I have no further intents to cast/analyze Dota 2. I have decided that at this juncture in my life, casting does not align with what I want from my future. I am a bit sad, but we must keep forward facing. Big thanks to all who have supported me, especially when times were tough!
Additional answers: -I have unfortunately rescinded my decision to attend GESC. -Stream will be intermittent, if at all. -No, I don't have a secret job at Valve.
A very sad day indeed.
Ben followed up his tweets with some further thoughts and details.
Follow up:
I’ve had to consider my options for a while now, and I have to look out for my future. Everything was going great while I was casting. I loved seeing my friends, and I loved Dota. That was enough to make me happy. But as you age older and older, priorities start to shift. Dreams start to fade, realizations start to set in, and responsibilities mount.
Let’s start out simple. I’d love a dog, but I can’t take care of it. I travel too much, and it would be supremely unfair to get a pet. So what? Just don’t get a pet. Problem solved.
And then a bit more complex. What if talent starts undercutting other talent and I get paid less, despite Dota increasing in popularity and mounting prize pools? What if organizers start saying, “hey, we’re going to cut your rates in half.” What power do I have to say no? I *can* say no, but then I’m not making any money. The opportunity cost of me not going is huge. I can maybe stream in the meantime, or do some amateur casts, but that’s only a temporary solution for a paltry paycheck. And this is tier 1 talent, mind you. If I have little leverage, imagine the leverage of some others. Anyways, if one or two of the tier 1 talent is missing at an event, the organizer isn’t going to take a hit. They know that, and they realize they have more leverage, and hence can fiddle with rates as they wish. I’m at someone else’s mercy despite being at the top of the field.
I always try my best to stay in touch with the game, know the teams/players, watch tournaments, and peruse some stats before I talk about the teams. I try not to talk smack about organizers. I’m almost never late. I keep my word. I played plenty of Dota. I’m reliable, and I’m honest. Simply put, I do my job. There’s a bit of room for improvement (learn more heroes, do more research on t2/t3 teams, etc.), but job-wise, I’m close to the ceiling. So I have to look for other avenues for growth. Am I skilled enough to play competitive? Clearly not. Do I want to make YouTube videos about Dota? The market is not sustainable for me, I tried. Do I want to actively engage and promote sponsors for more income? I have morals that prevent me from selling products that I don’t like or use myself. Do I want to accrue a ton of subs and stream full-time? I never shilled for subs because my soul hurts asking other people for money. Do I want to become a variety analyst/caster? No. Dota is my game. Other games piddle away in comparison. Is Dota going to be alive in 5 years? Probably, but it’s not guaranteed. I struggled to find ways to grow, and concluded that casting was only a temporary thing for me.
And then even heavier issues. What about when I get married? Do I want to see my wife/kids half the month and live out of a hotel the other half? What if I want to purchase a modest house at some point. Can I take on a mortgage in good faith that I’m going to have steady income for 20-30 years? Am I actually going to be able to pay that off? My parents are getting old, and their health is slowly, but surely failing. Can I take care of them? Do I have money to do that? Do I even have the time to take care of them before they pass away? Am I going to regret the choices that I've made in life when I'm in mourning when they eventually leave this earth? They've sacrificed a lot for me. For reference, shortly after my grandfather died, I reasoned with myself, "He gave up his life and his home...so I could be unhappy working ridiculously long hours at a job I don't love." I quit that week and started doing something that I liked (Dota).
It's not that I didn’t enjoy casting, or that I don’t like Dota anymore. It is an amazing game that has captivated most of my time for roughly 13 years. But it sucks not having a goal. It feels very empty to not strive for something better. I became more concerned with smaller things. Trivial things impacted me more. I'm a bit ashamed and disappointed in myself, but I had my emotions flare in Dota a while ago, something that hasn't happened for many, many games. And looking back at it, it was because I was overly concerned with the small stuff. Why? Because I had no big picture for my career. I had no professional goals. Half my college friends are doctors, and the other half are successful software developers. They are surrounded by peers that push them, teach them, and help them grow. I need that in my life. At some point in 2017 it hit me that some people looked up to me, and it was a sudden, strange shock, of "What am I doing?" I never really focused on what other people thought, I just tried to do the best that I could. But when I actually took a step back and looked around, it was a little surreal to see how unaware I was and how my aspirations had languished.
