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It usually takes 12-18 months for a newly formed team to form and succeed, but the GAIMIN Gladiator Dota 2 team only formed in January 2022, and they are already climbing the Dota 2 rankings, making the Top 14 at the ESL One DOTA 2 Major to be held this May in Stockholm, increasing their fan base and creating significant GAIMIN brand awareness.
Arseniy Kuzminsky recently interviewed GAIMIN Gladiator’s founders about their Dota 2 team and its formation. On the eve of the DOTA 2 ESL One Major in Stockholm, we are proud to publish his article and interview.
A breath of fresh air has come to competitive Dota in 2020. Vikin.gg. For almost a year in the online era, these guys were able to fight back against the strongest teams, brazenly, without fear or reproach, smashing well-known lineups at numerous tournaments. On closer acquaintance, it turned out that the players and coach had a unique chemistry-a mixture of strict discipline, fatherhood, brotherhood, and strong friendship.
Then Vikin.gg disbanded. Coming back as Team Tickles with almost the same lineup.
Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp, Miroslav “BOOM” Bičan and Daniel “ImmortalFaith” Moza from the previous lineup teamed up with Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard, Erik “tOfu” Engel and Anton “dyrachYO” Shkredov. New players, same style of play. Focusing on team interaction, it is impossible to identify the strongest player of the top five. And frankly, there’s no reason to. GAIMIN’s gladiators work as smoothly as a clock, where every cog matters, and as soon as one cog falters, they cover four. GG is an example of how a team is made strong by great player interaction and balance of power.
I talked to the GAIMIN Gladiators management team to explain why they chose the Tickles team. As well as a little more about their history, investments, future plans, and why they are confident in the team’s success in Dota 2.
Canadian roots
The founding of GG sounds like a typical Silicon Valley startup story – four friends with a passion for what they love decided to launch their own project. But before GAIMIN Gladiators was something else.
“We were getting a little older, couldn’t get ahead in professional gaming, so about three years ago we started OCG Esports,” says Alex Cuccovillo, vice president of GG. He, as well as Sean Porter, CEO, and Nick Cuccovillo, president, spoke with me.
Sean and Alex met a long time ago, playing Dota, and have professional experience in various MOBAs. The latter had a hand in coaching and commentating in the early Dota 2 era. Nick has worked in FPS games doing talent scouting. Thus, they have ample knowledge and connections in every area of esports, which gives them an advantage due to the fact that they already know the ins and outs of esports not only from a business perspective, but also from a player perspective.
Alex admits that they had to leave competitive NA Dota 2 for other games because it lacked tournaments and money. OCG Esports started signing players, helping them, and finding investors and partners to support them financially. In January 2020, OCG Esports renamed itself GAIMIN Gladiators.
GAIMIN Gladiators is based in Canada, but aims for a global scene, acquiring teams from the EU, SEA, considering Brazil, trying to look beyond North America.
But in addition to Gladiators, which employs about five people and a few contractors, there is parent company Gaimin.io, the corporate side of the whole company umbrella. “They take on more of a corporate level, and frankly, we hand them some business issues and they either approve them or they don’t. So it works both ways,” Nick tells me. “They approve all transactions or any decisions made for the GG side.”
Alex continues, “We always had a plan. We always knew we were going to need investment at some point. No organization has succeeded without more investment. So we always had a plan of action in place. We created investment decks a long time ago and were constantly updating them. We met with some investors a couple of times during negotiations; and then after a few months, they realized that esports was a great way to do this application.”
GAIMIN’s mission is as follows: “PASSIVE OFFLINE MONETIZATION FOR PLAYERS.” It’s a “play as you earn” type platform: get your game rewards for free and do whatever you want with them.
“Although our platform has an element of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, we are essentially a game engine.” Nick explains that the primary purpose of the platform is “to use computing power, not to mine or buy coins or NFTs.”
Instead, the GAIMIN software “simply uses blockchain elements for background work, and should be viewed as a game engine, with the ability to run games on private servers, including Minecraft and GTAV, watch content creators’ streams and practice skills in your favorite games.”
The takeover and rebranding was quite a long process. It took a year from the initial meeting with GAIMIN to close the deal. We came up with a plan that was beneficial to them in terms of attracting users to the platform as well, and they really liked it.”
“They invested more in us than the teams we had,” Alex says. “We had some teams that were certainly pretty good, and some very high level players, but we didn’t have anybody that was at the level of our current Dota 2 team. We identified different teams with different costs and what they could bring, what success and what kind of viewership figures. We showed what our plan would be for the next year and a half, what teams we would attract, why we would attract them and what their potential would be. So, frankly, there was a lot of preparation, which was another reason they really liked what we were doing.”
Acquisition of team ticks
Sean and Alex have experience playing Dota and wanted to return to the Dota scene because of its very high viewership. Midway through the season, in late December and early January, they saw something special in Team Tickles.
Alex continues, “We had discussions with several teams. But they interested us the most, not because of how good they are, but in terms of the brand recognition the new organization brings by playing against Team Liquid, OG and Secret. All of these teams allow the new organization to gain brand awareness very quickly, unlike many other regions. So that was a deciding factor for us as well. In addition, we saw a lot of potential in the lineup of young players.
Although signing with a North American team gives you a better chance of competing in the majors and then TI, added to that was the fact that there were high skill teams there in need of sponsors. However, we decided to look in other regions, such as the CIS, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Our eye caught on Team Tickles, and we began to pursue them.”
Bootcamping, Stockholm and plans
The GAIMIN Gladiators stayed at the Relog Media base for the entire DPC league period. Rather than have the players split up and try to resolve visa issues, GG management decided to keep them in Belgrade as long as possible. They have great connections with Relog, who have been “very, very helpful” in this matter.
Nick stresses the importance of bootcamp and its impact on the players’ success:
“Everyone thinks bootcamp is about 24 hours of practice and classes. However, there are aspects where the players never physically met. So it was the perfect time for them to get to know each other, develop team bonds, and even create a team culture. If we want to participate in the next Major or a major event like TI, this is a necessary aspect; it’s important for the team to have at least that initial interaction. We’ve also had a psychologist come in once a week to work with them. It’s important for mental performance and mental toughness so they’re not exhausted or drained.
Follow the Gladiators in Stockholm from May 12 and find out what they show us next. https://www.esl-one.com/dpc/
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