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CGS CGS CGS
This day didn't really come as a surprise, if the economic climate would have been better than it is now, CGS might have lived another year. Would they have succeeded? No. There are a couple of basic reasons why they didn't.
By Andreas 'bds' Thorstensson
Nov 19, 2008 11:30
This day didn't really come as a surprise, if the economic climate would have been better than it is now, CGS might have lived another year. Would they have succeeded? No. There are a couple of basic reasons why they didn't.
Brands from scratch
They tried to re-invent the wheel, by creating new brands from scratch when the esport community already had very strong ones. SK, MYM, 3D, coL, mouz, fnatic, wNv (and the list goes on). Why not take advantage of that instead, this would have promoted their own league and would have been much cheaper for them.
Wrong games
There is one very basic rule when it comes to creating a new league, and that is picking the right games. People might argue that CS:Source is a good game, maybe it is, but you need the most competitive community, and for that you pick 1.6. By not picking it, you got a league with no real stars, some, like the coL/3D players converted, but they were stars in another game. CGS did not get any of the major fixed stars, they go to no SpawN, no walle, no neo, no forest, no solo etc
Changing game rules
Something that has been proven for a long time now, do no change the games to fit TV, change TV to fit the games. We do not want those weird formats, players and fans have created the best rules over time, lets use them!
Salaries and prize money
Salaries are important, specially for players who have been professional for a long time. With the things mentioned above CGS had about 5% really professional players at the start, the other 95% were not even used to salary. Why pay so much money to someone who didn't really need it. They tried to fix it later with the different player levels within a team, but it was way to late. Also they did not need to spend that much amount of prize money, it felt more like covering up a bad concept.
What could they have done
First of all they should not have tried to create an exclusive league. They should have used the existing organizations and their brands, the knowledge combined was just vastly superior. In using these teams they would have been able to save costs on salary, brand recognition, PR etc.
Why is this bad for esport
The money spent could have promoted everyone involved in esports for a very long time, instead it will make potential investors cautious. It also shows that even if you have a lot of money it wont make a good esport concept. You need the knowledge of the people who have been in this scene for a very long time.
Why is this good for esport
Finally (and hopefully) we will be able to see the big clashes again between US, Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Like CPL Winter 2005 with teams such as SK, Lunatic Hai, Fnatic, 3D, NiP, coL, mouz, g3x. Question is whether another organizer will take over the US market or was this the perfect timing for ESL and their Masters concept?
All in all, if you want to make business in the esport world, you need to do it together with the organizations out there...
They tried to re-invent the wheel, by creating new brands from scratch when the esport community already had very strong ones. SK, MYM, 3D, coL, mouz, fnatic, wNv (and the list goes on). Why not take advantage of that instead, this would have promoted their own league and would have been much cheaper for them.
Wrong games
There is one very basic rule when it comes to creating a new league, and that is picking the right games. People might argue that CS:Source is a good game, maybe it is, but you need the most competitive community, and for that you pick 1.6. By not picking it, you got a league with no real stars, some, like the coL/3D players converted, but they were stars in another game. CGS did not get any of the major fixed stars, they go to no SpawN, no walle, no neo, no forest, no solo etc
Changing game rules
Something that has been proven for a long time now, do no change the games to fit TV, change TV to fit the games. We do not want those weird formats, players and fans have created the best rules over time, lets use them!
Salaries and prize money
Salaries are important, specially for players who have been professional for a long time. With the things mentioned above CGS had about 5% really professional players at the start, the other 95% were not even used to salary. Why pay so much money to someone who didn't really need it. They tried to fix it later with the different player levels within a team, but it was way to late. Also they did not need to spend that much amount of prize money, it felt more like covering up a bad concept.
What could they have done
First of all they should not have tried to create an exclusive league. They should have used the existing organizations and their brands, the knowledge combined was just vastly superior. In using these teams they would have been able to save costs on salary, brand recognition, PR etc.
Why is this bad for esport
The money spent could have promoted everyone involved in esports for a very long time, instead it will make potential investors cautious. It also shows that even if you have a lot of money it wont make a good esport concept. You need the knowledge of the people who have been in this scene for a very long time.
