 Welcome to the wide world of eSports, a show devoted to all things eSports. I'm your host, Catherine Norr. Today we're discussing the global eSports market connecting India, Latin America, and the United States. My guest is Ulysses Carcamo, founder of Now Play No Games and head of marketing for Shaky Corpse. Welcome, Ulysses. Hello, Catherine. Well, thank you very much for having me. All right. So I understand you're in Chile right now. Right now, yeah. All right. So can you tell us about what is your company Now Play No Games? For telling you a little bit about my company, I need to tell you about the path that I was doing from 2017. In eSports field, I start working here in Chile in the FESTI game. That is the biggest eSports competence that we have here in Latin America all day after the real from Brazil game show. And in this moment, I can connect with the industry and start working abroad. And Spain and United States and now on India doing the tournaments from Battleground for all the Indian eSports market that is growing in this moment really fast. Oh, that's terrific. So do you, does your company handle work in other countries in Latin America or is it just Chile? And this moment is Chile and Brazil. We have some projects that we are developing in Brazil with some game shows, ideas and some teams that I can't reveal the names right now because I didn't sign some NDAs and some contracts because we are trying to develop a partnership with different leagues from Brawl Stars, Battleground in these moments because we are starting to set up a really big marketing project abroad and we are trying to put all this together abroad to finish the production of the visual production over California LA. We want to do the final of the of the other tournament with the competitors and event in Los Angeles, California, where I was living before the pandemic and to launch a worldwide content from Los Angeles, California for the all these markets in the Aracil, Chile, and we are trying to focus in the Spanish speaking market. Terrific. And I understand you are just recently in Greece. Yeah. And so were you at a conference there? The conference was in Athens. It was a little tricky because with all the trip restrictions, I wasn't in my time in the forum because I have a problem with the trip over Holland. But after that, I can stay and participate in the conference that was focused in the casino companies that want to enter to the eSports market. And you know, this is kind of tricky for both industries because have a really real relationship between them and they are trying to start putting his sponsorships and trying to put investment in the in the eSports area that we need to develop in Mexico, Latin America and now in India. So what is shaky corpse? Shaky corpse is a is a team based on India from like a eSports professional over there that know really well the rosters from India and the talent and they are putting together these tournaments for underdogs that allow like 60,000 people to compete for know who is better in this first location, body of ground, mobile India. And they are doing a really terrific work because in the two, three, sorry, three years of life that have this company, they have like really big numbers for the Indian eSports market that is kind of tricky to because have like some particularities that is hard to explain about the VLAN connection and other factors, even that they have a really big size of audience for the from the people from India. And for that reason, shaky corpse is doing a really big work because they already have like concurrent numbers, viewers like 60,000 in really small communities and tournaments. And with this big project for the underdogs like this big tournament with money prize and everything that my company is sponsored them with the prices. They are trying to start being competitive against all the scene like gaming competitive, you know. Sure. So how big is eSports in India versus in Latin America versus the United States? It's a really good question because here for example in Chile, we are 19 million people and eSports viewers are like one million and two hundred thousand people right now with the pandemic are going into the eSports and start looking that we also in the biggest competition here in Latin America that is the League of Legends competition named the LA LA app. We have two teams competing on that. And for that reason, the numbers are getting bigger like in any part of the world because of the pandemic. Sure. And following with the question, sorry. After that you have Mexico that Mexico have like 20 million market over eSports or people video game interested looking for content on the web. And in India, I don't have the final numbers because I already have some numbers, but we are trying to set all the measures with the different tournaments. And in this first occasion, we're going to have our own measure about Battleground Mobile India. So what games are popular in Latin America? Chile, Brazil, Mexico? It's like any other regions of the world. First place is League of Legends, of course. After that is Fortnite. And right now Call of Duty Mobile and other mobile games are going up in the numbers. But it's like the same order that you have there in the United States or the video game community. The numbers are the same in all the regions. You know, I understand that mobile eSports are really big in India. And that it isn't as big in the U.S. What about Latin America? Yeah, Latin America is a really special place to talk about that because, for example, in Argentina and Peru and Chile, we have more cell phones than people here have. Like, I don't know if here in Chile, the last time the government said there are over like 27 millions of cell phones working active. And it's really weird because all the people here have a cell phone like any other part of the world. But the people are starting to play games with the massive phenomenon of Gandhi Grash that helps a lot. This is not a eSports, but it helps a lot about the inclusion of the culture, about the video games that we have really big