Hey guys! Kenny Wisdom here. If you’re not familiar with who I am, allow me to introduce myself. I’m a longtime player and writer for SixPrizes. I took the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons off to provide live tournament coverage for On The Bubble. Last season, I was chosen to do official commentary for TPCi events, and have since done all of the US Regionals for the past two seasons, as well as Nationals and Worlds. Doing coverage makes a lot more sense than playing for me from multiple perspectives, so I’ve been trying to go all-in on that and make sure that position is available to me for as long as possible.

I think I bring something interesting to the table for articles like these because of my unique perspective on the game. For that reason, I’ll spend today’s Article talking about my point of view on a few things happening both inside and outside of the game. I’ll conclude with a brief rundown of what I’ll be playing at this weekend’s Seattle Regional Championship.

Team Play

The concept of teams has been around since the beginning of the game. One person can only do so much, and it’s natural to find other people that have similar goals to you and try to practice with them. Even if you’ve never considered yourself a part of a formal team, if you’re a competitive player, you can probably think of a handful of people that you regularly test or travel with, or at the very least bounce ideas off of.

This season, we’ve seen the concept be turned on it’s head with the introduction of sponsorships. It seems like almost every top player represents a website or store, which was nowhere close to being the case even just last season. I expect even more Sponsors to pop up over the course of the next few years, both as these current sponsors prove they’re getting a return on their investment, and as Pokémon continues to grow as an esport.

I believe that sponsorships are a great direction for the game to take. It’s mutually beneficial for everyone involves, and brings a sense of legitimacy to tournaments. I want to see more companies get involved in Pokémon, and I want to see more top players get rewarded for being great. There are likely some kinks to work out within the system, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of change over the next few years, but this is almost all upside.

If I were a competitive player right now, I would be doing everything in my power to attract the attention of sponsors. Especially considering most competitive players are in their 20s, juggling little responsibilities with little money, the opportunity to travel and play in more tournaments should be a no-brainer (that doesn’t mean sign on with the first team that approaches you, though, more on that later).

With all of that being said, I wanted to share a few tips on how to establish a brand for yourself, attract sponsors, and then continue to build that brand. While I have never been part of a team, I believe that building and maintaining my brand and behaving a certain way on social media/in the community is a big part of what made TPCi decide to contract with me. Hopefully these tips will be applicable to everyone, even if you’re not sure a team is a realistic goal for you at the moment!

This article — “From the Outside Looking In” – Thoughts on the Game from a Commentator’s Perspective — was originally published on SixPrizes.