Players reporter Sofia Pikhalo talked with ESC Gaming co-owners Christian Ebner and Frank Hinterdobler about the Valorant roster, plans for new esports disciplines and Ukrainians in the team.
We are here with Frank and Christian. What work is already done to create a Valorant roster?
It’s not as easy as some other steps. At first, we tried to figure out how to create a good team with IGL. We needed to look at a few IGLs - young players as we wanted to support a Ukrainian Valorant scene. It was very hard. We had 60 or 70 invites in the Discord server. We have to figure out who is suitable for this project, young enough, who can fix with our coaches and staff.
Do you have plans to add teams in other esports disciplines?
Yes, of course, but I can’t talk about this at this moment.
Why do German sponsors want to sponsor the Ukrainian team and the Ukrainian target audience?
That’s a good question. To be honest I think we feel that we can help players with these sponsorships. With our Counter-Strike players, we feel that there’s a possibility to do something. I hear from sponsors that they also wanted to do something. Maybe it’s a good point. We find a very good point of it to create a team full of Ukrainians. They are amazing players, to be honest.
As far as I know, you also want to add some German players to get more media.
Not yet. Right now we are international. ESC Gaming was an international brand before. Of course, we will have some national faces but right now we are good with the international way.
Do you think active social media of players help to promote the organisation and roster?
It’s needed. We saw it together with MonOkson as he’s known in the scene. We see it with our other professionals like Edward or markeloff. It’s a huge media and huge traffic on every channel. It’s very important. Even for smaller organisations - they should try to create more content.
Which team has the best PR campaigns and social media activity?
I like the content from Heroic. It’s kind of funny and professional. It’s really great.
