In January of 2019, esports team Echo Fox dropped nearly all of its fighting games roster. This left Justin “Jwong” Wong, an expecting father, without a stable income. Like his other former teammates, he considered joining a new team, and according to Wong, it wouldn’t have been hard to do so. But, as he told The Esports Observer, the Street Fighter player and nine-time Evo champion knew he had the cachet to do things differently. So instead of calling team owners to set up meetings, he went directly to sponsors.
“A lot of times I have a really good relationships with these companies because ultimately, they just want to send me shit. So because they want to send me stuff…I just wanted to see how else can we further our relationship, maybe by partnering up,” Wong said.
His first sponsor was The Gaming Stadium, a new esports arena in Vancouver that’s currently going through its second funding round. It successfully met its first round thanks to a single investor, pharmaceutical company Lipont
“We went for lunch, he let us know that he was going solo,” said Spiro Khouri, VP of marketing for The Gaming Stadium. “And he was looking for opportunity on the sponsorship side. And that’s kind of where it all came about.”
Credit: Echo Fox
There are some distinct advantages when working with an individual as opposed to a team. The way it usually works is that a deal is made between a team and a sponsor. The agreement requests a certain number of posts on social media by the players. The players report back to the team once they’ve fulfilled their sponsorship obligation, and the team then reports back to the sponsor. In essence, the team is acting as a middleman between players and sponsors. And by removing some of that red tape and working directly with a player, not only did The Gaming Stadium have more say and influence when working with Wong, the deal is, according to Khouri, typically cheaper than backing an entire team.
After signing with The Gaming Stadium, Wong has brought on other sponsors, from the obscure to heavy hitters. Those include gaming chair maker GT Omega Racing, streaming hardware company Elgato Gaming, at-home arcade machine manufacturer Arcade 1up, Los Angeles-based food truck Okamoto Kitchen, headset company Astro Gaming, computer hardware producer ASUS ROG, and fightstick maker Victrix Pro.
While it is generally cheaper for sponsors to back an individual player — excluding the mega influencers with millions of followers — Wong’s reach is also a lot smaller when compared to a large esports organization. But there’s a reason Khouri is looking to influencers to get The Gaming Stadium brand out there, versus more traditional advertising means.
“There’s a monthly payment in terms of sponsoring Justin, but when you look at traditional media, and how much it costs to get exposure through traditional media and the regionalization of traditional media, it’s extremely expensive,” Khouri said. “And when you look at someone on the caliber of Justin, he’s traveling all over North America, he’s extremely well known in the industry. He’s a great brand ambassador. So we’re getting that North American reach.”
Credit: Justin Wong
Granted, The Gaming Stadium is only after increasing brand awareness. It’s not selling a retail product, therefore there’s no key performance indicator between a social media engagement and an item sold.
Regardless, according to Khouri, the partnership with Wong has been going well. Wong is very engaged, and visits Vancouver often enough to be with his wife’s family. Not only that, it’s just easier to work with one person as opposed to an organization.
“It’s such mayhem out there,” said Ozhan “Oz” Maker, general manager for Victrix Pro. With so many other endemic and non-endemic brands trying to take a piece of the esports pie, it can be hard for a relatively new company like Victrix to stand out. Victrix made its debut in the esports space with its Pro AF headset in early 2018, a $300 USD pair of cans that were praised for its innovation, but criticized for its high price. Later that year, it followed it up with the Pro FS fightstick, a $350 fighting game tool aimed directly at hardcore competitors.
“A Jack in the Box or a Geico Gaming, or these kind of non-endemic sponsors, they only have their dollars to be associated with esports,” Maker said. “…That is of course getting them some return, some association. But it’s also kind of poisoning the well for companies like us. Because we make the hockey sticks for these guys…being put in the same basket with those giant lifestyle companies or fast food companies, it’s kind of disheartening.”
Credit: The Gaming Stadium
Because Victrix makes a hyper-specific product for a niche audience, it’s logical for the company to want to partner with someone who has the name recognition within the fighting game community that Wong does.
“When you deal with the individual directly, you typically as a brand get more flexibility on what the partnership looks like,” Khouri said. “So for example, as part of our partnership with Justin It’s not just about about him wearing our logo, it’s about him coming to our events, it’s about him being available to local media, it’s about him being a mentor to some of our younger players that are The Gaming Stadium team, so they have access to Justin and can reach out to him as someone who’s been competing for ten-plus years.”
At time of writing, Wong has 120K followers on Twitter, with 26.7K on Instagram, and 40K subscribers on YouTube. These are good numbers, but not ones touted by mega-influencers and streamers such as Imane “Pokimane” Anys, and Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. But, as noted by Forbes, there’s potentially greater value in partnering with “micro influencers” as opposed to big names. That’s because fans that follow micro influencers have greater engagement, while mega influencers might only be racking up followers because of their fame.
“It’s cost and flexibility. When you go to some of the bigger people, the hard part is is that they get much more expensive and less flexible,” Khouri said. “So, they’re not as willing to work with you to promote the brand. It comes off a bit more disingenuous.”
Credit: Vitrix Pro
Maker echoed similar thoughts saying “players themselves, working with us directly, they also come across more authentic.”
That’s not to say the model that Wong has carved out will work for all esports athletes. Those that are reliant on a team can’t as easily branch off and have their own specific sponsorships. It really works best in single player games like card games or fighting games.
Other esports athletes that have been able to create this model have been Daigo Umehara, the most famous Street Fighter player from Japan, as well as Wong’s former teammate, Yusuke Momochi. Interestingly, Wong has decided to go it alone. He’s his own agent and manager, while Umehara has the backing of a PR agency and Red Bull, and Momochi has a manager. This has left Wong having to parse through different deals and be in the uncomfortable position of declining offers he feels might upset his other sponsors.
“There are sponsors that I’ve been approached with. They just didn’t have a really good reputation,” Wong said. “And I kind of denied them. So, I don’t want to work with companies that have a bad reputation. Because it might make my other sponsors feel kind of uneasy.”
Credit: Yusuke Momochi
Of Wong’s array of sponsors, one noticeable gap is that of an energy drink. Wong is in talks with some energy drink companies and hopes to land a deal soon. Beyond that, in the world of esports sponsorships, Wong has one particular goal in mind.
“My other goal is to get somebody that’s never invested in the FGC before type of thing. Like a non-endemic sponsor. I think having one of those to introduce to the world of gaming would be pretty awesome.”
