Since the dawn of humanity it has been survival of the fittest.  Men ruled by being the biggest, strongest and toughest in the pack.  But we are in the era of E-Sports now, an era with a new mantra; 'survival of the smartest'.

Instead of leading your peers by showing them you are indeed the biggest and the baddest of all others you now need to prove you are the most intelligent.  If you are a player you will need to prove  your strategies are better than the rest.  If not you wont be the next Jang Jae Ho or Boxer.  You will also need to prove you are intelligent enough to be able to market yourself in a positive way to sponsors as well as the fans.  You will need to be mature enough to know how to handle yourself in stressful situations in front of millions of people in a positive manner.  When you are moments away from either winning the biggest match of your life or having your dreams crushed in the dying moments of an intense match you need to be smarter than your opponent and pull off the victory.

As a manager you also need to be the smartest or E-Sports will leave you behind without a second glance.  You need to be able to organize your team in a more efficient manner, or you might end up costing your players precious practice time, sleep or meal time, and in turn, cost your team the event.  You also need to be smart enough to manage multiple peoples careers; if not its their lives on the line and your job.  The same as with players, you need to be able to manage yourself in the best way possible to ensure you stick out of the crowd and in turn the organization you represent.

Event coordinators have to be on the ball as well, if not their event will soon be a thing of the past.  You need to be able to identify  most, if not all obstacles in advance so you can deal with them accordingly.  You need to be smart enough to be able to please multiple groups of people within the E-SPorts community and be careful to not leave anyone out.  If you upset the wrong person it could be the end of your event before you know it.  You also need to be able to create a savvy business plan so as to entice investors and sponsors to your event.

Learning is your next step.  It will take time to get to a suitable level of any of the aforementioned positions, or any other within E-Sports.  For a player I would suggest practicing more strictly and reading a few strategy books; 'Sun Tzu; the Art of War" is especially good.  As well you may wish to spruce up your image and prepare yourself for interviews.

For a manager I would suggest building a strong and rather large contact list within the E-Sports community, whether it be players, other managers, owners,  event coordinators and even sponsors.  I would also  suggest picking up a business language text book, it will teach you a lot about how to communicate better in regards to the world of business.  Also, follow the market in E-Sports extensively.  It will allow you to stay on top of trends and allow you to have a larger influence within E-Sports.

Last but not least; the event coordinator.  You need to be the most wary of the market and follow any trends (or set your own) and make sure your event appeals to the community.  I would recommend the same business text book as mentioned earlier.  It will help acquire and keep investors and sponsors.  The last thing you want is for you not to be able to communicate with potential partners.

So as you see, it pays off to stay educated.  If you fall behind, its not because you weren't the biggest and baddest; it was because you weren't smart enough.