Well i never really talked about why i thought the CGS failed - so 3 years have passed i think this a good time to talk mad shit on something i was never in. I’m not going to blame the game selection, or the fact that they killed CSS and 1.6 in America, but I'm going to actually criticize a few things that i really think were major problems.
First, and foremost, i feel like NewsCorp failed miserably when they picked people to run the league. From my understanding from those involved is that they got former record execs, MTV execs and other entertainment people and thought they’d know how to run a 50 million dollar league. They had a total of two guys - the former head of fox sports and the former CEO of a beach volley ball league - from sports and gave the people in gaming - namely Jason bass, Alex Conroy, Jason lake(who now own compLexity), Mark Dolven(former owner of pandemic), Emil Christensen and Jonas Vikan(prestigious CS guys who built up their own brands) - menial positions within the league. The one guy who really understood gaming they gave a position was more like a guy who sent invoices and ran the actually league and it’s season - Craig Levine, former owner of 3D and owner of ESEA - had little input into the running of the upper levels of the league.
This lack of input by people who actually knew gaming, and how to run successful gaming organizations, weren’t even allowed to go out and do what general managers do in sports leagues. FIND SPONSORS AND ADVERTISERS. They were basically player managers and figure heads which were animated behind their players during the season.
Second, if these people raised any criticism they were crushed almost immediately. From listening to Jason Lake, Djwheat, Mark Dolven, and Jason Bass talk about their experience within the league - and from my interactions with them while being in the league - it seemed to be two different experiences: 1) they would tell me that i was crazy for questioning the idea that a gaming league with only three sponsors could pay over 100 people anywhere from 15-20K salaries and pay the executives much more(reportedly the GMS got 50k a person, i can only imagine how much Scott Valencia and the CEO were making) while they were 2) saying the same fucking thing their higher ups about the game selection, prize money, ownership etc. Jason bass, i read somewhere, was so pissed off at the website managers hiring excessive amounts of programmers and designers - which he would’ve done for much cheaper - and just quit because he was sick of it all.
Third they upper management didn’t actually understand how important it was for the former 1.6 players to play 1.6 in the off season. This was just short sighted - they didn’t get that if compLexity walked up(like they did near the end of the CGS) and just rolled all scrubs playing 1.6 that it’s basically saying “hey, all our players are the not just good, they are the best in both versions of the game” and instead basically gave them a false dilemma, either play source in the CGS or don’t play in the CGS at all. And that was only in the case of CS, the players of DoA could play in other DoA events, the PGR/Forza players could play in WCG/other events and etc. But they wouldn’t let the game with their players play in the game with the most money where they could still compete. It's not like fRoD stopped being fRoD just because he played source. It’s not like Method and Rambo were bad after only a few years in source. And they proved it when the came back, all the best players in 1.6 continued to be the best players in both source and 1.6.
The reason this is important is three way:It’s basically free marketing. If they roll up to WCG or CEVO, or IEM and play 1.6 against the American and European teams, and not just win but win big, what does that say about the CGS’s players. IT would prove that these players weren’t just the best in source but it would also prove they were the Best in 1.6 as well. Next is the fact that they could probably take a small percentage of the prize money won and use that as revenue.
My fourth problem is the fact they never localized the teams to their regions. And I'm not even talking investing into the LAN centers in the localities which would enable the creation of esports arenas. I’m talking simply having more than one area for the games to be played. Like lets say have the eastern and western conferences...ACTUALLY PLAY IN THE EASTERN AND WESTERN UNITED STATES. They made these arbitrary distinctions but never had any real reason - like those which were in the NBA and the NHL, where those things mean something.
And it’s not like this was not possible at the time. The Kiev Cybersport arena had already been there for a while, long enough for the CGS to use it for it’s events. And it’s not like the Germans don’t rent out theaters and other areas for EPS games - because they do. And it’s not like the Chengdu eSports arena and the studios in Korea aren’t available. Because they are. They could’ve really had something, and generated revenue with it, but decided to not do anything.
My final problem is the fact they never tried to sell off the franchises in order to make up the 50 million dollars that they put into the league’s North American setup and the international franchises. It’s not like there wouldn’t be potential buyers: as we have seen with the South Korean teams pro teams, people will pay big money to own a gaming franchise. This could also help the localization process: if they sell the teams to investors, have the investors front the cost of the gaming arena and the travel expenses. And you could also begin the syndication of the broadcasts, the specialization of teams when it comes to sponsors and finally the reduction of costs to the league as the owners would be signing the checks rather than the league.
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