whilst it's not something I've done I can point you in the right direction towards someone who has.
WinD aka Kenneth Spaziani formed AeSports several years ago from nothing and is now an internationally recognizable organization sponsered by Mountain Dew, Nvidia, Blizzard, Maestro etc and has rosters for all major games.
he'd be more than happy to give you a few pointers:
Haha please don't, WinD aka Kenneth is the biggest esport scammer there is, if you get in contact with him it's almost guranteed he will try lay his hands on your money. Kind of a dickmove by gbmaster to send you in that direction as he is full aware of WinD's actions, but WinD is basically a meme on this site and I got a good laugh from that post.
Just google his name or search posts about him on this site and you will be surprised how delusional that man is.
You'll have to get a team capable of winning or coming close, otherwise nothing you post will be of any interest to the public.
But first you'll have to convince high skilled players that are likely on the radar and that they need you.
Or go down the shock/gimmick route and put together a team of trannies, or import a load of desolate 3rd world'rs and train them. Even when they lose, they'll be seen as winners.
Liberal guilt will pump money and PR into shit like that because their so desperate with their positive action thing. Its why people with penises now think they are not men. That bubble will soon burst, but you could milk it while its here.
"how about 4 south americans break into the USA and overcome trumps wall, setup a bootcamp house is cali, and make it to the finals of a big event! "
At the very least you'll need money to pay players, and financial assurances you can get them to events and put them up in hotels so they have something to aim for and you're not going to default.
There's always talent on the fringes who could beat or come close to beating the top players with the right direction, but quite often these guys can't take it as seriously as the pros and fall short more than anything else.
The world is filled with wannabe gaming pros and websites.
Only a few like Liquid, SK, Fnatic, Dignitas stand out to me as legitimate clans.
Bottom line is, you're competing with those guys, so why is someone going to pay you when they could get them?
My general opinion is, its so so hard to do ANYTHING online these days, most of its been done years ago and those guys are well established.
AND you could do a really really good job of it....AND still fail.
you're about 15-20 years too late to the party, not saying its not possible, just that you've made it 10 times harder.
Quickest way to offset that is with a niche. You won't even need to win with Africans, Trannies, minorities, so consider that.
I was co-owner of team that was top 3 in cod4 for a while. Eventually duo good reputation of our cod4 team we were able to aquire top tier css team at the time and top warcraft player.
2nd owner took the sponsorship money and dissapeared eventually :)
To start a team that will be profitable and one that will gain interest you need to consistently win tournaments. Top LANs not local ones. In any popular game. On that success you can expand and build upon.
Everything else will eventually fail and cost you lot of money.
I would say its same as any bussines venture. You dont want to start something by investing lot of money without having product or service in place.
Also good people make good company. Same in esports you need good players that are loyal and arent cheating cause one rotten apple can ruin everything.