digitec Playground: behind the scenes

David Kübler

30.6.2020

Translation: Eva Francis

eSports has gained one more fan. As digitec Playground project manager, I got to know and love eSports. Not just because of the sport itself, but also because it meant coordinating a project involving several departments.

Until the summer of 2019, I had hardly any experience with eSports and gaming. For me, gaming meant the following: Nintendo 64, Mario Kart, battle, one balloon or one life left, my older brother and I in the final battle as Yoshi and Luigi. Those are childhood memories and have little in common with today's eSports world. The eSports scene has become more professional and turned into a lucrative industry for both businesses and athletes.

digitec Playground: how it all began

In spring 2019, we launched the initiative «digitec goes eSports». Two eSports experts from our B2B team helped us develop a concept. Our marketing team gave us the go-ahead for the first step; organising a cup. We worked with sponsors for the implementation and the prizes. Our category management supported us and we managed to win HP and Logitech as sponsors for the first cup. A nice example of how interdisciplinary project management works in our company.

A rocky start

An eSports project is hard work. I came across terms I'd never heard before. Want an example? Our community voted for «Rainbow Six Siege» to be the game that's played in our second cup. I added «Rambo 6» to the meeting minutes with the external partners, eStudios and Stark eSports. I know now that the game has nothing to do with the classic Sylvester Stallone movie – the title just sounds the same. How embarrassing. Of course our eSports partners had a good laugh. I also had to look up terms such as Play-by-Play-Caster, Color-Caster, In-Game-Overlay or Observer. By now, I could almost write a dictionary and manual titled «eSports for Dummies». Again, I was supported by several internal eSports experts. I've added an excerpt from the dictionary below.

Smiles all round

The first digitec eSports cup took place last October. We formed a digitec team of employees from retail, customer service and logistics and equipped them with digitec eSports jerseys, which were designed especially for the event.

Round 2 took place in early June 2020. After the first two events, we received positive feedback and are therefore planning round 3, which will probably take place in January 2021. I’d like to thank everyone in the project team and our Community. You've helped make me a fan of eSports. If you want me to become an even bigger fan, all you need to do is vote for Mario Kart at our next eSports cup. Thanks.

You missed our cups? Check out the reviews:

Excerpt from «eSports for Dummies»

• Play-by-Play Caster = commentator who's responsible for creating a good and lively atmosphere (in case of digitec Playground, this was without a doubt Simon Balissat)
• Color Caster = Commentator who analyses and gives in-depth info (expert on the game that's played)
• Observer = Person who chooses the camera angles in in-game mode, i.e. chooses what the viewer sees while the game is played
• Ingame Overlay = The design with logos and other options that is visible in the stream during the game
• Pleb = A clueless person (often used for somebody who knows nothing about a game)

Feel free to add terms and feedback in the comments section.

David Kübler

Communications Manager

david.kuebler@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm a communicator and songwriter with a passion for good food, lovely people, adventure and activities involving mountains and water.

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