Essay 1.5: An Intro to World-Building
Essay 1.5, “An Intro to World-Building,” focuses on Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag and the steps he took to build the world of 100 Thieves. You can watch the entire video above, as well as read the edited script below.
After announcing their latest raise of $60 million, Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag had this to say: “I think this Marvel-esque universe that we have continued to build over the last couple of years is only going to grow bigger and grow stronger. And hopefully you guys grow to love everything that we are piecing together in the shadows back here at 100 Thieves.”
In 2011, at the age of 19, Nadeshot became a Call of Duty World Champion. Five years later, after a storied career in esports, he founded 100 Thieves, a lifestyle brand and gaming organization based in Los Angeles.
A decade after that first championship, Nadeshot counts Dan Gilbert and Drake among the many people investing in the universe he’s crafting. So how did the gamer go from playing video games in his childhood home to running a company valued at $460 million?
Part I: Creators Are Companies
In 2019, YouTube contributed $16 billion to U.S. GDP, the equivalent of 345,000 jobs. The Creator Economy isn't some far off thing: it's here, and business...is booming.
Creators now have to manage multiple revenue streams
Nowadays, creators like us are small media companies. Gone are the days of just "focusing on one thing" — launching various revenue streams is vital to sustainable growth, particularly when a content-only focus forces us to be at the mercy of algorithms. Views can stagnate, or we might need a vacation.
Plus, managing a company is hard; doing it authentically is harder, especially when we often lack the infrastructure of traditional companies.
On top of that, people with huge followings have told me they simply don't have the time, knowledge, or desire to launch a podcast, design new merch, or collaborate with a partner brand...even if doing these things could unlock major business potential when executed right.
But what if there was a way to organize an internal ecosystem and build out from there, all while staying true to yourself?
To create a universe community members can explore, and come back to, learning more about their surroundings and reflecting on their own relationship to the creator as both parties continuously evolve as human beings?
This...is the idea behind world-building.
Part II: Tolkien’s Map
Over the course of the last year, I've been obsessed with a quote: "To compose a map from a story is a weary business."
Elvin languages, legendary treasure, and a world on fire. This is what J.R.R. Tolkien was referencing when he created Middle Earth, the mystical realm in which The Lord of the Rings takes place.
Tolkien understood that in order to package his sprawling epics together in a way that was coherent for his readers, he needed to first determine the distance between mountains in Middle Earth, and how different cultures' histories influenced their relations. A lot of things happen throughout his stories, so he made sure to set up a central nexus first that could tie everything together: a map.
Tolkien needed to create a map in order to accurately track his characters’ travels.
Since Tolkien captivated millions with the power of his pen and imagination, the process of world-building has influenced storytellers from fantasy writers to science fiction showrunners alike.
And while the term usually conjures images of new planets and complex allegories to explore, it's also seeped into our modern lives through the "constructed world presented to us by politics, marketing, and the media" as essayist The Nerdwriter put it in 2015:
“Who we are is already hugely — and powerfully — managed by interested parties all around us. Maybe we ought to seek out fiction...that rattles our perspective and exposes the false fronts of the fantasy we were born into, the world that was built without our consent.”
So we know that this superpower can be extraordinarily influential — but how do we ensure that when using it in the real world, we harness it for good?
Part III: Evergreen World-Building
In 2017, I was unhappy, writing for a blog that I felt prioritized clicks and views over the content itself.
As a lifelong community-builder obsessed with making things — chiefly, translating my passions into a reality — I decided to start an online publication that swapped clickbait and half-baked takes for longform storytelling on culture and life.
In 2017, I created a longform publication covering Gen Z culture and life.
The meaning of that original publication has changed over the years, but there's a thread that has tied it all together: a passion for creating evergreen worlds, worlds that we can continue to revisit and grow with over time.
Worlds built through context, depth, vulnerability, and creativity, driven by an empathy for our peers and a thirst for originality.
Worlds that prompt us to take the ideas and themes presented to push the boundaries of our discourse and enact active change in our day-to-day lives.
I've always thought of life as ever-changing and ever-fluid, never black-and-white but always full of gray. And I believe that to create a lasting impact as a creative, you need to acknowledge this nuance, to rise above the narratives that seem to dominate our fast-paced lives.
Yet whether you like it or not, people will form their own interpretations of your world, connections that might strengthen one year and waver the next. But that doesn't mean you can't continuously curate and steer the conversation. When reflecting on how his streetwear brand The Hundreds has remained in business for over two decades, co-founder Bobby Hundreds wrote:
Bobby and the Hundreds community in a short film dubbed “Wildfire.”
