LegionFarm, A B2C Esports Y Combinator Startup, Enables Amateurs To Be Trained By Professional Gamers

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Over the past two decades, gaming has gone from a niche, time-killing hobby into a grand, booming sector of the entertainment industry. Gaming, once considered a simple pastime for many, has now become a lucrative gig for a talented few. Competitive gaming organizations such as FaZe Clan, OpTic Gaming and 100 Thieves show that there's interest in watching professional teams play games. Elite streamers like Ninja, Shroud and Dr. Disrespect provide that individual personalities are entertaining, profitable brands of their own. Gaming has become a cultural force within America. However, unless you're in the top 0.1% as a professional gamer or streamer, there's not much money to be made. Most aspiring pro gamers or streamers do not have the time to put into honing their skills. Alex Beliankin and Kirill Chuvakov saw the demand for amateur gamers wanting to perfect their craft, creating LegionFarm as a solution. LegionFarm is a B2C matchmaking platform for professional players to coach and guides amateur players who are looking to improve their skills. The San Francisco-based startup has raised $1.7 million from Y Combinator and TMT Investments.

Michael Seibel, Y Combinator’s CEO, states, “I think that so far esports and streaming haven't provided enough opportunities for great gamers to quit their jobs and have a career playing video games. I believe LegionFarm will help tens of thousands gamers finally be able to make a living doing the thing they love.”

LegionFarm CEO Alex Beliankin with Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel.

The time dedicated to becoming an elite esports player is more than the time available for the average working gaming gamer. Business Insider reported that for professional gaming organization Team Liquid, players on their League of Legends roster "practice for a minimum of 50 hours per week and most play the game far more." The everyday casual gamer is probably gainfully employed and has other professional and personal obligations. There's not enough time left in the week to grind out hours on a console or PC to become a professional player. Not to mention the fact that most average players also play with and against others their skill level, which degrades the quality of their playtime to improve. For those who are already good enough to be professionals, working on standing out as an elite competitor or streamer is a more significant challenge. If you're not a part of a professional gaming organization or a partner on a streaming service (such as Twitch), your options for making an income to support yourself is limited. The unaddressed needs of both amateur and professional players reveal an underserved market.

Newzoo estimates there are more than "2.5 billion gamers across the world," supporting a gaming industry that generated $152.2 billion in revenue in 2019. A more granular look at the gaming industry statistics shows strong growth in the console, PC, and mobile gaming markets. Console gaming sales were estimated to be roughly $48.0 billion, with a growth rate of 13.4% year-over-year (YoY), the largest out of the three sectors. Mobile gaming was the most significant overall market of $68.5 billion, with a growth rate of 10.2% YoY. The smallest market and growth rate was found in PC gaming, with a $35.7 billion market growing at 4.0% YoY. These large, rapidly growing segmented markets show there's ample opportunity for innovation. As the overall gaming market and player population grow, the demand for platforms that enable skill development will accelerate in proportion.

LegionFarm has recognized that with the growing gaming market, there is a corresponding increase in viewership in both competitive gaming and streaming. Business Insider reports, "…total esports viewership is expected to grow at a 9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2023, up from 454 million in 2019 to 646 million in 2023." The increase in viewership underlies a demand among amateur gamers who want to bolster their ability to become professional. The startup has created a B2C platform that facilitates matchmaking for amateurs to get better at the game by playing with pros. The platform is device, game, and console agnostic. For example, a user places an order to play Apex Legends on Xbox with two pros for two hours. Once the order is processed, LegionFarm connects them with two available professionals who have agreed to play with the user. As the party of three plays, the pros are coaching the amateur player to improve their technique and get better.

Beliankin says, "The top 1% of players have a huge impact on the success of gaming companies and platforms. With our help, gaming companies can leverage their most loyal players to increase the lifetime value (LTV) and retention rate of their games and player population."

Essentially, LegionFarm has taken the concept of a sherpa, which is a mountain guide who helped inexperienced mountaineers in their ascent up a steep, hazardous terrain (think Mount Everest), and built a marketplace facilitating these digital relationships at scale in the gaming world. The pros, or "digital sherpas", are nothing new in of themselves. A contemporary form of them emerged during the early stages of Bungie's videogame, Destiny. These "sherpas" in Destiny would assist newer or inexperienced players in completing difficult challenges and side-quests, helping the latter level up their gear and improving their knowledge of the game. These relationships kept novice players a part of the game's ecosystem for much longer, which increased the lifetime value of each player for Bungie.

The main advantage LegionFarm has over current and future competitors is their platform being accessed in-game by any user in the games they currently support. The digital moat that is formed by such B2B integrations will be difficult for competitors to overcome. Beliankin's and Chuvakov's experiences on both the player and development sides of gaming, respectively, are the source of their startup's competitive advantages and innovations.

Beliankin's and Chuvakov's skill sets and professional background combine well in growing LegionFarm. Beliankin is a serial gaming entrepreneur, having founded many startups over the eleven years he's been involved in the space. He is also a former professional eSports player. Chuvakov has nine years of experience in the gaming industry, having created Gosu.ai, which is an AI assistant that helps train players to be more competitive in multiplayer games. These two's knowledge of the gaming industry from the professional player and gaming development perspectives increase their odds in making LegionFarm a household name across the globe.

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