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Why AdBlock is actually killing Esports

Blogs > hoby2000
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hoby2000
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States918 Posts
February 15 2012 23:17 GMT
#1
So there are two ways leagues like MLG, IPL and GSL can make money:

1) Ad-support revenue. Based on the amount of users x the amount of ads = the amount of money they make. Of course, it's more complicated than that, but it's the general idea that's important, not the equation.

2) Subscription revenue. There could be a better title to this, but it's things like Gold Memberships for MLG, or premium for GSL.

Both of these are viable, but there are people out there who neither pay for their streams, nor view the ads because of AdBlock. This creates a wedge in Esports because there's this certain population that wants everything for free, but aren't willing to put forth the effort of either viewing ads (even being on another tab while the ad is playing still counts) or put forth the money for the stream they're watching.

I understand that having to watch Ads is annoying, especially when they are ads that don't relate to you in any way. But if you're one of those people complaining about MLG being PPV, and have adblock on while watching MLG, you're (sorry for the over use of this phrase but...) actually helping kill Esports. Switching to another tab, or hitting the mute button is really not that hard. I'm not saying watching the Ads will definitely save Esports, but you will at least help it.

**
A lesson without pain is meaningless for nothing can be gained without giving something in return.
RebirthOfLeGenD
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
USA5860 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-02-15 23:22:34
February 15 2012 23:22 GMT
#2
I have adblock on but don't watch ESPORTS. I am not to blame!
Be a man, Become a Legend. TL Mafia Forum Ask for access!!
barth
Profile Joined March 2008
Ireland1272 Posts
February 15 2012 23:23 GMT
#3
I'm personally against the use of adblock in any situation. I have no idea why people feel completely entitled to use a service without advertisements provided with it. There actually seems to be a general acceptance towards adblocking in most internet communities which is mind boggling.
"Somebody you are talking to disappears mid sentence, and the universe shoots you because you talked to someone that wasn`t there." - MasterOfChaos
Djzapz
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Canada10681 Posts
February 15 2012 23:29 GMT
#4
On February 16 2012 08:23 barth wrote:
I'm personally against the use of adblock in any situation.

I feel the same way in many cases, but bear with me here. My problem is mostly with streaming websites, some of which are not reasonable at all. It might be own3d.tv which allows the streamer to throw 1, 2 or 3 ads to the audience, which is extremely annoying - but it could be bearable if I didn't have to watch THREE TIMES the SAME AD on average every 15 minutes.

There's a line between "annoying" and "literally sickening". It's especially annoying when it's one of these quantum POS.
"Bet you think your carpet's pretty clean uh?" is seared into my brain forever.
"My incompetence with power tools had been increasing exponentially over the course of 20 years spent inhaling experimental oven cleaners"
hoby2000
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States918 Posts
February 15 2012 23:30 GMT
#5
On February 16 2012 08:29 Djzapz wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 16 2012 08:23 barth wrote:
I'm personally against the use of adblock in any situation.

I feel the same way in many cases, but bear with me here. My problem is mostly with streaming websites, some of which are not reasonable at all. It might be own3d.tv which allows the streamer to throw 1, 2 or 3 ads to the audience, which is extremely annoying - but it could be bearable if I didn't have to watch THREE TIMES the SAME AD on average every 15 minutes.

There's a line between "annoying" and "literally sickening". It's especially annoying when it's one of these quantum POS.
"Bet you think your carpet's pretty clean uh?" is seared into my brain forever.


As long as you're not complaining about having to pay for Arenas, then Adblock your heart out! I understand that it's annoying, but again, you have a mute button on your PC, among other things. There's even mute buttons on the Ads themselves. It just seems like such a little price to pay for helping whatever stream you're watching.
A lesson without pain is meaningless for nothing can be gained without giving something in return.
Lorizean
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Germany1330 Posts
February 15 2012 23:36 GMT
#6
I have never had any kind of adblock.
I started to consider it since grooveshark put ads with f*cking sound on their site though.
darkscream
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Canada2310 Posts
February 15 2012 23:37 GMT
#7
MLG's ads dont get adblocked. They run hard video ads from inside the video, not video ad overlays.
Djzapz
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Canada10681 Posts
February 15 2012 23:40 GMT
#8
On February 16 2012 08:30 hoby2000 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 16 2012 08:29 Djzapz wrote:
On February 16 2012 08:23 barth wrote:
I'm personally against the use of adblock in any situation.

I feel the same way in many cases, but bear with me here. My problem is mostly with streaming websites, some of which are not reasonable at all. It might be own3d.tv which allows the streamer to throw 1, 2 or 3 ads to the audience, which is extremely annoying - but it could be bearable if I didn't have to watch THREE TIMES the SAME AD on average every 15 minutes.

