Report on the AnyKey Initiative: 2015-2017

Key insights

5 takeaways

01
AnyKey's GLHF pledge campaign, run with Intel, Twitch, and Oculus, drew 267,596 sign-ups. Participants who linked their Twitch account received a badge through the end of 2017.See it on page 6
02
The Intel Challenge Women's CSGO Championship at IEM Katowice in 2016 had 8 teams, a $30k prize pool, and 55k stream viewers, with a reported 100%+ year-over-year increase.See it on page 2
03
The affiliates program, launched in 2016, had grown to 24 members, including esports organizations, communities, and individual content creators.See it on page 4
04
The report says workshops have built industry connections: at the MIT workshop, the 16 industry experts present are calculated to have resulted in 120 connections.See it on page 7
05
The report states that, especially around conventions, Morgan Romine is spending upwards of 60% of her time on administrative details, such as shipping and booking travel, which detracts from higher-level attention to other projects.See it on page 8

Summary

AnyKey is an advocacy organization, formed in collaboration with Intel and the Electronic Sports League (ESL), that supports diverse participation in esports. This January 2018 report covers its activities from September 2015 to September 2017. Its work spans stakeholder workshops, event fieldwork, whitepapers, tournaments, convention activations, public panels, role-model profiles, a Code of Conduct, and an affiliates program. Co-directed by T.L. Taylor and Morgan Romine, the organization is funded primarily through Intel, and the report notes it is at the end of its initial primary funding cycle and seeking new support.

The report describes several outputs over the period. It lists five whitepapers, from Women in Esports (October 2015) through Gender Inclusion in Esports: Best Practices Guidelines (December 2017). The Intel Challenge Women's CSGO Championship at IEM Katowice 2016 is described as having 8 teams, a $30k prize pool, and 55k stream viewers. The affiliates program, launched in 2016, had 24 members at the time of writing. The GLHF pledge campaign, run with Intel, Twitch, and Oculus, was taken by 267, 596 people.

The report states that AnyKey has become a "go to" organization for diversity and inclusion in esports. It cites four prongs behind this reputation: workshops and whitepapers, sponsorship of the women's CSGO Intel Challenge, convention and panel outreach, and press and social media. For its next two-year period, the report sets out three growth areas: scaling up operations, training and outreach, and active engagement. It notes that, especially around conventions, Morgan Romine spends upwards of 60% of her time on administrative details.