EPT
I may be neither player nor event organiser, but I think I could do something to help you with your public image issues in the SC2 community. What I’m going to suggest here might seem a little drastic, but I assure you, it’s been well considered. It’s counter-intuitive, but I’m going to have to ask you to bear with me, I am an expert marketing consultant.*
Since the whole debacle with PR around Team EG’s acquisition of Puma from TSL, there’s been an impression that EG is slow to respond to situations. Moreover, the ill feeling generated by the glacial slowness of the official response was exacerbated by the way that independent third parties (hobbyists, for want of a better word) were treated by EG’s management. I’ll put my hands up now and say that I’m not going to take sides, but these are things to keep in mind.
Similarly, whether correctly or incorrectly, EG has managed to garner a fair bit of bad feeling over its presentation of the acquisition of HuK from Liquid. While many have said that this is just the way business works in esports, there are others who’ve taken the whole affair a lot more personally. Again, let’s not judge anyone here, let’s just be honest about where everyone stands.
I suppose the summation of all this is that Team EG has managed to generate a fair bit of bad blood with some sizeable segments of the community.
Now, you might doubt me, but when it comes to business I’ve always been told it’s good to work to your strengths, so what I have to ask is this:
If Team EG is so good at being perceived as villainous without trying, why not go the whole hog? I mean, if you really drove at it, how evil could you be?
Albeit for me to sit here and pontificate, but can you imagine the draw it would have? No matter who EG was playing against, there would be the Good vs Evil angle to play off. Can you imagine the sheer exultation of fans? Now I don’t mean to sit here and say that being villainous is going to net you more fans; that’s probably not the case… but if you really embraced being an evil-to-the-core team, you’d attract that viewership that just desperately wants to see their team as the good guys.
Be blacker than black. Don’t shy away from being called evil.
Can you imagine the PR opportunities? Can you imagine the criticism?
Team EG is just so evil, I hate them. Please stop being so unrelentingly, irredeemably evil. Please leave us alone, EG.
Can you imagine the responses? Can you imagine the PR?
If I could drink your tears, I would.
It would give EG players carte blanche to behave atrociously at events. Consider the value, not of fame or victory, but of unadulterated infamy, of notoriety beyond compare. Never Surrender, Never GG.
You needn’t stop at being a bit evil though; really run with it. To achieve full supervillain status, EG players may need to spend more time in the gym, but this would synergise well with the new costumes you could roll out if you were fielding a pure evil SC2 team. You could equally have a player like InControL dress in a grey suit, stroking a cat throughout play, à la Ernst Stavro Blofeld.*
Here is a quick mockup of EGBlofeld:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QLkfN.jpg)
Of course, you have access to real EG players, so your own results will likely be better than these.
In fact, maybe even change player names to resemble those of spy-movie villains to round out that Evil Genius feel? All you need to do is become a team that people can really honestly hate, not this watered down hate that comes with drama and just being a little BM, but whole heartedly hate, without any redeeming characteristics.
Embrace the villainy. Embrace the ill repute. Embrace the BM.
Be the team you have so long purported to be.
Become Evil Geniuses.
Yours, with hopes of future loathing,
SirJolt
+ Show Spoiler +
*I am available as a consultant, but my rates are high. PM me if you’re interested. This is just the most basic of the changes I would make.
**For extra commitment, score a scar deep into one side of his face. He will recover, but his opponents will never doubt his commitment.
**For extra commitment, score a scar deep into one side of his face. He will recover, but his opponents will never doubt his commitment.
