After 10 years in esports, Premier League football club Manchester City is competing in its first RLCS LAN, the Rocket League Paris Major.
Having played it safe, focusing primarily on FIFA/EA FC with a sidequest over the last decade, entering Rocket League and signing a former world champion in Enzo ‘Seikoo’ Grondein is quote the statement of intent.
While still a football game, Rocket League is much more of a staple in the esports industry and arguably requires a greater level of investment.
Insider Gaming caught up with Michael Russel, head of production and esports lead at Manchester City, to find out why the football club has stuck around in esports this long, and why now was the time to dive deeper.
Why did Manchester City enter esports 10 years ago with that first FIFA/FC player?
I would say then it was very much to test and learn. A natural extension for us in terms of, we are a football club and FIFA is a huge game.
You know, there is an awful lot of data that suggests a lot of people find their way to Manchester City via FIFA or FC as it is now. We see a lot of people, even celebrities, say Man City are my team on FIFA. So I think the extension is fairly obvious why a football club would get involved.
By no means were we experts at that time. If I look at the development of what we have done from a sporting point of view in esports, it’s night and day from where we started, right? Don’t get me wrong, Kez Brown was a fantastic player.
Back then, I think we were stuck a little bit between, are we after a content creator or are we after an elite esports player? And I think over the years, what we’ve figured out is you can have both, but they aren’t necessarily the same individual.
And how do you rate where Man City esports is at now?
Saul, who runs our sporting department in esports, has done a wonderful job this year on Rocket League. And we are obviously, thankfully I say obviously, continuing to dominate on an FC front which is great. We’re very happy with three [ePremier Leagues] in a row.
This year was unbelievable as well, because we had the Donovan Tekkz versus Matty dynamic, and it was amazing to watch. Tekkz is a legend of the scene, it was amazing having him with us. But then to play against him in that capacity and then to come out on top was just… I think this is what’s really interesting about esports.
I think there are stories that are incredibly relatable, right? I think, you can be a casual sport fan and be obsessive over esports and the opposite is true, right? I can probably use myself as an example. I did not think at the start of this year that I’d be screaming in my living room about Rocket League.
City have remained in esports for a long time too. It’s always difficult to say, but have there been any tangible results, noticeable impact, or return on investment that’s kept you going this long?
Yeah, it is difficult, right? That part is difficult. And certainly, if you’re talking about P&L (profit and loss), it becomes a problematic discussion, it’s harder to look at it.
But if you look at certain regions where we’re active, like we are heading out to Asia this year on tour. And, you know, we have a really, really brilliant relationship with Gen.G, who are huge in South Korea.
I think that relationship with Gen.G is hugely profitable for us in a sense that, we are able to be legitimate in that market. South Korea is a market which is hugely invested in esports. Us having a legitimate stake in esports for 10 years, there is no one else, well, certainly no one else in the Premier League that has been doing it like us.
We wouldn’t be doing it 10 years on if we didn’t think there was a return on investment. And if you look at why we’re doing it, I mean you could look at declining TV viewership in football if you wanted to, though the viewership is still absolutely phenomenal.
We launched our YouTube channel in 2011, and I came in in 2009. And I remember, talking about going where audiences are. This was, if you think 2011, a time before we were all glued to our phones and doomscrolling.
I was absolutely convinced then that you go where the audience is. And I still think that’s the case now. Now, the business also totally agrees with that.
The Paris Major will bring massive audiences, both online and, excitingly, in person. The audience is definitely there for esports, right? And I do think you seek new audiences when you’re in the esports space.
We are looking all of the time. I think we have to be, if we want to show we are serious about our esports offering.
It is not a small investment, both in terms of what you see, you know, on the pitch or in the arena, and also what’s behind it. So there is significant investment in entering each title.
And it’s worth saying the way we do it might be different to other football clubs. We don’t license our IP. We control everything. The people who work for and the people who represent Manchester City work for Manchester City. I think that is quite unique to how some football clubs are approaching esports.
So as a result, we take new titles really seriously. But Rocket League was not a whim. It was a decision that had been taken over probably a few years. It feels very natural. Essentially, it’s football with cars.
But yes, the answer is we are always looking. And I think we’ll continue to, no matter where we go, we will continue to look at new titles.
You say a few years of research went into entering Rocket League. Rocket League has been a major esports for quite a long time now. I’d argue that it peaked a few years ago, so why was now the time that City decided to invest?
Yeah, it’s a good question. Just more generally, I wonder about esports viewership over the last five years and where that is going. And it’s interesting, even in the time that we’ve been in Rocket League, what’s really interesting, you see the fluctuation of viewership.
Rocket League is mature both in terms of its competition and as a game. It’s also incredibly easy to pick up, in my opinion. Free at the point of entry really helps.