There's a line between "annoying" and "literally sickening". It's especially annoying when it's one of these quantum POS.
"Bet you think your carpet's pretty clean uh?" is seared into my brain forever.


As long as you're not complaining about having to pay for Arenas, then Adblock your heart out! I understand that it's annoying, but again, you have a mute button on your PC, among other things. There's even mute buttons on the Ads themselves. It just seems like such a little price to pay for helping whatever stream you're watching.

The mute buttons sometimes don't work and occasionally are part of the ad, and lead to the advertiser's website. Other times there's no mute button at all - depends on the ad. Not to mention, the ads are sometimes much louder than the content. Meanwhile I'm oftentimes doing other things, I don't need to be clicking a tiny mute button all the time.

I'm fine with single ads, or maybe various ads, two at a time. If they're reasonable with it, fine, they can bother me with it. They've shown that they're not, especially not in Canada where they oftentimes only have one ad to throw at us, so we watch it over and over and over and over again, sometimes for MONTHS.
"My incompetence with power tools had been increasing exponentially over the course of 20 years spent inhaling experimental oven cleaners"
barth
Profile Joined March 2008
Ireland1272 Posts
February 15 2012 23:40 GMT
#9
On February 16 2012 08:29 Djzapz wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 16 2012 08:23 barth wrote:
I'm personally against the use of adblock in any situation.

I feel the same way in many cases, but bear with me here. My problem is mostly with streaming websites, some of which are not reasonable at all. It might be own3d.tv which allows the streamer to throw 1, 2 or 3 ads to the audience, which is extremely annoying - but it could be bearable if I didn't have to watch THREE TIMES the SAME AD on average every 15 minutes.

There's a line between "annoying" and "literally sickening". It's especially annoying when it's one of these quantum POS.
"Bet you think your carpet's pretty clean uh?" is seared into my brain forever.

All right, suppose someone is against piracy and a game that he wants to have comes out as a full price title. This person thinks that it's only worth about $20 even though it's a good game. Would it be acceptable (assuming piracy normally isn't) for him to pirate the game? Or should he ignore the game and move on to a different product if $50 is out of the question for him?

I don't know if the analogy even holds up but that's exactly how I see it.
"Somebody you are talking to disappears mid sentence, and the universe shoots you because you talked to someone that wasn`t there." - MasterOfChaos
Ryps
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Romania2740 Posts
February 15 2012 23:42 GMT
#10
All these threads with killing ESPORTS is getting on my nerve, maybe esports doesnt need our help and it will manage itself out if its meant for it to work. Ive been hearing about helping esports for far too many years, maybe the princess is in another castle...
run.at.me
Profile Joined December 2011
Australia550 Posts
February 15 2012 23:45 GMT
#11
I only recntly started using adblock, coz if I have to hear the same fucking annoying ad about dog biscuits 8 times within a 10 minute window I'm gonna kill myself
red4ce
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
United States7313 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-02-15 23:46:48
February 15 2012 23:46 GMT
#12
According to this thread 41% of users adblock TL, a website with tons of loyal fans. I think it's safe to say the adblock rate for streams is probably way higher, I'm guessing anywhere from 60-80%. Even though I think MLG is going about it the wrong way, I can understand why they're trying to implement a pay model. As far as the sponsors are concerned, 200,000 viewers on the internet =/= 200,000 viewers on TV. Of course for me personally, I don't adblock e-sports related websites so I don't give a crap about the "buy this or you're ruining e-sports" mentality.
foshrodah
Profile Joined December 2011
Sweden12 Posts
February 15 2012 23:46 GMT
#13
Most and or all real tournaments arent run off the actual ads built in via say twich or own3d. It's all hard ads showing straight in the video from the tournaments sponsors, its garantueed views.

I dont run adblock on either twitch or own3d and infact I never even had a commercial for a long time on twitch, but they started popping now, I guess they're getting better fill rates. Overall using adblock on something like the Shoutcrafts is just downright silly since thats its only revenue, while for MLG or similar its largely irrelevant since they dont use the ingame ads and or they have a deal with twitch anyway.
Hassybaby
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United Kingdom10823 Posts
February 15 2012 23:48 GMT
#14
Killing ESPORTS threads are killing ESPORTS

I sorta agree, but there are ways around it like darkscream mentioned. A company could stream an advert as a direct video as opposed to other methods

But it is hurting streamers and lower levels tourneys ,that's for sure
"These guys are mindfucking me into a sex coma" | "Mayonnaise is a must-have lubricant when performing necrophilia"
Firepaw292
Profile Joined January 2011
Canada126 Posts
February 15 2012 23:49 GMT
#15
Adblock doesnt work on MLG anyway. I would turn it off if I didn't get spammed at un reasonable amounts and had the ads ontop of games. I have no problem with them inbetween or during loading, but over the game.. no thanks.
Djzapz
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Canada10681 Posts
February 15 2012 23:51 GMT
#16
On February 16 2012 08:40 barth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 16 2012 08:29 Djzapz wrote:
On February 16 2012 08:23 barth wrote:
I'm personally against the use of adblock in any situation.

