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The allure of money can be often be a deciding factor for a player seeking a new team. The thought of earning some money while playing a video game is a new concept for amateur players, many of which seek the dream of reaching professional status. This new attraction for the competitive gamer has also been shaping the landscape in which teams operate.
Back when SC2 was first released, players worked hard to make a few extra dollars playing the game they loved. If you wanted to make any money back then you had to be one of the top players in the region, otherwise you where probably out of luck. Players were never entitled to anything back then, it was practice and work hard or fail. Fast forward to present day. If you look at TL posts in the looking for team thread you will often see things like "High Master/Low GM looking for salary or sponsored team." At first glance people are like, "are you kidding me? this guy is a no name." Players seem to think they are entitled some sort of reward for just being a good player, but no where near top level. Truth is, posts like that actually make a lot of sense.
The reason it makes sense is because teams are shaping there models to appeal to people like this. You have a large number of teams offering small amounts of money just for a win in a clan war or offer a small salary or prize for something. As a result you have large amounts of talent flocking to these teams to earn an easy dollar. Pretty sweet deal for players right? Even sweeter deal for these amateur teams who have strong lineups as a result. However, how does this actually benefit anyone? Sure in the short term players and teams stand to benefit from it, but what about the long term? What about the fall out damage of hording all the talent in the region?
Truth is teams that choose models of the pay to win or other methods to attract players are actually hurting themselves and the rest of the scene. Most of the time teams use methods like this to try and create results and attract sponsors and attention from the community. Most of the time though it does not work. If you can find me a professional team that started out by using a model of pay to win in CW's to draw some average amateur players please show me, but you wont find it. This is not a successful businesses model, your spending money in the worst ways possible, and when you pay an individual its pretty much like donating it to charity.
The short term benefits obvious show for your team, maybe you start to do better in your leagues and you look a lot stronger. Long term your just like a kid in a candy store. You make all these investments into some sweet chocolate for the short term delight it brings you. You can probably sustain this model forever and have a decent amateur team for a long time, but you wont ever achieve a higher level. Truth is, you can't afford a real player and will never be able to. You probably don't even have your players contracted so they will just leave at the next best offer they get. As a result the more exposure a player on your team achieves, the more likely they will be swiped by a larger team. The cycle is like this, you take a player for a lower teir team, then a higher teir team will take your talent. This is why your business model is a failure, you wont ever be a higher teir team because your spending your money for the short term and not thinking long term.
As a result of teams taking this model your effecting every other amateur team trying to prove themselves. Players believe at this point if they are GM or high master they deserve something from a team. You have just destroyed any potential for any amateur team to acquire a talented roster and rise as the next pro organization. Building teams based on loyalty just is not enough anymore. Players are becoming sellouts, there is a lack of good amateur scene. Most of the talent on North America is being horded on a few rosters, making those the top teams in the amateur scene with no room for anyone else to join there ranks. Small teams can't rise anymore because you have somewhat larger teams taking all the talent, worst part is most of that talent dies out and never makes anything of themselves. Grass root teams no longer exist because of this and players are being spoiled. Want to know why koreans will always be better? The amateur koreans have to work there ass off to be good players to make any sort of money, whereas foreigners are lazy kids who take a few extra dollars on the side and are fine with that.
I'm not here to ask teams to change the way they do business. I just want to hear other peoples thoughts on this subject. I believe this is a serious issue that's crippling the NA scene. I'm not out to get anyone for paying players for wins or other things, if that's how you choose to run your model then you have the right to do so, I just believe that your doing it wrong and hurting e-sports in the long run.
TLDR; read the whole post please before posting any thoughts you might have on the subject, this is to much info to just get a brief review of
 
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sources?
EDIT- I should expand, I agree with the bulk of what you're saying, but is this the model teams are using? It seems to me that the exposure that they generate the managers are trying to leverage to sponsors and increase the income so they can offer contracts.
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wouldn't it be nice though if player loyalty was rewarded with monetary compensation? Also I'd like a source about "foreigners are lazy kids". Pretty sure more than half are 20+ making them, not kids
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So basically It's really hard to start a team now when all the promising players have a better option than getting suckered into a deal they will later regret?
Maybe that's missing the point, but should the point really be to further esports? It seems to me if the scene can support players some even before they realize their full potential, it would allow more players to consider going pro. Even before Starcraft 2, the NA scene was no where near the Korean scene in terms of skill. I think calling people lazy for not being as good as MMA is a little harsh.
