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I wanted to bring this to the attention of the community and hear your thoughts.
The WCG Qualifier for Sydney is coming up at City Hunter (a local net cafe chain) this weekend and my team of seven SEA Grandmasters has been banned from entering the venue wearing our sponsor's uniform (Intime - a competing cafe). We finally received the statement below confirming rumours that our team would not be allowed to represent our sponsor.
"Hi Guys
There has been a lot of talk regarding City Hunter’s policy on the wearing of Competitors logos inside our venues in particular on competition days.
Our Policy is as follows:
‘City Hunter does not allow any material that promotes a direct competitor i.e. LAN Cafes inside their venues.’
Many people may ask why this is the case, so I’ll explain our position, City Hunter spends a significant amount of time, money and stress into contributing to the development and growth of the esports community and has done so for many years. From a business ethics point of view, We believe our competitors should not reap from the rewards of all our hard efforts for little to no contribution to WCG.
This stance is not uncommon in business Coles wouldnt allow Woolworths to promote inside their shops Target for Big W, David Jones in Myer etc etc nor would thier competitors expect them to.
If you have any concerns regarding this policy feel free to PM me so we can discuss this further"
City Hunter has so far refused to budge on this policy, despite this being a WCG event.
The business analogy falls short as I've never heard of this happening in any sporting event. Intel sponsored players compete and advertise their company in AMD sponsored LANs. In my opinion, competing sponsors is at the heart of esports growth, just look at the KT vs SKT1 rivalry. It feels like CH just wants to maintain their monopoly of the Sydney market without sponsoring a team of their own.
It really sucks, we now must consider putting aside our sponsorship for this and all future City Hunter LAN's if we wish to compete. I guessed the main reason companies avoid doing this is due to bad publicity so here I am making sure the community knows where City Hunter stands on eSports.
 
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This is bad publicity as far as I can tell. I would think WCG might frown on this type of stuff.
edit: also, lol at their analogy?
I can totally see a pro sports team being like "nope, can't wear Reeboks in our stadium. Nike only."
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so wait they don't allow you to wear shirts from other places in City Hunter
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United States13896 Posts
Wear your jerseys underneath a white tee and when you guys win the thing tear off the tee Hulkamania style and scream "What'cha gonna do, What'cha gonna do brother when Intime gaming runs wild on you!?!"
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On June 21 2011 15:36 p4NDemik wrote:
Wear your jerseys underneath a white tee and when you guys win the thing tear off the tee Hulkamania style and scream "What'cha gonna do, What'cha gonna do brother when Intime gaming runs wild on you!?!"
HAHAHA!!! Will do man.
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Really sad to hear. They're probably pissed intime stole so many of their customers but this is a low blow.
Hopefully intime can petition for a WCG host and be more neutral.
P.S. Are you guys going to be there this Sunday?
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I honestly don't see the problem here
Opening and running a pcbang on this side of the world is one of the least profitable businesses you could possibly run. Advertising for a direct competitor woudln't fly anywhere else and I don't see why it should fly here.
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RIICHARD record it and post on youtube xD
Storm here =)
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On June 21 2011 15:44 Kavas wrote:
Really sad to hear. They're probably pissed intime stole so many of their customers but this is a low blow.
Hopefully intime can petition for a WCG host and be more neutral.
P.S. Are you guys going to be there this Sunday?
Hopefully they change their policy otherwise we'll have to go plain clothes and pay our way. I'm worried I'll be banned from the qualifiers completely for kicking up a stink here and on facebook but one of us had to.
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On June 21 2011 15:44 Kavas wrote:
Really sad to hear. They're probably pissed intime stole so many of their customers but this is a low blow.
Hopefully intime can petition for a WCG host and be more neutral.
P.S. Are you guys going to be there this Sunday?
Hi Kavas,
It's on Saturday and yeah we'll be there ^^. The Starcraft 2 qualifiers will be at Chatswood and it starts at 3pm.
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is like I buy the home brand ingredients when I make the disney cadbury hannah montana cake, noone will know!
