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Introduction
First off, I would like to take this time to Thank this seasons' participants for a great set of games and matches. There were a ton of hiccups at the start of the season, but they were more or less smoothened out by the end. So, without further ado, let's start what I feel will be a lengthy post concerning Season 3.
We have no Admins
This league originated from a league known as NASCL (North American StarCraft Clan League) started by Derrick "DaS" Senter and Nick "20" Gobble. About halfway through Season 1, I tagged along to help with organzing a website and script to better manage the league - along with providing fun statistics for the community. Further along, when Felipe "DraKotZ" Nereza joined to organize showmatches, we decided to organize a league composed of the top tier teams.
You may have noticed that these people were mostly absent as Season 2 progressed... So what happened?
DaS is currently involved with the US Army National Guard as well as managing a start up company. Simply put, he has little time to help with ESI and has made no promises to do so for the next season - An honest decision that I can respect.
20 has lost his Internet connection due to personal reasons I will not discuss. Before this point in time, he was the most active among the admins and the biggest StarCraft enthusiasts I have ever met. While he has made an appearance as of late, it hinges on his ability to make use of neighboring Wi-Fi connections - His input for next season would be minimal.
Before I continue, I should note that there a bunch of other people who became involved with ESI that ended as flaky disappointments. Season 1 was littered with US East / West players and clans who are not even worth mentioning, or who I have forgotten. Season 2 was supposed to be cast/voded in part by SC2GG, but this ultimately fizzled out due to ... exaggerated egos. At one point during Season 2, DraKotZ and the former LzH captain YoonHo launched a 1v1 league. Despite assuring me that he would be able to help with administrative issue, Steve withdrew after two lackluster weeks citing the same issues that caused LzH to be replaced after week 4. TeRRoR was a promising caster and admin but despite the hours he was able to contribute, he lacked the ability to act decently on-air which I can only attribute to his young age.
However, there were some exceptions who I would like to thank. Our casters LordOfWar and GOL's Kenny helped with streaming during the end of the season, although I'm still waiting on Kenny to VOD Fnatic vs ToT  I'd like to thank WC8 aka TL's vx70GTOJudgexv for moral support and league coverage. Thanks to Day[9] for contributing suggestion to how the rules should modified following the ret/ChoseN ace match. Thanks to Effort for contributing a few news posts between my tyranny of league updates. Lastly, a big Thanks to poGDI for helping ESI break onto the front page of GosuGamers.
Finally, we come to DraKotZ. It is important to note that his most known aka is Strato, who many can remember as taking a 3rd place in WCG Mexico 2005. During his time as admin for ESI he has also led the Mexican team NaH which later became Sky.G along with DraKotZ changing his aka to Ziel. In June, Felipe informed me that he had been having problems with migraines and loss of vision which later doctors diagnosed as a brain tumor. Because of the late discovery, he needed to be treated immediately and he would not be able to help with the league. I talked to him again after his surgery, when he told me he was accessing the Internet from his hospital bed.
ESI | draKotZ: I just got online to say that I am not going to get online for a long stretch of time.
I send my wishes to Felipe and his family and hope he recovers - this brings us to our next topic:
Season 3 lacks a Sponsor
Season 1 was sponsored by DaS. The prize money was a mere $100, but winner's Los Reyes del Mambo received their money with out any problems. Season 2 was also sponsored by a mixture of admins that mostly included myself, Das, and DraKotZ. The prize money was set at $600 which may not seem like a hefty amount compared to other foreign tournaments and leagues, but it certainly drew the top teams to participate in the league. Of this $600, $400 is accounted for - with $200 missing on part to DraKotz's illness. DaS has still to transfer his share to my PayPal account, as he is currently participating in National Guard Training. When he does so, $400 dollars will be distributed as follows:
1. $300 - Fnatic.MSI - Season 2 Winners
2. $100 - Templars of Twilight - Season 2 Runner-Up
I would like to apologize to Fnatic, ToT, and ESC (3rd place) for the change in prize money. The money was not collected beforehand and this has become a problem due to our own organizational issues.
Putting Season 2 aside, I would like to take a moment to discuss our search for Season 3 sponsors. I think ESI admins incorrectly approached the league with a very strong ESPORTS mentality. (Hence the name...) Aside from very large leagues such as ESL, it is impossible for such a small niche focused league such as ESI to become e-famous and earn lots of e-money. I know that this motivation ended in a lack of interest for a few of my colleagues.
