esportslaw

I got pinged to this about 3 times, so figured I'd add my two cents. Before I do, I just want to say that Ryan is the man. Loving reading this AMA, and all of his others for that matter.

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Quick background on me: I maintain a full-time legal practice exclusively in esports law (meaning I represent teams, players, tournament organizers, and other third parties in the space).

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I see the esports space a little differently, but agree with many of Ryan's core points (from this comment and those below). There are definitely major issues, but I think people are often too quick to paint "esports" with one broad brush when in reality each ecosystem is incredibly different from both a business and legal perspective. I've worked with people/entities in virtually every major title (League, Dota2, CSGO, COD, HOTS, Smite, etc.), and each scene is a little different. Some scenes are plagued by corrupt teams. Some have to deal with disorganized tournament providers. And some have more sophisticated issues (League is a good example).

The industry standard contracts are not great, but again, they vary wildly by game. In some esports it's not uncommon to see a 2 page agreement that most certainly came from google. In others, the contracts were clearly drafted by lawyers to be incredibly one-sided. This is actually the lawyer's job in most cases - to represent their clients best interests. But the huge flaw in esports (which is consistent across every game) is that players generally don't have representatives to push back. The unfair deal gets signed, and the team will have all the leverage. As Ryan says, Peyton Manning doesn't negotiate his own contract. But let's be real - even a third stringer playing for the minimum NFL salary isn't negotiating his own contract. They have a lawyer, a manager, and an agent. They have advocates on advocates fighting to get them fair terms, and this is in a system where collective bargaining has already guaranteed them a certain minimum level of fairness.

This lack of representation is actually so problematic that I've started shifting to representing more teams than players because I can have a larger impact on the disparity (I know that sounds bizarre, but bear with me...). When you represent the player, even if you fight for hours to get them fair deal terms, the other players on their team will almost always just sign the original, slanted version. By working with teams I've been able to sell them on the concept of proposing initial deal terms that reflect the ending point of the negotiations that can and should happen, but seldom do. I think there is a common misconception throughout the industry that team owners are evil and out to screw players. From my experience, that really isn't the case. When I describe these issues to teams and walk them through my various player contract templates, pointing out opportunities to make deal terms more favorable to teams yet explaining why I haven't drafted it that way, they almost always come on board. Also, when they don't, I'm under no obligation to continue to work with them - the beauty of private practice.

As for the prospect of creating an esports union (discussed in depth in some comments below), this is something I've written/spoken about a great deal in the past. I talked about this a while ago when I was on First Blood (go to about 49:30), and wrote a white paper discussing the issue in more depth for those who are interested. Personally, I feel this topic is so important that I’m hesitant to cheapen it with a TL;DR. But, if I must, I’d say that a union would absolutely help prevent/resolve some of the more problematic situations that arise in the industry and will eventually be formed, but I don’t think now is the right time because it would be too expensive and complex for the current ecosystem. That being said, there are interim steps that can and should be taken.

Thanks bud! Just realizing you're too popular and this will certainly get buried. Ah well, it was fun to write. :-) Carry on killing it. This AMA has derailed my whole day.

Can you help explain the differences between lag, ping, and jitter? What are the best ways for the average gamer to combat internet issues that impact game performance?

I represent TSM so it would be a conflict of interest for me to comment on this publicly. Sorry.

Thanks for the kind words, Ryan.

Mostly, I feel proud. When I started in this industry player contracts were not at all customized to the unique relationship between an esports team and its players. In fact, they often weren't even in writing. I sat down with a former pro player (/u/snoopeh) and basically interviewed him for hours in order to fully understand those dynamics, then I spent 20+ drafting and have constantly edited my templates since then. If I do nothing else in esports, I'm proud that a complex, balanced, and thorough template is now used by more than 1000 players and their teams.

All that being said, I have to admit that the fact that there are a handful of lawyers out there charging clients for work they didn't do and representing it as their own isn't the greatest feeling in the world. This is particularly true because there have been many instances of those other lawyers (or their clients) changing my contracts in a way I wouldn't approve of and then leaving my name in the notice section!