Now in some instances I will agree with Andreas in his http://www.sk-gaming.com/blog/5456/ blog and some large instances I will not.
I personally feel that World Series of Video Games (WSVG) wouldn't have been any better off by having either Wacraft3 or Counter Strike 1.6 in their main roster.
WSVG was aiming for a mainstream target and validated their game choices thusly. Big mistake. Picking Guitar Hero 2 (GH2) and Fight Night Round 3 (FNR3) were catastrophic failures of management. In all fairness I would've (if in their position) if faced with the situation where you need more games to complement the event, not had any. FNR3 and GH2 regardless of the 'apparent' crowds at events screaming and shouting was a bad mistake.
Trying to promote a game as a competitive entity which has little or no community is setting yourself up for a fall. When the 'money tap' is switched off you've created a vacuum where there is a small player base dependent on what on you were supplying. Very unstable!
You could couple Quake 4 with that argument, however this is where I will contradict myself (hopefully only once).
Quake is the best example of what eSports can offer in my humble opinion. The community is small and elitist which makes the game hard to comprehend and develop new talent but that doesn't matter. The game can be enjoyed by all and simply put, these players are the best and most dedicated eSports stars playing today. The wild west of eSports, if you will.
I will be quite blunt here. The size and scale of a game or its community has no bearing on how valuable the game is in competitive terms. This is why I believe Quake is always a great choice for competitions and why the WSVG wasted money on hosting two Counter Strike 1.6 tournaments.
Andreas argued that you shouldn't overdo prize money for games that aren't 'big' yet. I could apply the same treatment and say why should I give 1.6 lots of money when there aren't other tournaments doing the same.
WSVG gave out $20,000 in China which was won by wNv.cn. Beating Fnatic in the final (the only European team in attendance). WSVG Louisville and this time they gave out $30,000. It tempted five European teams (NiP, Roccat, SK, mouz and Convention).
Why give out such obscene amounts of money and not even have the best teams in attendance? Where is your Fnatic, PGS, NoA, MiBr? Why host the tournament in America at all when you've five Europeans travel and claim all top five spots? I really can't see the logic in their decisions.
GameGune had little prize money in comparison to WSVG, yet because it was in Europe, the best teams in the world went. WSVG using Counter Strike 1.6 was a mistake and ultimately given the finical issues which have resulted in the organisation stopping you've to wonder and justify whether it was wasted money.
Warcraft III. I can't really argue its inclusion since it's an immensely popular game and during the one and only WSVG stop where it was included. It had arguably the most competitive WC3 tournament ever hosted in China. You can only negate that with the fact that the game is incredibly hard to follow for anyone who doesn't play the game, regardless of who is shout casting!
Now enough of the negatives and let's talk about what the WSVG did right. Call of Duty 2 and World of Warcraft. Despite being the wrong format, WoW's inclusion was timely and ultimately great move. The game has numbers which dwarf anything out there and is getting bigger.
Better marketing of the WSVG (to the WoW communities) and a better spectator mod would have made the tournaments a little more competitive than a Pandemic clean sweep but it's inclusion was one of the few points of praise that can be given.
The other would have been despite only appearing once CoD2. The game is similar to Counter Strike in game play and it's function but is ultimately 'better' because of the engine it's built on and because it's still in its infancy. Because of that you can offer a smaller prize purse and get more bang per buck in value terms than you could ever get with Counter Strike. $20,000 and possibly the best CoD2 tournament ever hosted.
You had three European teams (Speedlink, Tek-9 and Dignitas) attend which aren't in the same finical bracket as the likes of SK or MYM. What would happen if they hosted a tournament in Europe? Money well spent indeed.
CoD2 - WoW - Q4
Small concise and dependable titles which are growing in one direction. The WSVG failed because of poor management and a horrific inability to handle finances well, but forward thinking separated them from the pack. RIP WSVG.