Time to beat a dead horse

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.

Why can’t we all just get along

So i’ve been reading, and reading and reading and hearing about this false dichtomy - that either we need to all get along and be friends in order to attract the average gamer or we shoudl just give up on ever being mainstream and trolling each other is simply just one thing we have to deal with?

Why can’t it be both ways; for example i try to tell people to watch CS streams(what littler there are) and pay attention to games that aren’t sequels to the best RTS ever made - and i don’t know if i’ve gone anywhere on either front - but at the same time i troll the shit out of slasher, fishstix, vvv and the “big” names in eSports - some times i don’t know if they realize when I'm being purposely ridiculous.

And while i agree with both, keekerdc’s point that the “kindness” of the community has never been related to the size of the viewership(going along Nixon's silent majority idea that most people who watch don’t say anything) and vVv/toptiergaming’s idea that we need to slow our rolls on the newbies a few questions kept creeping into my skull: why can’t we be talking about the finer points of strategy in CS and how WSVG/CGS/etc or SK-gaming/coL/etc aren’t sustainable as well as teaching an intro course on how gaming organizations, tournaments, lan centers etc work? Why can’t we coddle the young and be cynics at the same time?

To tell you the truth part of my ability to toughen up and talk mad shit on people who have done much more for the growth of eSports than i ever will in my short lifespan has come from this ability to filter out the stupid shit 90% of the community spews. Survival of the fittest if you will, those who want to see this thing grow and realize that most of the people out there are trolls who just talk shit.

Basically all this boils down to is something I learned a long time ago when gotfrag was still alive(thank you MLG for that, i love you for it) is that you have to be able to filter comments/posts on a forum. Start looking at the length of posts - if it’s a line long it’s useless 2 - 3 you might have some content, more than that and it’s definitely worth the read. You might end up getting trolled from time to time but it will definately increase the likely hood of legit stuff you read.

The Good the Bad the stupid

MLG’s announcement that GSL’s player would be shipped into MLG columbus and the top 4 foreigners would be sent to the GSL’s Code A there was a resounding F- YEAHHHHHHHHH! in the community. However, it’s not all good in this equation.

First lets look at the deal itself:
- GSL sends over 4 players to play in MLG’s tournament
- GSL’s players get seeded directly into the championship groups
- MLG’s top will be given code S status, unless they already have it
- MLG’s next 2 will be given Code A status
- the GSL’s players all get the Code S status, the top foreigners will get code A status
- More koreans can be invited to the tournament, but must compete through the open bracket

So it sounds good - koreans go to MLG, competing with out best. If the foreigners do well they’ll get code S status, or code A status. Sounds great right? MLG - the only big US tournament left - will get some of the best players in the world to play in their tournament.

However the bad seems to be far worse. First they decide now, not the last 3 years when europeans had to pay out of pocket or have sponsors pay to come over, to subsidize international players. They also suddenly decided to let other leagues point system, which they didn’t in Halo or GoW with the ECL or the i-Series points, be valid in their own.

But the worse, and the dumbest by far, is the fact that the 4 invited players won’t have to fight through the open bracket seems ridiculous to me. If i decided to get zyos, hp darkman, ogre 1 and ghandi together to play in Columbus - four legitimate halo legends - they’d have to fight through the open bracket. If i decided to get the old SK-halo team together you know what they’d have to do? Go through the open bracket. If i sponsored an European CoD team to come out you know what they’d have to do? FIGHT THROUGH THE OPEN BRACKET.

What makes these Koreans so special? The fact that their league has more money is broadcasted for far longer? If this is the case why didn’t they use the WoW points from WSVG or IEM when they were supported WoW? Why don’t they use WSVG, ECL, iSeries points for halo and and GoW?

And the even bigger question is - if they are giving these players stipends to come out, like i think they are - why aren’t they doing this for the European players? It’s not like the travel costs are that much worse for the players and the organizations - which can barely stay afloat as it is - which send the European players out. It’s not like certain players - ret, TLO, morrow and a few other - aren’t at the same level at the Koreans, because they almost all are.

And then there's all the other tournaments - Road to code A, the foreigner house and a few others - which all allow you to go out and play in Korea if you want, it's not like there is some sort of color barrier for the players. It's simply lack of reason - more tournaments, more money, easier money etc in foreign events - that foreigners don't choose to go out to these tournaments.

Three up, many to go

It was announced Thursday that the the Inferno Online Stockholm LAN center had expanded - becoming the biggest LAN Center in the world and putting in an eSports Arena .

