With the gaming industry continuing to expand its boundaries in the world, we have gotten to see Artificial Intelligence become more of a member in the industry and as much as a tool. From competitive management, to player development, coaching methods, branding and marketing, AI has impacted these areas of esports with visible improvements that continue to see advancements periodically.
Today, we look at ways esports entrepreneurs can use AI to create events. Unlike traditional events that generate revenue from ticket sales and broadcast rights, esports events make theirs from merchandise sales and sponsorships. Hence with esports, one can make profit from relatively small fan bases, because of the lower overhead costs — you do not need to pay for stadiums or arenas since all fans will need to do is to tune in.
AI Use Across The Industry
Generative AI (also known as Gen AI) is a subset of AI that is used to create content around the patterns and structures learned from existing AI. This may include images, videos, music, computer code and natural language text. With recent breakthroughs in its models achievements there is a noticeable growth in Gen AI.
Teams and leagues: For professional teams and leagues, there has been the use of AI technologies in determining player performance, automating officiating, improving health care and streamlining office operations. What Gen AI does is to add a set of new opportunities to the existing cases. Examples include leagues licensing their film and broadcast archives to AI developers thereby creating massive fan engagement.
There is also the aspect of using footage from games to be made into simulated (yet realistic) games for fans, giving them a more immersive experience in video games. Gen AI is also used to analyze player contracts and develop new templates to incorporate more favorable terms.
Athletes: Through Gen AI, athletes are given a wide array of opportunities to commercialize their names, images, voices and likenesses. This is to help create avatars and likenesses that are indistinguishable from the athlete. That way, they do not have to spend most of their time filming commercials or creating content because they will be able to license their avatars for endorsements. This also means steady revenue generation, because even after athletes retire or may encounter some form of injury, they can still have their images and likenesses commercialized.
Venue operators: The fan experience is also going to be improved by AI and AI tools through AI-powered facial recognition, and other monitoring technology to make sporting events safer. These tools will help to make the security at the events more efficient, eliminating bag checking procedures and pat downs of fans entering the venues. There is also the aspect of allowing for contactless payments at stands, allowing access to known fans or pre-screened fans, generating insights on venue utilization and fan attendance.
AI Tools Helping With Esports Events
For esports events, AI is seen less of a tool and more of a member; helping with analytics and the revolution of player experience.
Chatbots: AI chatbots help engage audiences during live esports broadcasts by facilitating the engagement in conversations with viewers, providing real-time updates and answering questions. Examples of chatbot games include Replika, Mydol and Wysa. Replika mimics your personality by recording your daily conversations and experiences, making it become more like you. With the Mydol chatbot, you can “talk” to your favorite celebrity, with the chatbot posing as your favorite celebrity. Wysa is about psychological wellness, offering advice on self-help techniques to deal with anxiety, depression, and stress.
Aimbot Detection: Wall hacks and aimbots are known to be the common types of cheating on esports tournaments. Luckily there is AI that detects these anomalies and disruptions to ensure there is fair play. For first person shooter games the anti-cheat AI used is BattlEye [often used in the game Destiny 2], and it is installed as if it was a part of the game, and defends against hacking, running independently without the developer. Activision also has its anti-cheat technology such as Ricochet and Cronus Zen, which is used to detect unauthorized third-party hardware. They do this through player behavior analysis, input unique detection and game data monitoring.
Gameplay simulations: AI can be used to generate gameplay simulations, and this is done by game developers to optimize esports games. The in-game mechanics help to make gaming enjoyable for players and fans. These include rule-based AI, pathfinding AI and finite state machines, with each having a specific set of conditions for non-playing characters (NPCs) on how to react and move in environments.
AI technology is continuing to see growth, making an impact in the esports industry for a good number of reasons — innovation in esports games, providing and improving tools for gamers to scout their opponents and overall giving an experience worthy of participating as a fan and player altogether.
Esports has helped create jobs for lots of people. Interested in knowing about the business side of esports? Listen to the Gamers Change Lives Podcast! We get experienced guests from all around the world featuring.
Written By Jeffrey Osei-Agyeman
