On May 4, 2020, a press release from Boston, Massachusetts, announced the launch of Oxygen Esports (Oxygen), a new organization that hoped to dominate the rising esports scene in New England. Oxygen was created from a merger between Helix eSports (Helix), an owner and operator of gaming and virtual reality (VR) outlets throughout the United States, and Team Genji, an esports organization with two lines of business: esports teams competing in Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering Arena; and a talent analytics and scouting business called Genji Insights. The new entity also acquired professional rosters from Team Reciprocity and in the free agent market, positioning Oxygen to compete in six top esports.
William Collis (HBS MBA, 2011), co-founder of Team Genji and Genji Insights, had played a key role in formulating Oxygen’s strategy prior to launch. Collis had decided not to compete in leagues with a “hard franchise” model, where teams paid the game publishers a large up-front sum for permanent league status. Instead, Oxygen would join leagues where teams often paid little or no upfront fees for similar benefits, and where publishers exerted less control over the leagues. Moreover, Collis was focused on building regional, rather than global, teams. Did this make sense? What else might Oxygen do in pursuit of their mission “to build a sustainable esports ecosystem for gamers of every skill level”?
Citation:
Wells, John R., and Benjamin Weinstock. "Oxygen Esports." Harvard Business School Case 721-351, July 2020. View Details