Saying Goodbye to ASL English - Page 25

On March 07 2021 09:19 Jealous wrote:
1. You need a license only if your tournament goes over a certain $ value for Brood War, at least. I applied for a license and got it for free by clicking a few buttons. However, Blizzard didn't even bother to respond to me concerning anything else, despite my having organized/helped organize two of the biggest USA BW LANs for BW in over a decade. They just don't give a fuck.

2. Blizzard forces organizations like ASL to pay Blizzard money to run their Brood War tournaments.

3. On the flip side, Blizzard had been propping up SC2 for years with their own money, so it's not even relevant in this discussion. (maybe tangentially if that money is being sourced from BW tho lol, see #5).

4. The reason why some progamers are hesitant to play in tournaments is because they make more money streaming, and when they are preparing for a tournament and trying to hide builds/their practice, they are making less money. If they don't have a chance to win the tournament, there is little incentive to participate. It only makes sense to participate if you think your performance will result in greater viewership/donations in the future than what you lose. It's still about money. Even the players care more about money. And that is honestly the most responsible approach to this.

5. None of this matters because it's ASL that has pulled the plug, not Blizzard, though in theory it could be related (assuming ASL is still paying exorbitant amounts of money to Blizzard to run BW tournaments).

6. Tasteless/Artosis aren't willing to work for free, why should ASL be willing to provide English broadcasts at a loss? If they were making money from it, you better believe that they would still be doing them. But they aren't. This whole "businesses are only interested in profits" argument seems so moronic to me, because it's like, yea? No duh? I'm surprised Blizzard propped up SC2 for as long as it did, for example. Not surprised at all that ASL and their investors/sponsors who run ads on them are not to keen on the additional costs involved with marketing to an audience they can't benefit from.

Just think about it, let's say you have a business and make a product, let's say it's baskets. You spend $1 on the materials and sell them for $21, making $20 profit. Your baskets are really popular in your neighborhood, where delivery is cheap - practically free. However, for whatever reason, your baskets gained a small hardcore following in Angola. To ship your baskets to Angola costs $50. Are you going to ship your baskets to Angola, despite the fact that you are losing $30 for each one? Of course not, because that'd be moronic. Similarly, it is just as moronic to expect a business like ASL to care about the foreign audience when we bring in no notable revenue.

Let's not be childish and think if we dream, pray, whine, beg, etc. hard enough that anything will change. Thinking that ASL will bring back English broadcasts out of some sense of community/charity with a group of people they barely give a fuck about is stupid. Come to think of it, I can't think of anything the foreign audience actually does FOR Afreeca. What have you done for Afreeca besides watch the VODs on YouTube, their competitor? Similarly, don't hold your breath for Blizzard to let go of the BW IP. We'll all be dead and gone long before that. Y'all just sound like a bunch of whiny children who don't understand how the world works. I get it, you're upset. Throw your tantrum and get over it.