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[I dont want this to become a thread with a discussion about what TB should or should not do. His case is just an example for how it works, so plz stay on Topic]
EDIT: I dont mean that Blizzard should get no money, but rather than starting with 50 % fees on revenues, they should start with a lower percentage from my point of view.
Hi all,
it seems like Blizzard gets 50% of the ad revenue of events if the advertisement
income is higher than 5000 $. As I found out after opening a original thread with a question about it...
Update:
On July 24 2011 23:25 TotalBiscuit wrote:
This is what I know. Yes, you can go over $5k with special dispensation from Blizzard. However, it is policy for them to then require 50% of your ad revenue. I know of several large tournaments that have had to do this. If SHOUTcraft Invitational were to do this, it would mean less money getting into the hands of players, which is completely against what the tournament is all about. It makes no sense for SCI to do this, rather than just run more than one event.
Obviously is SCII the property of Blizzard and Blizzard is providing Battlenet as a Platform for us
and have thereby expense they have to pay, but is taking 50 % of the revenue above 5k a fair deal?
Just from an perspective like this case were the audience is donating money to the prize pool.
My opinion is that Blizzard should a special license for these cases and allowing a Bigger Prize Pool, if the cash is provided by the community.
What do you guys think? (Discuss ;-) !!!)
[I edited it shortly before it got closed, so there are some line double, but this is the OP:
Hi everybody,
Yesterday during the TotalBiscuit Invitational:
TB told the amount of money people
donated for the next tournament.
It was more than 5k $ and he told the audience that
the prize pool cap by blizzard is 5K $.
What I would like to know is how do tournaments get the
right to have a higher prize pool and the conditions around that.
I hope someone around here knows it ;-)
MadChem]
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=247189
P.S.: I will look later if I can find a press email of Blizzard and write them if they want to make a statement.
On July 25 2011 01:39 Isken wrote:Show nested quote +On July 25 2011 01:27 Nerdslayer wrote:
Dude there is a difference between selling a product for profit and trying to control the product when it allrdy has been sold.
I dont even understand how this can be legal what blizzard is doing Well if you read the ToS (and it was the same for WoW, I used to read them when servers were down :p ) you would learn that you never owned anything you bought. 2.3 and 9.2 are relevant to the discussion here http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/about/termsofuse.html
Poll: Is the current state of the current free prize pool acceptable?No, the free prize pool cap should be higher and the percentage payments should be lower. (305) 88% Yes. (23) 7% I dont care. (14) 4% No, but I dont know what would be better. (5) 1% 347 total votes Your vote: Is the current state of the current free prize pool acceptable? (Vote): Yes.
(Vote): No, the free prize pool cap should be higher and the percentage payments should be lower.
(Vote): No, but I dont know what would be better.
(Vote): I dont care.
May be the expression free prize pool is not so good, but in reallity a prize pool is most of the times made possible by ad revenue...
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Yea I heard about this also yesteday. Its typical activision/blizzard really that 5k cap is actually hurting esports sicne it means less money for the players.
Blizzard should be ashamed really but I doubt they care
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I really think half is way too much... I would understand the rule much more if it were say: 15-20%
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Blizzard is a for-profit company.
It makes a product, and if you use the product you must agree to a set of conditions outlined by Blizzard.
I see no problems here.
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50% sounds like a lot. But I guess they can justify it since players or casters wouldn't be able to make that ad revenue without their game. It doesn't really encourage people to do these nice things for e-sports though.
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On July 25 2011 01:02 Ravencruiser wrote:
Blizzard is a for-profit company.
It makes a product, and if you use the product you must agree to a set of conditions outlined by Blizzard.
I see no problems here.
Sure, but you have to see it from an other perspective. Here a bunch of people donates money for a price pool and those people dont really get advertisement of it. The community is kind of investing
in the growth of the sport, which will eventually help Blizzard.
My opinion is if a bunch of people donate money for an event with a big Prize pool
that it should not fall under advertisement from my point of view....
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On July 25 2011 01:03 Gnax wrote:
50% sounds like a lot. But I guess they can justify it since players or casters wouldn't be able to make that ad revenue without their game. It doesn't really encourage people to do these nice things for e-sports though.
It's in their hands. We can only hope Blizzard raises the cap sooner rather than later. Just keep plugging away.
On July 25 2011 01:05 MadChem wrote:Show nested quote +On July 25 2011 01:02 Ravencruiser wrote:
Blizzard is a for-profit company.
It makes a product, and if you use the product you must agree to a set of conditions outlined by Blizzard.
I see no problems here. Sure, but you have to see it from an other perspective. Here a bunch of people donates money for a price pool and those people dont really get advertisement of it. The community is kind of investing in the growth of the sport, which will eventually help Blizzard. My opinion is if a bunch of people donate money for an event with a big Prize pool that it should not fall under advertisement from my point of view....
I agree. Ads and donations should be separate.
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I feel like this constricts esports. Blizzard is limiting the amount of money that is put into the hands of the players, when instead they should be increasing the amount of money put into the hands of the players to motivate more people to play and increase SC2 and E-sports in general.
