Being in university at the moment and having a tight budget each month, I am astonished to see how much money is thrown around at starcraft 2.
Coaching: People pay "pros" money for advice and coaching in starcraft 2 ranged from 10$/€ up to 300$ an hour.
Streaming: You stream games and through commercials and ads you get a part of the revenues from the streaming website according to your viewer count. Top example TLo charity event: 2500$ for 24h casting. Hell i would be casting 2 days and do for the rest of the month nothing anymore
Casting: Same as Streaming + ad revenue from vods
Tournaments: Monthly "small-medium" tournaments add up to around 45-50k Dollar. Big tournament which appear more and more frequently are many times that much.
Sponsors: Teams and Players are getting sponsored by Companies (mostly game related) and are even getting a montly salary
My opinion: A person with a normal job works often for less than 10€/hour. Millions of people are playing video games all over the globe and a quite large portion of them excessivly.
Starcraft 2 is not a bad game by all means, for me it lacks quite a large part of the fun factor of playing video games which was sacrificed for the game to be balanced and a competitive, but still i think the money thrown at it, is totally out of proportion.
Does all of it really come from advertising cause i for one will never buy and have never bought any of the things I see in most ads when watching streams.
So how can there be so much money floating around starcraft 2 and where does it come from?
The biggest factor is by far sponsorships. Team sponsorships, individual sponsorships, tournament winnings subsidized by sponsorships.
Big companies pay big bucks to get big publicity from big events and big personas. This is evident in Razer's sponsorship of several major SC2 teams, Dr. Pepper at MLG, and other various companies throwing their hats in as well.
It's about promoting a "lifestyle", per se. Razer wants you to play SC2 with their mice and keyboards, Dr. Pepper wants you to drink their soda when you play, etc.
bing tells "X streaming company" to air "Y amount of ads" and you get "Z amount of dollars". X then takes all revenue from ads UNTIL they make a contract with C gamer. Then, X realizes they have a more reliable way of selling Y, thus, they both mutually benefit X makes more Z and C now makes Z.
So in other words. Bing tells jtv they will give them $5 to show 1000 bing ads. jtv makes a partnership with idra. Idra shows 1000 bing ads. Idra gets $2. Jtv gets $3. Bing gets 1000 ads viewed.
Perhaps the better question is what kind of ROI these sponsors see when they pay for having their name plastered on all the advertising and banners for various events. However, I'm sure they, as economically rational entities, would only do something if it returned more than they put in.
Although you personally may not invest in any products seen through advertising, millions of other people most certainly will. A big company has a few options when it comes to marketing their products, and one of those would obviously be a television commercial. The cost of this commercial would probably be in the tens of thousands if done well, and would reach out to alot of people that dont even use the product (like razer gaming gear). However, they can instead, pay a much smaller fee to a very popular player, and have him be their advertising method. Take TLO for example, his stream had 20,000 people and it stayed close to that for a full 24hours. Now these 20,000 people are all gamers, and all use gaming gear. Thus, razers audience is 100% geared towards their products, rather than half of the tv audience that doesnt even know what computer gaming is.
So, in the end, its more worth it for a company like razer to sponsor a popular player, and pay him to advertise their product to a directly interested market, rather than spend $20,000+ on a television commercial just to *possibly* reach out to a select market. This applies to many many companies involved in the computer / gaming industry.
On May 30 2011 01:00 eXigent. wrote: Although you personally may not invest in any products seen through advertising, millions of other people most certainly will. A big company has a few options when it comes to marketing their products, and one of those would obviously be a television commercial. The cost of this commercial would probably be in the tens of thousands if done well, and would reach out to alot of people that dont even use the product (like razer gaming gear). However, they can instead, pay a much smaller fee to a very popular player, and have him be their advertising method. Take TLO for example, his stream had 20,000 people and it stayed close to that for a full 24hours. Now these 20,000 people are all gamers, and all use gaming gear. Thus, razers audience is 100% geared towards their products, rather than half of the tv audience that doesnt even know what computer gaming is.
So, in the end, its more worth it for a company like razer to sponsor a popular player, and pay him to advertise their product to a directly interested market, rather than spend $20,000+ on a television commercial just to *possibly* reach out to a select market. This applies to many many companies involved in the computer / gaming industry.
I bought SteelSeries products mainly because, I saw a lot of gamers at tournaments use them.