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On May 11 2013 11:14 WalkinDead wrote:
wouldn't it be nice though if player loyalty was rewarded with monetary compensation? Also I'd like a source about "foreigners are lazy kids". Pretty sure more than half are 20+ making them, not kids
Everything I talk about in here is from observation and personal experiences. Maybe saying kids was not correct but the point is that people are satisfied with a small portion of money now which really discourages them to work harder to improve.
The thing about loyalty is that most of these players that join these teams to make money per win are not loyal to there team most of the time, they are there for the money not the team. If you get enough good and loyal players and they work hard then eventually they will be rewarded when your team is able to pick up a sponsor. But to say you should reward loyal people with money is basically buying your players, you shouldn't need to compensate them. Lets say a team picks up a large sponsor then the money is going to probably go to the players who where loyal in the first place.
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On May 11 2013 11:09 Gofarman wrote:
sources?
EDIT- I should expand, I agree with the bulk of what you're saying, but is this the model teams are using? It seems to me that the exposure that they generate the managers are trying to leverage to sponsors and increase the income so they can offer contracts.
Originally I believed this to be true, but as time goes on the more and more teams you see using this can't actually increase the exposure because of this cycle of top tier teams taking anyone who becomes relevant. Also, sponsors are not just interested in your teams results in team leagues. Bringing on a bunch of good players means nothing unless they help generate exposure but most do not and anyone who does will just move on to better offers. Your basically creating a team of mercenary players they are there until something better comes along. The fact some of these teams are spending in the hundreds a month for certain things already shows they have enough money to do larger things. You can always budget well and send players to MLG's, dreamhacks, etc... That kinda of exposure is way more important than just taking top three in a team league. This current method is not helping teams increase exposure or generate more income, they are just spending money in a bad way and wasting opportunities.
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On May 11 2013 11:31 Virtuous wrote:Show nested quote +On May 11 2013 11:14 WalkinDead wrote:
wouldn't it be nice though if player loyalty was rewarded with monetary compensation? Also I'd like a source about "foreigners are lazy kids". Pretty sure more than half are 20+ making them, not kids Everything I talk about in here is from observation and personal experiences. Maybe saying kids was not correct but the point is that people are satisfied with a small portion of money now which really discourages them to work harder to improve. The thing about loyalty is that most of these players that join these teams to make money per win are not loyal to there team most of the time, they are there for the money not the team. If you get enough good and loyal players and they work hard then eventually they will be rewarded when your team is able to pick up a sponsor. But to say you should reward loyal people with money is basically buying your players, you shouldn't need to compensate them. Lets say a team picks up a large sponsor then the money is going to probably go to the players who where loyal in the first place.
Is it right for a player to be loyal to a non-paying team and then get accepted by a larger organization that can pay for their expenses to travel to events such as dreamhack and MLG?
Why should a player be loyal to their prior organization that CANT do that for them when the other one can? I'm sure 10/10 players would move to the organization that can pay for their traveling expenses to go to events instead of the one that can't. And here it's not even about money anymore. You get to meet other pro players, you get valuable tournament learning experience, and you get to play against the best of the best (so to speak)
And this comes from 100% observation and 0 personal experiences btw
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On May 12 2013 00:30 WalkinDead wrote:Show nested quote +On May 11 2013 11:31 Virtuous wrote:On May 11 2013 11:14 WalkinDead wrote:
wouldn't it be nice though if player loyalty was rewarded with monetary compensation? Also I'd like a source about "foreigners are lazy kids". Pretty sure more than half are 20+ making them, not kids Everything I talk about in here is from observation and personal experiences. Maybe saying kids was not correct but the point is that people are satisfied with a small portion of money now which really discourages them to work harder to improve. The thing about loyalty is that most of these players that join these teams to make money per win are not loyal to there team most of the time, they are there for the money not the team. If you get enough good and loyal players and they work hard then eventually they will be rewarded when your team is able to pick up a sponsor. But to say you should reward loyal people with money is basically buying your players, you shouldn't need to compensate them. Lets say a team picks up a large sponsor then the money is going to probably go to the players who where loyal in the first place. Is it right for a player to be loyal to a non-paying team and then get accepted by a larger organization that can pay for their expenses to travel to events such as dreamhack and MLG? Why should a player be loyal to their prior organization that CANT do that for them when the other one can? I'm sure 10/10 players would move to the organization that can pay for their traveling expenses to go to events instead of the one that can't. And here it's not even about money anymore. You get to meet other pro players, you get valuable tournament learning experience, and you get to play against the best of the best (so to speak) And this comes from 100% observation and 0 personal experiences btw
