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G7 organize petitions for CPL, ESWC and GGL
G7 have organized petitions for CPL, ESWC and GGL to try to force those organizations to made good on their unpaid prize money.
By Duncan 'Thorin' Shields
Dec 22, 2009 16:37
G7 have organized petitions for CPL, ESWC and GGL to try to force those organizations to made good on their unpaid prize money.As part of their strategy to help players and teams who have yet to be paid their prize winnings from major tournaments get closer to receiving their money the G7 have organized a number of petitions for the specific tournaments who have yet to pay out all of their prizes. The organizations targeted include some of the most famous and presitgious of yesteryear such as CPL and ESWC but also one which may have been more easily forgotten by now such as GGL.
Those signing agree to support a boycott of these organizations and their tournaments until the outstanding prize situations are resolved.
The official explanation is as follows:
The petitions, by relevant organization, can be found below:
CPL
ESWC
GGL
Those signing agree to support a boycott of these organizations and their tournaments until the outstanding prize situations are resolved.
The official explanation is as follows:
"G7 Teams is looking for the community to support our petition to boycott and not participate in any ongoing or future events by e-sports organizations that have significant outstanding prize claims. We have tried to reach out to each organizer and address the outstanding claims from gamers around the world, but they have refused to engage in meaningful discussions.
We ask that the community reviews, signs, and supports our petitions against CPL, ESWC, and GGL and organize so our joint voice cannot be ignored. Once the community has signed the petitions, G7 will be contacting the Attorney General’s office in each of the states they do business (where applicable), advertisers, and sponsors to alert them to our grievances."
We ask that the community reviews, signs, and supports our petitions against CPL, ESWC, and GGL and organize so our joint voice cannot be ignored. Once the community has signed the petitions, G7 will be contacting the Attorney General’s office in each of the states they do business (where applicable), advertisers, and sponsors to alert them to our grievances."
The petitions, by relevant organization, can be found below:
CPL
ESWC
GGL
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It is good to see that G7 will boycott all future events by these organizations and so should the community.
It's really a shame to talk to representatives from different sponsors and hear that they did pay out the prize money to CPL, ESWC and GGL and then they used that money for personal profit and brand development instead of paying the players and teams that put in time, effort and money to make those events successful in the first place.
1st they put such big price money, and than they don't pay - retards ;/
Second, wouldn't it we wise/smart for the actual representatives of the G7 to also sign the petitions? From what I've seen no member or official representative have signed any of the petitions.
Saying this statement:
"G7 Teams is looking for the community to support our petition to boycott and not participate in any ongoing or future events by e-sports organizations that have significant outstanding prize claims."
Was foolish by G7, and even worse when the teams show up at the events.
Not signing this, no matter how pointless you the reader or tosspot or whoever think it is, is the exact sort of inaction that allowed organizations like the ones named to take advantage of a rapidly growing yet naive community that deserved better. It's really that simple.
Sure it would be great if the new owners repaid part of the old companies debts as some sort of grace payment, but they don't have to, no matter how many signatures this petition gets. So if the new owners do pay up, it wont be of the G7's doing, its solely the kindness of the new owners.
As the MW2 Boycott petition proved, even if people sign a petition they'll rarely follow through with it, and even with a petition is big enough companies wont listen to it. The MW2 boycott list had almost 200,000 signatures and I bet way over half of those who signed the petition bought MW2. Theres a famous screenshot somewhere of the boycott group on steam and then most of the people are playing MW2. Equally I bet that most of the people who sign the G7 petition would accept the opportunity to play in ESWC with open arms. Online petitions mean nothing.
Also, you say the petitions are more to let these organisations know the community are pissed, but to quote the G7 "Once the community has signed the petitions, G7 will be contacting the Attorney General’s office in each of the states they do business (where applicable)". they're justifying it as the petition allowing them to take legal action, now correct me if I'm wrong, but a petition boycotting an event doesn't have much legal standing towards missing prize money. I find this move by the G7 very misguided and embarrassing, which is a shame as I feel the G7 could be beneficial for eSports, just not in this way.
That falls on the shoulders of organizations who were afraid to be blackballed from CPL's and ESWC's for not coming forward even though the CPL was behind on payments since at least 05.
The alarming problem is that people would rather see these events happen than acknowledge or take any action against organizations like this to KEEP THEM HONEST. People would rather know ESWC is scheduled than have any concern about the actual integrity of the organization itself.
Regardless, don't sign the petition. Keep calling this motion misguided. Even if I don't agree with you, at least they're doing something. The G7 have been trying to open up channel of communication with the old organizations for a long time now. It ain't happening, and I personally think it's wrong that someone can come along and BUY their way into eSports without doing any of the leg work, picking up tarnished organizations and instantly pulling support from community members who are either ignorant or flat out uneducated on the history.