Next time I go into cityhunter I will leave a smeggy suprise in da toilets!
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That's a really large shame.
Play.
Win.
Then take your sweaters off and reveal your sponsor ;D!
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I thought you were talking about the drama for a second. MC watches it and I was thinking "he would watch that?"
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On June 21 2011 15:44 Hakker wrote:
I honestly don't see the problem here
Opening and running a pcbang on this side of the world is one of the least profitable businesses you could possibly run. Advertising for a direct competitor woudln't fly anywhere else and I don't see why it should fly here.
Normally this would be alright but its a WCG event. Why should these players be put at a disadvantage at what should be a neutral event?
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Herpulous Derpulous, wear a different shirt to the event.
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United States13896 Posts
On June 21 2011 15:51 John Madden wrote:
is like I buy the home brand ingredients when I make the disney cadbury hannah montana cake, noone will know!
Next time I go into cityhunter I will leave a smeggy suprise in da toilets!
LOL
what is going on where am I.
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On June 21 2011 16:15 ZanooKu wrote:
Herpulous Derpulous, wear a different shirt to the event.
You madden because your mom can't afford shirts?!
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On June 21 2011 15:36 p4NDemik wrote:
Wear your jerseys underneath a white tee and when you guys win the thing tear off the tee Hulkamania style and scream "What'cha gonna do, What'cha gonna do brother when Intime gaming runs wild on you!?!"
HAHAHAHAHA this is by far the best solution. I can just imagine rossi
"WATCHA GONA DO PELICANS? WHAT? WHAT?"
edit: just to clarify, what's intimes position tom? they were willing to pay your entry to the comp if you wore the jersey? Are(if they were) still willing to pay your way to nats if someone qualifies as long as you wear the jersey there?
Being as unbiased as possible I can definitely see Cityhunters PoV, and if it was purely their event with no WCG support I actually think I would side with them, but the fact it's a neutral event and not cityhunter specifically's that should tip it in you/our favour tho.
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Estonia4644 Posts
who said mom is coming
neither are her shirts
<_>
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On June 21 2011 15:44 Hakker wrote:
I honestly don't see the problem here
Opening and running a pcbang on this side of the world is one of the least profitable businesses you could possibly run. Advertising for a direct competitor woudln't fly anywhere else and I don't see why it should fly here.
It's basic marketing though.. Instead of trying to compete against each other, they could easily co-operate. I think it's just because they don't have a sponsored team and are pissed that the good players are sponsored by a rival company. If they had a team and both were allowed to wear sponsor shirts at each other LAN cafe then it would be more advertising for both companies, more exposure and more growth to Australian e-Sports, which is the goal of both cafes isn't it?
Like rival petrol station companies; instead of competing by having the lowest price, the higher they both raise the price the more money they both make in the long run.
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I am from World Cyber Games and I have not been made aware or had any complaints lodged.
All players, no matter what they are wearing will be welcome at the event. CityHunter has not tried to, or specified, that they have this requirement to us, and therefore cannot act on our behalf to enforce this.
Come to the event, and if anyone tries to kick you out, I will make sure the admins are aware of the situation, and they will deal with it 
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stupid fucking analogy they've used.
Its not like another lan cafe is coming in and setting up a fucking booth to sell their product... They simply have their name on a few tshirts... good lord.
This is like if the greeter at walmart was like "Is that a Fucking Jimmy Johnson T-shirt with Lowes written all over it? GET THE FUCK OUT RIGHT NOW!"
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Estonia4644 Posts
they're just clearly a small business with pride, fearing that players "promoting other LAN cafes and winning on their home turf" is unacceptable... while none of that seriousness is actually happening...
its as if they're not sure what the difference between representing and promoting is
...