Obviously if a pro organization approaches a player then yes that's completely different. I'm focusing more on the other amateur teams that give them small amounts of cash just to win a match or two, they don't send players to mlg and dreamhacks. I don't mind if a large team steals a player because thats how it should work
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On May 12 2013 03:27 Virtuous wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2013 00:30 WalkinDead wrote:On May 11 2013 11:31 Virtuous wrote:On May 11 2013 11:14 WalkinDead wrote:
wouldn't it be nice though if player loyalty was rewarded with monetary compensation? Also I'd like a source about "foreigners are lazy kids". Pretty sure more than half are 20+ making them, not kids Everything I talk about in here is from observation and personal experiences. Maybe saying kids was not correct but the point is that people are satisfied with a small portion of money now which really discourages them to work harder to improve. The thing about loyalty is that most of these players that join these teams to make money per win are not loyal to there team most of the time, they are there for the money not the team. If you get enough good and loyal players and they work hard then eventually they will be rewarded when your team is able to pick up a sponsor. But to say you should reward loyal people with money is basically buying your players, you shouldn't need to compensate them. Lets say a team picks up a large sponsor then the money is going to probably go to the players who where loyal in the first place. Is it right for a player to be loyal to a non-paying team and then get accepted by a larger organization that can pay for their expenses to travel to events such as dreamhack and MLG? Why should a player be loyal to their prior organization that CANT do that for them when the other one can? I'm sure 10/10 players would move to the organization that can pay for their traveling expenses to go to events instead of the one that can't. And here it's not even about money anymore. You get to meet other pro players, you get valuable tournament learning experience, and you get to play against the best of the best (so to speak) And this comes from 100% observation and 0 personal experiences btw Obviously if a pro organization approaches a player then yes that's completely different. I'm focusing more on the other amateur teams that give them small amounts of cash just to win a match or two, they don't send players to mlg and dreamhacks. I don't mind if a large team steals a player because thats how it should work
hmm? Could you name some amateur teams that give small amounts of cash to win a match or two?
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On May 13 2013 01:59 WalkinDead wrote:Show nested quote +On May 12 2013 03:27 Virtuous wrote:On May 12 2013 00:30 WalkinDead wrote:On May 11 2013 11:31 Virtuous wrote:On May 11 2013 11:14 WalkinDead wrote:
wouldn't it be nice though if player loyalty was rewarded with monetary compensation? Also I'd like a source about "foreigners are lazy kids". Pretty sure more than half are 20+ making them, not kids Everything I talk about in here is from observation and personal experiences. Maybe saying kids was not correct but the point is that people are satisfied with a small portion of money now which really discourages them to work harder to improve. The thing about loyalty is that most of these players that join these teams to make money per win are not loyal to there team most of the time, they are there for the money not the team. If you get enough good and loyal players and they work hard then eventually they will be rewarded when your team is able to pick up a sponsor. But to say you should reward loyal people with money is basically buying your players, you shouldn't need to compensate them. Lets say a team picks up a large sponsor then the money is going to probably go to the players who where loyal in the first place. Is it right for a player to be loyal to a non-paying team and then get accepted by a larger organization that can pay for their expenses to travel to events such as dreamhack and MLG? Why should a player be loyal to their prior organization that CANT do that for them when the other one can? I'm sure 10/10 players would move to the organization that can pay for their traveling expenses to go to events instead of the one that can't. And here it's not even about money anymore. You get to meet other pro players, you get valuable tournament learning experience, and you get to play against the best of the best (so to speak) And this comes from 100% observation and 0 personal experiences btw Obviously if a pro organization approaches a player then yes that's completely different. I'm focusing more on the other amateur teams that give them small amounts of cash just to win a match or two, they don't send players to mlg and dreamhacks. I don't mind if a large team steals a player because thats how it should work hmm? Could you name some amateur teams that give small amounts of cash to win a match or two?
I would rather not do that because I don't know if the team wants that information public or not and I don't want to slander anyone no matter how much I disaaprove of their actions
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EPT
