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Jul 21 2016

IEL at Maryland Leadership Workshops

Last week I had the pleasure joining Maryland Leadership Workshops alumnus Jason Israel to present a workshop at MLW’s Advanced Leadership Seminar program using the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (KTANE) as a tool for stress testing teamwork.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

One player is trapped in a virtual room with a ticking time bomb they must defuse. The other players are the “Experts” who must give the instructions to defuse the bomb by deciphering the information found in the bomb defusal manual. But there’s a catch: the experts can’t see the bomb, so everyone will need to talk it out – fast!

With the help of half a dozen excellent volunteers, we ran our group of 22 participants through a crash course on leadership roles, delegation, and communication. The group split into four teams, and worked through several iterations with a focus on practicing specific leadership skills.

At the end of the day, we offered a final challenge: teams were given the opportunity to defuse a bomb in front of the other teams with an added twist: the defuser’s experts were sent to another room and could only communicate by walkie-talkie. Despite the high pressure scenario we concocted, and all the surprises up our sleeves, the teams performed admirably, and I have no doubt that given another hour of practice, they would have defeated our ultimate challenge.

Thanks to MLW for being great sports and even better hosts!

KTANE is an ideal game for a setting like this because of its low threshold, cooperative goal, and short playtime.

The low threshold makes it easy to pick up and start playing with a minimum of instruction.
The cooperative goal involves a team of players, and teams must work together to be successful.
The short playtime means that teams get multiple attempts, and the opportunity to reflect, adapt, and try a new approach or different role within the single workshop.

The learning opportunities in a short workshop like this one are a great introduction to the ways that more complex esports can develop transferrable skills and present opportunities to practice leadership.

Jul 17 2016

IEL Hearthstone Commons League Finals

Watch Now

Join us Wed, July 20 starting at 5pm PT / 8pm ET on Twitch for the 3rd Place and Grand Final matches of our Hearthstone Commons League.

Third Place Match

First up, Zyzzyva takes on Talerion with the Bronze on the line. Zyzzyva led Group B through the regular season with a record of 5-1 and a tiebreaker thanks to a 3-0 victory over Chisgule. He was atop the Power Rankings until their postseason rematch last week, when Chisgule reversed the previous results, taking his own 3-0 victory to secure a spot in the final, and sending Zyzzyva to third place match and 3rd in the Power Rankings.

Talerion managed a narrow 3-2 upset in the quarterfinals to keep his playoff run alive. After a 3-2 loss in the semis, he enters the third place game 5th in the Power Rankings. However, Talerion beat Zyzzyva 3-0 in the regular season, so he’ll be trying for a repeat performance here.

Grand Final

The title match between Xachariah and Chisgule promises to be a close one. The two are practically tied at the top of the Power Rankings, with Chisgule barely edging Xachariah out for the top spot. Both made it through the regular season with 5-1 records, and while they have played practice matches on numerous occasions, they have never faced each other during League play. Xachariah dispatched his quarterfinal opponent easily with a 3-0 victory, and won a close semifinal match against Talerion 3-2. Chisgule’s road to the final included a 3-1 win in the quarters and the aforementioned 3-0 upset over then-top-ranked Zyzzyva to secure his spot.

With strong performances all season from both players, this one is anyone’s game.

Schedule

Pre-game show starts at 5pm PT / 8pm ET, followed by the Third Place Match at 5:10/8:10, and then the Grand Final immediately following.

Jul 08 2016

IEL Hearthstone Mixed Triples Tournament

A beginner-friendly team tournament with new formats.

Register Here

August 3, 2016, 6pm PT/9pm ET

Join us for a Mixed Triples Exhibition tournament, exploring several community formats for Hearthstone. This is a chance for both league players and new entrants to experiment with our new format. We encourage you to bring your friends.

Hang out in our Discord group while you play.

Teams

Teams are 3 people. Each person on your team will play 1 game per match. Winning 2 out of 3 games wins the match.
For this tournament, players will register individually and we will assign teams balanced by experience level.
You can spectate your teammates and coach them during the games, but obviously, you may not spectate opponents.
Teams may not use a hero class more than once per match. (i.e. Each of your three players must use a deck from a different class during the best of 3 match.)
Winning teams should take screenshots of their victories to validate in the case of a dispute.

Formats

The formats for the 3 games in each match are chosen from 5 possible formats:

Tavern Brawl,
Commons,
C4,
Standard, and
Wild.

Each team will veto one format, with the higher seeded team announcing first, leaving 3 formats for the match. Each format will be played by 1 of your 3 players for their single game against an opponent. Your team may decide which player plays which format.

Simultaneous Announcement of Player Assignments

Once the 3 formats have been determined, each team posts a message to the dropbox channel in Discord with their lineup: {format, player, hero} x 3. Once both teams have submitted, they share their choices with the other team. Admins can check the dropbox submissions upon request. Deviation from submission will result in a forfeit.

Example Match

Click to Expand

Team Alpha is seeded higher so they will ban first. They choose to veto Wild, because no one on their team has a strong Wild deck. Team Bravo then decides to veto Tavern Brawl, because they don’t like the randomness. That means this match will be best of 3 games: one Commons, one C4, and one Standard.