problems with authorities trying to recognize that I started doing like political lobby in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina to explain about the phenomenon of the eSports and the industry and everything that will come. And in some countries, they don't believe in that. They believe that it's like a public health issue or problem. And for that reason, it's really complicated for the local environment to grow about investment and about regulation. What Latin America and companies, I mean, countries are most ahead in eSports? Right now, for example, we don't have like competitive teams from Latin America over like the big competition of the finals. In 2019, I was in the final of League of Legends in Paris and we only put only one team from Latin America to the finals and they losing the first round. But right now, it's kind of weird because we don't, we have like, for example, some eSports athletes in Mario Smash Bros. that we have like a world champion from Chile, another one from Brazil. But we are not doing so well in the competitive side of the industry in comparison with the Asian and the United States that you are leading the competitions like that. Sure. And so do you think that people in the United States should be looking seriously at Latin America as a potential market? Yeah, that is a fact because the eSports industry today will provide like a vehicle of marketing for your product or for anything and here in Latin America, the people loved to buy like American products and the eSports products, the community here recognized that the better products are from America or from South Korea or from Japan. But it's a really good opportunity for United States companies to come here to try to take this marketing billboard that are really cheap because the industry is cheaper here in the region and have like a really good profit of taking this opportunity here in Latin America nowadays that is really, really cheap to do it with really big numbers of audience. Have you noticed any particular trends that you find interesting in eSports in relation to any of these three regions that you're dealing with? It's crazy that you ask me that because right now I think the most interesting trend in the eSports market is the NFT trend, non-functional tokens that is the same model that the video game industry always have that sell like skins and everything but right now with the blockchain and Ethereum technology you can have like I don't know a shoe from Mario that it can be yours and even difficult with your own number and be yours forever or you can sell it and it's incredible all the possibilities that we have in NFT and video games of how to make revenue or new ways of monetization that the industry needs in this moment really bad. Do you personally work with NFTs or does your company? Yeah right now I'm working with a Barcelona company play the game and we are trying to develop some NFTs that they are starting working by them with Binance and they are doing some projects for for example for Rosalia and other projects for La Coba de Rey that is the national competition from the soccer and they make the first NFT from the trophy of the Coba de Rey. So I'm curious clearly the United States and Latin America have a lot of ties and lots of different ways how did you end up being involved with India? Oh it's a really good question the the thing that my original project before pandemic was to settle up in LA and start producing audiovisual content for the industry from from Latin America to the Spanish speaking market you know and after the pandemic hit we start like rethinking about our company and about our service and we realized in size the opportunity that in these kind of markets the problem with the little companies or with the little teams that have really good internet numbers but they don't know how to handle the YouTube business and that kind of revenue incomes that came from Twitch they don't know how to settle like in the legal aspect in the marketing aspect and for that reason we start like taking these teams that have some really good traction over internet in their own in their own countries and try to give the advice of what we was doing in California of creating this first company and with this vision for their own speaking markets in this case India is a really really big market and they have a really good enthusiasm for the e-sports industry in this moment. So I'm curious about your company name now play no games I would almost think it should say now play games so how did how did that name come about? Come about because I have a partner that is he is Spain and we was thinking about a lot about the the name of the the company because we want to do something cool and we are a speaker, a Spanish speaker native and for that reason we want was trying to understand like the the brands in the United States when we was living in California and I think in now for like the current moment that for me is a really important thing that I believe in the present you know and no play no games is because like I I know that grammatically maybe don't have so much sense but it's like now is the time for the industry to to play hard but not as a game as a business or as a really powerful industry that is taking shape in this pandemic times. It almost means that we're let's be serious about this or something like that right? That's right. So you know since you let's let's talk about Latin America are you doing anything in Latin America I mean not Latin America Central America? No in Central America and we don't have a current project in this moment only we was advising a League of Legends team that was named kindly KLG and we was doing like marketing advice with them connected with Mexican investors and we was doing a really good work with them and over Mexico but we decided to don't do like tournaments or that kind of stop because the the pandemic situation in Mexico like us in in any place of the world was really was really bad at the moment that we could have like a project or like a tournament and we decided to shut down and wait but in