Following the news of the addition of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 to its lineup, Cynopsis caught up with Wim Stocks, CEO and general manager of World Gaming, to discuss the news and the state of the company.

Stocks on 2019 objectives: The great momentum we had for both WorldGaming Network and Collegiate Starleague coming out of 2018 sets us up and serves us (and our player communities) extremely well as we get underway in 2019. The presence for our competitive gaming programming, our online tournaments and leagues platforms, our events, our content, and our brands continue to build around our mission for supporting developmental, grassroots, and amateur players; ‘inspiring aspiring gamers’ as we like to say. Last year proved to be a pivotal time for providing more clarity for pro leagues, teams & franchises, activations, and broadcasts (OWL, LCS, NBA2K), so as the pro dynamics start getting more defined, so too does this help define the marketplaces and related programming supporting developmental and amateur players, the opportunities are growing for players to find organized ‘feeder’ events and content to help improve their competitive skills and which also become more appealing and attractive, while helping competitive players understand the various ways to find their places and status in the elite ranks.

On challenges: There are still many misperceptions about competitive gaming that are unhealthy for the longer term (and larger) development and for growing presence, engagement, and involvement in the space. While esports enthusiasts and fans/audiences who completely comprehend the space continue to grow in size and deepen their involvement and engagement with competitive gaming events, programming, content, favorite players and teams and the related merchandise (as well as with the brands who have dived in completely enthusiastically and authentically), and are the true fans and bread/butter for our industry, the traditional mainstream still lags. In the truest sense, esports enthusiasts and endemics frankly couldn’t care less about the traditional mainstream ‘getting it’, yet the economic engines of big brand sponsorship, advertising, broadcast, etc., are all waiting for the traditional mainstream to ‘get it’, understand it, embrace and consume esports for all which it stands. My point is this: every hour of every day we are involved in the esports sphere; we sense it, feel it, see more clearly every day the growing adoption and understanding of esports and how brands want to participate in and integrate with the esports experience, the growing awareness and the excitement that participating and spectating offers players and audiences alike, the amazingly positive halo effect this affords the invested and involved brands. I predict there will be a tipping point (already happening in certain segments), and when it happens it will be a massive wave; the question remains as to how soon it materializes.

On the company’s biggest success in 2018: We feel great about what we accomplished last year in three areas: 1). We continue to prove our value for the amateur realms, certainly providing players high-quality experiences and opportunities to improve and excel, but also for our all-important publisher partners, where the large open accessible funnel we create for aspiring players keeps the audiences for and engagement with their respective games vibrant while all the while feeding the elite ranks – we accomplish this for the ‘general’ competitive gaming market via WGN and for the collegiate ranks via CSL. 2). We have shown brands new to esports great and economical ways to attach authentically and effectively to a variety of our esports activations, and have demonstrated tremendous ROIs as a result, as well as creating fun, distinctive, new sorts of experiential integrations for the involved brands, 3). We continue to grow and distinguish our collegiate presence via leagues, on-campus events, and content through CSL, the largest footprint in the collegiate esports space; over 1600 involved colleges and universities, operating 13 leagues/games, and culminating/spotlighting all of this through our CSL Grand Finals, essentially our North American ‘Final Four’ for each of our collegiate leagues and which takes place at the end of every collegiate year.

On Black Ops 4: This will be our fourth annual COD tournament for our WorldGaming North American Championship series, this year featuring Black Ops 4, we have now a legacy of creating and operating large scale COD tournaments thanks to a ton of amazing support coming from MLG and ATVI as well as from our huge community of COD players and fans, and again largely positioned for the aspirational and grassroots teams. This year we are projecting over 700 teams to participate and compete in our event, it has become a hallmark of a campaign and event for us ever since we started with the COD franchise in 2016.