I want to take the time to talk about the weird obsession StarCraft 2 and e-sports have with prize money / earnings and why I think it's bad for the development of e-sports.
As you might be aware, prize money gets mentioned a lot. And I mean... A LOT. In fact, I think it's downright weird how much prize money gets mentioned in the SC2 scene. In nearly every broadcasted series/tournament, prize money is mentioned. Not only that, but cumulative earnings for players are frequently displayed in their introductions. For example, we see things like "here is MC, he plays Protoss, his winrate against other Protoss is X% and he has made $400k in prize money so far." But this isn't just limited to tournaments... our wonderful TL staff has been putting together some great articles on the 16 Blizzcon attendees - in the player intros, #1 is their win rates, and #2 is their 2014 earnings.
I'm not going to take a stab at why this information is deemed relevant. After all, no other sport introduces its competitors by stating their salaries. You'll never hear "At number 24, from the LA Lakers, with 2014 salary of $30.5 million, KOBE BRYANT!" But I will explain why I think we as a community and as a sport should focus away from player prize winnings/salaries.
1) It's irrelevant: I'm someone who really likes watching pro StarCraft. When I'm watching a match between Taeja and Bomber, for example, what do I want to know about the players and the game?
-What race they each play and their win percentages against other races -What recent accomplishments they each have and what their form is like -What their head to head record against each other looks like -And any other information that's going to help me get a better idea of what to expect from this game. For example, Taeja and Bomber both prefer to play bio compositions in this matchup. That's helpful.
There is so much information that prize money hardly seems relevant at all. In fact, any time prize money is displayed, there is a 100% chance that something MORE relevant could have been shown instead. Such as Taeja's win percentage on this map, Bomber's win percentage at foreign events, or even a heat map of where the action is likely to take place based on prior games.
2) It's misleading The highest earning players are not necessarily the best players. And the best players in the world are not necessarily the highest earning players. Compare HuK's salary/earnings vs any awesomely talented KESPA Korean and you realize why this is the case. Earnings are a combination of many different things, including salary, streaming revenue, prize winnings (which depends on one's ability to travel to tournaments). You cannot differentiate between players' skill based on earnings. MC may be rich as hell, but he's not better than Zest.
3) It belittles the sport And finally, this.
This crazy obsession over money more than anything takes away from the sport instead. Rather than watching the sport and enjoying it, we're constantly reminded of just how little these guys make compared to "real" sports. And that more than anything reinforces the view that at the end of the day, StarCraft 2 is not a real sport. It's a bunch of nerds sitting around in a room playing video games.
I once watched Rotti say something like "Jim really needs to advance to get this win... if he does he'll secure himself $2,000." (I am paraphrasing.... just FYI). And I thought to myself - Is this really the most important thing that will happen if he wins this match? As a spectator watching Jim play his heart out at WCS AM do I really give a shit how much money he's going to make from this match, especially if it's a sum as miniscule as $2,000 in the greater world of sports? Is it not infinitely more important to the narrative to discuss how he will reach the RoX for the first time in his career and how he's been on a hot streak? Or how he's potentially a challenger to another player who we thought was for sure going to advance?
Here's an example of how our obsession with prize money affects StarCraft 2's perception outside the diehard SC2 community:
My brother recently walked into my room (we live together) and saw me watching WCS. After calling me a nerd etc.. (the usual) for watching e-sports, he started watching with me. I believe it was a TvZ.. might have been MMA or Bomber. Having watched me play and having played Brood War at a younger age, though very casually, he was amazed at the difference in skill level and actually got really interested in the game - the speed and skill with which marines were split etc. really impressed him. I remember my brother said something like “wow, that was really amazing how he split his marines… blah blah blah.” He was intrigued. Then, when the game was over, the casters said something like "he will advance to the next round and secure his $2,000."
That's when my brother said "HAH, all that for $2,000???? Nerd." and walked out.
