Level and XP

As most you have noticed there has been drops in levels for all users.

We are currently tweaking the system to prevent abuse to rank fast, so dont be afraid that you have dropped, everyone else has.



Beach 2009 here I come

On my way to the gym.

When I was younger I went to the gym much more often, time to get back on track! Plus the skiing season is coming up...



Predicting the financial crisis

Peter Schiff from 2006 predicting the financial crisis.

Sunday dinner

Entrecôte with home made béarnaise sauce and french fries.



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. 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...




Jump

Me jumping after final round vs eSTRO.




Back from WCG, interviews

I am finally back home from World Cyber Games 2008. All in all a great event, both esport and result wise.Here are some of the interviews I did during the event:

My first WCG interview with SK
http://www.sk-gaming.com/video/46175-bds_What_is_that_song

My playoffs predictions (almost 100% correct)
http://www.sk-gaming.com/video/46745-bds_predicts_WCG_2008_playoffs

After the huge match vs eSTRO
http://www.sk-gaming.com/video/47128-bds_and_TheSlash_on_WCG_semi_final

Interview with MYM(!)
http://www.mymym.com/en/coverage/536/60.html

Interview with Catch Gamer (in Swedish)
http://www.catchgamer.no/?module=video&f=single&id=910

Event evaluation with Rakaka (in Swedish)
http://www.rakaka.se/?news_id=8014

And last but not least, I will continue going to all the major events in the future...



WCG continues

Just got back from the opening ceremony. Downed a Kölsch, good stuff! Did a small interview with Carmac about the CS tournament. Most likely I will do a 1on1 with him tomorrow. WCG looks very good so far, big as always. 78 different countries taking part is quite cool.

Btw, GZ Obama!



On my way to WCG

Going to take the cab to the airport any minute now. Have been away from events for quite a long time, partly because it was nice to take a break but also because running SK as a company takes so much of my time.

However I will start visiting all the major events in the future. Feels good to be "back"!

http://www.sk-gaming.com/rss/blog/bds

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