Fabien, does the transfer window in Esport take place the same as in football?
Fabien Devide:
It really depends on the games, because you have almost as many different mercatos as you have games.
On League of Legends (LoL for insiders), the differences are minimal.
There are calendar slots defined for recruiting.
The clubs have recruiting units which carry out scouting and preliminary research.
And when you arrive, I think you have the same adrenaline as you do in football when you contact a club, an agent or a player with a deadline in mind.
What differs is obviously the size of the more limited squad and the number of high level players available.
This makes the market much more “challenging”.
Especially that in League of Legends, there is a rule which forbids a club to contact a player (or his entourage) of another club, if he is still under contract, without the prior agreement of the said club.
So a top-ranked team can decide to be very conservative.
This forces us to be a little more creative about the recruitment models.
Maybe in some disciplines there are possibilities to get around similar rules put in place, but on LoL this is not the case.
A team that has high-performance players, with long-term contracts, it can be very serene about its future, unless obviously encountering internal problems.
As president, which do you prefer: a strict League of Legends framework or total freedom?
It depends on the position of your team.
At Vitality, we are coming out of a very average season on LoL so in order to be able to build a high-ranking team, I would prefer more freedom to be able to recover one or two top players.
When you are in this position, and with the current regulations, sometimes the decision is made to take a lot more risks during the next season or two by betting on young talent.
Unfortunately, you are not immune in such a case that a talent does not reach the hoped-for potential or conversely that the mayonnaise sets instantly, it is double-edged.
Now, I also appreciate that a contract has a strong and protective value.
So to answer your question, I am divided.
Total freedom, no, this is not desirable because this rule has virtues that must be preserved.
A little more flexibility, on the other hand, would not be harmful.
All the more so since we are now far from the era of the "far-west" where everything was drawn and where anything was allowed.
We are in a small ecosystem, where everyone knows each other and even newcomers respect this rule.
"To be honest, if 'Perkz' had wanted to join Vitality for that amount, I would have been willing to consider the offer, because he's a player who just makes you win."
Is the transfer window global today or does it only concern the best players?
It's regionalized.
For us, at Vitality, we must have a minimum of three European representatives in our workforce and a maximum of two extra-community players, for example Korean, Chinese or American players.
After that, there is a system of naturalization if a player has played a certain number of years in a league.
The Americans bet more on it than the European clubs, less inclined to seek players outside Europe, except for a few very bright Koreans.
This rule makes it possible to push young local talent, which is very good, except for the United States which has suffered from a shortage of young talent for some time.
Then, for young people, there are amateur championships, such as Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, which allow very promising players to be detected.
How much does an esport transfer cost today for a Top Player?
It depends because you have two types of Top Players.
There are those who are on the rise in the market because they have been very successful recently, and then there are those who could be described as legends of the game. For example, during the last transfer window, you have "Perkz »(Luka Perkovic), who has won eight European Championships and is the only European to have won an international title, who has decided to leave G2, the best European team of the last three years.
He wanted a new challenge, with the agreement of his team, and his transfer was around $ 5 million according to the sources.
On our scale, if it is true, it is a colossal amount.
For football, it would be a very small transfer.
Now, this is an exceptional amount, as there may be on exceptional players.
In general, the amounts of the transfers are very much lower, the cases with 7 figures are really rare.
But on LoL, there is so much talent coming in every year that most teams would rather bet on small youngsters rather than putting outrageous amounts on one player.
Except legendary player, obviously.
On the other hand, on other games, like CS: GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive), there are a lot of transfers, it has become routine.
The amounts are relatively close to LoL, although very slightly higher.
Do you have any concern that this market is getting too big for esports?
It is supply and demand.
If someone is ready to put several millions on a player, it is because they see an opportunity to develop.
It's like in football.
I recently saw an interview with Bernard Tapie who spoke of the moment when he almost brought Diego Maradona to Marseille.
He was ready to give him 20 million francs, which was huge at the time but he considered it almost free given all the fallout behind, both sporting and marketing.
And overall, I am not worried about the increase in these amounts because for the moment, there are very few.
Plus, to be honest, if "Perkz" had wanted to join Vitality for that amount, I would have been willing to consider the offer, because he's a player who just makes you win.
There are very few players who have this aura.
In a sector that continues to grow and build, having a winning team carries a lot of weight.
Also, as club president, I don't see it as a bad sign.
That a club like G2 has taken the time to develop a player and that he can, after 8 years of good and loyal service, sell him for 4 million euros, it is a good signal on the development of esport. .
This proves that there is a real economy that is being set up.
It's promising for the future.
Unless then imagine that all transfers reach this amount, which would be problematic.
But I don't think we'll get there.
"Negotiations on the other hand connect me less because I would tend to give everything they want to the players."
You also spoke of “far-west” when you mentioned the situation a few years ago. The agent profession is developing more and more in esport. Do you have the feeling that the players are well surrounded? Are you afraid that certain excesses of football will be transposed to your discipline?
Frankly, I think the arrival of agents is a good thing for the ecosystem.
For a long time, the players were badly, or even not at all, advised.
Especially since all teams are not necessarily well intentioned.
At 17 or 18, a young player does not know anything about the legal framework, they have no administrative dimension and are lost in the face of it.
So it's necessary to have people you can trust.
In addition, having lived it, I can tell you that carrying out negotiations directly with a player, it can be very unpleasant.
Sometimes a player is going to want to get a little extra bonus which is tiny compared to the rest and this always creates something negative between him and his leader.
I prefer that there is an interlocutor between the two who preserves the relationship with the player.
After that, I am not naive and I know very well that there will be bad agents in Esport too.
Some will always be there for their own gain.
Right now there are very few like this but in the future we will see.
Today in any case, the problem is more that there are not enough agents and that some find themselves representing 15 or 20 players who potentially play in the same league.
They can use this as leverage and it can be unhealthy.
But apart from these drifts that should be watched, I am pro-agent.
Personally, as president, do you enjoy navigating this transfer market?
Yes, I feel like I'm playing Football Manager for real (laughs).
I love this.
I have been a fan of Arsène Wenger for a long time, when he was Arsenal's coach and manager, and I always have a fever to go and discover new nuggets.
I have this desire to do detection and I even do it on my personal time.
I can watch a Turkish, Brazilian or other league.
It excites me.
I love this strategic side of thinking about how to build a successful team.
Then there's an excitement to see them play together and when it works it's fantastic.
That's why I do this job.
Even if sometimes some mercatos go badly and disgust me a little, that does not prevent me from returning to it three or four months later on another game. The negotiations on the other hand connect me less because I would tend to give everything what they want from the players (smiles).
There is a human aspect which is also magnificent because you allow some to become professional, which is a very nice gift.
I remember Zywoo (Mathieu Herbaut) to whom I signed his first professional contract and who a year later became world number 1.
On the other hand, when you see a player leave that you have spotted and grown up, it's sometimes a real heartbreak.
Emotionally, it is very comprehensive and complex.
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