How data and AI are shaping esports future - Part II
The global esports landscape is experiencing a evolution, fuelled by the growing influence of data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). Esports has transformed into a high-tech ecosystem where cloud computing, real-time data, and machine learning play crucial roles in shaping player performance, enhancing fan engagement, and streamlining operations. From local tournaments to professional leagues, technology now sits at the heart of competitive gaming’s rapid rise. According to Esportstats, the worldwide esports audience is projected to hit 640.8 million viewers in 2025, up from approximately 212 million in 2020, and sponsorship/media rights are expected to account for about 65 percent of industry revenues.
Around 65 percent of professional esport teams currently include AI-driven analytics tools into their performance and planning workflows, according to 2025 industry research by Zipdo. A Fortnite study of 214 players revealed a 32 percent decrease in damage taken and a 104 percent increase in healing effectiveness after applying AI-assisted training methods. Meanwhile, market projections from WiFiTalents (2024) estimate the global AI in esports industry could reach US $2.5 billion by 2027, highlighting how artificial intelligence is quickly becoming central to both competitive success and commercial growth across the esports ecosystem.
In the first part of the SiGMA News series, Chief Operating Officer of NIP Esports Division, Grant Rousseau, highlights how MENA’s esports surge is not just about capital infusion; it’s also about harnessing a young, tech-savvy population, cultural passion for competition, and government recognition of gaming as a viable GDP growth engine. Rousseau also discusses how initiatives like the Esports World Cup and the potential inclusion of esports in the 2027 Riyadh Olympics could redefine legitimacy and global reach for competitive gaming.
In this second part, Rousseau discusses how to manage multi-title operations in different parts of the world, how to adjust to different cultural performance contexts, and how scouting and talent identification have changed to take into account mental and physical health in addition to competence. The discussion also explores how wearable technology, data science, and AI-driven performance analytics are starting to influence the next wave of esport competitive advantage.
Multi-title operations and cultural adaptation
SiGMA News: With NIP Group operating across 9+ different esports titles, how are organisations adapting their operational strategies to manage diverse competitive ecosystems?
Grant Rousseau, COO of NIP Esports Division: The two main regions are obviously Europe and China. There are others as well. NIP is in Brazil and other areas, but using Europe and China as examples, there are many ways in which esports is the same. Culturally, however, there are so many differences in the way that esports is approached and sport performance is approached.
Having the ability to be flexible, nuanced, and adaptable is so important. The experience of working with the Saudis for the last few years, regardless of what that was, has taught how to learn and adapt to a culture in a different way, appropriately for performance, and change methods of work, education, and teaching to suit that culture. Going to a place like China or Brazil, etc., requires maintaining that flexibility and bringing in that knowledge of how to adapt to a culture to make it appropriate.
“Having the ability to be flexible, nuanced, and adaptable is so important, success across regions comes from understanding culture as much as competition.”
– Grant Rousseau, COO of NIP Esports Division
But realistically, the mechanisms are the same. The aim is that three or four years from now, the way performance is approached at NIP will be consistent, no matter the culture or country. To get there, a lot of education and adaptation are needed. There’s no perfect word for it; it’s simply hard work and effort, working with the right people, and bringing in the right talent. There’s no secret weapon; it’s experience, knowledge, and the best people working together to bring everyone together.
SiGMA News: Based on your experience building scouting and coaching frameworks at Team Falcons, how has professional esports talent identification evolved beyond raw skill assessment, and what emerging metrics are becoming crucial for long-term player success?
Rousseau: It’s not that different from traditional sports. I’ll run through some of the aspects I focus on. It breaks down into two areas: in-game and out-of-game. The in-game aspect is the part that everyone did and does before. We can go scout and find that talent.
Gaming or esports is a much easier way to measure top talent versus traditional sports. But also, one of the things I like to do is build scouting software behind the scenes that we can plug into the API of these games. We can pull data directly, whereas in a lot of other sports, there are third parties that have to film it and process it, etc. So, the ability to scout from an in-game perspective is a lot simpler and easier in esports.
Traditionally, you would go onto a game, look at the top 30 players on the ladder, and drop them a message like, “Hey, are you free?” Nowadays, the ability to really recognise what your team needs in-game might be the metrics of the game, some sort of measurements in-game. It might be something around communication systems. It might be something around leadership necessities.
And I identify within that game what metrics best represent those qualities. Counter-Strike is a test of your raw shooting skills as a shooter. But what are the metrics that you can take from Counter-Strike that would show an IGL, or would show a lurker, or a better anchor player? What are those specifics? Modern scouting systems have evolved to extract these nuanced metrics, using advanced software and data-driven approaches to assess individual strengths and strategic contributions more accurately.
But the main change as well is the out-of-game point of view. It’s the fact that athletes are now approaching a similar level to sports athletes. It’s a healthy mind, brain, and body equals a more nutritious, better player. Many of our players work with physiotherapists and nutritionists. We’ve had supplement experts for vitamins and such.
Whatever it may be, that’s a big part of it, because it also allows players to train longer. It’s about the longevity of their careers as well. Seven or eight years ago, a player’s career in some of the bigger games would typically last around five years, but now we’re already seeing careers extending to 10 or 11 years.
What’s lovely now is that players coming through, those aged 16, 17, or 18 year olds, know that this is a part of being good. They know it. Oh, if I want to be a good player, I must do these out-of-game aspects of my life. And it’s so nice now because I don’t have to spend hours trying to explain to them why we need to do this.
(Image Credit: x.com/TeamFalconsGG)
Emerging technologies in esports
SiGMA News: What role do you see emerging technologies like AI-driven performance analytics and data science playing in competitive advantage, and how are established organisations balancing innovation with traditional coaching methods?
Rousseau: This is the most exciting thing for me right now, the fact that emerging technology, with AI being the obvious example, is coming through. How that’s adapted to performance, in both sport and esports, has not been fully realised yet. We’re in a unique position where performance in esports and sport is very much about the human mind and body, as opposed to tech aspects that can easily affect it.
Whoever wants to lead and find the methods and ways that AI can adapt, and these different new technologies can integrate to make it work, it’s just those who are willing to be, as I just said about our culture, open-minded. It’s the same ideology. It’s going to be a case of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
No one truly knows how we will adapt AI to sport and esports yet. People are going to claim they do, but no one will really know for the next 20 years, probably. So, whoever gets ahead will be the ones willing to try the most. Specifically, there are quick ways we can adapt AI, whether in operations, scheduling, or logistics, to make players’ lives easier. But when it comes to out-of-game performance, that’s where the difficult part lies. We were talking about wearable tech, with bands and rings and such; AI can help not just monitor the information but also process the data.
So, for example, I’m given a ton of data on player sleep schedules based on the rings they wear, etc. That doesn’t mean I get a result from that, right? What do I do with that information unless I go figure it out and research it myself? However, if an AI can say, “Hey, this guy’s sleeping in this way, you should tell him to do this”, effectively using the data and spitting out the solution, that will be very interesting. But that still has a long way to go when we talk about the human body and performance side as well.
On the tech side, though, operations, scheduling, and in-game aspects could offer interesting methods too. It will likely identify data points that differ from what analysts or people working on the game already know, because there are only so many levels to these video games. Nonetheless, it can still find those one or two percent improvements, and that will no doubt be applied as well.
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