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On February 14 2018 12:39 OuchyDathurts wrote:
LD stated in one of the reddit threads that BTS pays $15-35 per game cast, so if you go full time you can make $30,000-75,000 a year off of doing that. Just adding the numbers since he provided them.
Just to be clear this was specifically for online qualifier casting
Talent get paid a lot more for doing live events, but realistically your ceiling if you do all the major events is low 6 figures for a very stressful job with constant travel and minimal transferable skills (especially for an analyst who relies on his game knowledge moreso than other talent to stay at the top of his profession).
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Judging on some of your all responses, I fear for your financial futures. Taxes, health insurance, then retirement, 30k is a joke. Add in kids, that's not a living wage in most places.
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Gonna miss having Merlini around, always thought he was one of the best ones! May very well be the first person I started following on twitch. Wish him all the best and I am certain he will find success in whatever he decides to do!
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On February 14 2018 21:47 Judicator wrote:
Judging on some of your all responses, I fear for your financial futures. Taxes, health insurance, then retirement, 30k is a joke. Add in kids, that's not a living wage in most places.
Oh, sweet USA friend, come to Eastern Europe 
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I'll definitely miss seeing him casting games / being on the desk. Merlini is one of the absolute best, it's a real shame we're not going to see him anymore 
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Can you really retire from a hobby you've spent ~20 years doing... ? And where you've grown to be one of the -worldwide- most popular figure, both as a player and a caster...
I mean, that sounds like a tall order to me. I wish he won't, always enjoyed his appearances / comments / good-mood.
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His discussion makes sense. I still struggle to see myself how some of these e-sports careers (outside working a corporate or developer job or something) is viable long term.
On February 14 2018 21:47 Judicator wrote:
Judging on some of your all responses, I fear for your financial futures. Taxes, health insurance, then retirement, 30k is a joke. Add in kids, that's not a living wage in most places.
This. I only lived in the US 9 years so maybe my opinion is less valid, but I had the exact same reaction. I thought cost of living in the US in places with viable, let alone good, job markets (not just the expensive Cali/PNW/NE) is a joke nevermind wanting to buy a house in some of these markets or raising a family.
I would hope that with at least a BA/BSc and some sort of transferable skills (at least business org? marketing?) he would have extracted all these years, that should be good enough to go into some sort of marketing career on a decent wage that would require 10% travel or less.
If he's not entrepreneurial enough (and I would find that alone hard to believe) I don't know how he couldn't get some halfway decent job in marketing.
He will be missed, I enjoyed watching him both live and on Twitch, one of the absolute best.
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Not every job is something you can do for life, I don't see why they need to be. It doesn't mean it can't be a great life experience. As far as I recall Merlini left a "good" job he really didn't enjoy to work in dota, he presumably enjoyed his time, and now after doing it for several years he wants to do something else. I don't really see any issues in that regard. Even if he makes reasonable money in dota he isn't getting rich from it, and it's better to change paths now that he is still only 30, doesn't have kids and so on.
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On February 14 2018 21:47 Judicator wrote:
Judging on some of your all responses, I fear for your financial futures. Taxes, health insurance, then retirement, 30k is a joke. Add in kids, that's not a living wage in most places.
I’ve been of this opinion for a long time. Casters are basically contract employees that get none of the benefits of long term employment. Its really hard to do in the US, considering our pretty shit social services and healthcare.
In its current state, the scene will remain the place for hungry 20 something with few long term responsibilities and a desire to cast games and maybe see some of the world. And that is great for them if they can make it work. But there comes a point in life where you start to look at long term responsibilities, either to a spouse, mortgage, pet or whatever. And working for Valve in professional Dota isn’t designed for that.
And there is also the part where that design lets Valve reap a lot of the rewards from Dota popularity and hand out parts of that to the casters and players as they see fit. If the casters have been adequately compensated is a matter of opinion. Personally, I think they sort of got the raw end of this deal. But I also don’t think there is any chance Valve will change the way they do things. So maybe I might not be very pumped to jump back in when the new Battle Pass arrives.
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On February 15 2018 02:35 spudde123 wrote:
Not every job is something you can do for life, I don't see why they need to be. It doesn't mean it can't be a great life experience. As far as I recall Merlini left a "good" job he really didn't enjoy to work in dota, he presumably enjoyed his time, and now after doing it for several years he wants to do something else. I don't really see any issues in that regard. Even if he makes reasonable money in dota he isn't getting rich from it, and it's better to change paths now that he is still only 30, doesn't have kids and so on.