When you look at the best in the world in different sports and how much money they make, the comparison REALLY has the effect of belittling / ridiculing StarCraft 2. Consider this:
Cristiano Ronaldo 2014 earnings: EUR 21 million Kobe Bryant: $30.45 million Peyton Manning: $27 million
Taeja: $55k Polt: $58k CJ Hero: $55k
Anyone who's not really into e-sports would look at that and say.. why even bother if you're going to be the best in the world at something and make that much money.. just go and get a real job..
Obviously in any developing scene prize money grows over time. But in order for StarCraft 2 and e-sports to be taken seriously, we need to emphasize the things that make it just as competitive and as fun to watch as other sports and de-emphasize the things that belittle it and take away from its importance.
Thanks for reading and please share your thoughts with me.
On October 30 2014 04:17 MysteryMeat1 wrote: Earnings don't include salary, just total prize money won.
I appreciate the clarification, though in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. So maybe the best in the world are making $100k a year. Shit, I know plenty of people who aren't anywhere near the best at anything that make way more than that doing boring as hell things like being a consultant.
What makes earnings exciting is to be able to see ludicrous amounts of cash being thrown at a sports start because he is so amazingly talented that there is no possible way to replace him.
Some kid playing video games making six figures is impressive, but at the end of the day, I know plenty of "regular" people who make that much and it doesn't have quite the same impact.
Prize money represents the dream that someone can come from nowhere and make/take it. One of the strong appeals of eSports is that anyone with the skills can take down the grand prize.
You're making the mistake of comparing the biggest and wealthiest sports instead of "normal" sports. Chad Le Clos doesn't swim in money, hell, you might not even know who he is.
On October 30 2014 04:24 Thrill wrote: Prize money represents the dream that someone can come from nowhere and make/take it. One of the strong appeals of eSports is that anyone with the skills can take down the grand prize.
I get that, but how big of an audience here are we talking about? Maybe you have a few GM players in each region that if they practice hard enough can crack into WCS challenger and earn themselves $500?
Meanwhile you have by far the vast majority of the 100,000+ watching Blizzcon who will never ever play the game anywhere near that level and who are watching it purely as a spectator event. For them the game should be presented in a way that glorifies it and makes it more appealing. Once THAT audience grows, there can be more prize money to attract new talent.
On October 30 2014 04:27 Zealously wrote: You're making the mistake of comparing the biggest and wealthiest sports instead of "normal" sports. Chad Le Clos doesn't swim in money, hell, you might not even know who he is.
Of course, and as I said as the scene grows, it will attract more sponsor $ and have bigger prize pools.
But these are by far the most popular "real" sports that people watch that in essence compete for viewership with esports. I'm not saying that E-sports should pay millions of dollars, because thats unrealistic. I'm saying that the same people who watch esports are the people who watch regular sports and are used to that kind of money being paid. So relatively it belittles the scene to focus SO much on prize money.
If they simply took out all references to prize money (as others sports) and continued doing everything else the same way I think the game would be better off. I just don't see why it needs to be talked about at all....
On October 30 2014 04:27 Zealously wrote: You're making the mistake of comparing the biggest and wealthiest sports instead of "normal" sports. Chad Le Clos doesn't swim in money, hell, you might not even know who he is.
He's the SA swimmer? I think he's only famous because of his dads reaction that and he's talented
I think the scene focuses so much on money because it isn't fully accepted yet that eSports is legit and equals "real" sports. You are talking just like if every player on a pro team receives a decent salary and all, but that isn't the case. The fact that money, actual money, is given to 'kids playing video games' is part of what makes the scene legit in two ways.
First it assesses the fact that eSports is something serious, "professional", that being a progamer is a job just like being a professional athlete. I think that what you see as ridiculously low amounts of money is already a lot considering that for outsiders, it's "just a video game". When Rotti is saying that Jim will make 2K$ by advancing, he's pointing the fact that he can make a living out of it, just like if he was a professional athlete. I mean, what would your brother have said if instead of 2K$, it was 0$? (well obviously that wouldn't have been mentioned by the casters so he wouldn't have known, but he would have asked in the end).
