Wasn't that exactly my point?

well, yeah

I believe it was!

Oh, but I was not talking about the professional gamers. I was talking about the entrepreneurs.

CPL long-term success came directly from games which had flourishing communities. Quake 3 and Counter-Strike. Shot-sightedness and walking away from the "natural esports platforms" was their biggest mistake.

Not to mention munoz lying and the CPL not paying out prizemoney.

CPL is a perfect example of being at the right place, at the right time. :)

Heeey whaat???

I said that because it would be nice if the pro gamers could take over the business one day with their business degress...

Line 25 to 30.

Well I dont think you can compare the CGS to rest of gaming because its a main stream product, its like the CGS have cheated the rules by going mainstream instead of focusing "by gamers, for gamers"/Hardcore-mentality like most other in eSports.

I havent been impreseed by CGS at all so far, they have a lot to prove.

CGS has a lot of money and so far, only impressed the ones inside CGS.

Radical, for real, CGS has not been a success yet. I am not saying it wont happen, but you have to face the reality here.

Why won't they release info about their ratings is a question you might want to ask.

bds, its a matter of opinion... from my point of view there bringing gaming to a new level. After the World Finals were shown in the UK I went into college and people were actually talking about it, how they thought it was a great show and things, so they are doing something right... maybe if people gave the CGS constructive feedback they could look at what people are saying and work from it.

and Carmac why would they? what could they actually gain from doing that? a normal TV show doesn't do it only movies and such, so why does it matter?

TV stations delivers figures all the time. The thing is that CGS are pushing the "potential numbers of viewers" as one of their main arguments, but I know, you probably know and they know that their actual figures are way way below that.

Pretty much sums it all. I remember the 5 million viewers campaign when CGS closed the deal with SKY, STAR and DirecTV, three major broadcasting companies in their respective geo areas but till now, we haven't see any real numbers about it.

You can say that people were talking about it the day after the broadcast, but that's how far CGS will go. They will rapidly forget about it, it was something new being shown on TV and may attracted people to watch it closely, but that's all. As soon as the 'surprise/new' factor is gone, all you've got are hardcore fans and those don't give a shit for CGS right now. :|

Imo, above the general population comes the gaming and e-sports community, if those are not into the CGS, and you can clearly prove it by asking some random guy the CGS Finals top3 or even only the winner (the majority don't have a clue about it), the project still has a long way to go.

That's like creating a brand new football league in Europe, you could have the best sponsors and a large wallet but if you don't catch the fans attention, it's a useless effort..

I didnt get it, why u all think CGS was not a success? What were ur expectations about it? It's just the first season and till now it have been great. Dunno if CPL's or any other tournament's first year was this great :)

CGS is just the next level of professionalism

Please direct me to the success, because I can't find it.

Games chosen not on popularity, that's a success in my eyes.Though they're the wrong games, the idea is ground breaking!

I first want to define that im talking about the American region, not the European one :)

and tell me why it was not a success? Imo this is how professional gaming should be done. Tournaments come and go, CPL has been here for years and now its just gone like that, can u rely on this? I would prefer the monthly salary :)

Since CGS are burning money fast they need to start making money aswell (or change the format). If they wont, they will disappear faster than the CPL imo.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, but the one most responsive to change."

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but. the one most responsive to change”

or you can say most adaptive

what's the difference.. the most adaptive one is therefore the strongest.

no, it was based solely on the count made by Gotfrag.

Indeed, the newest CEO messed up NiP, and he is/was meant to be a proper business man, I'd say its more the people who have the time and patience to run something as big as a gaming team. That is something the NiP CEO didn't have, so it wasn't really 'business suicide' from my point of view. Nice read though :)

agree.

A lot of companies do, yes, but not all. I have been in this business since 1999 with no short term exit goal in mind. I always wanted to develop it and try to create something more.

thats why i wrote "are not familiar with it" ( it being the gaming scene )
and u are not in that group

I have been working on both sides, Sponsorship wise as a Marketing Director and inside the Gaming Scene with Teams and you are just partly right dude.

Many companies do aim for short-term results, and from the hundreds of really bad Team presentations I've seen I can tell most of the teams and I speak of all Teams not just of some big ones do either and just try to make a buck as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, that also depends on how they understand Marketing because if you look for short-term ROI you will not get it most of the time in eSport.

In addition, if companies mainly do Sales related Marketing then eSport can be a dangerous Territory to invest because you have to invest a lot to get something out of it on the long run and you always have to defend big investments in front of the Management / Board.

Most Teams overpromise and cannot deliver and I think that is just a lack of professionalism on the Teams side. And that is what lets big companies step out the Business for all the other Teams which is quite a sad thing since today everyone seem to be an "eSports Professional".

Fortunately, most big Companies and people working with eSport Teams and Events and the Teams itself always plan long-term relationships and that is the way to go. Besides that, many people I know behind the scenes are into eSport with their heart and soul. As bds said himself, he always wanted to develop and try to change something and those are the people not getting rich with it quickly but on the long term get their money and really move something. Moreover, we all know there is nothing better than the warm fuzzy feeling you got inside your heart when you really helped the whole thing you love develop. This should be highly respected since not everyone has pure Profit in mind, especially not that people working on eSport from the beginning.

However, in the end of the day, it is a heavy fight about every cent in the Marketing Department you want to spend or get inside the eSport if your company not already had some very successful results, Brand, PR and Moneywise. In addition, on the Team sides there are people working very hard and do really have some Business knowledge to make sure companies understand the thought behind the whole thing without even earning a living out of that, they just do what they love.

There is a hand full of real Professionals, but also people who do not have a clue about Marketing or Business in general, but they try to do their best and have some great ideas, this should also be respected.

eSport is not just selling a “Product” like a Player or Team or Event, it’s also about to let companies see what a great feeling eSport actually is, Intensity of Emotions on Events etc, unfortunately sometimes people forget about that.

Overall nice article Carmac.

Just my two "very big" cents. :D

Yeah exactly i_am_lovely.

"working inside the Gaming Scene with Teams" didn't work so well back in the days, ey?

Counterexample: In logic, and especially in its applications to mathematics and philosophy, a counterexample is an exception to a proposed general rule

So I think you got my point backward, sorry :)