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Musings on the sponsorship situation in Korea - Page 5

Blogs > TotalBiscuit
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TORTOISE
Profile Joined December 2010
United States515 Posts
August 28 2012 18:24 GMT
#81
Im falling more and more in lub with you after each blog!@
◕ ‿‿ ◕ ๑•́ ₃ •̀๑ ( ͡ ° ͜ ʖ ͡°)
johnny123
Profile Joined February 2012
521 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-28 18:45:35
August 28 2012 18:24 GMT
#82
i say we worry about our own scene first to be honest, just like the koreans are mainly worried for their own scene. Its not like we are all peaches and cream over here. And even by my standards korea is still better off .

As far as successful teams go or ones that atleast seem to be successful., internationally all we really have is

-EG/Complexity/Quantic/FXO/Empire/Fnantic/Acer/Mouz/Millenium/ Gama Bears. Obviously i am forgetting some, but i hope you get my point. Mind you this is the entire world we are talking about for starcraft 2. If you want to talk purely american teams then all we have is EG and Complexity realistically. Is team Light american? and if they are, i doubt they are in the ballpark of having spare change.


Now about korea, If you only think about the teams that are currently set up for starcraft 2 alone, one could say their is trouble. But, since Kespa has now officially into starcraft 2. I am more inclined to think that its time for some fat to be trimmed. The entire america has just 2 really successful teams.

Now look at korea (lets remember, broodwar is no more, these are officially starcraft 2 teams right now)

LGIM/ TEAM MVP (sponsored by hot6 as well)/ Startale / Samsung Apps/KT Rolster/CJ Entus/Woongjin Stars/Air force/ 8th team.

Look at that list of teams that are doing well right now, compared to the americas or even europe. As sad as i am for some korean teams that are part of the esport federation, Some simply need to be trimmed. Korea has 9 successful well funded teams, America? 2 , Europe? 5-6. And we actually want to say korea is worst off?

Nhsoe /Slayers/TSL/Zenex /Prime , all of these teams i dont see sticking around for to much longer, unless one of these teams get really lucky and have many break out players. Its only a matter of time till they disban and the players get absorbed into a well funded kespa team. The guys currently on kespa teams that cant handle the sc2 transition will be weeded out to make way for these players. And about FXO, that team will only stay alive as long as FXO Boss has the passion to keep it alive since i dont see any other sponsors except for razor.


Its only natural,survival of the fittest. And its not just korean teams , its everything in starcraft 2. I see atleast 1 big USA tournament going under soon or in the near future,Their is way to much over-saturation. The ones that can be successful in this space will stay.

And yes i agree with the sponsorship logos in maps.
Favorite players,Stephano/MVP/Nestea/Gumiho/Life/Jaedong/MMA
UmbraaeternuS
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Chile476 Posts
August 28 2012 18:25 GMT
#83
As usual, great writeup, TB.
It's flabbergasting how foreign teams get so much sponsorship with much worse players (and much less results).
I'm of the idea that non-korean sponsors should step-up and sponsor korean teams. Their money would be well-invested... Results speak for themselves. I'm not saying foreign teams should be left alone, but that results should dictate the pace of sponsorships, as in every sport scene.
therealwinters - Skype / @DrUmbra - Twitter // "There is nothing more cool than being proud of the things that you love" - Sean "Day[9]" Plott <3
TumNarDok
Profile Joined December 2011
Germany854 Posts
August 28 2012 18:31 GMT
#84
I kind of suspect that the future of Starcraft2 may be in Europe and not in Korea.
High variety of teams, players and countries, short travels to events etc.

For how long subsidies from the US can keep the Korean SC2 alive is really some interesting topic that we probably will see answered in maximum 5 years how it evolved.

And still, marketing in SC2/esports is still so underwhelmingly well done in the scene. So many things to improve on from players, casters, organizers, teams, admins and how they work together. Casters getting the better of it at this point- but only the top10 of them. And admins probly have the worst job.

PS: speak of weekly cups.. am I the only one who thinks that the number of European weeklies has gone down lately?