this moment we we are advising this team that competes in the LLA that is KLG. Okay so what are some unique problems or barriers barriers or challenges that you see in the countries that you're dealing with? The first one the most important I think is the the low radio of investment for the esports because the traditional capital here don't understand so well this new trend and for that reason it's kind of tough for the teams to get fundraising or sponsorship and the other thing is like the technology access that for example the people in Brazil we can have like a really good audience there but not anyone have like a PlayStation or a mobile or something like that and for that reason it's like the poverty of Brazil for example of the digital the sorry I forgot the word in English but the people in some places don't have like the culture of video games but we have like a really big markets open to take the opportunity to them in mobile for example and the people over there maybe don't have the access for PlayStation Xbox but they are trying to to play these really simple games that are developing for like in the in the laboratory. Sure and so right now the Olympic Games are going on in Japan and what do you think about having esports as an Olympic sport in the future? For me it's really simple because I was thinking a lot about the this debate and for me it's chess decide like the the whole thing because when you are playing a video games you spend like more energy the calorie consumption is different and for that reason for me it's really simple esports should be at the Olympic Games. Sure yeah and I I think it's going to be there I think it's just a matter of what form what game you know whether it's going to be Rocket League or you know how it's going to look. So you've talked a lot about the pandemic and the challenges so do you think that things are changing I mean you've you've had a unique opportunity because you were just in Greece so you actually got to go from you know you've been in the US you've been in Greece you are now in Chile tell us about like what it what it looks like to you. Yeah it's really weird because when when I looked the industry at the first time I was working in Germany in Hamburg in other field doing like political loy and when I was coming back to see my family in 2017 in three days before my my flight I met the people from the esports observer that they was trying to create this first company that informs about esports and everything and that was the first time that I I realized about the opportunity in Germany and after three or four months I start traveling like every country for five or six months and going to the exhibitions tournaments and everything was really easy to connect with a really high executive from the industry in that moment because everything was kind of starting as this final shape that they want to give to the esports the publishers right now they want to do like these really big shows and really big arenas and we are seeing how the investment are going over there and esports going to I think is going in some point to defeat like the traditional sports about audience numbers I think that's going to happen in I don't know two or three years. Sure yeah so um what so what's next for you you know like as the pandemic hopefully is you know winds down and things start opening up what are what are your thoughts about where you're headed? My my company organization we think the company always from doing the content in LA because we we believe that the opportunity in LA is unique because the the price of the content from LA is already crazy because California Los Angeles already win this the this competition of the quality of the content and for that reason I think the the the next thing for us is come back to LA and start trying to settle agreements and partnerships with the content productions over there and give the assistance to take it for the speaking Spanish markets and resell rights and we are trying to to to take that that thing over like in Chile because it's my hometown and it's really easy for me to get to the executives here and to try to pull projects together but the thing for the company being in LA and start working again I don't know in 2022 because I I don't think that right now is the proper time to to move back to LA again. Sure sure so if people or companies want to talk to you about you know your expertise in doing business in Latin America is that that's something you invite them to do? In this moment to be honest it's kind of tricky because I'm in three big projects and for that reason I want to finish everyone at the time and after that maybe I can take some some other projects but right now I'm trying to finish the India's tournament and the the the thing with the NFTs that we are trying to put together famous people from Spain from Brazil and trying to make these NFT collections for eSports community and with partnership with Binance. So how can people find your companies? Over right now we have my my email contact we are going to launch the website in seven days more when we launch the Indian tournament that we will start in a week and that day we're going to launch the the website for for our business but if my mail is the better way to contact me. For LinkedIn right you're you're on LinkedIn. Sure okay with under your name so anyway thank you Elyssus I really appreciate you being on my show and it's definitely terrific to learn about what's going on in other places of the world while we can't travel so much. That's right and for me your your show is really good about that because when I was in Chile in Brazil in the pandemic that I had the opportunity to go with Brazil to work on eSports when I was watching your show I can understand what is happening in the other places and I want to thank you again for having me. Oh you're very welcome it was a pleasure anyway thank you to our viewers for joining us today make sure to tune in next week. My guest will be Benjamin Bueno de Mesquita the founder and CEO of Beacon GG we'll be talking about trends in eSports see you then.