This means that in the western world there are now two eSports arena in the western world, the famous one in Kiev which has been talked about in a previous blog and this new one in Stockholm Sweden(which i was surprised didn’t already have one). As well as the third one overall - with the one in Chengdu which was built in the middle of the CGS years. And this isn’t counting the arenas which are retrofitted for Starcraft events in Korea, or the sound stages which MSL/OSL/GSL use during their big pro events. This means that PC events will finally get the proper support they deserve without having to haul out cranes, scaffolding and bleachers every event.

However there’s still work to be done. If these business venture continue to be as successful as they have been in the past and attract major events like IEM, WCG forcing other countries and their entrepreneurs to build more in order to continue to host these events.

This will also allow for some validity in the moves of teams to localize to a city or region, if their practice facility also is where they play events, and finally may be a "home field" in an eventual international league which will be written about later.

It sure is ad hominem in here

So in between writing my final essays for the semester I checked my twitter and noticed some comments from Jeff “smeagol” dickinson talking mad shit on my shitty blog that keekerdc re-posted on his own. And while I value the opinions of more veteran members of the community - especially those which left the scene after everyone said how much they fucking hated the guy - it’s kinda ironic that he didn’t even bother to read the “about me” section of this blog. Or even the subtext of the title of it - I'm a nobody. A wannabe journalist. Someone who hasn’t been inside the major organizations and haven’t been around for their founding(although i did watch some of them rise and fall as well as read books about them). If i left the scene tomorrow nothing of value would be lost. I'm surprised anyone even reads this blog. I'm even more surprised that Keekerdc does.

So it’s ironic really - me, the nobody who is trying to do something for the scene - is getting criticised by somebody who was important at one time that hasn’t really done shit for the last 4 years since he didn’t join the CGS(which was a good call all things considered) with djWHEAT.

I’d like him to write comprehensive history of these scenes if he can - because i have on hand is old gotfrag/hltv/sk-gaming articles and interviews along with the extremely bias gameboys (that barely covers compLexity and 3D factually) as sources i can cite.

So basically this is my final statement: I’m a nobody who is trying to do some objective “journalism”(if you can call it that), while I'm getting criticised by some guy that hasn’t done anything....for trying to do something.

Esports Book review 1:GameBoys

Game Boys: Professional Videogaming's Rise from the Basement to the Big Time by Michael Kane covers the rivalry between the two biggest organizations in North American eSports history: compLexity gaming syndicate's vs Team3D. The book details the event directly after 3D's second win at the World Cyber Games and compLexity's win at ESWC - during that winter during the CPL.

However if you are looking at this book at a detailed breakdown of strategy or games, look elsewhere. This book is primarily a look at the two organizations and the drama between them. Team3D's status at the time as possibly the second biggest organization in terms of money in the western world - only trailing behind Sk-gaming - competing against the poor house compLexity gaming. Think Brooklyn Dodgers vs. New York Yankees - except instead of baseball they played counter-strike.

The book describes the characters and the storyline quite well. The loud, boisterous managerial style of Jason lake, owner of compLexity, versus the calm cool and collected Craig Levine, owner of Team3D. These caveats towards developing a feel for the characters, however, does not stop the overall progress of the narrative. The writer even goes into player transactions, sponsor deals and player salaries while still pushing the story forward in a good, tangible narrative. The book even mentions the dollar amount that was given Team3D and to the then startup Evil Geniuses, even giving out the player salaries which is generally a no-no in eSports journalism.

Some of the stories, about the founding of CAL i was not even aware of until the reading of the book. Others, like why and how Dave "Moto" Geffon and Sean "bullseye" Morgan were forced out of retirement, are a well told tales but still does bring some of the drama to the book and really does push the plot along.

Although the author does show that he is not of the gaming world - describing compLexity as a team that could never do it on LAN and was more of an online team when they won the biggest event in CS(ESWC) and did quite well, placing top 10 at CPL winter 2004. Furthermore when describing Team3D as the "best CS team in the world" may be a good narrative device, it was far from truthful. At the time of the book compLexity was force on the field - 3D had the best sponsors - and they weren't even the biggest organization in terms of dollar amount in eSports - that was, and is, SK-gaming.

Then you go into his descriptions of the action, it's clear his understanding of the game is not at the level required to really be giving a blow by blow, let alone go for a strategic breakdown of the events which are happening in the games themselves.

Overall i'd recommend this book to those which are not very well acquainted with counter-strike, and it's long storied history, but for those who already know it in depth, it leaves much to be desired.