From the outside looking in, eSports is a realm of doubledipping on sponsorship funding and entry fees. Skimming off the top and poking a hole in the bottom to bleed money from. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the new CPL and ESWC organizations had 'issues with payments' as well.
All I know is that there is nothing sadder than watching people suck from the CPL's teet of failure and dishonesty, and ESWC sure didn't end too hot either.
You miss the majority points and skip straight to insulting me. You neglect to mention how the G7 seem to think this will help them get their money back when it wont. Sure the petition might have sideaffects like telling organisations we're "pissed" but chuck a bit of money and people wont stay pissed for long. You refuse to acknowledge how this is an embarrassment for the G7; its not on their site and their teams haven't even signed it for gods sake. This petition just seems like a botched job done in about 5 minutes to try make the G7 regain some of its relevance or at least to make it look more than a gentleman's club. It's a shame, the G7 could do good things for eSports, but I'm quickly losing all respect for it.
I hope you're eloquence makes your e-peen bigger because otherwise you don't have a lot of substance. Dick.
http://bit.ly/OOOVM
You would be unpleasantly surprised just how much the transgressions of these organizations are still to this day not common knowledge. Beside that simple point alone, there are a number of people within the eSports community who could give a damn if players get payed. They would rather insult certain organizations, leagues, or tournaments and still hold the same depleted candle for Angel Munoz and the CPL.
It doesn't matter how many people pat a rapist on the back, he's still a rapist and most people should know better.
I personally don't see this as this massive pathetic move on the part of the G7, but you're welcome to take your concerns to Craig Levine himself and let him know just how much of a failure you see the G7 as and how much of a non-factor you find the entire organization. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to feed you your words on that aspect.
Though, I do agree, it is foolish that this isn't on the frontpage of the G7 website, I still don't see a community action as pointless. Maybe that is where you and I are different. You would rather grumble and mutter about something while shaking your fist, and I'd rather be involved and do something, anything, to try to make a difference. Even if that isn't going to shell out the payments from the CPL/ESWC/GGL, it's going to set a precedent and a standard for everyone involved currently and in the future.
If you cannot see past your own nose on this one, just admit it outright, no need to take offense to sweeping statements at a lot of people who've been involved much longer than you have if you do not have the ability to look at the sweeping repercussions of forward action.
btw why are people [-]'ing weenus' comments? Its not like hes not being constructive. I replused!
I'm Alex, and I've been the owner of EG for some time now. I currently still run EG along with Scott "SirScoots" Smith, and I also direct CSPromod. I haven't posted very often on SK Gaming, so I wouldn't be surprised if most of you aren't familiar with me and how I usually express thoughts. I have found that many people make assumptions about me based on what they *think* they know about CSPromod, and what they *think* they know about me from what Jason Lake said in December of 2008. I have also found that, at the same time, after speaking with me directly, most people come away with a very positive view. I would ask that you put any assumptions about me aside for this post, and take it at face value.
It's also important to note: I have been an active member of the G7 for over a year now, representing EG, but what I express is not necessarily the "official" opinion of all of the G7 teams. Rather, it's the opinion of a single member of the G7 who has been privy to everything that goes on in the privacy of our meetings and activities.
I would like to respond to several misconceptions, and incorrect points, which people have often brought up.
1) "The G7 never does anything," "The G7 is useless," etc. - We see and receive these kinds of comments from people fairly frequently, from all sorts of individuals, ranging from gamers to fellow eSports professionals. And 99% of the time, when people make these criticisms, the thought they have in their minds is, "Well, I never see the G7 doing anything, so they must not be doing anything." What people don't realize and don't think about is that, well... that's not true at all.
The G7, by its very definition, is the kind organization that you will not hear from most of the time if it's doing its job. The boycotts and petitions (such as this most recent one) are only used in extreme circumstances where we are not able to negotiate directly with organizers, and such occasions are the only ones on which you'd really hear something publicly from the G7. The fact is that the vast majority of our negotiations and activities with event organizers happen behind closed doors, and for good reason - usually, part of the arrangement is that an event organizer will pay out in order to prevent the G7 teams from publicly boycotting their events and harming their brand. This has happened dozens and dozens of times in private; the G7 has been responsible for communicating with and enforcing event organizers on many such occasions. And the fact is that when things run smoothly, the public never hears about it.
So the above criticism really doesn't make any sense. When the G7 does its job, you don't hear about us.
In either case it is not a positive reflection on the G7.
When did I say this?
The G7 has been around for maybe 2 of those years, meaning it took the G7 2 years to either come up with the idea or exhaughst all other avenues prior to coming up with a relatively uninspiring idea such as a petition towards a company like GGL.
This is a political matter, similar to any other, and as such, why would you expect an "inspiring" approach? I don't see how calling our methods "uninspiring" is a relevant piece of criticism at all. Working our networks of contacts, doing all of the internal work, and then coming out with a petition may not be the sexiest list of methods, but their goal is to give these gamers the best possible shot of getting their money back, not to wow TosspoT's socks off :). I still don't understand how it is a negative reflection on the G7.
