eSPORTS is Gonna Be as BIG as FOOTBALL & BASKETBALL! | Brandon Beck | Top 10 Rules

Esports is going to become as big as football or soccer or baseball. And I don't know, I mean, that's going to be really up to the players' decide.

Players do things with our champions we'd never even imagined, the designers didn't imagine. And we sort of evolved that understanding together with the community.

Oh, the flash hook! The ping got him!

Whether you think you can do it or you think you cannot, you were right.

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe that you have the ability to do something special that can change the planet. So to help you on your journey Hey, it's Evan Carmichael. On this journey today, we're gonna learn from the CEO of Riot Games, Brandon Beck, and my take on his top 10 rules of success.

You have to have an almost idealistic belief in what you're doing, because if you take a a linear, logical perspective on what you're trying to accomplish as a startup. If that makes sense, it's almost— the startup's almost not ambitious enough. And if it doesn't make sense, then it can be like staring into the abyss of how the hell is this ever going to work? And there just sort of needs to be, you know, sort of that old saying where there's a will, there's a way. There just needs to be that. That belief almost idealistically, almost not based in rational thinking, that we can sort of pull this off somehow. And at least for us, that was key, believing in sort of a nonlinear path to success.

It's hard for us to sort of resonate with how well the game has been doing. And it's like the ultimate compliment. I mean, it is the best feeling in the world to see players enthusiastic about the product. And like what you guys are here for, the World Finals coming up tomorrow, the— I mean, That is like a dream come true for us. We've always wanted esports to be at that scale, but we never even believed that that would be possible. And I remember one day we were in a team meeting and we just got the results from a survey back. And we'd asked players if they enjoy watching the game in addition to playing it. And the number was something like 70% of players enjoyed watching it. We're like, no way, that has to be wrong. We enjoy watching it, but that's what we do. We make games. There's no way 70%— and in fact, that was an accurate number. And then it was validated by the viewership numbers for our first tournament. We're like, holy crap, green light for going apeshit on making phenomenal— on building a phenomenal esports experience. And that's been so much fun to just run with. We want this sport to be big and awesome, but I want to make one distinction clear. We're not trying to make this a mainstream sport. A lot of people ask us, you know, hey guys, is, you know, is esports going to become as big as football or soccer or baseball? And I don't know. I mean, that's going to be really up to the players to decide. But that's not a specific goal. But the goal is to deliver a great experience for the already large community that really cares about it. So that's the focus. The goal isn't to make esports as mass market or big as possible. I think that's kind of just forcing, trying to force it, and it has to happen organically.

Well, this is the, uh, the 2004 USA men's national basketball team, and, uh, and these guys were stacked, right? I mean, this was talent stacked on talent stacked on talent. You got LeBron, you got Dwyane Wade, you got Carmelo Anthony, you got Duncan, Iverson, and this would have been the highest paid team in the history of pro sports, right? But does anyone remember what happened in Athens, right? They got dumped on by Puerto Rico, and then they lost subsequent games to Lithuania and Argentina. I mean, they weren't supposed to lose a single game. They were supposed to run the entire table to the gold medal. They were massive favorites, right? So while talent can win you games, it is teamwork that wins championships.

Back in high school, I was diagnosed with ADHD, so the classroom was a pretty painful place. It was hard work to spend more than half a minute's attention in any lecture, regardless of how much I enjoyed the subject matter.

And by the way, you know, I don't—

I mention this not because I'm seeking sympathy, but I want to emphasize that we all have different handicaps, and it's how we choose to handle them that's what's important. We can be paralyzed by self-pity, we can lower our expectations, we can give up entirely, but those of us who choose to power through and simply opt for redoubling our efforts improve our chances for success dramatically.

I think to really, to really make something, something great, you have to be passionate about it. So, I mean, it comes down to like even like higher criterion. Like, when people are joining Riot Games, there's two things we look for. One is just their aptitude, their, their talent, and then the other thing is, is their passion. And we care way more about those two things than like their experience, for example, because we think that you have to love— you have to love what you do, you have to love the game, you have to understand the game too, because it's easy to like come in having been a really experienced artist or really experienced game designer but have no comprehension for how League of Legends is different from a lot of conventional games, where a lot of conventional wisdom breaks down.

Weak culture, you know, can allow people to just drift. And a strong culture can sort of act as this membrane that keeps large diverse groups of people working in alignment. And every company, every company has a culture, right? Whether they acknowledge it and are deliberate about it or not. You know, culture is sort of this living breathing, evolving idea, and it takes consistent effort over time to synthesize, you know, to codify, and then ultimately to teach. And I love this analogy, and I'm just gonna, you know, I'm just gonna take a survey real quick, but who in this audience is like me, and you— raise your hand if you really like black licorice. Okay, handful of you guys, all right. My people right there. Now, Who in this audience looks at this image like, "That is freaking disgusting, I hate black licorice"? OK, tons of you guys. Now, who in this audience is, like, really ambivalent? "Oh, black licorice, whatever, I have it sometimes." OK, very few of you, right? Now, who in this audience is ambivalent about vanilla ice cream? You don't hate it, it's not the first thing you order at Baskin-Robbins either. Okay, almost everyone, right? And that's kind of the difference here. As a culture, you don't want to be plain vanilla, right? You don't want to be a catch-all flavor that is something for everyone, right? That's dangerous. It just waters down your culture. You want to be black licorice. You want to be cilantro. You want to be uni. You want to be Brussels sprouts. You want to stand for something, right? And then you'll be a magnet for cultural fits, you know, and others will self-select out.

