Written by
Benjamin Daniels
6 mins read
The top 5 benefits that esports agency ESTUDIOS gained from using StriveCloud
Gaming is all about connection! Today, 84% of gamers play games to interact with others who have similar interests. So, to successfully connect gamers, you need more than just tournaments. You need a 360° gaming community platform! Unfortunately, most tournament software solutions are only focused on tournaments. Besides, they aren’t white-label and don’t prioritize engagement. That’s exactly what brought the swiss esports marketing agency ESTUDIOS to StriveCloud.
In this article, we’ll cover why ESTUDIOS choose StriveCloud as a platform to support its strategy, and how we differ from alternatives in the market!
- Who are ESTUDIOS? (And why they came to StriveCloud)
- How StriveCloud helps ESTUDIOS reach their goals
- Top 5 benefits of using StriveClouds tournament software
- How StriveCloud’s Community & Tournament Platform works
- The StriveCloud solution compared to the wider market
- How to get started and connect gamers today
- FAQ
Who are ESTUDIOS? (And why they came to StriveCloud)
ESTUDIOS is a 360-degree esports agency from Switzerland that works on every aspect a brand needs to go into esports and gaming. From consulting to organizing online and offline events, content production, and especially Community Building as a service. They also own GameTurnier, a popular gaming community platform that connects gamers & brands by hosting online tournaments. Some of the brands the agency works with are Sunrise, MySports and Coca-Cola.
Before working with StriveCloud they were mainly focused on hosting offline tournaments for the FIFA scene in Switzerland. Matthias Zander, the head of the agency’s flagship gaming community platform GameTurnier, has worked in esports for over 20 years. That extensive experience put him in the position of knowing exactly how to connect with gamers successfully. So how did he go about finding the right platform, and eventually, why did he pick StriveCloud?
Matthias Zander – “At ESTUDIOS, we do Community-Building as a Service. And that’s why we love StriveCloud. It supports our business case.”
When looking for a gaming community platform to achieve their goals, they soon found out most platforms lacked a complete white-label solution. While some tournament software solutions came close to what StriveCloud offers, they missed out on features like the loyalty system behind it. Besides, StriveCloud gave them full control over the platform to customize it according to their needs.
Matthias Zander – “It’s not only the possibility to create my own pages with my own designs and banners and so on, but also we can collect 1st party user data and have the possibility to sell advertisements to our clients. With StriveCloud we have almost full control of the platform. ”
How StriveCloud helps ESTUDIOS reach their goals
ESTUDIOS works with many different parties ranging from brands or sports organizations to influencers and streamers. They use our platform as a sandbox environment to connect gamers with brands within their community. So GameTurnier had three main objectives for its tournament software.
1) Bring the GameTurnier community online
To bring their gaming community online they needed a white-label gaming community platform that would allow them to establish their own brand credibility. With our platform, they get a wide array of customization tools as well as social & community features like quizzes or polls to keep gamers engaged.
2) Monetize through unique brand activations & more
As a result of having its own white-label platform, GameTurnier has many ways to monetize its community. With our platform, they can set up unique communities for brands and influencers to create memorable brand activations for their fans or customers. Furthermore, they get complete access to the data, which gives them valuable insights and monetization options.
3) Build long-term engagement with in-app loyalty
Finally, they wanted a loyalty system to keep gamers engaged over the long run. While most platforms rely solely on tournament participation for retention, StriveCloud has a gamified in-app loyalty system in place. That way they can reward gamers based on behavior instead of just purchasing level.
Matthias Zander – “ If you’re a big streamer and you plan to build your community, you will want to organize community tournaments and engage your community even more. For that, Twitch bots are just not enough. You need more to engage with your community and, StriveCloud brings all these features on one platform. ”
Top 5 benefits of using StriveCloud’s tournament software
Tournament software should be about more than just online competitions. With StriveCloud, ESTUDIOS found that they could maximize fan engagement by taking full advantage of the tools provided:
#1 A fresh user experience every day
Repetitive experiences get old fast! Fortunately, StriveCloud does so much more than just online tournaments. With our gaming community software, you can create a complete experience from start to finish. Starting with the onboarding process, all the way up to earning your first currency and exchanging it in the shop.