Well I mean there are like what 20 casters these days, almost everyone can be an "analyst", even in terms of hosts there are 4-5 people now, there used to be James and Bruno, but with so many casters and analysts and stuff, he wasn't going to be invited in all of them, like he used to and getting invited in 1 out of 5 there is not enough money there.
Also a lot of the people work so hard just to get invited to TI so they can make a proper salary, which was solid, but nothing major, seemed to be around 10k for hosts, 7-10k for tier 1 casters, 3-5k for tier 2 casters and co-hosts and even smaller for non English casters and hosts.
So if you live in say Russia or Romania or Mexico or Argentina or Peru and you earn say 4k US dollars that is enough money to get you through most of the year, plus you earn some money on the side and its a good salary, but if you live in the USA, Britain, Canada, Germany, etc... its basically enough money to get you through for like 3 months.
So with the average salary in the USA being around 40k us dollars, he would need to cast/analyze like 3/4 of the events to earn close, but bellow that amount and with work getting scarcer due to so many people getting into it, he decided to end it.
I mean he could work at a walmart or McDonalds and earn more or same amount of money as he would do through Dota 2 in terms of casting and being an analyst.
There is a lot of money right now, but only for players and its also favored a lot towards the established and already successful players, because qualification spots are few and far between and its hard to get within the money spots.
good luck to you bro! the game is so hard to follow lately, with frequent changes, i don't blame you one bit for wanting to dedicate time to something more fulfilling
also i would dare to say that, with a following of fans that you can reach out to, now might be a good time to go into some sort of business venture, if that's a thing
like, i'm sure fans would want to support you into the future, if given the opportunity
I feel like the time to have started a side project to turn into a business was a while ago. He's 30 and I'm sure there's some existential dread that comes along with that territory, it certainly did with me. He's an incredibly smart person with a degree from a world class university. I'm positive he could get a 6+ figure salary without batting and eye. Many of his peers have gotten married, it won't be long until they start cranking out children, it's a weird time. I'm sure he wants a level of stability so he can start on a similar chapter of his life and esports doesn't provide long term stability. I really wish he could stay around forever, but all things must come to an end unfortunately. He touched a lot of people and I'll miss him greatly, he helped so many of us understand this game we love on a deeper level. And, whether he knows it or not, left us better people. There's a Zeus shaped hole left behind.
On February 14 2018 07:18 Spicy_Curry wrote: Merlini is a smart guy. He probably saw the writing on the wall.
None of these Esports will last forever. They will always be at the whim of the publisher/IP holder and no one is making moves to have them exist any longer than that.
On February 14 2018 08:26 PlayerofDota wrote: Well I mean there are like what 20 casters these days, almost everyone can be an "analyst", even in terms of hosts there are 4-5 people now, there used to be James and Bruno, but with so many casters and analysts and stuff, he wasn't going to be invited in all of them, like he used to and getting invited in 1 out of 5 there is not enough money there.
Also a lot of the people work so hard just to get invited to TI so they can make a proper salary, which was solid, but nothing major, seemed to be around 10k for hosts, 7-10k for tier 1 casters, 3-5k for tier 2 casters and co-hosts and even smaller for non English casters and hosts.
So if you live in say Russia or Romania or Mexico or Argentina or Peru and you earn say 4k US dollars that is enough money to get you through most of the year, plus you earn some money on the side and its a good salary, but if you live in the USA, Britain, Canada, Germany, etc... its basically enough money to get you through for like 3 months.
So with the average salary in the USA being around 40k us dollars, he would need to cast/analyze like 3/4 of the events to earn close, but bellow that amount and with work getting scarcer due to so many people getting into it, he decided to end it.
I mean he could work at a walmart or McDonalds and earn more or same amount of money as he would do through Dota 2 in terms of casting and being an analyst.
There is a lot of money right now, but only for players and its also favored a lot towards the established and already successful players, because qualification spots are few and far between and its hard to get within the money spots.
no idea where you pulled this number from. most casters said they got paid more at TI than all event combine. so your number doesn't add up
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.
A big loss Merlini was always an enrichment for any panel. That being said I can understand his decision and can't really argue against his logic. It's a shame though.
On February 14 2018 08:26 PlayerofDota wrote: Well I mean there are like what 20 casters these days, almost everyone can be an "analyst", even in terms of hosts there are 4-5 people now, there used to be James and Bruno, but with so many casters and analysts and stuff, he wasn't going to be invited in all of them, like he used to and getting invited in 1 out of 5 there is not enough money there. ...