Second thing is that eSports is not established in a traditional sport frame. I'll explain myself here : if you're, say, 14 and play football/soccer, and dream to win important competitions like the World Cup, you'll dream of it because it has a long history of legendary players and matches. It's more than just winning something meaning that you're the best, it's something prestigious, recognized even by non-footballers. Winning the World Cup is going down in history with some of the greatest who ever played football. In eSports, this history/prestige factor doesn't exist, partly because it is too young to, partly because it doesn't get a lot of recognition from non-gamers. So for someone watching eSports, knowing how much he could make by being the best in the world is important because it helps him to substitute the lack of prestige/history of the tournament, as well as giving recognition to the tournament for non-gamers (I mean when TI4's prizepool skyrocketed even generalist medias in France talked about it).
In the end I agree with you, I think it isn't necessary to emphasize that much on earnings. But I tried to think of why there is such an emphasis on it, so here it is.
On October 30 2014 05:19 Yorbon wrote: How old is your brother?
27 (I'm 28).
On October 30 2014 05:33 Rathwirt wrote: Golf ranks players by prize winnings too.
Actually I think I saw that the other day. Maybe the only other sport I've seen that does that. But the differentiator is that in Golf all the top tour players usually attend all the same tournaments. So the ranking is somewhat relevant...
On October 30 2014 05:05 OtherWorld wrote: I think the scene focuses so much on money because it isn't fully accepted yet that eSports is legit and equals "real" sports. You are talking just like if every player on a pro team receives a decent salary and all, but that isn't the case. The fact that money, actual money, is given to 'kids playing video games' is part of what makes the scene legit in two ways.
First it assesses the fact that eSports is something serious, "professional", that being a progamer is a job just like being a professional athlete. I think that what you see as ridiculously low amounts of money is already a lot considering that for outsiders, it's "just a video game". When Rotti is saying that Jim will make 2K$ by advancing, he's pointing the fact that he can make a living out of it, just like if he was a professional athlete. I mean, what would your brother have said if instead of 2K$, it was 0$? (well obviously that wouldn't have been mentioned by the casters so he wouldn't have known, but he would have asked in the end).
Second thing is that eSports is not established in a traditional sport frame. I'll explain myself here : if you're, say, 14 and play football/soccer, and dream to win important competitions like the World Cup, you'll dream of it because it has a long history of legendary players and matches. It's more than just winning something meaning that you're the best, it's something prestigious, recognized even by non-footballers. Winning the World Cup is going down in history with some of the greatest who ever played football. In eSports, this history/prestige factor doesn't exist, partly because it is too young to, partly because it doesn't get a lot of recognition from non-gamers. So for someone watching eSports, knowing how much he could make by being the best in the world is important because it helps him to substitute the lack of prestige/history of the tournament, as well as giving recognition to the tournament for non-gamers (I mean when TI4's prizepool skyrocketed even generalist medias in France talked about it).
In the end I agree with you, I think it isn't necessary to emphasize that much on earnings. But I tried to think of why there is such an emphasis on it, so here it is.
I think these are valid points, to an extent. The GSL is already viewed as a prestige tournament - everyone playing in it and watching it understands that.
I'm not totally against mentioning prize money, but it seems a bit ridiculous how often we're reminded of it. If every once in a while someone showed a chart with the prize pool distribution for the tournament I wouldn't mind but it seems kind of petty to mention each player's earnings every time they're playing or when you write an article about them.
The one "sport" they do it all the time in is Poker, but that's for obvious reasons... the game is played with money.
Yeah too much focus on prizemoney. I remember a tournament announcement thread here with nice players but without mentioning prizepool. TL Community didnt show big interest about tournament and players, talked only about the unannounced prizepool. It was one or two years ago.
It's because esports is on the verge of/between real consistent money and everyone being poor. I agree with your post too.
BW no one talked about OSL, MSL prizewinnings in 2008-2012. You were a champion. The community didnt care about WCG prize money. Now people of course did talk about money (it is unavoidabke), but the korean stars were assumed to make the 1 mil won (like 80k usd) salary and that was that. Foreigners made nothing. End of story.
