With the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the number of both e-sports players and viewers. Especially in recent years, the change and development that esports has experienced has enabled many investors to enter this field. Important sports clubs of the world have made new investments in this field by establishing e-sports teams. While such developments contribute to the brand value of e-sports, they have also started to direct the fans of the clubs towards e-sports. We talked with Kadir Alayoglu, President of the Turkish E-sports Football and Basketball League, about e-sports and the organizations of the League.
Kadir, can you please talk about yourself a bit?
I was born in Istanbul in 1981. I am married and have a 5-year-old daughter. I have been engaged in automobile trade since 2002. I have been interested in video games since childhood. I can say that I have had 2 passions since my young ages: cars and games. Then, with the advancement of technology, games have been further developed and new consoles came out. My gaming story started with consoles and continued with PC and PlayStation.
Can you give information about your organizations?
We carry out all activities under the roof of our company “Ates Spor Organization”. Here, we organize F1 tournaments, as well as Turkish football and basketball leagues. The leagues we organize have regular fixtures, well-defined rules, and a plan that works exactly like a regular league. We have TFL matches every week on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We have 16 teams competing. These days, we organize 8 matches in total as group of 4 matches. We also broadcast these live from our studio. Champions League commentator Alp Ozgen, one of the famous names in the e-sports community Christopher Leo Willekens and CNN Turk sports reporter Erhan Karakus are some of the names in our team. There is a regular league, the Turkish Cup, and also a global network that we call “VPG” here. We also have its rights in Türkiye. Of our friends who play among themselves and become champions, the top 3 go to the Champions League, while the top 4 , 5 and 6 go to the European Cup.
What was the reason you chose FIFA?
I was playing football at PES until 2012. Later, there was a setback in PES. In 2014, FIFA came forward. I was playing personally during these periods. FIFA 2014, FIFA 15, FIFA 16, FIFA 17 and finally FIFA’s Pro Clubs mode have been launched. This mode refers to the game played as 11 vs. 11 that we are currently organizing. Normally, there were 1v1 and 2v2 modes in FIFA. Then the Pro Clubs mode came out. It’s a 1v1 simulation of a regular football game and everyone is connecting online. There were low budget organizations in Pro Clubs, and we were in it. Then we went into management and developed it further. In 2019, we started to involve professional football clubs in the business. We have about 30 football clubs now.
Can you give information about the awards?
We have a staff of 18 people. This staff is making efforts for organizations to move forward in a serious way. Our current sponsor is Bacar Automotive. I would like to express my gratitude to Baris Atayay for his support. We do not choose brands that don’t comply with these organizations. We want to work with brands that can advance us, add value, and bring us together with more people.
In football, we cannot give offer a prize pool of more than $2,500, according to the rules set by EA. We give a premium of 10k TRY to the 1st rank and 100 TRY per each 3 points the players collect. The winner of the Turkish cup receives 5k TRY. The winner of the Academy League receives 2,500 TRY, and the 2nd place receives 2,000 TRY. In basketball, on the other hand, the 1st place earns 5k TRY. We have left 4 seasons behind in football, and Besiktas is the last champion. Basketball has been going on for 2 seasons. The Wildcats were the champions last season.
One of the important points in e-sports is the Internet infrastructure. What would you like to say about this?
I can say that our most important problem is “ping”. Ping refers to the time elapsed during the transmission of a data package received from the device you are using to the corresponding server. The lower the ping value, the faster the data transmission. We are conducting negotiations with Turkish Telekom regarding the ping issue. The image comes to our country about 1 second lately on average. The reaction times of the players in Europe are faster than our players. Apart from football and basketball, ping also affects the situation in games such as CS Go, Zula and Volarant. For example, during the game, the Turkish players can see the other person with a 1-second difference before they can see the opponent. Gamers are making serious investments in their hardware from computers to processors, keyboards to mouses for 10 – 20 milliseconds. These are not problems that cannot be solved, but investments need to be made. In order for e-sports to develop in Türkiye, we need to solve the ping problem.
What are your short-term goals?
We are in close contact with TFF and TESFED. Our first goal related to football is to apply the 1v1 digital of the Super League. For example, if there is a Besiktas – Galatasaray derby on Sunday, let's play the digital version on Wednesday. This way, we can move forward simultaneously. During the pandemic period, the interest in e-sports has increased a lot. This was also reflected in the viewing rates. We are in talks with some TV platforms already. I consider these very important for the future of the industry. Projects where there are programs aimed at digital and e-sports that will attract the attention of young people are also on our agenda.
How is the perception of e-sports in other countries?
China, South Korea, Russia and the US are the leading countries in e-sports. The presence of game manufacturers in these countries has also contributed to the rapid development of e-sports in these countries. It will be necessary to open a special page for South Korea. Just as you go to Latin America and Africa to look for football players, South Korea is number one in e-sports. The kids here are really talented, in fact like machines, so to speak. They enter this field at the age of 6-7. A lot of Korean players are being transferred, especially in LOL.
Is there a certain age limit for an e-sports player?
An e-sports player plays until their 22-23. Game means speed. Whoever is faster stays in the game. After a certain age, reflexes weaken inevitably. These athletes have a certain pattern. They devote at least 2-3 hours to this game 5-6 days a week. This is a very serious period of time.
“In order for e-sports to develop in Türkiye, we need to solve the ping problem.”
The games are updated every year. What are the players doing to adapt to these games? How is the process progressing?
The games are released in September. The time for players to get used to the new game is about 1 month. They cannot continue with the player (avatar) that they created in the previous season. They need to create a new player. The organizations start in October and end in June.
With some special software, the mobile games can also be played on PC. Are there any controls for the security of games like Pubg Mobile?
If you want to play Pubg Mobile professionally, then you can do this only on mobile phone. Anyone who enters an e-sports tournament should enter an interface created by Tencent Games with their password and identify their face. This interface also works in the background while you are playing the game. This software monitors everything, including where you connect from, which IP address you use, is there any apparatus attached to the phone, is there any equipment etc. In this way, it eliminates all question marks on cheating.
