EVO, the world’s largest fighting game tournament, held its first-ever European edition this year in Nice, France. With 5,000 participants representing 93 nationalities, the event gathered players from across the globe for three days of intense competition across seven main titles at the Palais des Expositions. Sheep Esports spoke with Joël Digbeu, head of BMS Esports, about the event’s preparation, the club’s economic reality, and its special ties to the League of Legends scene.

You celebrated your second EVO title on social media this year with Jo'siah "Hikari" Miller’s victory in Dragon Ball FighterZ. For this edition, BMS brought in new faces. How did this recruitment process come together?

Joël Digbeu: “At the start of the project, with EVO Nice being announced in 2024, our goal was to field WAWA (Marwan Berthe) — especially since he’s from the region. But we knew he was starting to get approached by major teams. Financially, we couldn’t keep up and ended up losing him, as well as Raflow (Arda Imrek). At that point, we set the tournament aside — I even considered not entering at all, worried we wouldn’t be able to keep pace financially. Expectations were high: we were the only French team to have won since 2022, but we couldn’t field a roster that wasn’t competitive.

Who built your lineup for the event after losing your historic players?

Joël Digbeu: Within our team, there’s EndY, who scouted and reached out to players. Thanks to him, we managed to sign Verix (Ismaila Gueye) and Hikari. We struck an agreement during the summer but waited until the last moment to announce them, so no one could poach them. With Neia, it was different. Someone told me about her, so we went to a Weekly at Espot in Paris to see for ourselves. We saw her beating top players, and even when she lost, the matches were close. So we reached out to Kayane (Marie-Laure Norindr) to put us in touch with her family since she’s a minor. We financed her first major at UFA, without the BMS tag, to watch her development — she finished 13th. From then on, we knew we had to keep her.

EVO brings in some of the biggest names in esports (T1, Team Liquid, NiP…). Is it a point of pride to win against clubs like these?

Joël Digbeu: Yes, absolutely. And to be honest, I fear the day we might lose that feeling. We’re a bit like Asterix against the Romans [Laughs]. I like this outsider status because it means less pressure. And we really are the people’s team. We’ve had a few clashes with other clubs on this topic, but we’re the ones sleeping with mice in the office.

You place strong emphasis on merchandising. Did this tournament boost your jersey sales?

Joël Digbeu: Completely. The further we advanced in the tournament, the more notifications of sales I received on my phone. If tomorrow we stop selling jerseys, that’s the end. We’re heavily dependent on merchandising. We don’t yet have other assets we can rely on to generate revenue apart from our fanbase.

How many BMS jerseys do you sell each year?

Joël Digbeu: Over 1,000 a year, which for us is huge. Right now, we’ve had a real boost — almost 600 in a single week. I’ve been a jersey fanatic since I was a kid — I’ve always had a passion for textiles, for jerseys, for manufacturing. I’m truly passionate about clothing.

For 2026, you announced plans to have a player for every EVO title. Is that plan already in motion?

Joël Digbeu: Not yet. We’d like to, but financially we can’t project that far ahead. The first EVO we won in Las Vegas, we marketed it poorly. What I regret is this sort of anti-business mindset we had, refusing invitations and keeping too much distance from the industry out of distrust. This year, I’ve done six or seven interviews since our victory. I really understood that when you win, you have to open up and share your story.

The League of Legends Worlds are currently underway, a game you often bring up. Where does BMS stand with League?

Joël Digbeu: I could write a five-chapter book on that game… The ecosystem is fragile, from the LEC down to the smaller leagues. We submitted an application for Division 2 back in the day — Trayton (Jean Medzadourian) even helped us prepare the file — but we weren’t selected, with the spot going to Joblife instead. After that, I reconsidered the whole thing. Listening to other CEOs talk about the expenses they were committing to, it sounded insane given their results. Spending €200,000 a year just to play for relegation, when with that money I could buy out Arslan Ash’s contract (Tekken player for Twisted Minds, seven-time EVO champion), win tournaments, and rack up millions of YouTube views — the choice was obvious.

Have you received concrete proposals to enter League of Legends?

Joël Digbeu: We were approached by several Division 2 clubs like IziDream and Mirage to form joint ventures, but our visions of what a club should be were too different. And financially, it didn’t add up on many levels. For me, League of Legends in France is essentially Karmine Corp’s territory — 80% of the audience is already theirs. What’s left isn’t enough to generate sustainable sponsorship.

On stream, you once described BMS as being in the purgatory of esports. What did you mean by that?

Joël Digbeu: When I talk about purgatory, it applies to us as well. Today, we have good scouting and some sponsors, but if tomorrow we fail to generate significant revenue and other teams start scouting talent the same way we do, we won’t make it. We were in talks with Blaz (Derek), but just days before signing, he joined another team for financial reasons. That’s going to happen more often. We’re aware of it. We’re not safe from having to shut down.

Where does the financial future of BMS lie? What are the medium-term plans?

Joël Digbeu: In the medium term, the plan is to develop lifestyle content and creative projects — in short, to become, proportionally, something akin to 100 Thieves or FaZe Clan in terms of brand orientation. Esports alone won’t be enough. Right now, there’s a funny trend on X, with people saying ‘BMS is known for everything except esports.’ On the surface, it’s a joke — but in reality, people are seeing our name and learning who we are beyond just esports.”