• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 02:35
CEST 08:35
KST 15:35
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End7Serral wins HomeStory Cup 2915Serral wins Maestros of the Game 244ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7
Community News
Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles2GSTL Returns in 2026!45Weekly Cups (Aug 3-9): Protoss get shut out7RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-2212Weekly Cups (July 27-Aug 2): SHIN's big week0
StarCraft 2
General
GSTL Returns in 2026! SC4ALL II: SC2 Player Announcement 6/8 - Maru Balance hotfix patch 5.0.16b (July 16) Serral wins Maestros of the Game 2 Weekly Cups (August 10-16): SHIN doubles
Tourneys
2026 GSTL Announcement Master Swan Open (Global Bronze-Master 2) PIG STY FESTIVAL 8.0! (13 - 23 August) WardiTV Mondays 2026 KungFu Cup Announcement
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
Nexus Wars 2021 GUIDE [M] (2) Industrial Park
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 539 Thunder Dome Mutation # 538 Media Blackout Mutation # 537 Hostile Territory
Brood War
General
How Famous was FlaSh before his Debut? Are you ready for ASL 22? NEW HYPE VIDEO BW General Discussion [ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Summer's End [Personal Project Share] Terran Defense v0.60
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro24 Group B [ASL22] Ro24 Group C KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation Fighting Spirit mining rates Any training maps people recommend? Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Anyone here play Quakeworld back in the day? Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread EVE Corporation
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish TSM pausing esports and CLG Dead
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Power Rank TL Mafia Community Thread NeO.D_StephenKing vs This Guy From 1 Million Dance
Community
General
Russo-Ukrainian War Thread US Politics Mega-thread Artificial Intelligence Thread The Letting Off Steam Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The Creator Fan Club MarineLorD Fan Club The ShoWTimE Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Anime Discussion Thread Series you have seen recently...
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023 TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Simple Questions Simple Answers FPS when play League Of Legend on laptop
TL Community
The Automated Ban List Northern Ireland Global Starcraft
Blogs
LOCKPICKING NOOB
LUCKY_NOOB
Chinese Gen Z: Between Dream…
TrAiDoS
Cathedral Of CS And NY pizza a…
FuDDx
Please support my new stand…
Peanutsc
Hello guys!
LIN1s
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 5861 users

SHOUTcraft America Winter post-mortem - Page 5

Blogs > TotalBiscuit
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
TBone-
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States2309 Posts
December 19 2013 16:57 GMT
#81
SHOUTcraft has always been the top dog when it comes to online only events


My history is a bit grey, but I remember TSL3 and 4 being really big.
Eve online FC, lover of all competition
Whatson
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
United States5357 Posts
December 19 2013 17:11 GMT
#82
On December 20 2013 01:57 TBone- wrote:
Show nested quote +
SHOUTcraft has always been the top dog when it comes to online only events


My history is a bit grey, but I remember TSL3 and 4 being really big.

TSL3 was big, TSL4 not so much, I remember it being a letdown for most people.
¯\_(シ)_/¯
Zenbrez
Profile Joined June 2012
Canada5973 Posts
December 19 2013 17:18 GMT
#83
It's interesting Ting how mentions how (specifically) TB could have better promoted them, because I was thinking about this topic a few days ago. How long has CM Storm been sponsoring Polt? Several months? He gives them a shoutout every interview he does, but hes never given any sort of details as to what CM Storm does. I had to look it up myself - not with the intention of "supporting" anybody, I just wanted to know wtf it was. Turns out it's a company I've already known, but I wasn't aware the entire time of this sponsorship. People can really do a better job with their sponsor promotions. When NASL had LA Eat (forget the exact name) as a sponsor, they did a really good job describing exactly what the company did.
Refer to my post.
TotalBiscuit
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United Kingdom5437 Posts
December 19 2013 17:51 GMT
#84
On December 20 2013 02:11 Whatson wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 20 2013 01:57 TBone- wrote:
SHOUTcraft has always been the top dog when it comes to online only events


My history is a bit grey, but I remember TSL3 and 4 being really big.

TSL3 was big, TSL4 not so much, I remember it being a letdown for most people.


Indeed. TSL3 was definitely bigger than SCA, though I can't remember if it topped SCI4.

It's quite sad that TSL4 didn't do as well
CommentatorHost of SHOUTcraft Clan Wars- http://www.mlg.tv/shoutcraft
TotalBiscuit
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United Kingdom5437 Posts
December 19 2013 18:27 GMT
#85
On December 19 2013 20:02 ADSRelease wrote:
Sorry to hear it didn't work out.
You stupidly get a lot of hate for being one of the most supportive people in StarCraft through all the rockiness right now. With people like you, we will not just survive, but thrive!
I really liked the event.