Honestly I don't agree at all. Just recently saw SLI Invitation 4, which was hosted by Sheever and for which Pyrionflax was put into an analyst slot. And you know, I like em both, they seem like nice friendly people and they always create a nice friendly atmosphere. But neither is adept at drafting.
Throw 2 analysts at that Panel and you are fine. Merlini, Cap, Blitz, Winter, Purge or pro players like Synd or PPD are all great. Fogged and Sunsfan are decent too. But that's pretty much it. They added a single one (or ODPixel on occasion), but the way it usually works is that the analysts call picks they think might work and discuss why they could/won't work. But they can't really discuss that with Pyrion or Sheever because neither can judge a draft.
And I really don't want to bash Sheever or Pyrion, it's the tournament organizer who often just put casters into the analyst spot when it's not what they are good at.
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.
so let's say you make 30 per cast. 30000 / 30 = 1000 games.
That's about 3 games a day. I don't know on average if you could get 3 games a day. Each game is about an hour, with more or less the intro and the transition. So you're basically earning 20 dollars / hour, a part-time, close to minimum wage job.
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.
so let's say you make 30 per cast. 30000 / 30 = 1000 games.
That's about 3 games a day. I don't know on average if you could get 3 games a day. Each game is about an hour, with more or less the intro and the transition. So you're basically earning 20 dollars / hour, a part-time, close to minimum wage job.
I don't see that being sustainable yeah
Minimum wage in the US is actually technically about a 1/3 of that, but obviously most states are higher and some (like California) are much closer.
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.
so let's say you make 30 per cast. 30000 / 30 = 1000 games.
That's about 3 games a day. I don't know on average if you could get 3 games a day. Each game is about an hour, with more or less the intro and the transition. So you're basically earning 20 dollars / hour, a part-time, close to minimum wage job.
I don't see that being sustainable yeah
I see these types of comments all too frequently on /r/dota2, even though there's never any source cited to support the claim.
I'm not sure what you consider "very little money", but for the record, we currently pay anywhere from $15-35 per game, per caster for online qualifier coverage. Rates are standardized, and the reason why you don't see more T1 casters casting qualifiers is largely due to their interest + availability, not our willingness to pay them.
That works out to anywhere from $30k - 70k per year for someone doing it full-time, which is a pretty decent in most parts of the world.
Going by LD's post of per game I'd assume that's per game, not series. So a 3 game series would pay 45-105, most casters do a few Bo3 series a day.
To make the same 30-75k range you'd need to make $15-37.50 an hour fulltime, 40 hours a week. 30K a year anywhere besides the coasts is a pretty alright living, it's not great but you'd be doing better than most folks. Anything above that is gravy. Most gamers live a super cheap lifestyle anyway, your hobby is your job, you don't have to commute or buy gas. $30k for a gamer life will get you pretty far in most of the country. Cap was talking earlier on stream, it's still a better time than ever to be a caster as far as getting money goes. It's just the long term prospects that have to be worried about.
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.
Damn. This is a very huge loss for the Dota2 community. I just hope that this wont cause the game to go downhill. I feel like most of the old guards are probably starting to evaluate their future right now. Coming from a guy who's been on the industry for 13 years, his decision will deal a huge impact on other Dota personalities.
Anyway, I really hope that this guy will find success on whatever he wants to do now. He seems to be a very smart guy.
I guess we all can't run from heaven/responsibilities.
Seems like a natural progression for some people to take a step back, especially when there's not a huge monetary reward in it for them and traveling around all the time can get quite tiresome. There's quite a lot of money in the dota scene but most of it goes to the top players. People can still play the game for fun and enjoy the big finals or events in general, but it's quite different to do it for a living.
I think Basskip would be a great replacement for what Merlini provides. Not sure how much time he is looking to put into casting/working at events but he has been great everywhere he has been in imo.
I'll miss your casting, you were one of my favorites out there but I believe you've made the absolute correct decision for the long term. I wish you the best!
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).
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.
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!
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'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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 :/
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.
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.
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.
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.
Im not surprised tbh, I think many have already seen the writing on the wall, and its something that's been happening for a few years. Im not sure if the solution is to redistribute the money a bit more so that everyone takes a slice that will enable them to have a proper career out of it, or the scene needs a broader spectrum of investors/sponsors that can infuse bigger money in the scene.
In any case, Im sad for Merlini, he is easily one of my favorites and I wish him good luck in his feature endeavors.
EPT
Merlini was always an enrichment for any panel.
