---
title: 'how do Esports teams make money? w/ LOUD owner PlayHard'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=9vXDNhLawvU'
video_id: '9vXDNhLawvU'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 852
---

# how do Esports teams make money? w/ LOUD owner PlayHard

> Source: [how do Esports teams make money? w/ LOUD owner PlayHard](https://youtube.com/watch?v=9vXDNhLawvU)

## Summary

In this interview, LOUD owner Bruno 'PlayHard' discusses the financial realities of esports, the importance of content and branding, and LOUD's strategies for finding and developing talent in Brazil.

### Key Points

- **Esports profitability is rare** [01:52] — When asked how esports teams make money, PlayHard jokes that in North America no one knows and everyone loses money. He suggests winning Champions and securing sponsors to cover losses.
- **Finding talent in ranked matches** [02:57] — LOUD scouts players from Brazilian ranked games, which are very tough. Players like 'less' were found at age 17 in ranked. The staff is passionate and constantly watches ranked matches.
- **Incubating and selling players** [05:55] — LOUD plans to start a program to find and incubate players, including teaching English, to eventually sell them. This is a strategy because Brazilian orgs can't compete with high NA salaries.
- **Building player brands over short-term money** [06:47] — PlayHard emphasizes that players should build their brand and become streamers for long-term income, rather than chasing high salaries. LOUD offers benefits like crowd support and content opportunities.
- **Early struggles and content-driven growth** [10:21] — LOUD started with Free Fire and lost a lot for 1-2 years. PlayHard's 10 years as a content creator helped attract fans and sponsors, which eventually allowed them to sign good players.
- **Showing the human side of players** [11:56] — PlayHard believes esports should show the fun side of players through vlogs and content, so fans connect with them personally. This helps retain players and build loyalty.

### Conclusion

LOUD's success comes from a mix of winning, strong content creation, and a player development pipeline that focuses on branding and long-term growth rather than short-term salaries.