My one piece of constructive criticism is that more build-up hype (days/weeks ahead of time) would help a ton. I'd say I am a pretty avid StarCraft viewer, but I didn't know about the games until a while after the streams started. However, I know enough about the on-the-fly nature of SHOUTcraft America to know how it's hard to have that in order in time; so I know why that wasn't really there.

PS-Congrats on Axiom's wild success!


Honestly we hyped this a lot about a month before it began. Not knowing about it is pretty difficult imho, particularly when it was pushed in so many different places
CommentatorHost of SHOUTcraft Clan Wars- http://www.mlg.tv/shoutcraft
HeeroFX
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
United States2704 Posts
December 19 2013 18:53 GMT
#86
Too be honest i forgot this tournament existed.....
aristarchus
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States652 Posts
December 19 2013 18:53 GMT
#87
I know this is a general problem with online marketing and not specific to starcraft tournaments, but I think the real problem here is the extreme focus on the number of people who immediately bought the product during the event. I didn't even watch the tournament, but as someone who reads TL and follows the scene, I learned that Ting existed, which I previously did not know. Will I buy from them in the future? Who knows. But without this event, the chance of that happening was zero. Now it's not zero.

When Ford puts an ad in a magazine or sponsors a baseball game, they don't think they those who see the ad are going to instantly put down their magazine and go buy a Ford. What they're hoping is that next time those people want to buy a car, they will guarantee that Ford is one of the companies whose cars get looked at closely, giving the quality of their product a chance to sell when it otherwise might be ignored.

A whole lot of people who are really perfectly in their target demographic now know about their service. That seems to me like it should count as a marketing success.
kochanfe
Profile Joined July 2011
Micronesia1338 Posts
December 19 2013 19:55 GMT
#88
Very informative and well-written. Thanks!
"The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long." - Lao Tzu
Kerence
Profile Joined May 2011
Sweden1817 Posts
December 19 2013 20:15 GMT
#89
This was an interesting read, thanks TB.
I am here in the shadows.
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17755 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-19 20:57:32
December 19 2013 20:52 GMT
#90
i think the tournament format which brings the best ROI is with a ~$100 prize pool put on every week of the year.
I think ZOTAC, Go4SC2 have the most sustainable formats.

the problem with this format is finding the volunteers to run the show.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
opisska
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Poland8852 Posts
December 19 2013 21:23 GMT
#91
On December 19 2013 05:52 ActionJesse wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 19 2013 05:20 KrazyTrumpet wrote:
I'm actually very impressed that Ting provided the feedback they did and allowed you to post all their info publicly. I hope they take another shot, because it sounds like with a more experienced effort, an event like this could actually be worthwhile for them.


We understand that every marketing campaign won't always be an instant success. The important thing to us is looking at what could have improved on, and learning from these mistakes moving forward. At Ting, we pride ourselves on being as honest and transparent as possible. This is pretty evident through our straightforward rates, lack of administrative/recovery fees, and the fact that we give you the inside scoop on device news almost the second we hear about it.

While it remains to be seen, I really do hope we'll get another chance to sponsor a ShoutCraft and work with TB . I also want to give a thanks to Alex (Axeltoss), who was the one who hooked me up with John in the first place.


If a company with this style of communication existed in my country, I would seriously consider switching to it just based on this thread. With the current trend of corporate culture, when noone is willing to give you anything than carefully crafted bullshit, I really started to pick targets for my money more based on the feeling I get from the company than just by pure price.
"Jeez, that's far from ideal." - Serral, the king of mild trashtalk
TL+ Member
Poffel
Profile Joined March 2011
471 Posts
December 19 2013 23:19 GMT
#92
On December 19 2013 05:01 TotalBiscuit wrote:
It begs the question, is a service like Ting.com an ideal sponsor for an event like this? Some might say anything is an ideal sponsor and to some degree I'd say that's true but if you want them to invest longterm they have to see Return on Investment.

Whenever I watch an SC2 tournament, the lion's share (if not all) of the sponsors are some kind of tech companies (in the widest sense). You know, the kind of company that produces gaming peripherals, hardware, other video games, phones and mobile devices or associated programs and services. In a way, that's an obvious marketing choice: People who watch SC2 tournaments are gamers and tech geeks, so let's show them products and services for gamers and tech geeks.