I definitely think that's an important part of it, for sure. I doubt he saw this as a full-time gig when he started, but the answer to that concern is something only he knows. He had a job in finance when he went full-time, and I don't know how easy it would be for him to find that sort of job again. Probably not too hard if I had to guess though, I'm sure he did a fair bit of networking when he was still doing DotA.
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Lalalaland34502 Posts
Quite the loss but it all makes logical sense. Sad to see you go!
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On February 15 2018 03:13 Plansix wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2018 21:47 Judicator wrote:
Judging on some of your all responses, I fear for your financial futures. Taxes, health insurance, then retirement, 30k is a joke. Add in kids, that's not a living wage in most places. And there is also the part where that design lets Valve reap a lot of the rewards from Dota popularity and hand out parts of that to the casters and players as they see fit. If the casters have been adequately compensated is a matter of opinion. Personally, I think they sort of got the raw end of this deal. But I also don’t think there is any chance Valve will change the way they do things. So maybe I might not be very pumped to jump back in when the new Battle Pass arrives.
it really sucks that this is how it is. especially regarding the popularity of dota as an esport :/
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On February 15 2018 03:56 TRAP[yoo] wrote:Show nested quote +On February 15 2018 03:13 Plansix wrote:On February 14 2018 21:47 Judicator wrote:
Judging on some of your all responses, I fear for your financial futures. Taxes, health insurance, then retirement, 30k is a joke. Add in kids, that's not a living wage in most places. And there is also the part where that design lets Valve reap a lot of the rewards from Dota popularity and hand out parts of that to the casters and players as they see fit. If the casters have been adequately compensated is a matter of opinion. Personally, I think they sort of got the raw end of this deal. But I also don’t think there is any chance Valve will change the way they do things. So maybe I might not be very pumped to jump back in when the new Battle Pass arrives. it really sucks that this is how it is. especially regarding the popularity of dota as an esport :/
It means they can drop Dota at any time and don’t have to be concerned with its long term(10-30 years) viability or anyone involved. It is so they have zero responsibility to anyone involved with Dota, from players to casters.
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SoCal8910 Posts
On February 14 2018 18:01 OuchyDathurts wrote:Show nested quote +On February 14 2018 17:51 Emnjay808 wrote:
Casting plus streaming is definitely more than sustainable. Merlini just looking to bigger, brighter things. He’s a smart man.
I’m gonna miss his casting. One of the very few I enjoyed and I don’t think I’m even that critical when it comes to caster preference. Definitely, and I feel like Merlini could have done very well if he whored himself out a bit like most twitch streamers do for donations. But that's not the kind of person he is. He thanked people who donated but there was never much fanfaire, he never kind of prodded people along for them in ways most streamers do to maximize profit. I really do hope that once he gets settled into his new life he comes back to streaming semi regularly.
Streaming is sustainable assuming that the game will be around 20-30 years from now. That's what his concern is, and it is a legitimate concern. I love Dota just as much as the next guy, but that does not mean that it will be sustainable down the road when he wants to have a family and a "normal" life.
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A huge bummer to see Ben "Merlini" "eieio's #1 favorite player" "The greatest" Wu retire
But this seems like a pretty good reason to move on
I can't imagine dealing with the instability of a job like being an analyst
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Ben and Cap are my favourite casters (alongside Synd).
I will miss him.
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Really sad, one of my favorite casters
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He chose not to use two sources of income that can make him earn a lot more out of moral reasons, respect to that but think casting can be a career for people that don't mind subscription or being sponsored.
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The next time we see him we might have to call him Dr. Merlini. Good luck!
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Sad news but understandable. If I'm understanding this correctly the 30k figure more or less is an absolute low bar for income for him as he'd get that from casting qualifiers (online, without having to travel?). Everything after that, like TI or finals for events would come on top of that. And he'd surely get some events given how well liked he is.
But he's correct, the security just isn't there. Noone knows if the game will still be a thing in around 10 or even 5 years, much less 20 years, so completly understandable.
Here goes hoping that we will maybe get some guest appearances in the future for "old times sake". He easily was, together with Blitz, the guy I liked to see and listen to the most out of everyone out there.
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EPT