And I will again make the point that there are plenty of situations, several actually specifically involving the GGL, in which we have gotten gamers due prize money WITHOUT having to go public. So I think your points need to be reconsidered :p.
People commonly forget that the G7 is made up of more than just its well-known brands and star players. Arguably more importantly for the purposes of the G7, it's made of up the owners of the teams and brands - the people who have been liaising and working with high-level corporate representatives for years and years. Think about it for a second: most of the past and current large-scale, global eSports tournament circuits have been funded by a relatively small group of endemic sponsors. This means that any brand (such as the CPL, ESWC, or GGL) attempting to make a "comeback" will likely make a significant push to receive funding from one (or more) of these endemic sponsors. When I say "endemic," I mean specific to our tech world: Intel, AMD, ATi, NVidia, SteelSeries, Razer, Kingston, Gigabyte, MSI, and etc. would all be examples of "endemic" sponsors.
Now, c'mon guys, think about this for a second... Aside from the corrupt event organizers of tournaments that have already crashed and burned, who are the people who have been working with these companies (and their corporate representatives) for 5-10 years? Who are the people who these companies look to for insight and advice? I'll give you a hint: many of them are sitting on the G7 council. Look at the histories of the brands on the G7 - just off the top of my head, I'll rattle off a list of companies who either sponsor, or have good relationships with the individuals behind the G7:
Intel, AMD, ATi, NVidia, SteelSeries, Razer, Ideazon, Sennheiser, Creative, Kingston, MSI, Gigabyte, ABIT, Western Digital, Dell, Alienware, Bigfoot Networks, Newegg.com, PNY, XFX, Red Bull, Geil, BenQ, ThermalTake, Zalman...
That's off the top of my head - if you dig deeper into the histories of the G7's different brands and representatives, you can find other relationships as well. But to get back to the point, the value of the G7 often relates to its scope, influence, and connections with the corporate representatives who also make eSports happen. What does that mean in terms of these petitions? It means that there's been a massive amount of private, internal dialogue going on well prior to these petitions, done for the purpose of research and forewarning. And the event organizers KNOW this. They KNOW that they're going to have a very difficult time getting corporate funding without the support of those behind the G7. So, just to be clear, everything that's been going on behind the scenes, WITHOUT these petitions, already adds up to a ton of muscle.
So then why have the petitions at all? Well, of course, to involve everyone we can! People always complain that we don't do enough publicly, and finally here's an opportunity to get everyone involved on a public basis. The role that the petitions serve in all of this is bringing the dialogue out into the open. They allow us to bring more muscle to an already very strong case, they allow us to get everyone involved, and most importantly they put additional pressure on the event organizers by bringing everything out into the public eye.
You guys can make fun of "PetitionOnline.com" all you want, but the fact is that corporate representatives WILL see these petitions (because we'll do our jobs on the inside to make sure they do, if necessary) - the people who control potential funding sources WILL see these petitions. The event organizers WILL take notice of them (several, in fact, have already contacted us).
So, the summary: please don't assume that these petitions are the only piece of the puzzle. They account for the last 1% of a plan we've been enacting for months. Instead of being bitter about them and poking fun, hey, why don't you actually sign them? Especially *cough* SLASHER *cough* if you're a well-known name in eSports. Because I guarantee you, 100%, your signature WILL make a difference.
In conclusion, it is yet to be seen whether we will actually see prize money payouts from these brands. But the G7 is doing everything in its power, both public and (mainly) private, to ensure that the payouts happen - especially before any of these event brands are allowed to restart again. Yes, the people in this thread are correct, legally they are no longer held culpable for their debts. However, that's the beauty of eSports being a collective COMMUNITY - we as a group can still hold these organizers accountable, regardless of what the loopholes in bankruptcy law may say.
So please, everyone, show these events the POWER of our COMMUNITY and sign the petition. It will matter.
-Alex
PLEASE NOTE: In my paragraphs of text above, I do NOT mean to imply, in the least, that the people in the G7 are the only ones who matter, the only ones who have influence, the only ones who have corporate relationships, or the only ones who have poured their blood, sweat, and tears into building eSports. I am VERY aware that there are a number of other brilliant individuals who have done a fantastic job contributing to eSports and building corporate relationships, and I mean no disrespect to those individuals, nor do I mean to label their efforts as any less significant than those individuals within the G7. My points above were simply to indicate that the collection of individuals in the G7 does indeed represent a significant amount of credibility, accomplishment and influence in and of itself. That doesn't mean that there aren't other impressive, influential, accomplished people out there in eSports. There certainly are, and much
just like the Olympics :/
It is a pity that in Russia the president of level of your brain.
Sorry for my english ,bad Russian formation...