FPS’s struggle

A recent discussion sparked by everyone’s favorite marketing guy @fishstix that the FPS scene has fallen behind or died off completely in terms of the scale of eSports. Now I’m here to tell you why that’s totally fucking wrong.

First, while FPS’s don’t have the most streaming content out there, it still is out there. For CS ESL.tv and some German, Russian and Japanese casters still stream this stuff consistently. Furthermore fishstix’s former company Quakelive.tv streams stuff on a consistent basis.

Now this is FAR, FAR from ideal. We have almost no amateur casters for CS and quake. And we have almost no English casters for CS and quake. Until recently - with the ESEA stream which did fairly well for their first foray into the streaming game - you had to hope that sirscoots, djwheat(which would never happen), or rivington the third would find interest in a match and stream it. And when they did they never really bothered to do commentate in a manner which would be conducive to new players. This seriously hinders the next part of the problem: eSports Efficacy.

Most, not all but most, new people to eSports don’t know a damn thing about the history of it. Shit most people don’t even know how big Starcraft: Brood War was. Whenever i tweet about Team Evil Geniuses - ANY of their branches - people automatically assume I'm talking about their starcraft team. Even prominent moderators(@zlasher) don’t realize that I'm talking about Evil Geniuses’ prestigious Counter-strike team.

This leads to some confusion when the teams and players aren’t properly prefaced with the necessary information to show why this match is important. It doesn’t help much when some streamers - specifically the LiveonThree crew - turn their backs on the game that brought them there and the premier eSports news site - Gotfrag - gets killed by Major league gaming.

The third and most crucial point of the three is the fragmentation of the communities - specifically the CS scene. For the majority of CS’s lifetime there was only one place to go for news, HLTV info, interviews, match reviews and just casual talking - Gotfrag.com. It was the ESPN of eSports, if it was big news - regardless of what game it was - it was on Gotfrag. This allowed for easy access to all games - Quake, DoD, coutner-strike(1.6 and source), Call of Duty, America’s Army, even starcraft and warcraft three had good coverage at gotfrag.

With it’s death the scene fragmented about 5 ways. CS went to HLTV.org and ESEA, Quake went to ESReality, Starcraft went(inb4 it was always there) to gosugamers and team liquid, call of duty went to tek-9 and i have no clue where America's army DoD and warcraft III went.

Now for the first two i see solutions forming. cArn from fnatic and n0thing from EG are both doing demo reviews - their youtube channels can be found in an early blog - and both are really trying to get more people into counter-strike. Every ESL even seems to have higher and higher quality in terms of broadcaster’s knowledge of the game and their ability to get into the game emotionally. Corey Dunn and jesuit jumped back into the broadcasting scene with ESEA and they attracted a decent crowd in terms of viewers(~6000) for their first time around. The second one seems to be getting better with time, as people watch starcraft they will naturally become interested in the history of the game and the organizations which are supporting it.

However, unless someone wants to offer Sundance a boat load of money for Gotfrag.com or major league gaming actually decides to move out of their comfortable little console world and allow coverage of other games on gotfrag - or even simply funding the coverage in the slightest - I'm almost certain that people will come back and they will get the community’s love again.

However moving to a new game is NOT the solution to any of these problems. It only makes these problems worse. Suggesting that moving to a game - which has no leagues, no sponsors and no long term stability - will actually hinder other things which have separated and made the games themselves interesting.

A prime example of this is the game i come from. Counter-Strike’s 10 year lifespan has allowed a full metagame, styles, and overarching strategy to develop which would not have if it had only been around for 3-4 years. We didn’t even know all the things about a map - like de_nuke - and the gameplay - like crouch hopping - until the middle of 2007.

If we were to adopt every new game that came along - like halo has - we’d have: 1) worse content because the level of strategy and understanding of the game will not be there 2) worse player careers as some players will be force out before their prime 3) an underdeveloped metagame which would hinder the game from being competitive 4) a lack of proper development in terms of player skill as just as the people becoming comfortable and competent with the mechanics of the game they will be force to adapt to the new game which may not play the same as the old one.

However not moving on will also hinder a scene. For example, if the broodwar scene never moved over, we may never have had explosion we are currently experiencing. If the skillset and the feeling for the game can transfer over with minimal interference in terms of changes in maps and gameplay than it should played rather than the old one. The reason source was never really adopted wasn’t because it’s graphics weren’t good, but instead that the gameplay and maps weren’t as fluid and instead of a mere facelife they models and maps were changed to the point which strategies and thought of the original could not change over.

