Resources

Note: This isn’t a finished page. I have yet to add the full description for the items below. and a number of items are missing. I intend to finalize this in the near future to better help you select which resources may best help you!

Another Note: Some of the hyperlinks below are affiliate deals that generate my company a bit of revenue per sale. If you are interested in any of the products below, using the links provided below means the world to me as it allows me to continue to spend more time creating well-informed transparent content that you wouldn’t find other business professionals providing elsewhere!

Table of Contents

Books
Esports Must Reads
Best Business Books
Most Impactful Productivity Books

Esports Business Podcasts
Temporary List

Esports News Outlets
COMING SOON!

Books

Esports Must Reads

Good Luck Have Fun: The Rise of eSports
By: Roland Li

US: https://amzn.to/35gTxsr | CAN: https://amzn.to/3vDCb3J

Easily my favorite entry-level book into the world of esports business. This book follows Alexander Garfield, founder of Evil Geniuses and Alliance, and how he built them both into the behemoths they are today. It runs you through some of the issues he faced, how he overcame them and some of the ways he dealt with garnering the most out of his players (this isn’t a technical book though, a lot of the details are pretty high level). 

At the same time, the book covers some very important-to-know incidences and interactions in early esports (basically from 2000 – 2015 esports). The book includes a chapter (sometimes multiple) on the following subjects:

  • The growth and decline of StarCraft 1 and 2 
  • The career development of some well known StarCraft commentators and players
  • The founding of Justine.tv and Twitch
  • The founding of League of Legends and development of the League of Legends Championship Series
  • The development of Dota 2 and The International

The Book of Esports
By: William Collis

US: https://amzn.to/3zo41UX | CAN: https://amzn.to/3xwNlc3

A close 2nd to Good Luck Have Fun as my top entry-level book, The Book of Esports covers a more updated history of video-game development and esports. The book has more of a focus on the development of the gaming industry and provides the criteria for what makes games successful in today’s gaming and esports market. The book goes over all the history up until about 2018, but spends a lot more time dissecting esports from 2014 – 2018 and specifically between Riot Games’ League of Legends and Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch and Call of Duty.

The book does an amazing job of being open to people who don’t fully know all the terminology or concepts of gaming as a whole, providing a lot of novice breakdowns along the way. In addition to that, Collis analyses his thoughts on:

  • Why some games failed and succeed in the market
  • The future esports franchising model (currently used in the LCS, OWL and COD League)
  • The limitations for esports organizers, streaming platforms, esports teams and gaming products when the entirety of esports relies on the intellectual property owned by for-profit companies (the publishers)

OpTic Gaming: The Making of eSports Champions
By: H3CZ, NaDeSHot, Scump, BigTymer, Midnite, OpTic J, Fwiz

US: https://amzn.to/2SwxD1L | CAN: https://amzn.to/3wFklPe

Talking Esports: A Guide to Becoming a World-Class Esports Broadcaster
By: Paul Chaloner

Free PDF: https://coderedesports.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/Talking-Esports-FINAL-2.pdf

Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming
By:  T. L. Taylor

US: https://amzn.to/3wqdZD8 | CAN: https://amzn.to/3vA2VlS

*Note, more of an academic read

Best Business Books

COMING SOON!

Most Impactful Productivity Books

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
By:  Cal Newport

US: https://amzn.to/3wqfdP2 | CAN: https://amzn.to/3cTwTdW

Undoubtedly the book that singlehandedly defines how I work, Deep Work takes a unique yet classic approach to how we should spend our time in our office. The book focuses on a concept known as “deep work”, exercised by many other successful professionals of the past where the individual engages in undistracted focus on a cognitively demanding task. 

The book starts off by providing arguments for why the deep work protocol is superior to our typical distracted, multi-tasking-driven work life. The latter half of the book explains how exactly to engage in deep work and actions you can take to further enhance your ability to perform it. This book breaks down:

  • Compelling arguments for why you will want to incorporate deep work practices into your daily professional life
  • Several historical accounts of how deep work has been incorporated in the lives of successful people during times of their peak performance
  • A distinction between what the author refers to as “shallow” work and how being over engaged in shallow works hinders a person from accomplishing their highest contribution to a project or company
  • How to enhance your ability to “go deep” and yield greater results than your peers in a significantly less time

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
By:  Greg McKeown

US:https://amzn.to/3iIcnko | CAN: https://amzn.to/3qaOeoe

One of the biggest work-life changing books I’ve ever read, Essentialism is exactly wasn’t I wasn’t and what I needed to progress in my professional career. In this bestseller, Greg McKeown interviewed a large number of mildly successful people and wanted to learn what held them back from progressing their careers forward. 

What he learned, was that people’s success started off by willing to do a lot and work hard. As one of the things they did led them to some level of success, they got even more opportunities and did even more. As a result, by taking on every opportunity that came their way, they were more scattered and less able to invest into those handful of things that will actually move them forward (at the same time overburdening them).

In high school, I became the president of 5 clubs and worked on an esports tournament organizing business (which folded quickly). In college I was running 2 clubs and working on 2 business ventures in addition to a number of volunteer opportunities and acting as a leader in every course project we got. By doing so, every club suffered and every business venture suffered (one of which is the site you are reading now) all while burning me out multiple times.

Even if you aren’t like me, this book really explains a new mindset to have in everything in life, by doing 1 thing, you can’t do the 999 other things you could be doing at that exact moment. This book is also great for people who have trouble saying no (which was once me), feel overwhelmed by work or always have FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

MORE COMING SOON!

Esports Business Podcasts

COMING SOON! – I have yet to order this list or vet through all these podcasts. But this is my watched/to-watch list, and for the people who just want any listening material for now, here is the list (I will order and vet in the coming weeks, just copy-pasting from my unorganized list for now):

 
If you know of any podcasts or YouTube channels I missed, I’d love to check them out and add them to the list. Please email me at uzair.hasan@esporthow.com and I’d be happy to add it!

Esports News Outlets

COMING SOON! – My top recommendations before I can vet other sources and make a list is to subscribe to The Esports Observer’s daily + weekly email list and just follow a bunch of professionals on LinkedIn to have a rich feed.

In complete transparency, I stopped following esports news since it doesn’t serve my business much currently (and for many of you looking to get into esports or start a business, you should focus more on working and learning fundamentals that will best aid you instead of getting into recent news unless it’s directly related to your business model/job), but for the people who actually will benefit from some good news outlets, I’ll have to spend some time vetting a bunch. Until then, The Esports Observer email list is what I used.