Remaker12
Profile Joined June 2011
United States105 Posts
August 28 2012 18:34 GMT
#85
In game ads would be amazing, and Custom Portraits would be great for teams and sponsors as well. I didn't know that online tournaments were so scarce in Korea. Great post.
TotalBiscuit
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United Kingdom5437 Posts
August 28 2012 18:37 GMT
#86
On August 29 2012 03:05 Niazger wrote:
I would rather not have "TB charity tournaments" that have no purpose other than keeping korean teams alive. That wont be successful in the long run because the reason koreans dont have sponsors is not that they dont travel or that they have less online tournaments.


Some said my previous SCIs were "charity tournaments" because I was inviting foreigners that had not necessarily shown results.
CommentatorHost of SHOUTcraft Clan Wars- http://www.mlg.tv/shoutcraft
vinsky
Profile Joined June 2011
Poland48 Posts
August 28 2012 18:40 GMT
#87
On August 29 2012 03:31 TumNarDok wrote:
PS: speak of weekly cups.. am I the only one who thinks that the number of European weeklies has gone down lately?



there is more big tournaments, so weekly cups scene is getting smaller, but still, european weeklies arent doing bad :p
_
great blog TB!
Nerchio - MVP - Mana - MKP | Flash
Kipsate
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Netherlands45349 Posts
August 28 2012 18:41 GMT
#88
The size of the sponsorship and the size of the company do not mean anything to each other, a great example of this is the BW teams in fact

Samsung Khan is sponsored by its namesake, and we all know Samsung is a giant company in the world, multibillion dollars, however STX soul is better funded then Samsung Khan because Samsung is just cheap in their sponsorship. Its the size that matters a lot.

Good intitiative.
WriterXiao8~~
marttorn
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
Norway5211 Posts
August 28 2012 18:49 GMT
#89
Very interesting, great to see you're going to support the online tournament scene in korea, too. Somewhat unsure as to how the sponsors on overlays/score screen/etc. will look, but I'm certainly not against the concept, more I'm anticipating how it's going to be pulled off without making the logos too big or too small.

Looking forward to the next SCI.
memes are a dish best served dank
elementz
Profile Joined October 2010
United States281 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-28 18:59:59
August 28 2012 18:58 GMT
#90
On August 29 2012 01:35 TotalBiscuit wrote:
Show nested quote +
On August 29 2012 01:33 jeeeKyy wrote:
On August 29 2012 01:32 Lineridarz wrote:
I like the idea, but you're no doubt going to see a drop in viewer numbers. Good luck.



Drop in viewer numbers ? Why so ?


Because some fans wanna see white-dudes win.

make use of the white dudes in korea? TL has some of them there. Other than that, good write up I guess, I guessed this was the case, also not forgetting the sponsors already sponsoring kespa teams, not too many to go around for teams in Korea.
this mah s#$%$
DoomsVille
Profile Joined August 2010
Canada4885 Posts
August 28 2012 19:04 GMT
#91
Part of the problem is the major brands: MLG, NASL, IPL, GOM have killed online tournaments.

How the hell do tournament organizers get their sponsors ROI in a world where at least one of those 4 is broadcasting something almost all day? Couple that with the fact that at most times of the day, some of the most well known and popular players are streaming and taking a huge chunk of the viewer share.

In this day and age of SC2 esports, it's impossible to get ROI as an online tournament without some celebrity status (usually casters, occasionally players like IdrA, Stephano, etc.).
Telcontar
Profile Joined May 2010
United Kingdom16710 Posts
August 28 2012 19:08 GMT
#92
Very good read, and your point about sponsors needing more exposure, especially at online events, is spot on. I'm glad you're taking steps to do exactly that for SCI, as well as the fact that you're turning your attention to the Korean scene. However, as others have pointed out already, it's going to be tough drawing large numbers of viewers without having popular Korean players in the tournament, of which there are few. And they're not really the ones needing more exposure, both personal and sponsorship wise. I hope you can find some way to make it all work. Best of luck to you!