During the end of the Season 2, DraKotz and I approached over 30 companies for sponsorship. This includes many of the traditional e-sports sponsors such as Razer, Steel Series, and Q-Pad but also included Poker sites. Interestingly enough, I was disappointed to find that only Razer and one other unnamed site were courteous enough to write back, denying our request and citing a reason as too why. At one point during the end of June, ESI finally received an offer for $1200 and a CPA - which was later withdrawn.
Traffic for your site is insufficient to support a return in investment.
Season 3 does not have a sponsor and learning from Season 2 it would be unfair and unprofessional to pretend a sponsor exists unless the money was firmly in hand.
What Next?
Where do we go from here? I would like to begin by offering my own point of view. I originally joined the admin team as a coder because I was personally motivated to design and code a nice league management script. I am a computer science student with an unhealthy admiration for StarCraft, thus it felt natural for me to test my talents and interests on a community project.
How did that go? I feel that the ESI site is at this point in time at about 20% completion. This is partially due to the unexpected withdrawal of the other admins, causing me to change from coding to managing and organizing the league mostly by myself from matchday 3 and on. While I started ESI happy to help - I have to admit that I am pretty burnt out due to now having a set of tasks that I associate with work as opposed to fun.
If the league were to continue, I would be willing to help if I had a set of willing admins that allowed me to focus more on what I like to do - coding. Thus - this is an appeal to the community for a set of helping hands. However, I am not a fan of flaky work and would rather the league be closed than see it run at a mediocre level.
What About the Teams?
Yes, what about them? Would the teams still be willing to play, despite a lack of funds? As of the completion of Season 2 - the following teams need to consider their participation in the league:
Playoff Teams:
1. Fnatic.MSI
2. Templars of Twilight
3. ESC.ICY-BOX
4. eXpertise
5th/6th Place Teams:
5. Los Reyes del Mambo *
6. Zajebiscie Zjebany Zespol
From Qualifiers:
7. Riders on the Storm
8. !nnocent Holy Freaks
9. Not Allowed
10. Team BW
* Note: Sky Gaming was disbanded and replaced by LRM who picked up their stronger players.
As part of the ToT organization - I would like to anonymously contribute some of the positive statements made during the ToT discussion on this topic:
"I'm not sure how many leagues we are currently playing in, but we are have many players now so another league would not hurt. I would like to play many leagues but thats because I havent played for some time and am hungry!"
"I actually agree..it's a very well run league, by far the best one.. By playing it we can use more players and it's not like we played this league for the money in the 1st place anyway.."
A change in motivation
Along with the bad, it is good to note that ESI has grown to be a pretty fun and well liked league. I think by turning to the community for help, by finding the right set of admins, and by dropping the ESPORTS mentality - ESI has the potential to continue for many seasons to come.
The bottom line...
Should ESI continue with Season 3? This will mostly depend on two issues:
1. A handful of dependable admins.
2. The support of the current teams.
What are your thoughts on the issue?
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Tx for the informative post. I heard mostly good stuff about this league so I hope it can continue in full form.  Always looking forward to vods and I think Kenny did quite a good job with the GOL vods (at least the ret ones which I watched).
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No one from Sky.G has been paid, and I say this because we wasn't promised to be payed in any moment, Sky.G was a friendly team. And concerning drakotz, I think the reasons that he has left the scene for a while are personal issues and you should not add them here.
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Guys, Yenta is an awesome guy. I initially started talking to him about a coverage deal that was ill-structured for commentary through SC2GG. Later on, my affiliation with InsiderEsports led me to talk to him again. I haven't been able to do the full coverage I've wanted as of yet, but I'd like there to be a season 3 for me to work with.
ESI is one of the better run leagues that I've seen. The format is unique, and works really well. However, I know how burnt out Yenta is feeling. Running something this big on your own takes a toll on you, not only just your work ethic, but in other aspects of life. Socially, academically, and plenty of other ways.
There are thousands of users here at TeamLiquid. We all know that most of us will never make it into these leagues playing-wise. You (the majority reader) and I aren't good enough to play on ToT or ESC or eX or whatever clan it may be. That's why I got into writing and organization. Trust me, there are plenty of level-headed, smart people capable of helping out with this league. Talk to Yenta. See what he needs. Help out. Make this league happen.
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WTF? Every time I refresh the thread, it posts?
