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Blizzard has quietly and substantially scaled back their support of SC2 eSports.
We are in mid February of 2013 with no clear road map for a 2013 championship other than
"there will be a big SC2 competition at the next Blizzcon". Rob Simpson, the most public member of the "eSports Team" is now gone. Blizzard has yet to announce his replacement. If the "eSports Team" were growing Rob would have 2 replacements. Ilja Rotelli left a while ago. GomTV, with Blizzard as a major sponsor, is down to five seasons of 1v1 play for 2013.
The makers of SC2 took a nice long run in the arena of eSports and discovered first hand its lack of profitability. And, when you are part of a company that generates almost 5 billion dollars in a quarter year profitability is a key factor in any decision. Activision-Blizzard and Blizzard proper expect mammoth revenue and profit numbers. These numbers are not forthcoming and Blizzard has quietly moved on.
Although Blizzard's support will be scaled back compared to what we saw in the past two and a half years they will still support many SC2 events. I'd like to thank Blizzard for putting forth such great effort in support eSports since July 2010. I'd also like to thank them for taking a good long sustained look into eSports and not merely running 1 event and saying 'this sucks, we will never do this again'.
Competitive eSports may well become a major sport on the scale of football, baseball, or basketball,
but that is a long way off.
 
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Could we please stop calling it "sports"? It's competitive, it's challenging, it's as proper as a hobby as you can get, but for the love of god, it's no fucking sport.
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Pretty fair assessment Jim.
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On February 11 2013 00:40 kafkaesque wrote:
Could we please stop calling it "sports"? It's competitive, it's challenging, it's as proper as a hobby as you can get, but for the love of god, it's no fucking sport.
its more physically demanding than Curling and that is an Olympic Sport.
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I don't think they have scaled back their efforts. Everyday, I see more and more content from them based around esports, whether it be guides on how to start up a tournament, or just advertising other tournaments as much as they can. They may not be doing everything they could be, but we are definitely seeing improvement.
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On February 11 2013 00:40 kafkaesque wrote:
Could we please stop calling it "sports"? It's competitive, it's challenging, it's as proper as a hobby as you can get, but for the love of god, it's no fucking sport.
Chess is considered a sport by the IOC.
It's even called e-sport to show that it is different from just sports. They are electronic sports.
Just like how sports relating to cars and the likes are called Motor-sports.
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Rob Simpson may be the most iconic person within the E-Sports team of Blizzard, but he wasn't the main people running things.
To note, they just got a new directior and senior manager. They just don't announce who they are so openly.
This is a typical: "I don't know anything, so nothing must be happening" effect of thoughts. Additionally, development companies no longer making events does not mean scaling back support but rather means relying on those whose main job is to create amazing events.
Let's also not forget that they're working more on the release of HOTS and establishing tournaments switching over to that rather than focusing on some grand scheme of events.
Wait and see.
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On February 11 2013 01:11 Torte de Lini wrote:
Rob Simpson may be the most iconic person within the E-Sports team of Blizzard, but he wasn't the main people running things.
To note, they just got a new directior and senior manager. They just don't announce who they are so openly.
This is a typical: "I don't know anything, so nothing must be happening" effect of thoughts. Additionally, development companies no longer making events does not mean scaling back support but rather means relying on those whose main job is to create amazing events.
Let's also not forget that they're working more on the release of HOTS and establishing tournaments switching over to that rather than focusing on some grand scheme of events.
Wait and see.
prize money will be substantially lower in 2013 than 2012.
GOMTV has released its schedule.
MLG has released nothing except a 32 player invite only thing.
Shall I continue listing all the majors?
"nothing" has already been happening for six weeks therefore nothing is happening.
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On February 11 2013 01:17 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Show nested quote +On February 11 2013 01:11 Torte de Lini wrote:
Rob Simpson may be the most iconic person within the E-Sports team of Blizzard, but he wasn't the main people running things.
To note, they just got a new directior and senior manager. They just don't announce who they are so openly.
This is a typical: "I don't know anything, so nothing must be happening" effect of thoughts. Additionally, development companies no longer making events does not mean scaling back support but rather means relying on those whose main job is to create amazing events.
Let's also not forget that they're working more on the release of HOTS and establishing tournaments switching over to that rather than focusing on some grand scheme of events.
Wait and see.
prize money will be lower in 2013 than 2012.
So that concludes everything you're assumed?
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On February 11 2013 00:44 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Show nested quote +On February 11 2013 00:40 kafkaesque wrote:
Could we please stop calling it "sports"? It's competitive, it's challenging, it's as proper as a hobby as you can get, but for the love of god, it's no fucking sport. its more physically demanding than Curling and that is an Olympic Sport.