And Riot was an ambitious endeavor for us, to say the least, but it was a pursuit of passion. We've always loved video games, and we saw an opportunity to do things differently and improve the traditional model. High-quality, high-production-value video games had always been this packaged goods business, but we thought online and multiplayer-centric games would be better as online services than as packaged goods. Why did we need to sell discs anymore? Who, who buys any of their digital media, their other digital media like music or video, uh, at the store versus downloading? And why do games need to cost $60? We could make them available for free and then just sell optional content à la carte, and players could opt in only if they saw value. This would shift the burden onto the quality of the content and the experience. And games on discs were static, like movies. Games could— would get printed and then the developers would literally move on into the next project or sequel. So we thought games should have live development teams dedicated to evolving the experience and to reacting to user feedback. We wanted to build a company that saw the world through the eyes of gamers and had a commitment to quality and a relentless focus on the player experience.

We make mistakes, right?

As you heard me say in the talk a little bit earlier, making mistakes is kind of part of our culture because we feel like if we get to a point where we're not making mistakes, we're spending too much time covering our butts and we're not moving fast enough or we're not taking enough risks. But the key is to not make the same mistake twice and to learn from our mistakes and to constantly strive to get better. So that's sort of our philosophy.

Who in this audience believes without a shred of doubt that nothing, not technology, not IP, not patents, not trademarks, not brands, not relationships, not any asset of a game company is worth more than— to our company's success than the quality of our teams? If you believe that without a shred of doubt, raise your hand. Okay, a lot of hands.

That is awesome.

Now raise your hand if that sounds idealistic, you believe it in your heart, you want to believe it, but your mind is just kind of full of questions, those other things are pretty important. Okay, good. We're pretty sure of this, which is great. Now, lastly, raise your hand if your company, your shareholders, your boardrooms all believe this and internalize it the same way you do without a shred of doubt. Okay, a lot less hands. Now, you know, this is where I think we have a problem as an industry, because until we all agree, until all stakeholders fully believe in the value of our people, then we struggle to prioritize what really matters, and it's going to hold us back as an industry from, you know, our full potential.

It's so rewarding, you know, to see the passion. Players do things with our champions we'd never even imagined, the designers didn't imagine. And we sort of evolved that understanding together with the community.

Oh, the flash hook! Bang! Got him! Xiao Wei Xiao goes down!

You know, when the community creates a piece of content that just like totally makes you smile or laugh, I think what they do for us is they just like drive this, this need to sort of live up to the expectations. We got to be worthy of this kind of passion. Sometimes we spend so much time thinking about features, developing something, and we— that we lose perspective, and the community can just keep us honest.

And those are the times when we try to really acknowledge, you know, our mistakes and get better. You know, I think we both probably feel a tremendous amount of gratitude for the incredible ride we've sort of had together and the moments that we've been touched by, you know, meeting players and seeing their passion for League and appreciation for a lot of things, you know, Riot's done. I mean, they've helped us grow as people and as individuals incredibly.

The gratitude that we have is just—

there's no amount of words that can express it.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Dennis Vang asked me to. I'm also a big League of Legends fan. Look me up, Believe Team, on the North American server if you want to duo queue. If there's someone you'd like to vote on for the next top 10, check out the link in the description and go and have your say. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Nate Lee Morales. Nate, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. For having me on your podcast. It was a ton of fun. I really, really appreciate the support, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the read. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

You know, as you shift your attention to your future and to what's next, I want you to think about this quote from Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can do it or you think you cannot, you are right." Those words are more meaningful today than I would have ever thought when I was sitting where you are. I had the same worries about my future as you all have, but what I would like you to think about is that for the vast majority of you, The limitations on what you can achieve are to a very large degree self-imposed. Whether it is an external voice telling you that you cannot achieve something, or it's that internal voice of fear and of doubt that prevents you from pursuing your passion, these can often be more limiting factors than the actual career world itself.

We think it's incredibly important to be connected to the players. It has to guide everything we do. Every decision that we make, it has to start with the player philosophy, then we sort of work backwards from there. And we don't always get it right, but the closer we are with the community, the more we'll understand it. Like, some of my favorite moments are being— are meeting players, you know, up close and personal at the trade shows that we're at, the esports events that we're at. I've had so many phenomenal experiences getting to know getting to know our players, and, you know, I think that's invaluable. I mean, it's a phenomenal resource for us as developers to get that kind of feedback.