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I've been thinking and thinking about a StarCraft 2 league that I'd like to put together and I want to run the idea past some people before I start sinking money into it. Right now it's just an idea floating in my head but it doesn't seem entirely implausible.
It will be a 2 division league. The first division will be invite-only with a prize of around $500 for first (depending on participation and success of the league, it can rise every season). The second division will be an open division - $10 entry into a tournament that will net you several hundred dollars in prize money if you do well plus an invite into next season's first division.
The first division will be run in round robin style with a post-season tournament between the best players. The second division will be an extensive bracketed tournament in search of the best players out there.
We would livestream almost every Division 1 game as well as numerous Division 2 games. Division 1 invites would be the top of the western StarCraft 2 scene.
This will be a relegation-style league where the bottom performers in Division 1 are moved down and the top in Div. 2 are moved up (for free). The prizes will initially be paid out of pocket by me for the sake of the community. Eventually, I'd like it to become a self-sustaining league where Div. 2 entry fees and sponsorship pays for prize money and the scene ends up all the richer.
Every season's prizepool would be determined by the participation in the last season (first season being paid for out of my pocket).
As a show of good faith, I could hand the initial prize money off to someone much more known than I am to show that I am not trying to take anyone's money and run (to be fair, I have been a part of this community for over 7 years now, so I'm not running). I have no problem with that, I trust many of the people in this community (and anyway, some of the poker players may be too rich to steal something like this  ).
If this did well, it could be run quite often.
Let me say that these numbers are simply off the top of my head. It may be less, it may be more and they almost certainly will change as the idea materializes and reality hits us.
Would you be interested in anything like this? What should change? Keep in mind that, for this particular incarnation of a league, there would have to be an entry fee to Division 2. OR, perhaps there is some other way to finance a steady prize pool? Shoot your ideas this way.
This is just an idea right now but, hey, it seems plausible and awesome. I always loved the idea of a steady, reliable league (think CAL in the old days, except with prize money) - it does wonders for a community.
Am I crazy, guys? Am I seeing this through rose-colored glasses or could this work for everyone?
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I think this sounds like a lot of fun. Just don't make it totally impossible for people to get from div2 to div1, or to have them feel like they are just feeding the div1 prizepool.
As for funding, my recommendation is to make it community + entry fee funded to try it out, and if it succeeds, start looking for sponsors the 3rd or 4th time around.
Personally, I'd definitely pay 10$ to play in div2 if prizes were attractive and the # of players was reasonable.
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the trouble is that you might flood the market and lose sponsorship. Unless you have great casters and great games to break the monotony, it will be very difficult to watch all the games.
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On August 05 2010 07:53 AcrossFiveJulys wrote:
I think this sounds like a lot of fun. Just don't make it totally impossible for people to get from div2 to div1, or to have them feel like they are just feeding the div1 prizepool.
As for funding, my recommendation is to make it community + entry fee funded to try it out, and if it succeeds, start looking for sponsors the 3rd or 4th time around.
Personally, I'd definitely pay 10$ to play in div2 if prizes were attractive and the # of players was reasonable.
I'll definitely have to make sure people have a chance to advance. Keeping Division 2's size down will be important.
You're right about sponsors. This is something in the future if, as you said, it works several times.
Ok! Thanks for the feedback.
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On August 05 2010 07:53 RAUS wrote:
the trouble is that you might flood the market and lose sponsorship. Unless you have great casters and great games to break the monotony, it will be very difficult to watch all the games.
Well there's no need to watch all the games and there wont be THAT many casted anyway.
Division 1 won't have a large number of players so it won't be hard to cast all that.
For Division 2 matches, we'd only cast the highlights.
This all probably adds up to, at the very very most, 40 games casted over 1 season. Probably less.
I do take your point though, don't do too much.
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If I understood your idea correctly, you want to run a football-like championship?
Like the spanish La Liga, where the best teams fight for the title in the Primera division while the rest fight for a spot in the Primera next season?
The idea is pretty cool, but I believe it will take you a lot of dedication to run it smoothly. :/
If you manage to make this happen, I wish you good luck!
