global expansion,” he said, pointing to last fall’s announcement of a United States push and a second headquarters in Los Angeles, California after first establishing itself in South Korea and China. Hur said that Gen.G’s Seoul, Korea headquarters has been significantly beneficial to the team, and that the L.A. facility should be done by July.
“We do have some interesting opportunities out in China.”
“We’re really excited about that,” he added. “That’s part of our global expansion—making sure that we’re expanding our second headquarters, and making sure that we build on that momentum. We do have some interesting opportunities out in China. We’re going to continue to invest in that market, as well.”
With teams in three markets, Hur said that Gen.G offers sponsors something that is rare in esports: the ability to reach fans and viewers in multiple regions via a single organization. That simplifies marketing spend and activations for a sponsor, but it also creates more options. For example, mobile esports has a significant presence in China, while console game esports is more prominent in the United States. According to Hur, Gen.G’s expanding footprint covers multiple games, platforms, and regions via a single company.
“We can say [to sponsors], ‘Look, we can activate you in China. We can activate you in Los Angeles in the U.S., and we can really go after the largest markets for you,’” said Hur. “Right off the bat on the marketing side, it’s a huge advantage to have local team members on the ground who understand that market, with teams that are going to activate locally as well as international teams that can drop in and have great global exposure—like the [Overwatch League’s
] Seoul Dynasty
Related Article: From Secretly Gaming at Goldman Sachs to Heading Operations at Gen.G Esports
That kind global approach has been largely unique so far in esports, but Hur believes that more and more teams will make similar moves before long.
“Across the board, on the competitive side and on the marketing side, there’s some big advantages to be able to say you’re a global company,” he said. “Probably the most important one is the really simple fact that esports is global, and if you’re trying to be one of the top esports teams in the world and you’re saying you’re not global, it just doesn’t make sense. I would not be surprised if a lot of other esports teams try to replicate our model, and try to establish spearheads in Asia.”
Longer-Term Investment
Gen.G’s other big focus with this latest funding round is to establish its own academy program. It’s designed to help secure and develop younger talent, with the hopes of generating a steady stream of top-level talent for its pro teams. Hur said that the team has recognized a lot of young international talent that sits below the age cutoffs for the Overwatch League (OWL) and League of Legends‘ (LoL) pro leagues, and that Gen.G sees potential in investing in that arena for hopeful long-term benefits.
Credit: Blizzard Entertainment/Robert Paul
“We want to continue to double down on our scouting team, as well as our academy team and academy program,” said Hur. “We have what we believe to be one of the best scouting teams in esports in the world, as well as a curriculum—so that if young people join, they’re able to be a much better player really quickly instead of trying to figure it all out on their own.”
Gen.G believes that it is “very much ahead of the curve” when it comes to scouting young Overwatch talent, said Hur, but that it has only recently gotten “a little bit ahead of the curve” in that respect with League of Legends. He said that there is a lot of competition for up-and-coming LoL players, even with the lower-tier Challengers teams around the LoL Champions Korea (LCK) league that Gen.G competes in, and that the lack of a formal academy system in the LCK means that the organization has to fill the void itself.
“We know that if we invest in the infrastructure instead of just this year’s team, that’s going pay off over time, right?”
“I don’t think anybody’s invested as heavily into the academy scene as we have, and as legitimately as we have,” he said.
Gen.G invested in its LCK team this past season with big-name acquisitions, but the squad finished with a losing record. According to Hur, it helped convince Gen.G that longer-term investment is potentially a smarter move than making a big splash or short-term fixes.
“We know that if we invest in the infrastructure instead of just this year’s team,” he said, “that’s going pay off over time, right? Scouting, development, academy: those are the areas that are actual investments you want to make that build a competitive infrastructure—so that even though there’s going to be ups and downs in any given season, over the long run, it’s going to be very, very beneficial from a competitive angle.”
“It sounds a little risk-averse—but for us, it’s like: well, it just makes sense,” Hur added. “That’s what separates a team that wins the championship one year and then fades forever, versus a team that continues to invest in the long run. I look at the Knicks. The New York Knicks is probably not a great example of a team that has really invested for the long run. They just continue to do fixes for every year’s run, and look where that’s gotten them.”
Further Franchise Ambitions
Gen.G currently has one franchised league spot in the Overwatch League, although Hur believes that the LCK will eventually adopt a franchising model like North America’s LoL Championship Series (LCS) and the LoL European Championship (LEC). Asked about Gen.G’s interest in obtaining a spot in the upcoming Call of Duty franchised, geolocated league, Hur couldn’t comment specifically—but said that the organization is keen on franchising opportunities across the board.
“We fully support franchising. We think it’s the logical next step for most leagues to take,” he said. “From our discussions with the top publishers out there, I think they’re all thinking about franchising, as well, especially if they’re serious about esports. It’s the only way that you can start treating it as a legitimate business unit and a legitimate ecosystem, and allow teams, sponsors, and the game publisher itself to really invest in it for the long run—rather than just spending some marketing dollars here and there, and then kind of ignoring it or having it as a side business.”
Credit: Gen.G
From Overwatch and LoL to Fortnite and Call of Duty , Gen.G fields teams in many of today’s top esports. However, it notably doesn’t have teams in Dota 2 or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . Hur said that while he’s a fan of both games’ esports scenes, the lack of a steady league structure for either makes it a difficult move for Gen.G given its current ambitions.
“I just don’t see where an entry point for us would be without a more formal league model or franchise-like model,” he said. “I just don’t see how we could enter into those things meaningfully, but we’re always looking. We 100% believe in the potential of those titles as esports, and we think they’re two of the greatest esports out there right now and some of the most watchable esports out there right now. But we haven’t quite found what we think is the best approach for those games yet.”
“We’re always looking for any opportunity where the tides shift or there’s some changes made, but so far we haven’t seen anything yet,” Hur continued. “If there’s anything that makes it seem like the tides are shifting more towards a franchise-type model, then you’ll probably see us pursue it aggressively.”
Editor’s note: This interview was conducted by Trent Murray
