In this episode of Office Hours, with our host William “The Professor” Collis, The Professor gives ALDI France a D+ grade after the supermarket chain announced the launch of the amateur esports team, Continuity.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of office hours with the

professor. I'm your host, William, the professor, call us. And today on Office Hours, we're gonna do

something a little bit different. What is that different thing you might ask? Well, we're going

to give a low grade to a new story. Yes, that's right. I've heard quite a lot of feedback that the

professor is apparently a very lenient grader, you have given out A's, A pluses and a plus, I think

with extra credit that ends today. Today, we are curbing the grade inflation because we have a D

plus news story. And what is that news story you might ask? It's all D Francis decision to launch

an amateur esports team called continuity. Now, before I go into why this is a D plus new store, I

want to have a major caveat. This d plus is not at all a referendum on amateur esports. I am hugely

supportive of that scene. I think it has massive potential, I think amateur esports needs more

investment and more support. So this has nothing to do with how I feel about amateur esports. This

has everything to do, however, with how I feel about such a weak sauce commitment from all day

into the esports space. So let's be very clear about what they are doing in this announcement.

Aldi is committing to host a series of Rocket League tournament, I think it's about four

tournaments and then a finals, they're going to use those to pick a couple winners to form an

amateur Rocket League team called continuity. And they're going to support them to the end of the

calendar year or 2022. So basically, all the is hiring or giving support to for amateur esports

athletes to the end of the year. That's it. Wow, this story really frustrates me, we are past this

as an industry in esports. To think that, for example, look at this in the context of

traditional sports. Would it be news, if Whole Foods sponsored for amateur baseball players for

six months, oh, it wouldn't even rate it wouldn't even be a corporate initiative. So the fact that

all the is positioning this for PR and, you know, sort of views this as a step forward in the space

for them, particularly when they've worked with large and established brands, like Team vitality

in the past, it just, it feels like a big step backwards. These initiatives supporting amateur

esports, I could see something like this working, if it were at a larger scale. And with a more

sustained commitment, say, you know, multiple games, commitment to really fun for several years,

real tangible examples of support, right. But this really feels like at best dipping a toe in the

water for all day. And we are past that, in esports. A, there's too much going on in the

space. And too many brands are engaged in such active and multi channel ways for an amateur

esports team with about six months of support to move the needle. And that's what I'd like viewers

of this episode to take away is, it's time to stop it's time for brands to stop doing limited small

scale test activations in esports. Those really won't do anything anymore. And I guarantee you all

they will be disappointed by the results of this partnership. Through no fault of the amateur

esports athletes alone. They're just asking to get something that the space likely has moved beyond I

Give this story a D plus, I think amateur esports is amazing. But I would like to see much more

robust support from it not something limited in scale like this. I would certainly like to see

more from all the France when there really are lots of incredible potentials and activations for

esports growth, a supermarket chain could be promoting. And instead they're leading with

something like this. So the professor is not happy this week. But thank you for joining me in office

hours anyway, and I look forward to seeing you in our next video. Thanks again.