Every now and then you’ll see those tweets from people wondering when Siege will get big orgs like OpTic or 100Thieves in the game. Sure, we have the Team Liquid’s and G2’s but a surprising amount of T1 orgs aren’t a part of or already left the Siege scene. I mean half the orgs in the NAL were on the shortlist of teams denied a Valorant partner spot for being too small. While there’s plenty of big orgs in Siege, it’s hard to say we have all the big players in the game. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to change anytime soon. The ecosystem of Siege operates in a way where we aren’t going to get more big name orgs coming in or returning and smaller organizations like Ence, Mouz, and Copenhagen Flames aren’t likely to bite either.
Quite frankly Siege is a hard game to invest in. And yes, organizations are investing when they pick up a team. The goal is to A) get fans, impressions, and brand recognition B) leverage their presence to gain sponsors C) place well and get that prize money. Remember, an organization paying 5 players plus a coach and analyst full time is going to cost a lot of money, there’s got to be some return on that investment. The orgs have to get something for that money, which can either be eyes, sponsors, or straight up capital. But Siege isn’t easy to get into and there are extra hurdles present in the space that other esports with open ecosystems like CSGO or the FGC don’t have.
For one, the franchised leagues means that orgs have to buy in, spending money to simply compete at the highest levels before even looking at making teams. LEC slots can go for $30-50 million dollars, and while Siege isn’t at the same level of League of Legends, you can bet your butt the orgs already in the league aren’t going to give away that franchise slot for cheap. If you look at other T2 franchised esports you’ll see that a cool mil isn’t a crazy estimate. Overwatch League slots are still valued at $25 million despite how little you’ve heard about that game. I mean, worlds or whatever was last week and I only heard about it because my friend was watching as we played. There’s also a hard limit on how many teams can be in each league. 10 teams compete in the NAL/EUL/BR6/APAC. That means that if you’re the 11th most popular NA org, you’re shit out of luck trying to get into Siege unless you plan to build an audience in a different region. Point is, any org looking to buy into Siege is going to have to pay a pretty penny to simply get their foot in the door at a T1 level. For orgs like OpTic and 100T, this is really the only option. There’s no way in hell they’d support Challenger League teams with no relegations available.
Big name orgs have built brands off of social media but also results. OpTic is a legendary contender in both console esports and their forays into PC FPS titles. The Green Wall (OpTic fans) will not be satisfied with a Tier 2 team being a big fish in a small pond, assuming said team would even win. With no path into the T1 level these orgs gain nothing extra by cost cutting and building a team in T2 with the hopes of it growing into a T1 team. Considering this is a common approach taken by orgs getting into a new game, losing this path to T1 due to franchising is a bigger loss than one might initially think. Investing at a T2 level is right out for a lot of orgs, especially the big ones. Luminosity Gaming only came in under the assumption of relegations being available, for the rules to change a Stage later is bad timing for them. Don’t expect LG to stay in Siege for much longer unless they bite the bullet and outright buy a team slot from one of the smaller NAL teams like Mirage or Parabellum. The removal of relegations and the artificial cap that franchising brings means that these orgs either have to go all in or not at all, especially because winning is part of many org’s branding.
But of course Siege does have a good incentive that catches organizations’ interest: the Pilot Program. Orgs can enter the Pilot Program at one of three tiers, which will net you an in-game skin at the base level, a charm at the next, and a banner/uniform in the third. The idea behind the tiers is that higher tiers will net orgs more money, but they have to invest more in the Siege scene. This way smaller orgs can be in the scene without having to break the bank to get money from the Pilot Program. Currently the program is a complete success in what it originally set out to do and as a result Siege has some of the best in game monetization of esports around. Because of how nice these skins have gotten, even casual players have an incentive to buy these skins. You may not care about the Soniqs, but that skin looks nice, so dropping $10 is worth it regardless. Other games have esports cosmetics but never as well integrated. CSGO has stickers, but those are just the team’s logo that you can slap on your favorite AK skin. It isn’t the NaVi AK, it’s the AK with the NaVi sticker.