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On July 06 2009 00:57 Mutalisk wrote:
No one from Sky.G has been paid, and I say this because we wasn't promised to be payed in any moment, Sky.G was a friendly team. And concerning drakotz, I think the reasons that he has left the scene for a while are personal issues and you should not add them here.
Last time I talked to him - draKotZ told me he didn't mind if I posted it. I will take the rumour part out.
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Okay, if you got his word then I've got nothing to say =).
I hope ESI continues, it was the funnier league to play.
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Yenta really is an awesome guy. I'm speechless at the work that he does to run this league all by himself. I'm sad that I couldn't come through with my promises of being a good admin. Back then, I did not have too much hours from my work, now I'm working more than 40 hrs a week, so I just don't have the time to invest into ESI anymore. So, I apologize to yenta for being an undependable/incompetent admin. I would still love to contribute to this amazing league, so just pm me or msn me yenta. I will be busy soon but I will help out with whatever I can.
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Ares[Effort]
DEMACIA6550 Posts
On July 06 2009 01:54 YoonHo wrote:
Yenta really is an awesome guy. I'm speechless at the work that he does to run this league all by himself. I'm sad that I couldn't come through with my promises of being a good admin. Back then, I did not have too much hours from my work, now I'm working more than 40 hrs a week, so I just don't have the time to invest into ESI anymore. So, I apologize to yenta for being an undependable/incompetent admin. I would still love to contribute to this amazing league, so just pm me or msn me yenta. I will be busy soon but I will help out with whatever I can.
Pretty much what YoonHo said, I know I have been lazy and didn't really work much other than a few news post. What I really like to do as an admin is to upload replays but the players themselves do it. I will definitely try to do those replay news post Yenta. I can't promise much but I'll try^^
Thx for the credit but honestly I think you deserve it more than anyone!
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Bumping this for posterity. I really hope this league doesn't just fall by the wayside. :/ I'm sure there are more people to chime in.
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Good luck in getting sponsors for the league. Its pretty tough to get gear, let alone cash for tournaments.
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Yep T__T! You already know my stance yo ;]
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You find the sponsors Yenta and I can dedicate 2 hours a day to the site.
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On July 12 2009 09:41 20Nation wrote:
You find the sponsors Yenta and I can dedicate 2 hours a day to the site.
Thats the wrong attitude I wrote about. No one is going to sponsor us. If and maybe when the league becomes popular and can show it is well run than we may be approached.
If at all.
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Yenta is a great guy and does a really good job running this league all on his own. /bow
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10387 Posts
hmm perhaps you can tell us what the admins do specifically and how much time they need to devote?
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Here's hoping things work out, would suck to lose another league
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On July 12 2009 21:46 ArvickHero wrote:
hmm perhaps you can tell us what the admins do specifically and how much time they need to devote?
This would be a good question to answer:
Basic Admining comes down to these four things:
1. Managing clanwars during the weekend: This mostly involves handling disputes but should extend to hounding players to upload their replays (a big problem at times). There were about 2-3 disputes on average per matchday. The matchdays are on Saturday at 19CET and the longest clanwar was a semifinal that lasted until 22 CET. This is roughly ~2 hours per week.
2. Posting news about results on the ESI site, submitting news tip about results to GG.net, updating the TL.net megathread. This is about 1-2 hours per week, at bare minimum. If you are a perfectionist than this could extend up to 4 hours per week or more.
3. Submitting gosubets to GG.net before the next matchday. This is a trivial task that takes about 30 minutes.
4. Arranging and admining postponed/ pre-playday matches (this was a huge problem). This can take alot of time, or no time - depending on the teams and players involved. On average, It took about 30 minutes each day over the course of a week. In the worst case (with disputes) it took much longer.
I would like to see the following things next season:
5. Interviews w/ set winners, or the mvp player in case of a ACE match. (An hour or less)
6. Battle reports / Suggested Replays from matchdays. (A few hours depending on how many replays surface)
7. VODs - Probably the most time consuming.
and things I would like to continue
8. Livecasts of matches - We currently have 2 casters that may not be available for every matchday. I would like the best clanwars cast every matchday, or have a repcast of the best matches each Sunday night. This is obviously time consuming.
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Everyone who reads this should simply donate $20 to the league if they have it.
Teams should have a $10 buy-in per player.
The buy-in alone would help boost the prize pool, although may deter some of the teams from joining.
