After my previous involvement in esports had reached a logical endpoint, and the deal to acquire Mindfreak was reached in principle, it was, as they say, time to let the rubber meet the road.

The initial month was mainly around transition, confirming staff, and putting into place the content programs I believe were needed.

The first 3 months were meeting existing commitments and staging for the rest of the year.

The first 6 months was establishing the way I wanted Mindfreak to run, with myself as CEO, and executing on all the changes I believe are necessary.

So what did Mindfreak do in the last 6 months? (How has it ONLY been 6 months…….)

One of the key strategies was executing on a content plan that really put effort into telling our players stories. I secured the commitment of a video production company I had worked with previously, and had complete faith in to deliver a compelling product. This along with a graphics design agency and a key social media talent, meant that I was confident that my clumsy backside wasn’t going to embarrass the org too much. While we have been limited by having to do videos shot over webcams all too often, due to lockdowns and border restrictions, I am still extremely proud of every second of video footage we put out under the Mindfreak masthead. 

The players we support at MF, have amazing stories to tell. Their journeys, their challenges, their goals and aspirations are compelling narratives, that we as Mindfreak, are honoured to play a small part in. Compelling content around our players will always be a core focus for us.

We supported the existing VALORANT team up to the championship stage, where alas they bowed out, but it kinda sucked for the entire VALORANT scene cause, well… nothing ended up happening. (Some extra money was given to the winners, but we are ALL about “lads at LAN”). At this point we paused our VALORANT division, and are re-assessing the information we gathered around player performance from the staff we paid to coach and assess the players. We expect to re-enter VALORANT early in the new year, but will not rush this roster pickup, the options are… numerous for orgs that genuinely look after players. VALORANT in 2022 is looking very similar to 2021, which means it's not fantastic, but opportunities exist.

COD saw us finish in 3rd with the roster I inherited, but the character of the players impressed me in just those 30 days, that I was willing to double down on essentially the same roster. There’s been some drama, there always will be. It’s COD, and if you have seen anything on Twitter today, you will know the community is very passionate about its Competitive, and will hold the publisher to account when it's not getting what it knows COD Competitive can be. I  think they can still stick COD in 2022, but they are obviously grappling with some serious issues, and are running out of time and good will. My goal in 2022 is to take the MF COD team to a LAN event overseas, Omicron and publisher competence willing…

Warzone is definitely a game I did not appreciate as much as it deserved before taking over MF. The MF Warzone players were also very uncertain about me. As I got to know them, and the title better, I was dismayed to see just how poorly treated Warzone in ANZ really is, by comparison to other more loved regions. Nonetheless, the players themselves are amazing people, and I am proud to have female players on our roster, who can very much kick it with anyone in the region. We will continue to support our Warzone players through having to run our own bloody tournaments if we have to. The WZ squad is very much content savvy, and have sizeable brands in their own rights, so for myself and MF we are happy to set up an alignment that focuses on just how damn good at the game they are, and promote the competitive tournament aspects of Warzone. I suspect we may be rolling a few more in-house tournaments in 2022…

Overwatch was just FUN! Due to how Contenders was structured, I found myself in possession of a “slot”, and no official team. The team that played in that slot was around, but would have had to re-qual through open. As a matter of respect for their work, and to not abuse my position as an owning org, we immediately agreed to just re-up their deal, and do a, “no harm, no foul” engagement. They didn’t prac much, they helped us with content, and they were good enough skill-wise to make the Grand Final. We let socials meme the crap out of that, and enjoyed the ride. With OW2 allegedly delayed/somewhere on the horizon, this will be a “watch this space” for us.

At this point I launched a personal goal of mine, in the Mindfreak FGC division. We started with Waz in Mortal Kombat, and then Sora and Sock in Melee. Several other titles have begun conversations, and we will progress with this further. FGC for me is “the non-esport esports”. It is very much its own thing, it falls under the umbrella of esports more often than not, but the community and structure of it is distinct enough that I always mentally engage with it differently. I love the FGC and will always lend our efforts to the promotion of its player base and community. We were →← this close to announcing another FGC International LAN trip, but alas, it is getting “weird” to plan travel at the moment, and it couldn’t be sorted in time. Nonetheless, we co-helmed a successful Summit campaign, and have (freshly recovered from COVID) 2 players and house dad in LA at the moment, fresh back from Smash World Tour in Florida. Shortly they will be off to Genesis 8, and how Melee Invasion of the United States rolls on. This is a definite expansion area for us, and look for the MF logo in other FGC arenas shortly.

One title I was keeping a close eye on was Halo. I played a lot of Halo 1 2 & 3, but life took me away from Reach, 4 and 5. So I was very keen to be able to combine both Mindfreak’s history in competitive Halo, and my own personal interest. Scouting for a Halo team began even before the game's sudden release, and I reached out to past players and community figures. Negotiations with a number of teams fell through, and I was resigned to wait and see if any opportunities would arise. As I was in LA, attending Smash Summit, an opportunity did arise. A plucky team, down in the rankings, but good enough for some top 8 placings, had landed an opportunity to attend the Raleigh Halo Kick Off Major. Some very hurried negotiations, reorganised flights, and a very long suffering wife, and I was personally off to North Carolina in the week before Christmas. Announcing a Halo team, and then experiencing the “passion pit” of an Open bracket was a genuinely great esports experience. You (whoever you are) really need to run a bracket like this at least once in your competitive life, for want of a bad esports drama meme, THIS IS ESPORTS. We’ll continue to try and be a mainstay of ANZ Halo, and will be looking very closely at the partnered organization status when it becomes available to our region.

So I am writing this on New Year's Eve of 2021. The future is looking pretty bleak as we enter our 3rd year of the pandemic, and running an esports organization, just feels so compromised being only online. I am committed to supporting players to be on the biggest stages, which means that we will be trying every strategy, humanly possible, to get players to where they need to be to compete at the biggest events. This will continue to be a sizeable challenge, but that is entirely the reason Mindfreak exists now. We will boost our players' profiles, we will build structures to improve their performance, and we will get them to LAN. 

Why even be in esports otherwise?

Oh and yes, THERE WILL BE MERCH…

See you in a lobby somewhere in 2022, or even better, on stage. 

- EmJae, Mindfreak CEO

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