And it took us a while because I think if you look at Fortnite, we also had a Fortnite team. And when we talk about new titles, it’s resources.
If I go back to 10 years ago, when we came in and how we approached esports, that was largely me, almost as an individual. I was definitely finding my way.
And again, we don’t license our IP to create teams in esports. They are all in with us. And so I think when we looked at Rocket League and the opportunity to maybe drop out of Fortnite and test another title, Rocket League seemed like the obvious choice for us.
And how have you found Rocket League so far?
I have found it absolutely exhilarating.
And I think what’s really interesting about Rocket League, and it sounds obvious when you say it out loud, it’s a team sport. I think a team dynamic is really interesting. And again, we’ve had the ultimate dynamic of someone departing and bringing someone else in new who’d never played with the other two boys.
Watching them scrim early doors was fascinating because we’re like, this looks good early. Like, this looks really good early.
And obviously, we’ve got where we want to be, which is the major in Paris. And I can tell you that weekend when we were waiting on results to go our way, it was exactly like City fans waiting for Premier League results.
It was no different. I had all my notifications turned on my phone, and I was absolutely desperate to get there because I know how hard they work. Everyone works so super hard around it.
They’re obsessive about it, so it’s very, very difficult not to get swept along with it. I never play it, but my God, I’m, you know, I’m celebrating demos. And, you know, when we win and win well against big teams, I’m bouncing. It’s amazing.
If you don’t know it, I think it’s very easy to get on board with it because you look at the quality of production and you’re like, oh, this is serious. Totally serious. And with the audience that are going to be in Paris. I don’t think you need to be a massive Rocket League fan to get swept along with it. I know I will be.
How do you try to capitalize on esports to attract new fans and solidify like viewers support?
Yeah. So in the same way that I’ve been doing, I would say in the same way that I’ve been there for 17 years, test, learn, iterate, see what audiences like. If we think we’re experts today, we’ll be left behind tomorrow.
What’s really interesting, I feel, about esports is the tone of voice from a content point of view. It’s super competitive, and I often just bring it down to GGs. But there is a level of respect within esports that I find really interesting.
And what that means is I think you can then be a little bit cheekier. We saw when we looked at other esports teams and tone of voice that was far more cheekier than we maybe would be on, for example, a Man City Global channel.
I don’t think people who are following our esports accounts want us to speak in the same tone as our global channels do. We are still Manchester City, we still have to be safe within certain remits.
But if I go back to our first event on Rocket League, our very first event when the boys were on stage for the first time, it started late. We made a decision to poke fun at the organizers. You wouldn’t do that in football. But that post on X got a ton of traction because I think it was people thinking, OK, Man City are actually doing this properly.
Epic has introduced the Paris Major Rocket League bundle, with its profits going back to teams. City isn’t a team that struggles for money compared to esports organisations, but how important is that in any case in that funding?
Yeah, I think it’s massive in terms of I think funding, even prize money is really important. I think esports needs to be aspirational.
The user base is huge. But what would make you really want to take it to the next level and actually try to find an org? I think people don’t realise just how much effort these guys put in.
This is full-time, totally obsessive. When I play for relief, these guys, this is their job. This is their livelihood. And I think anything that goes back into that is good.
And let’s be clear, it’s needed for parents of younger children to go, there might be something in this. And I’ve definitely seen a shift in that, by the way, in the 10 years I’ve been here, there’s definitely a shift in this idea that this is a legitimate opportunity for young boys and girls to achieve something and achieve a salary.
I think that’s vitally important. t’s fantastic, long may it continue.
Just to finish things off, you talked about having a psychologist and coaches. How has City invested to help the Rocket League team prep for Paris?
They boot camp all of the time. They’ve come over to Manchester a number of times to boot camp.
Obviously, we’ve gone through a roster change. So, that made us probably do more in-person boot camps than we would have previously.
I think if you look at where we were in where we were from not getting to Boston and where we have got to qualifying for Paris, I think that investment has paid off.
That investment is coaches, managers, etc. Saul, who runs our esports sporting offering, has an incredible knowledge base. He is constantly on the lookout for great players in a number of different titles, whether we’re in them or not, because I think that’s what we have to be.
You know, if we were to go into something else tomorrow, we need to know where we’re getting the right people in. So yeah, we’ve invested as you’d expect us to invest. I think that’s never been the issue, really.
You know, which is why we win certainly on an FC front. You know, no one invests more than we do in FC from a Premier League point of view. And fortunately, we’ve won four out of eight titles and three in a row.
How do you think Manchester City will perform at the Paris Major? Share your predictions on the Insider Gaming Discord.
Plus, there are many RLCS events left in the calendar, including Rocket League at the Esports World Cup 2026.
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