I feel the same way in many cases, but bear with me here. My problem is mostly with streaming websites, some of which are not reasonable at all. It might be own3d.tv which allows the streamer to throw 1, 2 or 3 ads to the audience, which is extremely annoying - but it could be bearable if I didn't have to watch THREE TIMES the SAME AD on average every 15 minutes.

There's a line between "annoying" and "literally sickening". It's especially annoying when it's one of these quantum POS.
"Bet you think your carpet's pretty clean uh?" is seared into my brain forever.

All right, suppose someone is against piracy and a game that he wants to have comes out as a full price title. This person thinks that it's only worth about $20 even though it's a good game. Would it be acceptable (assuming piracy normally isn't) for him to pirate the game? Or should he ignore the game and move on to a different product if $50 is out of the question for him?

I don't know if the analogy even holds up but that's exactly how I see it.

I get your point and I understand that there's some kind of element of "theft" to adblocking in some way.

I don't have a perfect answer, but for instance I'm not allowed to drive 120kmh on the high way, yet I still do it because I figure it's fine and the 100kmh limit is not reasonable. In parking lots, I'm supposed to drive 15kmh - do you have any idea how slow that is? I don't do that either. If there are "laws" that I can break because I consider them to be bad, sometimes I will. Chaining the same ads 3x in a row at me every 15 minutes is frustrating and not fair to me. Give me two different ads or no ad at all - that may be fine, but 3x the same thing is literally disrespectful to me, and so I don't feel like I owe anybody since I'm getting treated like shit.
"My incompetence with power tools had been increasing exponentially over the course of 20 years spent inhaling experimental oven cleaners"
shaftofpleasure
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
Korea (North)1375 Posts
February 15 2012 23:57 GMT
#17
I'm gonna murder E-Sports because it's such a pussy, because it can't handle a simple fucking adblock.

And stupid people will mourn, grieve and attend the funeral and I will kill them too with a simple fucking adblock.

Killing E-sports threads are so stupid. Seriously.
It's either the holes of my nose are getting smaller or my fingers are getting bigger. /// Always Rooting for the Underdog. Hyuk/Sin/Jaehoon/Juni/Hyvva/Hoejja/Canata //// Hiding in thread somewhere where BW is still in it's pure form here on TL.
L3gendary
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada1470 Posts
February 15 2012 23:58 GMT
#18
For all the retarded things people say are "killing esports" this is the only legitimate one. That being said I think streams, especially tournaments, should use their own ads rather than ads that are blockable. Look at IEM they are doing it right. They have their own ads running on the stream during downtimes, and most importantly they advertise products people in the gaming community might actually care about.
Watching Jaedong play purifies my eyes. -Coach Ju Hoon
Iyerbeth
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
England2410 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-02-16 00:07:51
February 16 2012 00:06 GMT
#19
Adblock is most certainly not the killing Esports. People misusing Adblock and/or people abusing adverts are what can hurt Esports. I for instance use Adblock every single day, but if a content provider provides good quality content without abusing advertisements then I'll unblock the site. TeamLiquid.net is the perfect example, I have the site unblocked because the ads aren't intrusive while providing original and good content. Streams on the site are a different matter and I judge them on an individual basis.

The point is, I block a hell of a lot of sites though and my decision may harm Esports or their decisions on how to use advertising may, but Adblock is simply a tool that doesn't harm Esports at all. Those who provide the Adblock tool for Firefox also suggest that people don't abuse Adblock.
♥ Liquid`Sheth ♥ Liquid`TLO ♥
DreamChaser
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
1649 Posts
February 16 2012 00:24 GMT
#20
i don't adblock sites i like...the only streams i adblock are the own3d.tv literally i swear once i had adblock off 3 god damn ads are thrown at me. Twitch is reasonable, one when you load and one after the game or maybe 2 if its a long break, those i don't mind. But god damn own3d.tv
Plays against every MU with nexus first.
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