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On June 21 2011 16:30 Casua1ty wrote:I am from World Cyber Games and I have not been made aware or had any complaints lodged. All players, no matter what they are wearing will be welcome at the event. CityHunter has not tried to, or specified, that they have this requirement to us, and therefore cannot act on our behalf to enforce this. Come to the event, and if anyone tries to kick you out, I will make sure the admins are aware of the situation, and they will deal with it
Thanks Casua1ty,
We'll probably wear our sponsored clothes but also bring a spare change of casual clothes just in case there are any issues.
Cheers,
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Screw the change of clothes riichard, have TA beast the entire event topless. Women crowds will increase 400% (so there'll probably be about 4).
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On June 21 2011 16:39 Ftrunkz wrote:
Screw the change of clothes riichard, have TA beast the entire event topless. Women crowds will increase 400% (so there'll probably be about 4).
BUT ITS WINTER AND ITS COOOLD!!! TT .... We'll get Rossi to do it.
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On June 21 2011 16:39 Ftrunkz wrote:
Screw the change of clothes riichard, have TA beast the entire event topless. Women crowds will increase 400% (so there'll probably be about 4).
With big inTime tattoos across their bare chests? (the nipples could dot the i's)
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Australia163 Posts
dammnn, if I had enough money for fuel i'd totes come down and check it out. Love to see some home grown talent competing.
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On June 21 2011 16:30 Casua1ty wrote:I am from World Cyber Games and I have not been made aware or had any complaints lodged. All players, no matter what they are wearing will be welcome at the event. CityHunter has not tried to, or specified, that they have this requirement to us, and therefore cannot act on our behalf to enforce this. Come to the event, and if anyone tries to kick you out, I will make sure the admins are aware of the situation, and they will deal with it
Win!
If someone from your team wins this event make a big show of thanking your sponsor =)
What a terrible business decision for a company hoping to cash in on the esports boom.
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Two of the first things you negotiate with a minor sponsor like a net cafe is your team shirt and covering LAN entry fee costs. This is an expensive event at AU$40 for someone who doesn't really have a shot at winning and anything that helps alleviate that cost encourages more people to enter. TA is a big clan as anyone familiar with the SEA scene will tell you and while only the top 6 or so players are sponsored, they are some of the most influential players who are in a position to encourage or dissuade the participation of dozens of non-Masters league casual/social clanmembers in any event. By turning the 7+ players away they are risking making less revenue off of ticket sales.
What's most annoying is that they are essentially saying "we host a lot of esports events, banning competitor logos is good for our business, therefore banning competitor logos is good for esports". Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture with a scene as young as "esports" and realise that what is good for this one event could be affecting the long-term sustainability of the competitive LAN scene.
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I think the question comes down to if WCG actually gave them funds to run this if they did then CH have no case what so ever. But if not I can see where they are coming from, harsh but at least understandable.
Now my question is why the **** would anyone still go to LAN cafes in this day and age?
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On June 21 2011 15:36 p4NDemik wrote:
Wear your jerseys underneath a white tee and when you guys win the thing tear off the tee Hulkamania style and scream "What'cha gonna do, What'cha gonna do brother when Intime gaming runs wild on you!?!"
I lol'd so hard.
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On June 21 2011 18:01 haduken wrote:
I think the question comes down to if WCG actually gave them funds to run this if they did then CH have no case what so ever. But if not I can see where they are coming from, harsh but at least understandable.
Now my question is why the **** would anyone still go to LAN cafes in this day and age?
Play tournaments? Meet up and play with friends? School kids killing time after school? WoW guilds raiding? FPS/RTS teams practising?
Some people like to share the interest of gaming with other people and not have their entire interaction with their friends be through a computer screen.
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On June 21 2011 18:07 Ftrunkz wrote:Show nested quote +On June 21 2011 18:01 haduken wrote:
I think the question comes down to if WCG actually gave them funds to run this if they did then CH have no case what so ever. But if not I can see where they are coming from, harsh but at least understandable.
Now my question is why the **** would anyone still go to LAN cafes in this day and age? Play tournaments? Meet up and play with friends? School kids killing time after school? WoW guilds raiding? FPS/RTS teams practising? Some people like to share the interest of gaming with other people and not have their entire interaction with their friends be through a computer screen.