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On July 25 2011 01:02 Ravencruiser wrote:
Blizzard is a for-profit company.
It makes a product, and if you use the product you must agree to a set of conditions outlined by Blizzard.
I see no problems here.
You dont see a problem? yea it makes a product to make money but they also control everything els related to the product. To make an analogy what if companies that make footballs decide to charge the premier league half of there add revenue for the use of there footballs! Its absurd really.
its capitalisme in its finest form and it stinks and the reason why it stinks becuase it takes away money from the players and that is wrong..
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I think they are hurting themselves with this strategy.
The profits are not that big to make some real earnings for Blizzard (i.e. for medium sized tournaments, very big tournaments would be the opposite). A company that big should ignore these "peanuts" and focus on the question how to make SC II and E-Sports even bigger.
So maybe a higher "cut-off" amount would be good for these small/medium tournaments - about 10k-20k? And not 50% lol.
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This seems ridiculous to me; it basically means we can never see a $10k event, since half of that $10k would go to Blizzard, and it just makes more sense from everyone's point of view to run the event for $5k in the first place. I think it is a really poor business and PR strategy for Blizzard to make the cut that high.
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This is hurting eSports.
Probably the first time I've used that phrase seriously in my life. Can't say it surprises me, but I definitely don't like it.
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So the fans/players of SC2 donated $5000 to a tournament and now Blizz feels that they should earn 50% of the ad revenue of that tournament for whatever reason and make it harder for that tournament to grow?
Dammit Blizz...
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Wow 50% is just off the wall and it's for a fact going to hurt and discourage the establishment of new tournaments. I totally understand if Blizzard wants to make some money of big tournaments but something like 10-15% would be a lot more reasonable to me, the way it is now they will chock tournaments rather than give them an opportunity to grow. Greedy and bad for fans, players and tournament organizers.
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I'd like to see a poll on the topic in the OP. Madchem, if you were to edit one in we could more easily see the opinions of the people of TL without having to wade through hundreds of pages (which this thread is sure to become).
IMO, demanding 50% of the ad revenue in the first place is ridiculous after everyone already bought the game - I would think that 10-20% would be far more reasonable, but I doubt blizzard cares at all for the suffering players when they know they'll continue playing in hopes of winning a major tournament.
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On July 25 2011 01:07 Nerdslayer wrote:Show nested quote +On July 25 2011 01:02 Ravencruiser wrote:
Blizzard is a for-profit company.
It makes a product, and if you use the product you must agree to a set of conditions outlined by Blizzard.
I see no problems here. its capitalisme in its finest form and it stinks and the reason why it stinks becuase it takes away money from the players and that is wrong..
Yeah and its capitalism that MADE starcraft 2 in the first place. You think a video game like this would EVER be created without a profit motive?
This is a shitty thing for bliz to do, and I dont liek it either, but ravencruiser is right. Battlenet is their property and they can do what they like with it. Now if we had LAN that would be another story, but we dont.
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Kotick realised there was money he didn't yet have. He wants ALL the money.
Seriously though, it makes sense that Blizzard as a company is interested in this money and obviously most countries allow for this kind of thing (I doubt their standard terms are applicable everywhere though). However, it's ridiculous to expect 50% of the revenue. Is this only ad revenue or does it include sponsoring? Could you offer to pay out less money and instead have hardware prizes? Also, the rule if it stands just like that creates scenarios that are loss/loss.
Say you run a tourney, instead of paying out 6k and giving up maybe 1k in ad revenue to Blizzard you pay out 5k. You make the same money, the players make less money, Blizzard makes NO money. How can anybody with who ever passed an economics class not realise that this kind of thing has to work progressively? Maybe it does not work as explained here and I'm completely off but
Apparently the whole thing was thought up to profit off South Korea when Blizzard still expected SC2 to instantly become the new BW because outside of GSL and maybe MLG most tournaments, even with bigger prize pools, have a hard time staying economically feasible and destroying tournaments can't be Blizzard's idea of "nurturing free advertisment".
All in all it's pretty ridiculous.
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Blizzard is hurting Esports since 1998
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On July 25 2011 01:24 Equity213 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 25 2011 01:07 Nerdslayer wrote:On July 25 2011 01:02 Ravencruiser wrote:
Blizzard is a for-profit company.
It makes a product, and if you use the product you must agree to a set of conditions outlined by Blizzard.
I see no problems here. its capitalisme in its finest form and it stinks and the reason why it stinks becuase it takes away money from the players and that is wrong.. Yeah and its capitalism that MADE starcraft 2 in the first place. You think a video game like this would EVER be created without a profit motive? This is a shitty thing for bliz to do, and I dont liek it either, but ravencruiser is right. Battlenet is their property and they can do what they like with it. Now if we had LAN that would be another story, but we dont.
Dude there is a difference between selling a product for profit and trying to control the product when it allrdy has been sold.
I dont even understand how this can be legal what blizzard is doing
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Which explains the prize pools of certain tourneys, such as homestory cup.
MLG/Dreamhack/GOM/TSL must all divy up to blizzard.
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EPT