Money comes from two sources: pay-to-watch, as we see in the NASL and GSL, and advertising. Companies believe that it is worth their money to advertise to us, so they will continue to advertise. I for one can't think of any time that I've bought something I've seen advertised because of the advertisement, but I guess it's a good business strategy. I'm not complaining if it sponsors a sport I enjoy watching.
A lot of people who play casually and start to watch don't even know who companies like Steelseries or Sapphire or Thermaltake are. Just getting their product visible to these players is worth the investment.
Then you have companies like Razer and Intel, AMD, MSI, that get to advertise high end products to the high end market directly.
As for streaming, that's self evident. The money is the same as people like sxePhil on youtube. If a ton of people watch you, a ton of people can watch your ads. I'm surprised that there isn't more direct sponsorship of streamers (though I think there will be in the future).
To be honest, the amount of money in SC2 is only going to grow. I see the market for advertising and viewership turning into something like youtube, where you have multiple players making six figures within 5 years.
The only difference is that youtube people have a bigger audience, because SC2 viewership is almost exclusively SC2 players. But, in the case of the tech companies advertising with us instead of casual youtubers, they can advertise high end products (again) that a more exclusing gaming community has more possibility to purchase.
I bough a Razer mouse because I needed one and I was alright with paying $10 more than another company because Razor sponsor esport. I bough a Dr Pepper for the first time in 25 years instead of a Coke because I saw them sponsoring MLG. I don't care about the cleaning product I see on JTV because I simply buy the cheapest currently on sale at the grocery store, I don't even know what brand the ads are about, or the brand I buy.
The sponsors made me aware/care/try about their product.
As for Intel, a company with a 11.4 billion net income, sponsoring GSL, they simply want to wipe AMD off the surface of Earth.
Everyone I know claims to not be affected by advertising and that they never buy the things they see advertised but the studies show differently. We are all influenced by the advertisements whether we realize it or not.
But seriously, I'm guessing mostly sponsors and what not, some guys who are really into ESPORTS probably give £50 or so for their own little tournament, i.e Craftcup.
its silly to say that you never would buy a thing that is advertised (on streams) because if that would be the case no company would advertise their products would they?
It comes mostly from big companies sponsoring tournaments or teams.
I wouldn't say it's worthless cause companies like Razer, Creative, ... have to have a good name in gaming scene.
And I for myself love to support companies that invest in the game that I like so much. I enjoy watching pro streams and tourneys so much ... when it comes to a decision where 2 products from 2 different companies are both good and I have to buy one of them: I'll take the one from the supporting company.
And before you say: oh hell yay I would stream 2 days and chill for the rest of the month. You should consider that you need a good name and be entertaining. How many people can live from streaming ? How much time do you have to invest to continusly play on top level ?
It's just a very little portion of the players that can realy live from starcraft 2 or in general from progaming. So don't overestimate.
Like some already said the money is coming from the ads and the sponsors.
And for me it makes a huge difference in my way of seeing a company. If I have the choice between a product of Razer/Steelseries (or any other company that supports eSport) I would rather buy those than the products from any other company. What I want to say is: "If you don't give a shit which mouse you have, make it a Razer" (or any other "eSport company"), because if you support them they will realise that it pays off to support eSport and that is what I want to achieve by supporting those companies.
thanks for all the info guys cleard up a lot for me, I find the financial side of sc2 quite interesting.
On May 30 2011 01:03 Acritter wrote: Money comes from two sources: pay-to-watch, as we see in the NASL and GSL, and advertising. Companies believe that it is worth their money to advertise to us, so they will continue to advertise. I for one can't think of any time that I've bought something I've seen advertised because of the advertisement, but I guess it's a good business strategy. I'm not complaining if it sponsors a sport I enjoy watching.
I've never seen an ad on Nasl before..who's sponsoring them?
On May 30 2011 00:57 Zeroes wrote: I have bought monster energy drinks they are pretty good
There are also people like FXO boss who are just rich and wants to own a team.
The vast, vast majority (probably around 90%) is from sponsors. It's changing a little bit with pay-per-view streaming, which is a good thing IMO, even though i'm broke-ass. Streaming is less vulnerable and more reliable. Good sponsors are a fine thing, but hard to come by.
On May 30 2011 00:51 Rushingwolf wrote: Starcraft 2 is not a bad game by all means, for me it lacks quite a large part of the fun factor of playing video games which was sacrificed for the game to be balanced and a competitive, but still i think the money thrown at it, is totally out of proportion.