I go to meet up with school girls of questionable age that I met online, but they don't end up being school girls.. or very young.
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Australia163 Posts
On June 21 2011 18:25 John Madden wrote:Show nested quote +On June 21 2011 18:07 Ftrunkz wrote:On June 21 2011 18:01 haduken wrote:
I think the question comes down to if WCG actually gave them funds to run this if they did then CH have no case what so ever. But if not I can see where they are coming from, harsh but at least understandable.
Now my question is why the **** would anyone still go to LAN cafes in this day and age? Play tournaments? Meet up and play with friends? School kids killing time after school? WoW guilds raiding? FPS/RTS teams practising? Some people like to share the interest of gaming with other people and not have their entire interaction with their friends be through a computer screen. I go to meet up with school girls of questionable age that I met online, but they don't end up being school girls.. or very young.
So they're women in high powered business jobs?
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Netherlands45349 Posts
Damnit I thought this was about the Korean Drama
:<.
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Dude, this is total bullshit. They have absolutely no right not to admit you, especially if they are representing WCG. WCG should be furious about this because they should expect that all competitors should have equal access to qualifiers if they want to maintain any kind of legitimacy. This is the grounds for some kind of serious boycott of either that cafe, or of WCG (as putting pressure on the entity that has power of the one you wish to change is usually most effective), but I'm sure that is not an option for you as it would probably do you more harm than then.
Anyway, they have no philosophical ground on which to argue. You are doing the advertising, not them, and what you choose to advertise does not reflect on them at all. It's just a stupid case of unprofessional rivalry and they have not right to deny you to compete. It's a very basic case of discrimination.
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On June 21 2011 16:30 Casua1ty wrote:I am from World Cyber Games and I have not been made aware or had any complaints lodged. All players, no matter what they are wearing will be welcome at the event. CityHunter has not tried to, or specified, that they have this requirement to us, and therefore cannot act on our behalf to enforce this. Come to the event, and if anyone tries to kick you out, I will make sure the admins are aware of the situation, and they will deal with it
Thanks for clearing this up, we've passed it on to the head of marketing, Chris @ City Hunter. We were unaware of Cityhunter's policy until very recently just as you were. With less than a week to go, and the rumours of banning confirmed I felt we needed to get this resolved asap rather than waiting on a chain of PM's; going public did that. We're just happy we can compete as a team in WCG now.
There is still the issue of whether we're allowed in any of their other events. I'd much prefer CH create their own team and compete rather than stifling the competition, but that is up to them and how they want to be seen.
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So in the end City Hunter banned us from wearing the Intime shirts despite the wishes of WCG 
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Wait, I'm sorry but am I the only one who agrees with CH here?
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Just makes me wonder why when I went to a lan back in september at city hunter moonglade and co were made the exception with their sponsored clothing, just saying double standards ain't cool :|
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Total nonsense. The only good thing I can say is at least they didn't eject you from the event.
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Well If I ever to to Australia, and need to find a PC Cafe. I will not go to that one.
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the Dagon Knight4002 Posts
Given that someone from WCG assured you that this would not be an issue:
+ Show Spoiler +On June 21 2011 16:30 Casua1ty wrote:I am from World Cyber Games and I have not been made aware or had any complaints lodged. All players, no matter what they are wearing will be welcome at the event. CityHunter has not tried to, or specified, that they have this requirement to us, and therefore cannot act on our behalf to enforce this. Come to the event, and if anyone tries to kick you out, I will make sure the admins are aware of the situation, and they will deal with it
It would not be outside the realm of possibility for you to demand recompense from either the people who denied entry or from WCG for their assurance that you'd be okay to wear your gear...
Regardless, this is an embarrassment to both parties.
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On June 27 2011 02:21 fearus wrote:
Wait, I'm sorry but am I the only one who agrees with CH here?
Probably, or one of very few.
You don't volunteer to host a 3rd party event if you're not going to let certain teams in based on their sponsors, or because of their jerseys.
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EPT