Why is this good for esport
Finally (and hopefully) we will be able to see the big clashes again between US, Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Like CPL Winter 2005 with teams such as SK, Lunatic Hai, Fnatic, 3D, NiP, coL, mouz, g3x. Question is whether another organizer will take over the US market or was this the perfect timing for ESL and their Masters concept?
All in all, if you want to make business in the esport world, you need to do it together with the organizations out there...
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Now calm down you angry little man and get back to stacking your shelves or whatever it is that keeps you so busy all day.
oof that was an awful comeback Zechs, need to step up your game, you're an SK!
Well, there's a blast from the past. Are you sure 20 is your age and not your IQ? I'm sorry your little league died, but there's really no need to try and take it out on me is there, sunshine? Now Come back when you have an insult that isn't dredged up from UKTerrorist circa 2002.
"You're just embarrassing yourself now Radical."
:)
no StarCraft
no Street Fighter
fail league in a fail format.
Finally (and hopefully) we will be able to see the big clashes again between US, Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Like CPL Winter 2005 with teams such as SK, Lunatic Hai, Fnatic, 3D, NiP, coL, mouz, g3x. Question is whether another organizer will take over the US market or was this the perfect timing for ESL and their Masters concept?
So true!
Gold 1st Place: CGS-Chicago Chimera Chicago Chimera - $500,000
this is like burning money why 500.000 wouldnt 100k just do the job? i mean all the players got a good salary...
no StarCraft
=/
CSG was a total failure.
All the good things it brought.. Like getting eSport to the tv, so that more people would get interested, and making players feel that they COULD make a living out of playing a game.
Dont know how to express this but, it is all + - = 0.. Because this league now disbanded, companies will be more cautious about eSports. It also brought the wrong games in to the spotlight.
Crazy prizemoney for nothing. Oh well.. At least the Chicago Chimeras are happy, haha.. They took full advantage of the league!
Seems like the guys behind CGS didnt really know what they were doing. Oh well. Im glad that it failed. Hopefully the CS1.6 scene in the US will rise again :)
Would be REALLY interesting to see a same kind of league, with not that many restrictions, with CS1.6, WC3 and QUAKE-.- With the G7 behind them. But ok i dont know what would come out of that.. So maybe just let it be as it is :/
......big ****
Brands from scratch and this statement "if you want to make business in the esport world, you need to do it together with the organizations out there"
nice blog BDS !!!!
Second biggest PUBLIC community. Who cares about public stats. Now it's nothing on competitive side..
(oh and btw, it's 'may HAVE', 'might HAVE', etc. etc.)
But I dont understand your point when you say that the show/game had no real stars. Counter-Strike: Source is a different game than 1.6 - another pace and more anglebased f.ex. So it had loads of stars, but thats CS: S stars. Different game, different stars - just like CoD has their stars.
I only hope the downfall of CGS will make the G7 organisations consider picking up CS:S again! Sad not seeing great teams representing good brands.
Overall; good blog, valid points and an interesting read.
- They tried and failed to get a different target audience involved through a TV channel that you have to subscribe to.
- The Internet is where these games are played, the Internet is also the biggest highway for communication and information. [b]The Internet is actually bigger than TV[/b], CGS did not take advantage of this and if any other league wants to make it big I would strongly recommend that they make their show based on the internet. This can be backed up if you check coL's poll asking if you have ever watched a live CGS show and the majority was in the no.
- The execution of CGS was terrible, make a stage, add fake audience, a couple of lights and some hot chicks with boxing gloves - recipe for disaster.
- Game choices, NO im not saying 1.6 would of been a better choice (look at MLG) but the game selection was rather lack luster and was in between the 'hardcore eSports group' and everyday Joes. MLG went for the most popular game at the time, thanks to Microsofts amazing marketing (Halo) which is a far more 'public friendly' game than the likes of CS.
I agree with bds on what hes said full on, apart from the fact the only way 1.6 would of been successfull in CGS is if they went for the gaming audience and NOT average Joes.