Therefore we SHOULD adopt a new game IF a successor allows for the talents inherent in original game can transfer over, allowing for a smooth transition of talent and metagame from one to the other. New maps, new strategies etc. should come from the community instead of the from it being forced down their throats.

Rivalries in eSports

I was on twitter and i noticed something on Geoff “incontrol” Robinson’s twitter. My response may have flown over his head. And that got me thinking: do people who aren’t aware of what happened in 2008(when Evil Geniuses took compLexity’s renowned CS team after the CGS’s fall) still take sides? And if so, why? Furthermore does the relationship in one game influence another?

I know that my opinion of organizations - particularly the two in question - changed greatly in how they handled the rivalry. The moment Evil Geniuses took fRoD storm and warden i lost all respect for that organization and pulled for compLexity the entire time. That did not change until they left the American CS scene out to dry in order to sign a Brazilian counter-strike team.(much like how many fans don’t care about the team once they leave their market).

Now this leads back to the original question. Does the rivalry which started in counter-strike continue on into the other games? I know the Boston Red Sox don’t hate the Los Angeles Dodgers for what happen in the latest Lakers/Celtics series. But FC Barcelona's Basketball team still does have a rivalry with Real Madrid's over similar reasons.

I don’t know if this is the case for most people, but as a compLexity fan during the 3D and reconstruction(of NA CS) eras i would watch every 3D/EG series and mark the calendar in advance for the games. This even occured when 3D and coL moved to source for the CGS. This also occurred when EG played compLexity.br later. And i know HLTV.org blows up everytime SK-gaming plays Fnatic and Mousesports plays Alternate.

Does this happen in the starcraft II scene - do these rivalries among organizations have the same kick to them in team leagues as they do in a 1v1 setting as they did in the CS scene in a purely team setting?

I’m hoping to get some feedback on this topic from all the (twenty) people who read this blog.

Loyalty in eSports

In my two years in the eSports journalism world I've noticed one thing about the people in it: they don’t care about growing an organization, and they have no sense of loyalty. I spent my entire “career” at Insideresports.com and I'd still be in it if school didn’t start to actually be difficult. I liked the idea - bring back objectivity back to eSports journalism and try not to kiss the ass of the established organizations. That and the marketing BS “CONNECTING ALL GAMERS.” However my fellow journalists didn’t seem to have the same connect to the idea.

For example within the first two months one of the major founders left the organizations to a rival organizations FOR THE EXACT SAME POSITION. And then of the original staff of about 20 we decreased to about 5 within the same period. Most of the staffers left to join compLexity, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, Sk-gaming and all equally had about the same tenure with those organizations - about 2 maybe 3 months.

And it’s not like i don’t know the deals they were given - i had be approached by the same organizations to cover their respective teams but the contract they offered me were effectively the same as one i had with Insider eSports except they had the words “Evil Geniuses” or “Fnatic” on them.

But the biggest blow to the simple growth of the org was how bad the “marketing” and “streaming” people were in terms of ethics. Every time we signed a marketing person to the organization - and I'm almost certain that some these people were paid out of Peawok’s pocket -
would take the credibility we had to sponsors, have the sponsors sign deals with themselves and then go off and form their own companies and basically leech off our limited success. This happened numerous times over the course of the two years. The streaming people would do the same things, except i know they took seed money from Peawok for their equipment.

So you might ask “why are you complaining about this now when you have left the organization and effectively left the scene all together?” Well first i had a contract that i couldn't talk about the inner workings of IE until after about a year since i left the organization. Second it’s been bothering me for a long time. I’ve grown up in and around tech start ups my entire life. They always talked about “developing a culture” and “trying to provide the best product for the consumer.” And those things don't’ seem to be in the eSports world. The culture in eSports is “me first, fuck objectivity, fuck developing anything” and the product is an article which is not then not doing anything for the next few months until you are finished finalizing your contract with the next organization. And then the cycle repeats itself.

Furthermore it seems like some of the people who are in eSports don’t actually care about eSports or developing it but instead they seem much more interested in simply using it to move up the corporate ladder. They start organizations, build connections with sponsors and once they are big enough - and instead of moving the organization to profitability - they simply jump ship to the corporate sponsor. Or Stream service they were using. Or work in some other tech company.

And because of this we have a very unstable scene, where we don’t know which organizations are legitimate and which are simple cash grabs which are created to stroke the founders ego before he jumps off with a golden parachute to a comfy seat in an office building somewhere.