Meet Furious Gaming: The eSports Team That Thrives Alongside Soccer Superstar Paulo Dybala As It Seeks To Diversify Revenue Streams

By Juan Ignacio Boscato

Boasting 10 years of history, it is one of the pioneers in Latin America. In 2021, it grew by 300% and now aims to drive the development of the entire region.

Furious was born in 2012. It was inspired by the love of its founder and present CEO, Gonzalo García, for Activision Blizzard Inc ATVI’s “Starcraft,” a game that was key to the evolution of esports.

In this context, Gonzalo (Gonzo as referred to by his friends) was competing with Facundo "kALA" Calabró, who had founded Isurus Gaming. Both teams would lay the foundations of the scene in the region.

Over the years, La Calavera (The Skull), as Furious is commonly known, has expanded and today has a physical presence with first-class infrastructure in two countries: Argentina and Mexico.

The team competes in six games: “League of Legends,” “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” “Rainbow Six,” “Free Fire” and “PUBG Mobile.” The members also plan to return to “VALORANT” in 2023.

As stated by Gonzo himself: “Nowadays, we produce revenues for more than a hundred families directly or indirectly. And in the middle term, we aim to establish ourselves in a developed region in order to start hobnobbing with world-class teams.”

The year 2020 was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. But for esports, it proved to be a period of exponential growth, as the quarantine led people to enjoy them from home.

During that period, the organization negotiated with its future investment group. “We made a mutual decision to include a prominent public figure that would help us enhance the growth of Furious Gaming for the coming years. We had an interview with Paulo Dybala, presented the company and our roadmap and he was delighted,” says Gonzo about the soccer star’s involvement.

Paulo Dybala is a football player at A.S Roma in Italy and a member of Argentina’s National Soccer Team. He announced his new partnership with Furious Gaming during a live stream with uber-viral Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos in the presence of hundreds of thousands of people who tuned in from home.

Thanks to the new investment group, the incorporation of new games and the pandemic (in a small percentage), the team grew exponentially, especially in 2021. In total, they had a growth of 300% and improved a lot in social networks.

When asked about 2022, Gonzo claims that, “it’s been a good year in general terms but we are facing an even more challenging general situation. The post-pandemic world is reshaping the markets and esports are not immune to that.”

esports teams don’t only need to compete in the sporting aspect; they also have to diversify their business units to continue growing.

For instance, on top of being a professional esports team, Furious runs a content agency that works with several brands. The team also does influencer marketing and, recently released a lifestyle and clothing brand: Furious Brand.

The sports agenda for 2023 is yet to be defined. It depends on the competitive calendars defined by the publishers for their games and also on the results obtained in the six disciplines in which the teams participate.

However, Furious’ CEO asserts that the team’s focus “will be on ‘VALORANT,’ ‘LoL’ and ‘Free Fire.’”

Another expansion plan that had been announced but was delayed over time was the European expansion made possible by Dybala. In this regard, Gonzo states, "We believe that the next step is to globalize the brand and for this, we need to set foot in some of the developed regions. Among them are North America, Europe or Asia."

“Because of the Spanish-speaking public and Latin influence, we believe that Spain will be our next destination. We want to export Latin talent to Europe and be a hub there for all the teams from our region that want or need to be there. The idea is to start with Counter-Strike and see the market opportunities that come our way so as to expand with other titles gradually”, he concludes.

When it comes to “Counter-Strike,” Furious has always been one of the best teams in Argentina and even participated in international tournaments such as ESL LA League, CBCS Elite League and the WESG 2018 in China.

The “League of Legends” team was also among the greatest in the region. It participated in an IEM in Sao Pablo and became a finalist in the Latin American League (LLA). With its team in Chile, Furious is a three-time champion of the Honor League.

La Calavera's last great result was in PUBG Mobile, where it reached the finals of the Global Championship 2021 and secured a place among the top 16 teams in the world, in addition to winning more than USD 100,000 in prizes.

What’s next for this gaming behemoth is still to be seen. Stay tuned.

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