On January 07 2017 10:23 Ragnarork wrote:I don't get the condescending tone. I just stated facts. Although I would be way less apologetic about the EPL than you if I shared my opinion. I'm not sure about specific details though, so until then I'll think about it and refrain from posting only a half formed opinion. Also Show nested quote +
Which is what an exclusive deal is. Not. We have our league at this time, come if you want, here are the benefits of playing with us."
When you say that you have no right to participate in another specific league if you participate in EPL, that's still a form of exclusivity.
I see you both in the right spot.
First of all, WESA will not work with other leagues like they tried last year. During EPL Online stage, they will forbid their teams to play any other matches at the same day, meaning other existing leagues have to manouver arround the playdays of EPL. As EPL will take 3 days per week, thats gonna be tough and some sort to get a grip on exclusvie playdays.
Not to talk about the WESA 2018 plans.
But this specific deal between Ex-PEA (dead as fuck) and EPL about rev share for not making a own league does not strike for me as trigger warning for exclusivity. It was the PEA guys themself who said PEA and EPL cant coexist. While PEAs offer to EPL was "get the fuck out of america", the EPL offer is "we give you more income, you dont do this league, we best friends forever". The EPL way of making this deal does not look as any exclusivity attempt, as the other side started this with a much more brutal way and the EPL is trying to find a compromis over the line "PEA League and EPL cant coexists". Again, it was not ESL who said this first.
But how much exclusivity there is in EPL now is just not really important, as up to now, it is still very non exclusive. Neither in terms of teams joining it (thanks to relegation) nor in other tournament organisers concern, as the 2017 exclusivity attempt by WESA was stopped by the WESA team owners.
But these 2 years, 2017 and 2018 will determine the future of CS Esport (I dont say CS:GO, because who knows what valve does in their bunker), as with the influx of venture capital investors and traditional sport brands who try to get connected to the male 14-29 years olds, the industry changes fast. These new investors will try to push for new ways of making money out of esports, as the old ways never bring enough return to justify these investments. (North paying arround 20k per month to their players, absolute bubble). Its obvious, that monopolizing the market and selling broadcasting rights (like youtube-WESA deal) is the hot thing at the moment to make money fast (VC's are not there for the super long investment storys, they want to franchise the brand they own and sell it for x10 of the initial investment).
PEA was right with one thing: Orgs will not be able to pay the amounts of money that are paid at the moment to have a CS:GO team (thanks to the extreme inflation of player incomes in the last 2 years due to the new investment wave). This bubble will bubble either 2017 or 2018. If you dont want to suffer from that burst, you need the high income that could be possible with exclusive monopolized CS:GO, else your VC investments will be gone forever. Thus this exclusivity shit we had in the past was just a beginning, 2017 and 2018 will be the main fights about our Esport culture, about our way to do events, to hold leagues, to be an open circuit, to be accesable for new brands, for new players and new organisations. It is the most important time to hold what is great about esport, the access, the fast paced changing teams and players, the different event holders, the different league holders, the extreme amount of content that esport puts out with such little amount of teams. (Compare the amount of offical matches T1 and T2 teams in CS:GO play to T1/T2 football teams play).
If we are lucky, the bubble burst, the VC will pull out of CS:GO with their burned hands and not touch it for another 7 years (till Jason Katz is back in biz with his next attempt) and we dont have to deal with these fights. Yes, after the burst and the get out of VC and some traditional sport brands, our scene will have most likely less events (someone like turner wouldnt show up), players would earn less, teams would be smaller again. But exclusivity would not be something existing, as nobody would want our broadcasting rights. And if someone wants them, then esport would be adult enough that they can be sold without exclusivity bullshit.
If we are neither lucky nor unlucky, the VC driven teams (and the traditional esport teams following them) will build a global exclusive league, something like LCS without Valve. This could have the name EPL and be run by WESA, this could be something completly different. The teams not in this deal would suffer EXTREME and it would hurt our scene harsh, we would have less content and even paywalls could come up.But at least we still would have global competition (outside of the majors), we still would have relegation and sub-pro-leagues (like EPL has) and we still could see new teams and talents rise thanks to these things. It wouldnt be happy, if 2017 and 2018 go this way, but I wouldnt be totally said, it would be the best option of the shit exclusivity option.
If we are unlucky, we get a PEA League in NA, we get a WESA League in EU, we get a RFRESH League with "Player owned orgs" (which are not owned by players!) and maybe then china comes up with even their exlcusive league. In the end, each and every exclusive league would be up to 10 teams, low competition and with some broadcasting deals even possibly behind paywalls. The only global competitions would be the majors and with how valve is dealing with CS:GO (only 2 Majors 2016) , we cant even be sure that these will be there forever. And well yes, all teams not in exclusive deals are fucked forever as franchised VC leagues have no relegations to secure investments. But well, people like Reginald would become really rich, as they could sell their franchised TSM to some investors for alot of money.
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