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On August 05 2010 09:21 fabiano wrote:
If I understood your idea correctly, you want to run a football-like championship?
Like the spanish La Liga, where the best teams fight for the title in the Primera division while the rest fight for a spot in the Primera next season?
The idea is pretty cool, but I believe it will take you a lot of dedication to run it smoothly. :/
If you manage to make this happen, I wish you good luck!
Yes. Absolutely, it'll take a lot of dedication :D I can do it for at least a season or two to try it out and if it works, it'll be easy to make time for more seasons.
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Maybe you should start with a free league with no prizes to test the format, the schedule, etc. and then invest the money you planned.
It seems like a really good idea looking forward to it. Good luck!!
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I see a few problems. You should either make both divisions cost money, or both be free. Also, wouldn't top players want to be in the lower division because even though it costs 10 dollars they would have a much higher chance of winning? Also, if you do this, I think you should do season 1 with no fee, and season 1 winners are seeded into division 1, versus invite only. It would give you a trial, so everything would run smoothly the second time around, and make sure that good players aren't left out of the invite-league, for instance, someone like Sheth or Slush would be sure to end up in division 2, regardless of how good of a job you do on invites.
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Hey man- i tried to get the same kind of thing rolling before release- and it got shot down by the blues on account of i wanted to make it 25$ to enter, (even though every dollar would go tothe prize pool). They aren't OK with people paying to enter- just a FYI. I'd love to see a sweet league get put together for sc2.
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yea but chobopeon is a trustworthy guy!
i promise to beat him up if he pockets the money. Will be a challenge since he's quiet tall but ill go for Bas Rutten and aim for the balls.
p.s.: yea the idea is awesome but the reason it hasnt been done is because it is very complicated to run. So yea awesome, but dedication. Plus you need to make the bottom league in a way that everyone will be satisfied. Why not go with X amount of money per win? Even if person shells up 10 dollars he will experience less regret for losing most of it if he can get the rush of winning 50 cent for those 2 wins he accomplished after all
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On August 05 2010 09:53 Zoltan wrote:
Hey man- i tried to get the same kind of thing rolling before release- and it got shot down by the blues on account of i wanted to make it 25$ to enter, (even though every dollar would go tothe prize pool). They aren't OK with people paying to enter- just a FYI. I'd love to see a sweet league get put together for sc2.
This can't be a 100% non-flexible rule. I'll contact Blizzard and see what I can do.
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On August 05 2010 10:06 Sfydjklm wrote:
yea but chobopeon is a trustworthy guy!
i promise to beat him up if he pockets the money. Will be a challenge since he's quiet tall but ill go for Bas Rutten and aim for the balls.
don't do it don't do it!
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On August 05 2010 10:07 choboPEon wrote:Show nested quote +On August 05 2010 09:53 Zoltan wrote:
Hey man- i tried to get the same kind of thing rolling before release- and it got shot down by the blues on account of i wanted to make it 25$ to enter, (even though every dollar would go tothe prize pool). They aren't OK with people paying to enter- just a FYI. I'd love to see a sweet league get put together for sc2. This can't be a 100% non-flexible rule. I'll contact Blizzard and see what I can do.
In fact, I KNOW it's not. I just have to talk to someone. I'll see what I can do!
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On August 05 2010 10:06 Sfydjklm wrote:yea but chobopeon is a trustworthy guy! i promise to beat him up if he pockets the money. Will be a challenge since he's quiet tall but ill go for Bas Rutten and aim for the balls. p.s.: yea the idea is awesome but the reason it hasnt been done is because it is very complicated to run. So yea awesome, but dedication. Plus you need to make the bottom league in a way that everyone will be satisfied. Why not go with X amount of money per win? Even if person shells up 10 dollars he will experience less regret for losing most of it if he can get the rush of winning 50 cent for those 2 wins he accomplished after all
Yes, there will be money during the season to make sure people don't drop out. I've been getting some awesome advice on what to do so if Blizz allows it, who knows!
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I've also got other ideas for financing the prize pool. Hm.
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EPT
