GODSENT CEOs on Brazilian CSGO gamble: \u201cWe understood their value immediately\u201d Twitter: GODSENTSwedish esports organization GODSENT invested in the Brazilian market on 21 January 2021, when they signed a CS:GO roster led by two-time Major champion Epit\u00e1cio \u201cTACO\u201d de Melo. Fast forward to the first CS:GO Major in two years and their \u201clong-term project\u201d is already proving to be a solid squad, sitting at No.23 in the world and competing in the Challengers Stage at the PGL Major in Stockholm. While we\u2019re seeing more and more esports organizations plant their flag in new regions as they embark upon the lofty task of a \u201cglobal expansion\u201d \u2014 a topic Dexerto recently spoke about with TSM\u2019s vice president of operations \u2014 it\u2019s an expensive, unproven strategy. There aren\u2019t many solid ties between Swedish esports teams and Brazilian esports fans on paper but GODSENT, through their CS:GO team and previous explorations into mobile competitive gaming, are looking to break down the barriers while on their quest to become a global powerhouse. GODSENT co-CEOs Henrik Denebrandt and Ludwig Sandgren signed their Brazilian roster for three years and then built a strategy around the team as they got settled in, through a global health crisis no less. They sat down with Dexerto to explain the decision, how their presence in Brazil has treated the org so far, and what the future holds for GODSENT. Building in Brazil It\u2019s been clear from the start that the TACO-led squad is a work-in-progress. Described as a \u201clong-term project\u201d in their official announcement, the team comprises a mix of \u201cexperienced champions\u201d and \u201cpromising young Brazilian talent\u201d. At first glance, it doesn\u2019t make much sense that they would be signed by a Swedish organization. \u201cEspecially with such a young team, we knew it was going to take time for them to mesh together,\u201d Denebrandt said regarding the three-year contracts the team signed. \u201cMany of them had never played together at all. Look at Gambit and what they have done by committing over time.\u201d \u201cWe didn\u2019t necessarily have a strategy in place with a Brazilian focus per se, it was more that this opportunity showed itself when we were in a transitional period and were about to release our previous roster to FPX,\u201d added Sandgren. \u201cWe had some different ideas, we explored other options as we were more of a European organization, but then this opportunity showed itself and we understood immediately that there was a lot of value to it.\u201d As Brazilian org LOUD\u2019s co-founder Matthew Ho told Dexerto into August 2021, \u201cIn emerging markets, there\u2019s no infrastructure at all so there are just so many more opportunities.\u201d South America may not be on par with Europe and North America when it comes to infrastructure and support, but they have a passionate community, and those who build up the ecosystem will be rewarded generously. \u201cBrazil has 200 million people and one of the biggest communities, if not the biggest community, in Counter-Strike, I think it\u2019s the fastest-growing gaming country in the world by a lot of metrics,\u201d Denebrandt said. \u201cThen you take a look at the competition in Europe. For example, tier two and even tier three are very competitive so this was also more of a brand decision. We instantly fell in love with the Brazilian community and we want to make a bigger impact than just on the HLTV ranking or the ESL World Ranking.\u201d Many of the biggest esports organizations are yet to develop a business model that makes complete sense. They\u2019re oftentimes propped up massively by sponsorship and partnership revenue, and even those opportunities vary wildly depending on the markets they\u2019re targetting. While Brazil has the eyeballs and the passion, it realistically doesn\u2019t have high advertising revenues or lucrative, $210m partnership opportunities like more established nations and regions. \u201cThe majority of our partnerships are still in Europe and the Nordics,\u201d Denebrandt told Dexerto. \u201cWe\u2019re in a two-front war here where we want to keep growing in South America and in Europe, and expand even further as well. The numbers are not the same when it comes to partnership revenue in Brazil compared to Europe yet but there are other ways to form good partnerships based on other metrics that we look at as well. For example, I think we have one of the highest engaging teams in the world in Counter-Strike, this adds a lot of value to the brand and to our partners.\u201d \u201cThe purchasing power of Brazilian fans is much lower, they may not have not as much money as the average European fan,\u201d explained Sandgren. \u201cThis affects the pricing of things like match jerseys. However, the numbers can make up for the change in pricing because there can be tens of thousands of orders if you do really well. Our aim is to be the best in the world with a Brazilian team but we hope to utilize the team to be interesting for fans all over the planet, regardless of nationality.\u201d \u201cCompare the top 10 teams in Europe and how many jerseys they sell to what we can accomplish in South America,\u201d Denebrandt added. \u201cWe won\u2019t disclose numbers but we recently allowed fans to reserve jerseys and many, many thousands of jerseys were reserved. There was more demand than we could supply.\u201d Entering new regions While esports is often considered a \u201cglobal\u201d industry due to it being digital in nature, work still has to be done to authentically approach regional audiences and effectively engage local fan bases. Even logistical factors like timezones and cultural norms play a huge part in ensuring you\u2019re making the most of having a particular regional focus. GODSENT are fully aware of the challenges they face. \u201cWe have an office now in Sweden for Europe and one in Mexico for South and North America, but we definitely want boots on the ground in other regions, like Asia,\u201d Denebrandt said of their international activities and plans. \u201cThat\u2019s part of our expansion plans down the road. It\u2019s very important to have boots on the ground in the areas you\u2019re participating in. Hopefully, we can get something set up in Brazil as well, whether it\u2019s a gaming center or a joint venture where we can interact more with fans.\u201d Over the last six years, South American teams have often found themselves mixed in with rosters from North America to create an interesting blend of regional play. GODSENT are no exception, having spent the majority of the year in Monterrey, Mexico, competing against the best teams in the region. Whether their North American focus was planned or not, GODSENT\u2019s co-CEOs have become inspired by some of the larger, more influencer-based organizations in the esports industry. \u201cWe are very inspired by the very successful lifestyle organizations like FaZe Clan and 100 Thieves and how they package and run their businesses,\u201d Sandgren said. \u201cWe believe we have a brand that, even though it\u2019s very young, has the capacity to be a lifestyle brand. That is definitely something we talk about on the top-down strategic level as something that we want to move towards.\u201d While the perceived success of orgs like FaZe and 100T is inspiring for many owners and executives, it has to be stated that they\u2019ve had a lot of money piled into them over the years. Esports is in a period of intense venture capital-fueled investment, which almost seems like a necessity if these companies want to build something grand and meaningful in an industry inundated with competing brands. \u201cOn the business side, we\u2019re growing super fast,\u201d Denebrandt concluded. \u201cThe last three years for us have been incredible when it comes to adding new partners and increasing revenue without almost any external funding. I think we are one of the best Moneyball examples in this industry that you can look at. We have accomplished a lot of organic growth over the last three years and it would shock a lot of the organizations out there.\u201d We\u2019re almost a year into GODSENT\u2019s Brazilian CS:GO gamble and, judging by their presence at the PGL Major, it\u2019s going pretty well thus far. The gap between being the 23rd best team or the team lifting the biggest trophies is large, however, and it seems the Swedish org have a lot of ambition that goes far beyond competitive success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GODSENT CEOs on Brazilian CSGO gamble: \u201cWe understood their value immediately\u201d Twitter: GODSENTSwedish esports organization GODSENT invested in the Brazilian market on 21 January 2021, when they signed a CS:GO roster led by two-time Major champion Epit\u00e1cio \u201cTACO\u201d de Melo. Fast forward to the first CS:GO Major in two years and their \u201clong-term project\u201d is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}