Analytics and e-sports explained with Longford's Peadar Kenny

Peadar Kenny, former student of Melview Primary School and St Mel’s Secondary, has lived in Longford most of his life. Once he went to Trinity College Dublin, the world of esports opened up for him. A three-week F1 series between colleges and teammates was the first time competing, and then his friend, Adam Farrell, got him into Dota. It has led to a successful company.

Imprint Esports provides advanced player and team performance analytics for professional Dota 2. Dota is a is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena game, which Peadar and Adam chose because it is a complex e-sport, and one that they enjoy. LaunchBox in TCD over the summer, after an entrepreneur society Dragon's Den victory, taught them everything from accounting, sales, pitching to talks on how to get a business going.

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Peadar is the technical lead of the company along with Adam Farrell.

“Isn’t it such a strange industry?” mulls Peadar. “Soccer and rugby there’s a level. In e-sports, there is none of that. You’re lucky to be playing at a high level. You may get noticed by someone to go to a lower tier team and go up.

The original idea for Imprint was a tournament organisation software where a load of players could have a tournament and have a data viewer on the back end to analyse each players performance for recruiting.”

Working on the technical side, Peadar and Imprint recently attended the Dota 2 league in Dundalk, which was a volunteer-run event at The Gateway Hotel.

“We work with the Irish Dota League and Dota 2 Ireland. This incredible group of volunteers and run leagues and events, in-person competitions. It’s all volunteer-based, might make no money and possible losses putting them on. There are a couple hundred of us. This weekend we were at a hotel in Dundalk that we rented where 10 or so were playing.”

From a Covid standpoint, Peadar said that the e-sports world grew unsustainably with large cash prizes as money was flying everywhere. He refers to a $40 million prize for Dota in 2021. Afterwards, there was an ‘e-sports winter’ but interest has surged.

“The whole thing of the e-sports generation is that it wasn’t profitable. A lot of sponsorships come from the top. If prize tools increase, player tools increase and hire analysts. There’s a massive spike in Covid that was unsustainable. The outlook now is very positive.”

Having attended the International Dota Championship this year in Hamburg, Germany, Peadar calls the e-sports scene surreal to places like concerts.

“We were working on our website, launched a fantasy product which went down well with the people we trialled it with. That was pretty cool. Just being there. E-sports events have a very different energy. Everyone is really enthusiastic.”

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Peadar encourages people who want to explore their interests.

“You’ve got to find something you love, talk to people who are relevant and have a go at it.”