Now, even though I don't keep track of it, I think it's safe to say that I've watched dozens of tournaments with hundreds if not thousands of advertisements for tech products and services. And, of course, I've also purchased quite a few of the products that were advertised.

Do you know how many of these products I have bought because of the advertisements? Zero.

Mind you, as I previously mentioned, I'm one of the guys who are actually interested in all that stuff... in other words, these types of products fall well within my area of expertise, where I'm not only able but proud to make an informed decision as a consumer. For instance, when I need, say, a new GPU, I go by the readily available tests on the hardware sites that I visit frequently to find the product that best meets my expectations; I may well ponder over that decision for a week or so, simply because I like thinking about the merits and flaws of GPUs before I buy one. But if the one I end up buying is also the one that was shown in an advertisement, then that's purely coincidental.

I short: I'm killing esports.

Curiously, I don't seem to be the only one. Feel free to do a TL search in the Tech Support forum on this site: In the long history of the Computer Buid, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread (currently sitting at well over 110k views), nobody has even once recommended something "because the company sponsors esports". In fact, nobody has even mentioned the words "sponsor", "esports", "advertisement", asf. during a 3000+ post discussion on nothing but hardware.

Long story short: If you want me to buy from advertisements, show me ads for stuff that I need but don't care all that much about. Show me ads for junk food and soft drinks... I may be the guy who likes video games, but I also have to eat. Chances are, I won't head over to some food resources website to verify that coke achieves a better benchmark than sprite because I don't give a flying fuck about soft drinks. However, I will check the benchmarks for GPUs, so showing me ads for those is rather pointless.
[F_]aths
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Germany3947 Posts
December 19 2013 23:29 GMT
#93
This is an extremely informative blog post.

While TB mostly wrote about the return of investment stuff, I think the story line with ladder hero hitman cheesing out Scarlett will be remembered for quite some time. Such stories are practically only possible in a format which uses ladder ranking as qualification.

I hope that one day Blizzard will acknowledge in public which great service the effort of TB is to the NA SC2 scene.
You don't choose to play zerg. The zerg choose you.
TotalBiscuit
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United Kingdom5437 Posts
December 20 2013 04:03 GMT
#94
On December 20 2013 05:52 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
i think the tournament format which brings the best ROI is with a ~$100 prize pool put on every week of the year.
I think ZOTAC, Go4SC2 have the most sustainable formats.

the problem with this format is finding the volunteers to run the show.


Nobody watches those events. Weekly tournaments are a really bad format for maintaining interest. There's too much Starcraft, the presentation and production aren't there, there's no hype, the player lineup is shaky, it's online, you just can't make that work and actually provide real ROI. You'd have to have a caster with an audience do that and good luck finding one of those that has the time. Maybe BasetradeTV is getting to that point, they started off grassroots and are doing a great job building their brand, but honestly those weekly events with tiny prizepools aren't going to get anyone to watch. Yes they provide ROI but you're also only investing $100. You would get better ROI if you threw $100 at Destiny and told him to talk about your product for 20 seconds on his stream.
CommentatorHost of SHOUTcraft Clan Wars- http://www.mlg.tv/shoutcraft
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17755 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-20 14:07:01
December 20 2013 13:49 GMT
#95
thanks for your reply

On December 20 2013 13:03 TotalBiscuit wrote:
Nobody watches those events.


do you have the statistics to back that up? zero. really?
that must be an exaggeration to get your point across.

On December 20 2013 13:03 TotalBiscuit wrote:You'd have to have a caster with an audience do that and good luck finding one of those that has the time. Maybe BasetradeTV is getting to that point, they started off grassroots and are doing a great job building their brand, but honestly those weekly events with tiny prizepools aren't going to get anyone to watch.

this is the 2nd time you've said no one watches. you have to back that up with some #s.
you've done yoemens work providing #s for your own event. Therefore, I'll take the time to get the #s for the weekly events and report back to this thread.

On December 20 2013 13:03 TotalBiscuit wrote:
You'd have to have a caster with an audience do that and good luck finding one of those that has the time. Maybe BasetradeTV is getting to that point, they started off grassroots and are doing a great job building their brand,


yes, and also volunteers to run the actual event each week. And, a software system ( like CraftCup.com ) to efficiently run a giant weekly event.
Imba.tv had a really solid viewer base for these weekly events as well. it was lack of free time that stopped Imba.tv.
As you've noted, its tough to find a team of VOLUNTEERs.