That said, the pilot program may not be as profitable as we might assume. It’s surely valuable and something orgs would take it into account if they were considering investing in Siege, but names like Cloud9 and T1 have backed out of Siege even after getting some of that Pilot Program cash. The Pilot Program also comes with certain requirements and investments beyond buying a franchise slot. Teams have to contribute to the Siege space in specific ways in order to get a certain tier of the pilot program. The specifics of the tiers and monetization are unknown, but the fact that a team like Cloud9 backed out of Siege even after a few rounds of the Pilot Program may indicate that it’s not worth the trouble for some orgs.
And as lame as it sounds, the fact that a Cloud9 or T1 left Siege may scare away big names, simply because others backed out. Unfortunately some organizations really do just follow the trends and if they think Siege is a poisoned chalice it doesn’t matter what the reality is. At first look it is rough though, where would an org be able to buy a franchise slot if they didn’t want to break the bank? Probably APAC? But orgs like CAG and Fnatic have had that market cornered for years now, and NA/EU based teams probably won’t find enough value in trying to build an Asian fanbase to justify the purchase. Fnatic only stayed in APAC as part of their shift towards building a Japanese brand, they even moved from an Australian team to a Japanese one. (Though it’s still lead by Magnet and coached by Dizzle, oddly enough) Sponsoring an APAC team in Siege was part of a bigger plan from the organization to expand into Asia, otherwise I doubt a mostly EU based org like Fnatic would have stayed in APAC or even Siege.
Siege isn’t a great game to invest in as a small org either. Organizations like Ence and Mouz are budget orgs, they play it smart and focus on finding future talent with the intent to sell it to bigger orgs. If they get lucky, they might build a team that’s more than the sum of it’s parts and be able to compete against the best of the best. That said, investing in T2 Siege is pretty rough at the moment. Visibility isn’t great and outside of the Challenger League season there historically isn’t that much for your team to do. That means you’re paying a salary to players and staff to play what, 30 some odd games a year, give or take SI quals? That’s not a good bang for your buck. Tournaments like SCS are trying to create more events beyond CL, but they can’t create a whole scene alone. Other TOs would be necessary and they’re strangely absent despite the ability to host tournaments in Siege. Dreamhacks and OGA Pits haven’t come back for some reason. Without more tournaments to fill out the T2 calendar, small orgs simply won’t get enough value out of sponsoring T2 teams. Not enough visibility and not enough prize money.
It’s also a bad sign that both Mouz and Ence have already tried to participate in the Siege scene. Hell, Ence won a championship in Year 2 and they still backed out. Ence management is smart, they effectively rebuilt a CSGO fanbase and made a Top 5 team out of Finnish talent, a country not known for a particularly deep talent pool as far as CSGO cares. An org like Copenhagen Flames announced that they turned a profit in 2022, something less common than you’d hope about esports, but you’ll note that they don’t have a Siege team. While its likely true that you can turn a profit while in Siege, there’s something to be said about these smaller orgs that don’t have Venture Capital money participating in Siege nearly as much. Team Liquid and TSM have money to spare, Mouz not so much. As a result, smaller organizations like Sprout or Triumph aren’t likely to come into the Siege scene either.
While it’s not exciting news to hear, this is the reality of the Siege ecosystem at the moment. Without a robust T2 scene we fail to attract the smaller orgs in regions like NA or EU and with an artificial cap on the number of T1 teams, we limit the potential interest of the big names. Siege’s current state is a catch-22 of investing as far as many orgs are concerned. While the Pilot Program can be a great boon and can do a lot for an organization in theory, without public numbers it’s hard for me to claim its either worthwhile or not. This creates a situation where Siege isn’t a particularly exciting investment for many organizations, despite the many that hope for orgs like OpTic, 100T, or CompLexity to come in and dominate the space. (OK, that last one is a complete bias pick)