Furthermore, our tournament software boasts features like:
- Daily quizzes, which encourage daily activity and act as a flashpoint for rewards
- Leaderboards that reward participation in real-time
- Redeemable in-app currency, which incentivizes users to stick around
- Social feed supercharged with different content creation possibilities
Matthias Zander – “The biggest advantage is that on the platform you can create a place where it’s worth coming back to on a daily basis as a user. For example, you can organize daily quizzes.”
#2 Customization tools tailored to your goals
Most tools do not offer a sandbox-building environment. But StriveCloud is specifically designed to be customized and flexible. Essentially, this “sandbox” world means that you can better tailor your gaming community platform to meet your vision. Besides establishing your own brand credibility, it also offers interesting sponsorship opportunities. You get to create your own pages, banners and sell personalized advertisements to brands.
Matthias Zander – “I love the sand boxiness of the StriveCloud solution. I am in almost full control of what I want the platform to be.”
#3 Loyalty systems keep users engaged for the long haul
Whereas most tournament platforms rely entirely on tournament participation to generate user activity, StriveCloud stands out. Because of its unique social and loyalty features, the platform can connect gamers and boost engagement whether there’s a tournament or not. In fact, research shows that socialization is the best way to create long-term gamer retention!
#4 All engagements centralized in one place
What’s great about our tournament software is that you get everything centralized into one platform! Gamers don’t need to jump platforms to compete in tournaments, interact in the community or win prizes. It also saves a lot of headaches for moderators. Instead of linking a bunch of Discord bots, social media platforms, and tournament platforms you can activate, engage and monetize all in one place!
#5 You own all the data!
Another benefit of owning your own gaming community platform is that you own the data. That means you can set up and manage targeted and personalized campaigns for the maximum ROI! You could even send out an email campaign to a specific audience segment.
How StriveCloud’s Community & Tournament Platform works
As a white-label solution, the StriveCloud tournament software works to match your strategy and branding. It’s simple – StriveCloud provides the back-office solution and you can customize the platform to your needs! That means easily creating personalized landing pages to promote your events, allowing users to sign up, and hosting community news.
Owing to the fact that tournaments can be fully automated, you are free to focus your attention on more important things. In other words, you don’t need to make each tournament from scratch!
Our solution compared to the wider market
With the emergence of esports and gaming, there are many tournament software opportunities available on the market. But they don’t all do the same job. So how do you find a gaming community platform that suits your needs?
Let’s compare StriveCloud to the well-known alternatives:
StriveCloud vs ChallengerMode
ChallengerMode is a popular name in the esports community, having been around since 2014. The Swedish company excels at tournament organization, but the features don’t extend far beyond that. While there is an in-game currency and marketplace where fans can buy items, the experience as a whole is less gamified – and as such less targeted at improving engagement.
StriveCloud vs FACEIT
FACEIT are Counter-Strike (CS:GO) experts. In fact, the platform hosts one of the biggest tournaments for CS:GO, the Esports Championship Series. Zander says that tournaments are easy to set up on the platform, and you can also reward users with fully integrated cryptocurrency prizes.
So what’s the downside? For gamers, the platform costs €9.99 to subscribe and access the full package. In short, free users cannot take part in leagues and are limited to reaching Level 6 out of 10. On the other hand, GameTurnier, powered by StriveCloud, is free for gamers and offers total accessibility for its registered users.
How to get started and connect gamers today
Our team promises to get any new gaming community platform up and going in as fast as 2 weeks. But how? Through experience, StriveCloud has developed a reliable plan to achieve success.
Step #1 – Book a demo. It’s quick and easy. Take a tour with our in-house experts and learn the ins and outs of our white-label tournament platform.
Step #2 – Together, we set up the platform & customize it. This is the creative part! During this step, we will make your gaming community space unique and special to you and your fans. As well, this is where we decide how best to gamify your platform to meet your goals.
Step #3 – Onboard your team and launch! Our team will work side-by-side with yours, making sure the process is smooth and your team is confident using our software. In the past, we have reached this step and created an amazing esports platform in just 2 weeks!