“We'll sell you a t-shirt, but not before we tell you about the artist behind it and [their] message. Our stores are less about sales and profits, and more about providing a venue to experience our culture.”
People over product, Bobby often says. If tomorrow, his voice ceased to resonate with The Hundreds' community through his essays on life, culture, and streetwear, there would be no one left rocking Adam Bomb.
So whether you're a creator, designer, founder, or storyteller, where do you even start? And how do you build things that last?
Part IV: Bias For The Long Run
Let's come back to Tolkien: before you tell your story, first, you need to make your map.
Herein lies the concept of crafting what's known as a synergy map. This process dates back to the days of Walt Disney and has been expanded on recently by hip hop newsletter Trapital and creator economy show Colin & Samir.
Using the definitions we’ve created, by organizing the different "nodes" around a central "nexus,” we're able to understand how the various branches work together and why each one's a priority.
Let's take a look at the esports organization 100 Thieves and how they’re building their map.
In 2017, top Call of Duty player Matthew "Nadeshot'' Haag launched the company with help from Dan Gilbert, a co-founder of Quicken Loans. At the time, it made sense from a business perspective: eSports is projected to crack $1.62 billion in revenue by 2024, and the majority of fans are between 13 and 24 years old, a valuable demographic for new brands.
But Nadeshot wanted to do more than just create competitive rosters — he wanted to transform the perception of e-sports into a lifestyle deemed cool, and he did this through content, apparel, and a physical compound.
The first thing Nadeshot did was sign top talent from around the world. Even if his teams weren't necessarily winning every tournament, they were competing in high profile games and getting their name out to the eSports community.
Next, 100 Thieves started to regularly upload videos to YouTube. In 2020, YouTube as a platform reported 100B watch time hours on gaming content site-wide and 40M+ active gaming channels. Therefore, people watching Thieves teams compete now had a place to engage with the brand further on a platform they were already using. In turn, gaming fans could now discover 100 Thieves on YouTube and go tune into their competitions.
100 Thieves modeling a merch drop with limited-edition pieces.
With the hype they were building, Thieves started dropping lifestyle apparel from team jerseys to branded anoraks to even $68 sweat shorts. Their content and competitions provide a reason to purchase the merch — which regularly sell out — while the various pieces offer crew members slick branding in their various appearances.
And finally, following their early success, Nadeshot raised a $35M Series B, bringing on investors like Drake and Scooter Braun while seeing the company's valuation skyrocket to $160M. This allowed Thieves to build the Cash App Compound in Culver City, a central hub where the team could now practice, produce apparel, and film content.
If you zoom out, you start to see the world Nadeshot has built: one where eSports creators, personalities, and competitors are the modern-day curators of cool. I noted this in July, when Gucci stopped by the Cash App compound and produced a short film promoting the release of a collaborative backpack. 100 Thieves is slowing down anytime soon, either, as they’re working with chart-topping artists like Lil Nas X and
Come back to Trapital and their case study. In referencing Jay Z's verse "Pound Cake," Rae once told Forbes:
Multi-talented artist Issa Rae is well-known for building her unique business.
“That ‘Pound Cake’ verse that Jay Z has where he talks about how his associates have made billions because he’s paved the way for them is 'goals' for me. It’s not even from a monetary perspective; it’s really about ownership.”
When you build your world in this fashion, you're doing something crucial: creating original IP. And that's the key to this whole thing.
Trends come and go, and creators are no exception — demanding consistent excellence in your artistic expression is a tall order. Nevertheless, if you can capitalize on the spotlight while you have it and craft a world that connects with your community on a deep level, it allows you to expand your business and own entire verticals structured for the long run.
It allows you...to build things that last.
Outro
Personally, when it comes to creating, I’ve never had a problem with getting things done. There's so many different stories I want to tell in crafting my own world — but that world only gets as far as the systems behind them. And when you don't know how to prioritize the moving parts of your business, you get lost.
Casey Neistat, the godfather of this generation of creators, has this to say on the subject:
"Ideas are cheap....Everybody has ideas. Ideas are highly, highly overvalued. Execution is all that matters."
With this in mind, I sat down and made my synergy map. It's made a huge difference in hammering down my big-picture vision into attainable sprints, and I’ve since developed a repeatable process to help other creators organize their ecosystems internally while continuing to draw in fans externally.
Want to build your own synergy map? Check out our free template here!
It's been a dream come true seeing how positively you all have responded to Season.1 over these last several months. We can’t wait to share some of what we have in store for 2022, as we have some really dope interviews lined up.
See you all in February for Season.2, where we’ll dive even further into how the internet’s top creators are building out their unique worlds!
Coverage from Creator Mag.1 continues on! Plus, follow along with our video essays by subscribing to our channel.