So imo the best way to make a league would to start it out on the Internet, invest heavily on marketing and advertising on the likes of Youtube and other popular websites. Make a decent stage like the old WEG series, nothing amazing but very entertaining to watch. Recruit other massive names like SK, Fnatic, mYm etc offer good prize money but salaries are not needed.
Once you have established a solid firm base on the Internet then maybe press onto TV.
Hopefully ELC will do a better job? ;x (ok maybe it wont last forever, but yet again the idea of ELC is brilliant!)
cheers for ELC! WooOhoOOo. anyone? ;x
Of course, it's easy to point fingers when you're on the outside - that's common knowledge. But for a person of your "rank" in the eSport community to write a blog on how and why the CGS is wrong/went down is immensly impressive - seeing how you are blatently an outsider with no clue concerning the subject. Just because YOU couldn't be arsed with following the CGS properly doesn't mean it was a bad idea / thing to start. To people who know just a drop of things about the sees nothing but a wall of text with no substance.
I also like how you commentated on the format changes made by the CGS (and CEVO for that matter) were poor. May I remind you - take a look back at 1.6' conversion from MR12 to MR15...
.. but it's late, and I'm not in a proper shape to elaborate how this blog makes you look like a stagnant 1.6 fan who is reluctant to any change that could affect -> your
What's your point...? Some change is good (this one^), some are bad (removing CS's only unique feature: the money system).
To say the manager of arguably the biggest esports organisation in the world knows nothing about CGS, when it's clearly stated in 2 different blogs that they were consulted by CGS before it ever went live just shows your own ignorance. You should take a look at yourself before you start slinging insults around.
Edit: First part of the comment is directed to "SK|Zechs".
I'm sorry, but if I really wanted to hear your immensly biased opinion I would've asked for it - but I didn't now, did I? You should really have something with depth and substance before you start slinging around with nonsense.
To say the manager of arguably the biggest esports organisation in the world knows nothing about CGS is to be quite honest pretty much spot on - it would be like one of the CGS GM's not knowing who Neo or f0rest is.. catch my drift? Anyhow; on to bds' reply:
As warclown stated, every game has its stars - it goes for CS 1.6, CS:S, Quake - and even games like ET:QW... Now, whilst you obviously know the nicks of the 1.6 players doesn't mean they're superstars outside the scene that "everyone knows about" - hell, the only reason why I ever heard about HeatoN and elemeNt before I got "into it" was because I'm related to the latter one. To be looked upon as a star within gaming doesn't mean "everyone" has to know his nick or team - in fact I'm quite certain of the fact that most of you haven't heard about players like BeSt, JangBi, FlaSh, etc., etc. even though these guys are the people making the most money of gaming - "what game do they play", you say? Starcraft... As an ending point to this list; take in consideration that Source is "the new game" in comparission 1.6 Source, which means most Source players have tried 1.6 before moving on to the "other side" as you might call it, thus being the only reason why they've picked up the nicks of the stars from 1.6.
Rant over - for now, lost a heap of motivation to write everything again. I'm expecting loads of 1.6-biased comments with little meaning nor sense to it - it's no secret that many 1.6 players are very true to their game (in most cases too true and protective) - I'd know as I was just like them myself a couple of years back in time.
CGS was made by CGS, for CGS! If you take a quick look outside the league no one really give a damn about what was going on, maybe in America, but taking in consideration there were another handful of regions (if not more), they totally lost the battle. CGS created stars for themselves, not for e-sports, they ran events for themselves, not for e-sports.
Unfortunately it's impossible to run a company when you are the owner and client at the same time.
And to call the players who participated in CGS "pros" is the biggest joke of all. e.g. the CSS players played at the most 5 matches during an entire season, 5!! The "world finals" ran during what, a week? 10 days? Absolutely laughable. CGS did NOTHING for eSports other then divide the community and spread animosity, I say good riddance.
When I heard about the cgs I gave it 3 years at the most, it lasted 2.
I hate both css and cs 1.6 but they had to pick a game that didnt look crap on tv.
yeah because no other game than 1.6 can have stars, nice argument