Team Alpha decides that their most experienced players will have the best shot at winning the more open formats so they decide that A1 will play Standard, A2 will play C4, and A3 will play Commons. Unbeknownst to them, Team Bravo has another plan. They decide to punt on the Standard game and have their least experienced player, B3, play that one. They put their top player B1 in C4, and B2 in Commons.

A3 has a pretty good Warlock Zoo deck for Common, so A1 and A2 have to pick something other than Warlock to play for their respective games. They decide on Druid and Hunter. Meanwhile B1 picks Warlock for C4, B2 picks Priest for Common, and B3 picks Mage for Standard even though it’s not a very good Mage deck.

Both teams announce their matchups. The 3 games to be played are:

A1’s Druid vs B3’s Mage in Standard
A2’s Hunter vs B1’s Warlock in C4
A3’s Warlock vs B2’s Priest in Commons

A1 predictably beats B3 in Standard, B1‘s Zoo beats A2‘s Hunter in C4, and A3‘s Warlock is too much for B2‘s priest deck, so A3 pulls off that upset win, giving Team Alpha a 2-1 victory in the match.

Decks

Decks may be modified throughout the tournament, and deck lists do not need to be submitted for this event.

Schedule & Forfeits

Tournament play will begin at 9pm ET, after check-in is complete.
Brackets are not finalized until notified.
If you are not available to play a match within a 15 minute grace period, your opponent may request a forfeit from the tournament admins.
Double forfeits (neither player online) in deadlocked matches will result in elimination for both teams.

Jun 22 2016

IEL Appoints New Head of Esports Think Tank

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—Washington, DC, The Institute for Esports Leadership is thrilled to announce the appointment of Lee Dunn, who will join the IEL team as Program Manager for the new think tank. Dunn will lead the new team in developing a rapid assessment framework for the esports industry and analyzing existing research in leadership and esports. In addition, Dunn and his team will work to synthesize best practices for leadership within the industry, as well as for the use of esports to develop leadership in other settings. Lee will also explore opportunities for original primary research.

“Lee joining the IEL team is a huge step for our organization as we continue to foster growth in esports leadership,” said Teague Hopkins, IEL Executive Director. “With his wealth of experience both as a researcher and an educator, Lee’s expertise is invaluable to the IEL and its continued thought leadership in the esports industry. We’re very excited to see what he has planned.”

The IEL invites the esports community to join it in welcoming Lee in this new position to help grow esports and discover new avenues to continue leadership development in this sphere.

About Lee Dunn

Lee is the Academic Director for Technologies and Head of Digital Futures at The University of Glasgow. His research and teaching in social science explores the use of emerging technologies and professional learning with a particular focus on design, technology, virtual reality and games based learning.

As a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Lee has received international recognition and award through his leadership and collaboration with scholars from Deakin University in Australia, AVO Bell in Bulgaria, WYG Savjetovanje in Croatia and the Association of Consultants in Development of Communities in Romania.

Lee is based in the UK and is interested in all aspects of eSports leadership, recently becoming active in the ESL National University eSports League and invited ambassador/speaker at several gaming events throughout Scotland.

About IEL

white_ice_mastery-on-steel_doused The Institute for Esports Leadership is a volunteer-run organization advancing the use of esports to develop leadership. We believe that esports offer opportunities to practice critical leadership skills including team building, communication, strategy development, and self-discipline.

Esports are as valuable for teaching leadership skills as physical sports, and in an era where more people are working on geographically distributed teams, and coordinating intellectual, rather than physical labor, esports may even have some advantages over physical sports.

The esports industry is at an inflection point where the most successful organizations are no longer led by hobbyists, but by professionals. Management and leadership are crucial to succeed in this evolving environment. We study and promote the intersection of esports and leadership, for the benefit of both.

For press inquiries, contact press@esportsleaders.com.

May 31 2016

IEL Midseason Open

A beginner friendly tournament with a new format.

Register Here

June 11, 2016, 12:00 EDT

Join us for the Midseason Open of our Wednesday Commons League. This is a chance for both league players and new entrants to experiment with our new format. We encourage you to bring your friends.

Hang out in our Discord group while you play.

Format

Regulation Conquest format.
Bring 4, ban 1. Each player must bring 4 decks that meet the restrictions below, and each player will get to ban their opponent from playing 1 class.
Register with your Battle.net ID.
Winner should take screenshots of their victories to validate in the case of a dispute.

Decks

Commons + 4: Card pool limited to Basic and Common cards only, plus 4 rares per deck. No legendary or epics are allowed.
Standard: May only use cards released in the current and previous calendar year, along with a core foundation of the Basic and Classic card sets.
Deck list to be submitted to decklist@esportsleaders.com (screenshots fine) before first match. Decks may NOT be changed during the tournament.

Schedule & Forfeits

Tournament play will begin at noon EDT on June 11th, after check-in is complete.
Brackets are not finalized until notified.
If you are not available to play a match within a 15 minute grace period, your opponent may request a forfeit from the tournament admins.
Double forfeits (neither player online) will result in elimination for both players.