Being a good sweeper requires a lot of physical ability.
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as you've noted
they are working on something far more profitable than eSports. they are working on an expansion pack.
i don't blame blizzard at all for scaling back their eSports efforts because it makes almost no money for a company of their size and scale.
On February 11 2013 01:24 GogoKodo wrote:
Being a good sweeper requires a lot of physical ability.
yep, so does playing SC2. which is why players retire at 30.
Unlike Curling where Glenn Howard or Russ Howard or whatever his name is .. is a top player at like 50.
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United States10512 Posts
On February 11 2013 00:40 kafkaesque wrote:
Could we please stop calling it "sports"? It's competitive, it's challenging, it's as proper as a hobby as you can get, but for the love of god, it's no fucking sport.
someone does not understand what a sport is. starcraft > chess > curling. and look which one is in the olympics. (smirk)
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On February 11 2013 01:26 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
as you've noted
they are working on something far more profitable than eSports. they are working on an expansion pack.
i don't blame blizzard at all for scaling back their eSports efforts because it makes almost no money for a company of their size and scale.
But Torte literally just said they are not scaling back their esports efforts.
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On February 11 2013 01:28 FlaShFTW wrote:Show nested quote +On February 11 2013 00:40 kafkaesque wrote:
Could we please stop calling it "sports"? It's competitive, it's challenging, it's as proper as a hobby as you can get, but for the love of god, it's no fucking sport. someone does not understand what a sport is. starcraft > chess > curling. and look which one is in the olympics. (smirk)
Curling absolutely 100% deserves to be in the Olympics.
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On February 11 2013 01:17 JimmyJRaynor wrote:Show nested quote +On February 11 2013 01:11 Torte de Lini wrote:
Rob Simpson may be the most iconic person within the E-Sports team of Blizzard, but he wasn't the main people running things.
To note, they just got a new directior and senior manager. They just don't announce who they are so openly.
This is a typical: "I don't know anything, so nothing must be happening" effect of thoughts. Additionally, development companies no longer making events does not mean scaling back support but rather means relying on those whose main job is to create amazing events.
Let's also not forget that they're working more on the release of HOTS and establishing tournaments switching over to that rather than focusing on some grand scheme of events.
Wait and see.
prize money will be substantially lower in 2013 than 2012. GOMTV has released its schedule. MLG has released nothing except a 32 player invite only thing. Shall I continue listing all the majors? "nothing" has already been happening for six weeks therefore nothing is happening.
Six weeks dictates a year right?
MLG has a 32-player invite-only thing for their own reasons, not due to Blizzard's scaling back "efforts"
Yeah, keep listing them, because you're not really showing much conclusion. You just don't know anything to be real honest (neither do I, but I'm not making claims that their efforts are scaling back based on small tidbits).
Didn't hear anything about IEM
DreamHack
IPL7 (IPL6 is open-bracket HOTS + Qualifier regionals + Wings of Liberty Regionals + IPLTL).
+ How wrong you are about staff within Blizzard and their plans: Rotelli's been replaced and the senior manager has been hired.
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Over all, you will see fewer events and less money handed out by Blizzard in 2013.
Furthermore, you'll see the same trend from Blizzard sponsored events.
Lastly, eSports events that include SC2 and do not involve Blizzard will also be down in 2013.
Blizzard is not going to increase its support from what essentially has become "post sales support" and not even a break even proposition.
To conclude, less prize money and fewer events equals less support.
Blizzard's underlying motive: most profit for fewest resources committed.
That is achieved by making new games.
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Quickly! State things as facts with no evidence and do it to show Starcraft 2 is dead!
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Yes, I see your conclusion.
It just doesn't have much to support it.
This is what I'm asking, but whether I think you're wrong or you're right doesn't matter.
You're just thinking out loud.
edit: I'm going to bookmark this and screenshot it and message you in six months to get you to follow-up on this.
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excellent idea.
and look at it again in one year as well.
As far as "nothing to support it".
what replaces this?
http://us.battle.net/bwc/en/
there is 500K in prize money and 30 Blizzard produced events.
How much is being handed out in the GSL this year?
I could rhyme off the declining numbers of independent small scale online events, but i'm too lazy.
On February 11 2013 01:59 kollin wrote:
Quickly! State things as facts with no evidence and do it to show Starcraft 2 is dead!
this is basically the perspective of a 10 year old child.
scaling back support of SC2 eSports is only one aspect of Starcraft2.
Putting efforts into creating a phenomenal experience with the Expansion Pack is a way in which Blizzard is helping move SC2 forward.
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EPT
