I have to say I agree with him almost 100%. Esports has evolved to the point where we don't need the "old boys club" of regular sports to make it legitimate, it's done that on its own. By trying...
I have to say I agree with him almost 100%. Esports has evolved to the point where we don't need the "old boys club" of regular sports to make it legitimate, it's done that on its own. By trying to pander to traditional sports markets, I feel the professional scenes of certain games (primarily OW) have taken a step backwards. I'd much rather have a naturally grown scene, as is present in Dota and the FGC, than what Blizzard and Riot are trying to push.
Financially I think Esports are in an interesting time now. For the first few years, they really were fairly niche events that were really only known and supported by a tight knit community, but...
Financially I think Esports are in an interesting time now. For the first few years, they really were fairly niche events that were really only known and supported by a tight knit community, but the problem is that to make them sustainable, organizers are always on the lookout for sponsors. There's only so much reliable cash you can get out of the hardware manufacturers (Asus, MSI, Nvidia, Intel, AMD), and as they commit to specific events that they want to see grow and become more and more name branded (i.e. IEM), they become less available to the rest of the Esports world.
So where do you get the sponsorship? Sponsors look at advertising revenue. The revenue available from online advertisement has traditionally been much lower than traditional broadcasting revenue, which meant that tournament organizers were looking for a way into the more traditional realm of sports broadcasting. You have some niche channels (Tech TV, Ginx) that have popped up to try to take advantage of that, but they're not carried in a lot of places, and the bigger stations like ESPN basically relegate any coverage they have of the Esports world to the Ocho (ESPN2, or ESPN+, their OTT streaming service).
As of 2018, for the first year ever, digital advertising revenue surpassed broadcast advertising revenue (https://www.adweek.com/digital/digital-advertising-revenue-grew-21-and-surpassed-tv-ad-spend-last-year/). So the landscape is shifting - the money is starting to become available through digital advertisements now in a way that it wasn't available before, making tournament organizers and game publishers trying to push their own Esports less dependent on traditional broadcast media and more apt to try to establish their own viewing audience.
So I guess what I'm saying in a really roundabout way, is that I think ReDeYe is correct, and will be more and more correct as time goes on and traditional broadcast advertising revenue continues to drop.
I pretty much agree, at least in terms of actual events and with the specific instance of the Olympics. I'm happy to see that the trends seem to be going away from the old MLG thing where they...
I pretty much agree, at least in terms of actual events and with the specific instance of the Olympics. I'm happy to see that the trends seem to be going away from the old MLG thing where they tried to use the aesthetic of traditional sports as well...I'd like to see more of our own identity. The FGC tried to do the same thing and somewhat succeeded, but having your own identity doesn't have to mean keeping in the racism / sexism while keeping your scene small.
However, I do think that esports does benefit from outside attention in a way that doesn't damage its own integrity or require changing to fit the standards of others. ESPN esports coverage, while it's too limited for my taste, is a wonderful way to bring "real" journalism into esports. You can sorta live your life as a traditional sports fan in a million ways that aren't watching or playing the game itself. You can do fantasy leagues (which some video games do have, to be fair), watch and listen to constant analysis and discussion surrounding the state of whatever sport you care about, have a constant feed of well-written news articles, and a bunch of other things. It's a little harder to live your life as a Counter-Strike or StarCraft fan in that way. Traditional organizations can fill that void if they want to, and that's something which can exist without harming the core tournaments and streams at all.
I have to say I agree with him almost 100%. Esports has evolved to the point where we don't need the "old boys club" of regular sports to make it legitimate, it's done that on its own. By trying to pander to traditional sports markets, I feel the professional scenes of certain games (primarily OW) have taken a step backwards. I'd much rather have a naturally grown scene, as is present in Dota and the FGC, than what Blizzard and Riot are trying to push.
Financially I think Esports are in an interesting time now. For the first few years, they really were fairly niche events that were really only known and supported by a tight knit community, but the problem is that to make them sustainable, organizers are always on the lookout for sponsors. There's only so much reliable cash you can get out of the hardware manufacturers (Asus, MSI, Nvidia, Intel, AMD), and as they commit to specific events that they want to see grow and become more and more name branded (i.e. IEM), they become less available to the rest of the Esports world.
So where do you get the sponsorship? Sponsors look at advertising revenue. The revenue available from online advertisement has traditionally been much lower than traditional broadcasting revenue, which meant that tournament organizers were looking for a way into the more traditional realm of sports broadcasting. You have some niche channels (Tech TV, Ginx) that have popped up to try to take advantage of that, but they're not carried in a lot of places, and the bigger stations like ESPN basically relegate any coverage they have of the Esports world to the Ocho (ESPN2, or ESPN+, their OTT streaming service).
As of 2018, for the first year ever, digital advertising revenue surpassed broadcast advertising revenue (https://www.adweek.com/digital/digital-advertising-revenue-grew-21-and-surpassed-tv-ad-spend-last-year/). So the landscape is shifting - the money is starting to become available through digital advertisements now in a way that it wasn't available before, making tournament organizers and game publishers trying to push their own Esports less dependent on traditional broadcast media and more apt to try to establish their own viewing audience.
So I guess what I'm saying in a really roundabout way, is that I think ReDeYe is correct, and will be more and more correct as time goes on and traditional broadcast advertising revenue continues to drop.
I pretty much agree, at least in terms of actual events and with the specific instance of the Olympics. I'm happy to see that the trends seem to be going away from the old MLG thing where they tried to use the aesthetic of traditional sports as well...I'd like to see more of our own identity. The FGC tried to do the same thing and somewhat succeeded, but having your own identity doesn't have to mean keeping in the racism / sexism while keeping your scene small.
However, I do think that esports does benefit from outside attention in a way that doesn't damage its own integrity or require changing to fit the standards of others. ESPN esports coverage, while it's too limited for my taste, is a wonderful way to bring "real" journalism into esports. You can sorta live your life as a traditional sports fan in a million ways that aren't watching or playing the game itself. You can do fantasy leagues (which some video games do have, to be fair), watch and listen to constant analysis and discussion surrounding the state of whatever sport you care about, have a constant feed of well-written news articles, and a bunch of other things. It's a little harder to live your life as a Counter-Strike or StarCraft fan in that way. Traditional organizations can fill that void if they want to, and that's something which can exist without harming the core tournaments and streams at all.