I think BaseTradeTV and Imba.TV have/had the viewer base to provide reasonable ROI for this kind of weekly event. I'll do some digging and get some #s to back up this comment though.


On December 20 2013 13:03 TotalBiscuit wrote:
You would get better ROI if you threw $100 at Destiny and told him to talk about your product for 20 seconds on his stream.


i think this week's ZOTAC Cup is a better investment for ZOTAC. It's hard to tell when Destiny is joking around and not joking around. Try to talk the ZOTAC marketing guys into spending money on Destiny.

On December 20 2013 13:03 TotalBiscuit wrote:
Yes they provide ROI but you're also only investing $100. You would get better ROI if you threw $100 at Destiny and told him to talk about your product for 20 seconds on his stream.

ok, you've gone from "nobody watches" to "yes they provide ROI".
i guess your post is more of a "flow of thoughts" than anything else. which is fine.

you invest $100 per week over a 52 week period.
for a total of $5,200. and maybe have a "championship structure" like Go4SC2 or ZOTAC and give away a couple thousand more in a "tournament of champions" like ZOTAC or Go4SC2 does.

I think ZOTAC and Go4SC2 have been going on for so long because they provide solid ROI.
Especially with teh web site that backs up the ZOTAC weekly events.

on the other hand TSL stopped at #4 because big-prize-pool/1-time/non-open/online events don't provide enough ROI.

the Achilles Heel for ZOTAC or Go4SC2 is exposed when BaseTradeTV and/or Imba.TV decides "hey we just dont have enough free time to cast this every week". Imba.TV, basically, just disappeared.

If there were 5 or 6 versions of BaseTradeTV around stuff like ZOTAC and Go4SC2 would be far more reliable in terms of guaranteed ROI.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
TotalBiscuit
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
United Kingdom5437 Posts
December 20 2013 16:55 GMT
#96
Jimmy I don't really have to back up anything and I certainly don't have time to. The only evidence you need is to see the numbers every single week on these events. The numbers suck, simple as that.

Go and look up the events on fuzic.nl and you will see how low the numbers are
CommentatorHost of SHOUTcraft Clan Wars- http://www.mlg.tv/shoutcraft
JimmyJRaynor
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada17755 Posts
December 20 2013 17:17 GMT
#97
On December 21 2013 01:55 TotalBiscuit wrote:
Jimmy I don't really have to back up anything


as i said in my post i'd find the #s myself.
Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"
oneill12
Profile Joined February 2012
Romania1222 Posts
December 21 2013 11:51 GMT
#98
TB is smart
kagamin
Profile Joined September 2010
United States191 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-21 12:18:41
December 21 2013 12:11 GMT
#99
Thanks for the writeup. The comments from the sponsor were particularly interesting to read.

FYI, I actually went to their website for the first time after reading this. Too bad they don't support my S4.
SoniC_eu
Profile Joined April 2011
Denmark1008 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-12-22 14:44:47
December 22 2013 14:44 GMT
#100
Thanks for the writeup and big thanks to ting.com with 100% transparency. Quite unprecedented. GL for 2014!!!!
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. http://da.twitch.tv/sonic_eu
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 3h 25m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nina 89
SortOf 86
ProTech68
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 2744
GuemChi 1534
Aegong 50
Icarus 10
Leta 1
Dota 2
The International98205
Gorgc6865
singsing1837
NeuroSwarm125
resolut1ontv 16
League of Legends
JimRising 650
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King205
Other Games
summit1g5584
WinterStarcraft361
C9.Mang0270
Sick104
Happy95
Trikslyr20
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick504
BasetradeTV377
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Berry_CruncH347
• practicex 21
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Rush1035
• Lourlo955
• Stunt441
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
3h 25m
KCM Race Survival
3h 25m
Replay Cast
17h 25m
Escore
1d 3h
PiG Sty Festival
1d 5h
Serral vs Reynor
HeRoMaRinE vs herO
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
PiG Sty Festival
2 days
Patches Events
2 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
PiG Sty Festival
3 days
[ Show More ]
The Patches Monday
4 days
GSL
5 days
PiGosaur Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-08-19
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale

Ongoing

KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 3
K-JUNGMAN
ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL Season 22: Qualifier 1
RSL Revival: Season 6
PiG Sty Festival 8.0
META DYMY #4
Esports World Cup 2026
Esports World Cup 2026: LCQ
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S3: W8
CSL Season 22: Qualifier 2
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Acropolis #5 - TRS
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Acropolis #5 - GSA
HSC XXX
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Big Dog Cup 2026 Div 1
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.