## Transcript

hello there hi nice to meet you you want
to put on a headset play hard right yeah
play hard that's my nickname my name is
Bruno this is Bruno or play hard he's uh
wow that are winning this tournament
yeah it's good man like what's so close
this was like it was not worse than the
NRG game but was very close as well yeah
I was like super excited to be to start
with one like two matches two two maps
but on the third on the fourth yeah they
they made it up I mean like if I was you
I'd be like so nervous and like people
were like yo do you want to be on like
the stream I was like I'm feeling
actually sick I want to go to the
restaurant you know like so yeah like I
wouldn't want to talk to you anymore
like no one talked to me I just need to
watch the game oh wow great how do you
feel about uh the finals then you guys
will be playing fnatic or Navi what are
you more scared of
dude both teams are showing a really
nice valorant on the on the tournament
uh I think both are dangerous but maybe
uh fanatic fanatic yeah yeah you guys
are gonna move to uh La soon huh that's
crazy yeah like right now besides both
games that you usually do with the
League of Legends and Valerian team it's
gonna be the first time that we're gonna
leave abroad have a roster abroad yeah
we're super excited it's gonna be like a
lot of experiment and trial and error
for us but we are looking forward for
seeing this thing to compete abroad yeah
yeah are you gonna come visit L.A
definitely La is one of my favorite
places in the world I usually go once or
twice a year uh I really like California
overall the US and definitely I'll be
there for uh like a couple months I
guess yeah okay so I have a very
important question as an Esports team
owner how do you make money
North America no one knows everyone lose
money yeah Pro tip go to the Champions
it's good gotta go to Champions okay one
that's good got a lot of sponsors a lot
of spots you're having like a lot of
content I know you guys also killing
content so like the content you can
bring in sponsors so they cover all the
losses from Esports got it okay we just
need to win Champions we're profiting
for four years old our organization yeah
we started 2019 and we've rough things
so it's not bad it's very it's not it's
very good especially Brazil rights
Brazil yeah like in America like we have
so much money but no one's making a
profit so uh we need to learn from you
guys exactly yeah oh man yeah I mean I'm
trying out this like Valentine stuff
it's hard
um like the players the coach but you
guys have a good system
um like when you guys lost sassy and
pancata everyone was like hmm I don't
know are they still gonna be good but
the two new guys I don't know who found
them two reasons
but like they are performing really well
for new players yeah it was like uh
lucky for sure because you can get good
players but uh make sure that they're
gonna perform on clutch situations like
those games yeah it's very hard so a
little bit of luck but also our staff is
very passionate about Valor and they are
always watching people from ranked
matches in Brazil the ranked games in
Brazil are super tough so oh really yeah
like less came from like he was like 17
years old when he found Nano ranked
games
please also they were playing on
different teams but yeah they are like
open Commerce and with a strategy invest
on them are amazing like we were super
scared of losing them but yeah so far is
doing good I guess yeah so when you guys
come to uh La you know Anya ask a favor
okay please practice with my team
definitely they need help man definitely
yeah those guys are they're super nice
uh they also love to help other things
from loud from other games all about
like how to behave as a pro player a
world champion so I love those guys the
players are such nice guys so definitely
they will help you for sure awesome
thank you thank you yeah exciting oh man
yeah this is my first time in Brazil
first time how do you like the the
weather of like the the weather here
it's not so bad it's pretty hot but not
the hottest place I've ever been to but
I haven't had a chance to like go out
and see much because like the hotel
Stadium Hotel Stadium it's Sao Paulo is
pretty standard if you ever come back go
to Rio like uh yeah they do yeah it's
super nice super great place to see okay
cool hey guys on the shed how are you
doing yeah
come to Brazil with school calendar it's
pretty nice here like the weather's good
people are friendly and uh yeah I want
to get out to see more here uh so
hopefully like when you guys were too
low I'm like okay nice nice I can go out
and like check out Brazil but DRX like
they came back but I'm really glad you
guys the funny story about the NRG game
I I like I I brought my my mother-in-law
to watch the game for the first time she
doesn't know anything about uh Esports
and she was watching and I'm like okay
it's gonna be fast all the games that I
watched was like super fast and stuff I
could just go and have lunch later we
were starving at the game was like 1918
and going over and over over time yeah
it was fun did she understand what was
going on no she was just praying for
Andy up fast like hearing all the shots
she was quite mad yeah
the fast game like it's nice like I'd
rather win 3-0 but it's that feeling
when it's tied up up and it's like it's
very close it's like a good Rush yeah
and when you wins the best feeling ever
yeah when you lose I was like dude I'm
gonna be so like Peace during all the
week but right now it's good I saw a guy
saying about like discounting for loud
uh we are actually seeing a bunch of
like good players going and playing on
other things the world like from other
regions we're trying to to start a
program to find these players and
incubate them oh yeah in Brazil even
like teaching English because that's the
point like the players doesn't speak
good English so it's hard to play with
things from na or Europe
yeah but that's a plan that we have for
the next year to find players incubate
and maybe make somebody selling oh yeah
selling players are smart uh like uh I
had franchise Works they like see my
team and they're like making offers to
them like trying to buy them 30 like one
of them already got taken away as we
were like testing them yeah so uh I like
that program like selling players or
something and for us especially in
Brazil we can't compete with uh those
salaries it's like crazy we don't have
like US dollars to match up uh to those
offers so for those players and other
programs we try to offer uh another
benefits for staying with us you see the
crowd like the sponsors the brands the
content players like that they have to
build their brands not about like making
money and yeah you know so like because
if you build your brand and you can
become a big streamer and you make more
money with that but like sometimes some
players like
I mean like America they have too much
money like oh you won 50 000 like
they're not gonna get that money back
but they're just like here's fifty
thousand dollars a month it's like well
as the owner I'm like I think you should
take it and then you can come back later