Oh, and will this more korean focused SCIs be live events? Because that will be very hard to organise and run, without alienating a time zone. I suppose you could do rebroadcasts for EU viewers, like some events are doing these days, but that's never as good as the real thing.
Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien. Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta.
Zoldiark
Profile Joined July 2011
16 Posts
August 28 2012 19:16 GMT
#93
Very interesting read. You often read posts from people viewing 1 thing or another that they consider a problem in their environment but rarely see them being the 1st to act upon it. As such i wish you the best of luck with this endevour and hope that it will eventually create a path for a greater intermingling of korean talent and western money, a mix that cannot help but grow ESports.
shz
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Germany2687 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-28 19:17:50
August 28 2012 19:17 GMT
#94
On August 29 2012 01:31 xChromaticx wrote:
Not bad,TB. Doing so much stuff for eSports,makes me feel like im not helping the scene grow at all lol. Nice anyways!


You can always edit Liquipedia!

I agree for the most part, but there is a reason why so few companies who target the Western audiance sponsor Korean teams. It's harder to market them outside of the pure skill. Look what EG does for iu sponsors (Kingston f.e.), that is hard to do with gamers who don't speek English. But still, everything helps. So good effort and I hope you can make difference with this!
Liquipedia
bgx
Profile Joined August 2010
Poland6595 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-28 19:34:03
August 28 2012 19:32 GMT
#95
Slight offtopic, anyone remember times when esport was not really sponsored(barring ocassional, Intel/Amd) and still had this huge crowd of people watching all because of power of novelty and excitement. Yes im talking about early quake, pre-OSL BW, Counter strike etc Jerseys consisted only of team logos :D

So Esport took a next step but nowadays for SC2 its not exatcly a place to make another step, actually they need to make a slight step back, stabilize and then try to push the boundries, well maybe, because it seems so far that LoL will be the one pushing the boundries and SC2 will only take defensive position. Unless Kespa does its magic, somehow.

I feel that US/Europe already reached their heights.
Stork[gm]
Antimatterz
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States1010 Posts
August 28 2012 19:39 GMT
#96
Damn TB, you are such a hero. Would be awesome to see more online Korean tournaments, the Korean Weekly is extremely interesting and has some great games (I just don't like the color mod).
"HotBid [11:45 AM]: i dunno i kinda like the big muta shooting smaller mutas out"
feardragon
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
United States972 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-08-28 19:45:29
August 28 2012 19:40 GMT
#97
This makes a lot of sense. I'm a small time caster but I'm going to start putting in the extra effort to get add sponsor logos to my casts. I hope that the big casters decide to do the same.

This isn't just a matter of online tournaments. I think individual casters can step it up here as well since teams can point out that a large audience still just watches regular casts from youtube casters(Team Liquid can point out Husky's cast of TLO's game here got 100k views. Imagine if it had Razer, The Little App Factory, and Monster logos somewhere. That's some pretty awesome ROI right there considering he releases those kind of casts on a near daily basis.
+ Show Spoiler +
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p-r80YeJwQ


Of course this is more work for the casters(myself included). But I think it would potentially grow the e-sports scene immeasurably.
Ok Starcraft 2 Commentator
FlukyS
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
Ireland485 Posts
August 28 2012 19:43 GMT
#98
I like the idea of pimping the sponsors somewhere in the event hopefully more tournaments do that. I think there is also something that you forgot about there is another reason for doing sponsorships and that is brand awareness. You might not go tomorrow and buy an LG television but you associate the brand with the best SC2 team in the world and you would probably remember that before you remember if they have great TVs or not.

As for Korean teams it seems like there is an untapped well of sponsors they aren't looking into and that is getting sponsorships from companies outside of Korea. SC2 is entirely global and GSL is one of the best platforms for a sponsor to get their name out there in the SC2 scene because its the one probably the most people would watch. So why aren't they all going to worldwide companies and seeing if they want to sponsor them. The answer to that is they don't have a representative looking for sponsorships like that. The only exception to that is ST getting RedBull as their sponsor.
architecture
Profile Blog Joined May 2008
United States643 Posts
August 28 2012 19:49 GMT
#99
What is the ROI of a Korean company like KT getting exposure in the USA.
tpfkan
MrSunshine
Profile Joined July 2011
Sweden93 Posts
August 28 2012 19:53 GMT
#100
I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you TB for spreading awareness
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