(If the teams have sponsors, they should hit them for the cash)
If they wonder where it goes?
1) Guaranteed prize pool
2) Technology to run the site (web space, bandwidth, media servers, etc)
3) General Administration of the league (energy drinks to keep the admins up and running)
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I tried that and it didn't work very well.
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On July 13 2009 00:45 jeddus wrote:
Everyone who reads this should simply donate $20 to the league if they have it.
Teams should have a $10 buy-in per player.
The buy-in alone would help boost the prize pool, although may deter some of the teams from joining.
(If the teams have sponsors, they should hit them for the cash)
If they wonder where it goes?
1) Guaranteed prize pool
2) Technology to run the site (web space, bandwidth, media servers, etc)
3) General Administration of the league (energy drinks to keep the admins up and running)
Community funding would be greatly criticized and the league would have to show how every cent was spent to keep drama at bay.
Teams wont buy-in to a tournament. Xeris tried it ... as he posted above.
The problem isn't the lack of a sponsor, its the lack of dependable and reliable admins.
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On July 13 2009 01:06 yenta wrote:Show nested quote +On July 13 2009 00:45 jeddus wrote:
Everyone who reads this should simply donate $20 to the league if they have it.
Teams should have a $10 buy-in per player.
The buy-in alone would help boost the prize pool, although may deter some of the teams from joining.
(If the teams have sponsors, they should hit them for the cash)
If they wonder where it goes?
1) Guaranteed prize pool
2) Technology to run the site (web space, bandwidth, media servers, etc)
3) General Administration of the league (energy drinks to keep the admins up and running) Community funding would be greatly criticized and the league would have to show how every cent was spent to keep drama at bay. Teams wont buy-in to a tournament. Xeris tried it ... as he posted above. The problem isn't the lack of a sponsor, its the lack of dependable and reliable admins.
It is only my opinion:
If people are getting paid money they are more dependable and more reliable.
My other opinion:
It is good to do this for the community, but the community should really give back.
They would get a better quality product if they pay for the league.
The community may not be ready for buy-ins, but it is so common in other sports and competitions.
For example:
Our film team just dropped 150 bucks to compete in a San Jose city-wide film festival.
That doesn't count the $3000 we have to raise to actually make our movie and we aren't competing for a cash prize.
The community soft-ball league costs about 200 a team also. The money goes to the community and to pay referees and administrators. They tried it once with unpaid refs and admins and it fell apart.
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I wouldn't say you have one problem, a lack of admins, I would say you have many problems.
It is not a knock on you or the league, you guys are phenomenal!
But if teams have not been paid timely, and admins are not available, and you have to dig into your own pockets without any compensation... geez, that's not fair to anybody and the league might die out because we took advantage of you guys.
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If you do start season 3, please pm me the donation page so I can contribute, but if you don't want extra cash to help with things, then that is fine as it can be spent elsewhere.
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If people would donate it would be awesome... but people don't want to put their own money to play. I tried hosting a clan league that was pay-to-play per team, and only a few teams actually followed through with it. Basically it's just a big mess unless you're doing something like TLT back in the day.
It might be possible, but it's really not realistic to have a league based on community donations/pay-to-play. You'll have a bunch of people saying they will donate, but very few actually doing so, etc.
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Ares[Effort]
DEMACIA6550 Posts
Yenta, I'll do what I did last season, which is #6 on your list, so I'll try to do that at least once a week maybe more depending on the replay quality. Just msg me on MSN when this gets started and you got yourself an admin ^^
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Netherlands13554 Posts
I might have a sponsor for you.
Can you add me to MSN Kacper (don't think I have you yet)? I'll PM you.
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I have internet back so I can play a bigger role more like i did in season 1.
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10387 Posts
Admining the clan wars would require me to join the games huh :l Due to issues with lag, I've never been able to play in a game on iccup or bnet with more than two people playing in it.
The other things, like updating stuff, I think I can do. I'm up for helping out for next season
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On July 13 2009 13:41 ArvickHero wrote:
Admining the clan wars would require me to join the games huh :l Due to issues with lag, I've never been able to play in a game on iccup or bnet with more than two people playing in it.
The other things, like updating stuff, I think I can do. I'm up for helping out for next season
The only time I joined games was to make a decision based on a replay - which happened at most three times. Usually I used windowed mode on starcraft and changed b/w channels to make sure clanwars were on schedule.
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