AniMajor Post-Mortem with WePlay Esports’ Maksym Bilonogov – “The vision of this ‘perfect event’ is changing all the time”

After the conclusion of the WePlay AniMajor earlier this year we had a chance to catch up with Maksym Bilonogov, WePlay Esports’ chief visionary officer and general producer. In the following interview by text we asked him about the the AniMajor, WePlay Esports’ plans in the future, the state of the industry in times of a pandemic and more.

WePlay Esports has successfully made a name for themselves as a tournament organizer that hosts heavily themed events regardless of which game. How does the timeframe roughly look like for one of your events? How long is the ideation & planning process?

It’s hard to set a definitive timeline for organizing a tournament. Usually, it takes anywhere from one week to a month — everything depends on the case and the circumstances under which we are holding the event. Of course, we try to plan ahead, but sometimes that’s impossible. For example, we had the first match of WeSave! Charity Play just a week after the idea to hold this charity tournament appeared. This is our record time for event development and organization. 

2020 was a turbulent year for esports due to COVID-19, and its consequences are still felt today. Due to such an unstable situation, it’s hard to think of plans and make the first preparations beforehand. Hope that everything will settle down soon, and we’ll be able to plan our activities in advance and continue to show high-quality tournament organization as we did at WePlay AniMajor.

How much does the talent you cooperate with at a given event influence the thematic approach you choose? How involved are personalities outside WePlay Esports in the process?

Most of the talents respond positively to the thematic approach of tournaments. For them, it’s an additional opportunity to express themselves and show new dimensions of their activity to the community. It’s always interesting to watch. From our side, we don’t limit talents in their creative expression and even help them organize activities that will fit into the framework of the tournament. For example, Owen “ODPixel” Davies, one of the WePlay AniMajor talents, wrote a soundtrack for talent introduction at the Major. Also, in Kyiv, we produced a video clip for his new song “Hype”. Earlier, we had a similar experience with “Techies”. 

Also, we had some creative experience with Jake “SirActionSlacks” Kanner, who was of immense help by participating in novels for the live broadcast, the interviews he spearheaded, and many other show aspects.

There are many different tournament organizers in the industry right now. Do you think that every organizer needs to find its own niche to survive?

Maybe it’s not exactly necessary for every tournament operator to find their own separate niche, but a unique trait that sets them apart from others is a must. Try to name a few tournament operators. Everyone you can remember has their own unique identity and style that are different from others. A similar rule applies not only to esports but also to business in general.

You pride yourself on being an innovator in the industry. Where do you think is the largest room for improvement and new approaches in terms of hosting tournaments and organizing events?

To find a field for improvement and work on it in the future, one must have an understanding or at least an idea of what an ideal esports tournament is like. And the vision of this “perfect event” is changing all the time. Esports as a separate culture has been in existence for a relatively short time — only a few decades. However, in such a period, the industry has made a huge leap forward. Comparing tournaments held in 2012 and 2021, you can see a significant difference in their scale, approach, and creativity. And this development is only picking up speed. We are happy to be a part of the formation and development of esports and are trying hard to track and set new trends. However, it’s difficult for us to even imagine what a tournament could be like in 2031 and to say what we should work on now to reach that esports tournament ideal from the future.

WePlay AniMajor has been a hit for many fans in the community. What part of the production was the most challenging for WePlay?

To hold a DPC Major this elaborate in a relatively short time and in compliance with all Valve standards is already a big challenge in itself. It is impossible to single out any part of the production as the most difficult, as each member of our company has put a lot of effort into creating WePlay AniMajor.

You have built an amazing stage for the AniMajor in Kyiv. Before that, you also had quite the elaborate setup for OMEGA League. What happens to those set environments after a production? Do you find different ways of reusing them?

It’s a common practice to reuse the stage elements developed for one event at other tournaments. We take great care of what was created for each of the tournaments and nothing is left behind. Some elements may be modified, repainted, or improved to make them match a new tournament theme. Even at WePlay AniMajor, we used some stage elements created for the WePlay Ultimate Fighting League Season 1. Maybe one day you’ll see some stage sets developed for WePlay AniMajor at other tournaments.

VALORANT has been making waves in the industry since its release. Is WePlay Esports considering entering that game? Which other games could you see WePlay Esports organize events for?

We have already become a part of this story — in 2020, we hosted the WePlay! VALORANT Invitational (part of VALORANT IGNITION series) in partnership with Riot Games. At that time, the game had only recently been released, so the event became really significant not only for us but also for the developer. We are still communicating with Riot Games on new collaboration opportunities. As soon as we are able to share any details, we will let the community know. Also, we are constantly looking for new partners and disciplines that are potentially interesting to work with. Our new Head of Esports, Eugene Luchianenco, is now exploring new directions for growth and planning the company’s activities for the year ahead. Stay tuned for announcements!

Financing large events such as WePlay AniMajor cannot be easy, but monetizing a tournament is difficult in the esports industry. What are the ways forward you see as an organizer yourself?

For every tournament organizer, monetization is a complex issue since it is directly related to the company’s willingness to take risks and make plans for years to come, despite external challenges. Our company has elaborated a business development strategy, and it is more connected with major strategic changes over the next couple of years. We have many partners both among major international brands and other tournament operators (regarding media rights). We are open to new partnerships and cooperation and always come up with new ways to make them more beneficial for both parties.

Video – Know your Meme: Where does Cheese come from?

A key to success is the creation of circuits that allow long-term partnerships. This is where our projects like the  WePlay Ultimate Fighting League (WUFL), the more recently announced WePlay Academy League (WAL), and other projects are of the essence. Such projects not only allow us to create stable revenue streams but are also conduits allowing us to fulfill our vision and ideals. For example, with the WUFL, we are moving towards a future where esports is part of popular culture, as these games are very easy to understand from a viewer’s standpoint. With the WAL, we bring attention to the issue of nurturing young talent, which needs to be addressed.

Ukraine and Eastern Europe have long been bastions for many esports titles such as Counter-Strike or Dota, where do you think the region stands now in comparison to others such as China or Northern America and how do you think will it develop?

In general, Eastern Europe is a key esports region because of its proximity to Western Europe, MENA, and certain countries of Asia. The more those regions develop in terms of esports, the more relevant the Eastern Europe link will grow.

Again, it’s difficult to predict how each region will develop since it’s difficult to say when a new round in the development of esports as a discipline will happen and what it will be like. Now we can see that each region is creating new conditions for the development of esports and trying to bring its own innovations to it. As a global media holding, we do not limit ourselves to one region and continue to expand to other countries and disciplines. We have opened the WePlay Esports Arena Kyiv in Ukraine and have already hosted a number of events there. The arena in North America will open in the near future, and negotiations are already underway to create esports arenas in South America and Asia.

As Covid-19 restrictions around the world are starting to be lifted, do you believe that esports will now return to the arenas and large venues with thousands of viewers on location? Or will the shift to online play be a longer trend?

COVID-19 has dramatically affected the development of many industries, so it would be a bit naive to hope that everything will change in the near future and return to the format that worked a year ago. Of course, LAN events will return, and we are already seeing some organizations gradually reintroducing them. However, online esports leagues are not going anywhere anytime soon. A hybrid format will also be adopted, with some stages taking place online and some offline. Valve’s approach to DPC Majors in 2021 is a case in point. We are also sticking to this formula with the WePlay Academy League.

Read more:

• “Dota 2 has got a very long life ahead of it” Interview with ODPixel at AniMajor
• Riot accused of misleading their employees regarding their rights to speak up
• Opinion – Overwatch is dead, this time for good

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