[Bilal_io]

Maybe we will see national eSports teams if the fan base blows up over the years. But as for the existing teams, they're more like soccer clubs, and shouldn't be restricted by region, it allows money to be invested to bring in the best players, which is a good incentive for players to shine.

[Ekaros]

Regional isn't so much about the players. But that they play every week or every other weak in same stadium with same core group of fans easily being present. And on smaller clubs at least in Europe there is clear pipeline for juniors to the main team players. Thus bulk of the players can be locals.

[jameshart]

Soccer clubs aren’t regional?

[smcl]

I think they mean that if you are, say, Real Madrid you can sign a player who was born in Sevilla, Brazil or Turkey or wherever.

[jameshart]

Okay, makes sense.

Doesn’t seem to restrict the ability of soccer clubs to build fanatical fanbases though

[smcl]

True but remember most of these teams have existed for a long time before it became possible for fans to support or follow teams abroad via TV and internet. So teams in smaller markets (eg Scotland, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden) have had the chance to build a local support base without necessarily “competing” for their loyalty with those in bigger markets (eg England, Germany, Spain, Italy).

Note that I’ve put “competing” in quotes because I’m talking about fanbases and therefore money to build and develop their teams. Interestingly in the past when they did compete on the field things were much more equal. Before the explosion of TV money thumbed the scales in favour of the bigger players, it wasn’t such a huge shock for, say[0], Dundee United to beat Barcelona or IFK Gothenburg to beat Internazionale that it would today.

[0] in fact both of these results happened, in the semifinals of the 1986/87 European Cup

[Bilal_io]

I cannot speak for other eSports, but I follow Rocket League and it has this rules which gives players the power over the clubs. If two players out of three decide to stick together and either move to another team or form a new Org, they can take their ranking and qualifications with them. So at least for this specific esport it's hard to build loyalty around an Org and it's formed around the players instead.