But then with big sports no one cares about money. They are all rich enough, in the view of the fans. The prestige is what is sought after from the fans. Not nike sponsors or personality.
LoL i see this as someone who follows esports in general now. I dont immediately see people say LCS gives X dollars. You just see a stable league and assume stable teams.
Do chess fans talk about money? Do Go players? I dont think so. I think some vocal people have talked about money in chess (Bobby fischer on Russian funding and attempts at match rigging I believe), but no one tries to validate chess by money. They respect chess as it is.
Fans of the game should love it indeoendent of money. Or at least, not make it a main focal point.
Edit: to me it ismore the community's focus on money. The organizers want to make things appear legitimate, and are biased consciously or subconsciously. Its their job.
Fans, on the other hand, will say "look at our esport! This guy makes X!".
Yea I've never really thought about it too much but I would agree. As in, it doesn't really bother me when they talk about the prize pool but it's not very necessary. It's amusing in sports that if you take basketball for example, I've never known what the champions win. I mean sure they get rings or a trophy or something, but surely there's some monetary prize? (if I recall it's like 2mil for the winning team + bonuses for doing well in categories like best record in the league and stuff). I don't watch a ton of basketball, but in all the games I've seen, I've NEVER heard about prize money for the winner. It's kind of interesting.
I have to agree with your brother on the "2k? HA" point. It's really a sad amount of money to be making for how many hours are put into the game. People often wonder why koreans are so dominant compared to foreigners, but to me it's a factor of money/fame. money/fame=More players->more interest->competition->better players. Koreans get a lot more fame given that's it's simply more well known there. You don't get a bunch of competitors in a "sport" that doesn't offer one of those. There's the argument of "for the love of the game" but honestly in todays society and status, you can't be honestly surprised that people with potential in the game move on to other things that will actually pay the bills. There's complexion and beauty in things like tetris, cubing, scrabble, etc. but elites in those fields(or even the top player in the world) generally have other day jobs/quit in pursuit of one. Why? No money/fame. The idea that a masters player can make a living off of what they do is laughable, but being in the top 2% in hundreds or thousands of other professions pay bank. Plus, they don't require all the travel and hours and possible injury from carpel. Fame can compensate, but in the US there isn't much of that for esports players.
1. It's irrelevant: Irrelevant is too strong of a word. There is some relevancy to the money earned. It pushes forward the aspiration that this budding industry can support careers. Albeit, only a small number of careers, but it has relevancy. Is it mentioned too often? Perhaps, but I don't mind it too much.
I think you are focusing on it too much, but I agree that other information and statistics has more relevancy.
2. It's misleading: You are correct that the highest earning player is not necessarily the best, but I don't think anyone has explicitly made that comparison. I already know this, and I am sure many others are aware of that fact. I think MC was the highest earning player last year or the year before, but he wasn't the best by far.
Again I think you are focusing on something that is not large problem. Most of us already accept the fact that wages and skill do not necessarily scale well in esports. There is a correlation between wages and skills, but it isn't scaled evenly.
However, in other established sports, it is seen as an indication of skill. Players like Kobe and Jordan were signed for boatloads of cash because they were deemed the greatest of their time.
3. It belittles the sport: You contributed a lot to this point, so I would like to focus on it a little more.
In your experience, your brother viewed the value of $2,000 prize money as insignificant. While it isn't a lot of money, it will mean the difference between retirement and employment. I don't think it belittles esports to any degree. In fact, I think it goes to show that these guys have a passion for the game.
Would Jordan have played for the Bulls if he was offered $100k per year?
Progamers aren't being paid boatloads of money, but are still putting in the same time, effort, and dedication as the Jordans and Kobes. This says a lot to the passion that the Taejas or soOs have.
You view it as belittlement; I view it as passion.
I agree that the focus should be on skill, statistics, achievements, etc. However, I don't think the casters are focusing on the prize nearly as much as you believe they are. I could be wrong, or I have selective memory, but I don't think the problem is nearly as big as you perceive it.
EPT
