EPTA SoCal ‘Minor League’
Around the summer of 2011, I distinctly remember driving in my car, listening to SOTG, and having a dream - to start a "minor league circuit" of offline events, primarily in Southern California, but circuiting through the local cities here. My goal was to foster the same end-goal you speak of, which is to provide opportunities and support and structure to the up-and-coming local players, to build up the local community of SC gamers, both professional and amateur/casual, and to allow the pro-ams to win some moneys that could at least guide them in the direction of the true Major Leagues.
We've held 3 of these LANs so far, and they were great fun. We had initially 2 divisions: Pro-Am, and Am. Pro-Am had cash and item prizes, Am cost less to enter, but only had item prizing. I do hope to hold another soon here in SoCal. But completely honestly -- it boils down to a few things, money being the biggest one as has been touched on in the comments of the referenced thread already.
Links to our 3 LANs:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/SoCal_eSports_LAN_Circuit_2011_-_Irvine
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/SoCal_eSports_LAN_Circuit_2011_-_Fullerton
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/SoCal_eSports_LAN_Circuit_2012_-_Mission_Viejo
SoCal has supported its LAN prize money based entirely off BarCraft proceeds. We hold BarCrafts, the venue then uses a small percentage of sales to sponsor an upcoming LAN prizepool. It was pretty awesome, and very exciting, but I found that 1) We were still in the red based on venue costs, expenses, and prizing, -- 2) I personally, and a few on my team to a lesser extent, basically had a part-time to full-time job (in addition to my RL job as a Structural Engineer 8 to 5) planning, organizing, negotiating, and managing these events before, during, and after -- and we were getting little to no reward for it. We held BarCrafts, which takes a ton of time and commitment, then held tournaments, which took even more time and commitment and money, and at the end of the day, after 9 months of it, we were in the red, financing the events with my own personal money. Now, I enjoyed doing all this because I really have a strong passion for the game, I love the community, and I enjoy giving to my community that I love -- Like I said at the beginning, I really wanted to foster local talent and see them go far. But it's tough to still justify all the costs (time+money) even it were my favorite thing in the world.
Where did any of those players go?
Mystik placed 3rd in our first two lans, and went on to do fairly well in the WCS NA scene, but has since not really done much. ItsGosu STX has taken 2nd-3rd in our lans, and went on in MLG Anaheim this year to beat a few big names (2-0'd DeMuslim, took a game off QXC, then 2-0'd Insur), but I'm still waiting for him to make his big break. ItsGosu Rhythm (aka Bubbles) took 1st in our first two lans, but has had little professional success. Russano took 2nd in two lans, and has had no professional success. Our 3rd LAN we had a few pros come compete and they took the top 3 spots (Sleep, BeastyQT, STX took 3rd). I have a drive for these guys man, I love these guys, I want them to succeed, to be hometown heroes, to take the prize-moneys forged from within the community itself, and drive themselves harder, better, faster! But alas, it hasn't quite happened yet. I can only imagine it's much harder on them than it is on me.A number of cool eSports success stories from our local scene: @Frodan used to cast for us then went big time in NASL (ya buddy so happy for you); @Megumixbear casted for us before becoming a host for IPL and such; @Crota_uswest casted for us before going to Quantic's media team; @QuanticRum (RumCake) was awesome support logistically to myself and to the scene and has since gotten a great promotion to Quantic's manager; @BarCraftLA our sound guy who also hosts BarCraft in LA, helped NASL figure out their sound issues last season (Alex is best sound man in the biz, hands down); @Shindags (shindigs) first got drafted to Tt eSPORTS community manager team, then became big deal over at CSL (love shindigs, my UCI homie); @CarltonBeener, our photographer, has since become ESFI's lead photographer for pretty much every event in the US; @iSktsalz is now the Assistant General Manager of iS; @ghostclaw has always been amazing and only gets more amazing
; @notprimadog has spoken with just about everyone who's important in eSports, although we don't know where he is now (hope he's ok in China somewhere); @itsjustatank is TLPD police; and tons more really. That really makes me extremely happy to know that I provided an environment to foster these amazing eSports devotees, to give them that extra bit of exposure and contact within the scene... they probably would've still gone on to greatness without us, but it still makes me proud.But while it's nice boosting people into the scene, cost is still an issue -- and getting sponsorships or funding from sponsors is incredibly difficult - as we all know they want ROI or else it makes no sense to give money, and it's very difficult for the "minor leagues" to get the exposure sponsors want to see.
Finally, a small note has to be said about the amount of petty competition and tension that exists within the pool of so many "eSports entrepeneurs." While I was approaching SO many people with partnership deals (that really benefited them more than us), and while I tried so hard working with other people locally and from the rest of the states on both BarCraft and the tournaments... I was constantly met with a lack of desire to "play along with others." So many felt that it was competitive instead of trying to work altogether as a team for the greater good... they all wanted THEIR break into the top, THEIR cut of the pie to be substantial, but weren't willing to work with others' ideas in the process. Pretty much all of those people have since left eSports or fizzled out pretty much, a few have success and I'm happy for them. But through that filtering I was blessed to meet and work with all the people mentioned above, as well as so many others such as my SCES partners @TRYrant and @machinations90, which I am again so thankful for.
All of these things speak to the incredibly great job the TeSPA (Texas eSports Association) organization has done – these are all the same hurdles that they faced and overcame as well. (To be fair, they weren’t trying to create a minor-league, more-so they were trying to create a premier top-tier tournament, but from grassroots, which is really equally impressive and great.) Their team is incredible, talented, hardworking, works great together, and is willing to spend a LOT of time to guarantee success. Their leadership is on point, they have access to incredible resources at the University there, but even other monetary challenges they’ve faced and conquered. I give mad props to those guys, and in fact am a bit jealous.
These difficulties also speak well of an organization we’re now partnered with: One Nation of Gamers, the organization of BarCrafts that have worked together to hold both of the ONOG Invitationals, and who work really hard just like SoCal to build up a community of BarCrafts to be self-sustaining if nothing else.
The truth is, I've busted my ass trying to make something like a minor league happen for over a year now, and it is freaking hard.
I’m thankful and proud of how much we’ve accomplished, and hope to continue to have success, but it’s neither straightforward, nor easy. It takes time, funding from somewhere, dedication and commitment, and a lot of gumption/ambition to make it happen. 
thanks for keeping the socal scene together