with all that money but like yeah
staying with uh with an org like
building a brand and like knowing you're
taken care of is more important but um
not every like if different players
different priorities I I tell you those
guys they are like 19 years old it's not
like a three years career you're looking
for like 10 15 years doing something
that your love should do so think right
on the beginning and Valerian is so new
right there's only its third year and
like you can become like a long-term
Superstar right like when you look at CS
goes it's like simple who's just known
for like 10 years like you don't want to
be like Oh I'm really good one year and
then no one knows you next year
definitely yeah
yeah this was super uh super fun uh real
really nerve-wracking really stressful
like I'm looking at the Brazilian crowd
every loss is like
so like sad it's like oh what am I lose
and everyone is like so much energy did
you see loud poke like the guy painted
in green oh yeah I saw him that was
crazy it was crazy yeah he was all green
I'm like wow this guy really loves loud
yeah he's gonna have some trouble like
in the shower later yeah taking it off
and then he has to come back uh for the
finals again yeah he said he will yeah
yeah a long time to put on that makeup
have you ever have ever been to like any
restaurants in Sao Paulo no restaurants
no yeah we might go to one after this
okay yeah yeah no good yeah yeah you
guys have any questions for uh pH owner
of loud and he like this is your only
chance
no don't say that yeah we can do more
collabs when I go there yeah oh I would
love that like you know we'll show you
around La a little bit I don't go out
too much but I know people who go out
same same yeah la uh well we found like
10 teams all in La
um I'll definitely like watch some games
in person as well a lot of guys plans
for the org like your org
I mean right now it's just wind good
um because I feel like
the the thing that's hard and Esports is
like when you're early on it's so
important to just win yeah because like
um when you lose everyone kind of like
makes fun of you it's like wow I can't
believe you try to get into it like you
don't know what you're doing it's like
winning I feel like the most important
thing but it's hard as an owner because
I'm like I can't help you guys win like
I can like get you guys attention help
you with videos help you with branding
but I can't help you win
um so we won two games lost one so it's
like really intense yesterday we had two
games go to overtime and I was like I
couldn't I couldn't talk like I'll
stream with tarek and he's like talking
like please shut up stop talking
um no plans like right now I'm just
trying to stay in valorent because it's
very expensive yeah and I don't have any
investors I don't have any sponsors yet
maybe next year but right now it's just
like when I see the players like get so
happy it's like man I wish I could feel
that feeling but they're feeling it and
that's good enough for me that's a good
strategy yeah yeah how did you do it
when you first started out when we first
started our team just sucked in all
games like we started with free fire big
big mobile game in Brazil uh we were
very popular because like I'm a content
creator for the past 10 years so I have
like millions of YouTube followers and
so on so it was easy to bring people to
to cheer for the team but winning is
very hard very hard very hard and we we
lost a lot for like one two years and
then we started to get the good players
by like having content and having
sponsors type you did the roster uh we
jumped into League uh Brazilian League's
not that good but in Brazil uh the the
the scenes not that that hard show to
compete at a high level and then we jump
into valorant we had this opportunity of
get this team for a very cheap price
because Valor was just starring uh in
Brazil two years ago so we started to
win actually so we built up this sports
program some strategy from the team to
build up winning things uh and worked
out well like last year we won like
three four uh trophies and the fans got
really hyped about this but we can't be
sure that we're gonna keep winning and
winning and winning that's why we have
other strategies like doing content and
having like collabs and uh projects
experiences we have a lot of like
products and partnership with Brands
yeah that's the way that we try to to go
yeah that's where I saw you guys the
like a YouTube video with DRX I thought
that was really cute because like you
guys are playing against each other but
you're still like being friendly making
content because
um I mean that's what it's all about
right like making content together even
though you're competing against one
another
um it's not like a serious thing it's
like everyone respects each other a lot
yeah and they feel like Esports is very
still so players are like uh just
playing okay I have to be the best and
as a content creator I think we have to
show the other sides sometimes so people
can connect and cheer even more if they
they watch us for sad hack doing funny
stuff that's why we have Vlogs every
week of the the backstage of the things
to show to the audience how they really
are as person yeah so that's better
that's really smart and and League of
Legends North America every team is five
Koreans and like it's a five new Koreans
next year and for the fans it's like I
don't know who they are they don't speak
my language they're not here next year
so it's like really tough so definitely
very smart to show like who they are
like behind the camera and the fans will
like them if they like them like they
watch their streams support them by
merge and they will want to like you
know stay in the org because not a lot
of orc things like that they're like oh
I just want to buy good player buy a
good player I don't care like who you
are just be a good player and after the
players leave those Orcs they have
nothing right yeah no like no salary
like no branding so yeah if they they
end up not playing well those teams
usually they just hire another good
player at that moment and they they are
just lost yeah now I really like what
you guys are building with loud and like
I think the reason why you guys can get
like good players is like they see The
Branding they see like how you take care
of the players and like of course
winning helps a lot it helps yeah but uh
that's really smart I'm I'm trying to
write this all down yeah we should
connect like I'll get her number later
or social media so we can just chat and
yeah thank you thank you so much I need
all the help I can get yeah I also need
some some like tips you guys are doing
great content there are for your content
they are just amazing yeah well we can't
we can trade secrets and then you guys
can dominate like the franchise League
will dominate Challengers League you
know one tier lower yeah we will sell
you some Brazilian friends okay cheap I
promise oh okay all right and then I'll
I'll do content for you man like loud
videos on my channel okay
that's cool awesome well thank you so
much thanks for having really enjoyed it