Starcraft2 is a fun game, it could have been more fun without the colossus but anyways we have expansions coming so hopefully we'll have something as fun as BW.
Also there is never enougth money in esports. As long as SC2 Players are winning less than soccer player, we can throw more cash in.
On May 30 2011 01:03 Acritter wrote: Money comes from two sources: pay-to-watch, as we see in the NASL and GSL, and advertising. Companies believe that it is worth their money to advertise to us, so they will continue to advertise. I for one can't think of any time that I've bought something I've seen advertised because of the advertisement, but I guess it's a good business strategy. I'm not complaining if it sponsors a sport I enjoy watching.
I've never seen an ad on Nasl before..who's sponsoring them?
anything that has viewers, fans... can flourish like SC2 has. that's all that is needed. big companies will sponsor nearly anything as long as its legal, all just if you have the viewers.
On May 30 2011 01:05 Arcanewinds wrote: To be honest, you can say that about almost anything that is played competitively.
As long as there are viewers, there is going to be a lot of money around it.
Just look as football for a prime example ;D, do some players really deserve to be paid 1mil+ for every game?
Maybe not, but do the advertisement companies and football teams feel that they are worth spending this much on? Looks like they do .
A large part of the also money comes from TV rights. Paid for by the viewers - (and again advertisement companies). My point being that that not all of it is generated by sponsorships/advertisement, but semi-directly from people wanting watch the events.
Just to add that in there. Your point still holds.
The big companies have been struggleling to hit a certain demography, in which Im a very typical example (from some business guy, who was on a podcast on honcast.com a while back)
White male age ~18 - ~35 Has (or is studying) a form of higher education, generally college or university. Middleclass. Doesnt own a tv or radio. Finds entertainment almost exclusively online (games, forums, e-sports, etc).
This is not in anyway exclusiv, but a typical example. Apparently this is a big enough group, to actually get attention in the marketing departments from large companies.
[B] This is not in anyway exclusiv, but a typical example. Apparently this is a big enough group, to actually get attention in the marketing departments from large companies.
dooesnt need to be big ... just need to have much money in the future.
Obviously thats people in universities or on another form of higher education.
As you said, you're a university student pinching pennies. There are many other people in a different financial place in their lives, and they are more than willing to spend what they're making on SC2 and its related goodies.
Before I bought my Razer Spectre I had never owned a piece of 'specialized' gaming equipment before. When I decided to get a new mouse I had so many options in front of me, and one] of the deciding factors ended up being the (then) recent sponsorship of TL by Razer. It's not like the only affect ads have on us is a subliminal, Orwellian presence conforming our desires to what the corporations want. It also factors in awareness and trust.
As far as "people with normal jobs go", I think it's more helpful to know how many fans have "normal jobs" versus "abnormal jobs." If people with "normal jobs" earn < 10€/hour but make up a small portion of SC2 fans, it makes more sense to think of people with "abnormal jobs" earning twice that or more.
Why do you feel the money thrown at SC2 is out of proportion? It has a huge fanbase who regularly spend money on expensive items such as computer hardware and accessories. It has passionate fans and players. It has a worldwide presence and the attention of many international sponsors. It is a game designed to be competitively balanced and engaging to spectators. Maybe it's 'out of proportion' in that not enough money is thrown at it.
[B] This is not in anyway exclusiv, but a typical example. Apparently this is a big enough group, to actually get attention in the marketing departments from large companies.
dooesnt need to be big ... just need to have much money in the future.
Obviously thats people in universities or on another form of higher education.
Point is not so much about money, but the fact that its hard to reach students / other in mentioned group with commercials consistantly, but can be done relatively cheap through esports
I'm surprised anytime I see people bring up how people find sponsors and things like that. Companies pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for a tiny decal to be put on a racecar that probably wont be mentioned or hardly seen, where esports offers many companies direct access to the customers they're looking for in an environment they'll accept it.
as glamorous as it sounds you can't just cast 2 days and do nothing. to get that kind of revenue you have to be very popular, and popularity can drop quickly if your not constantly practicing and doing well in events.
Most people, myself included appreciate when companies feed the community money for advertisements. That isn't typical of most advertising. Usually people are annoyed when they are advertised to, but most of the SC community is just glad to receive support. I think that is a really attractive scenario for companies who are trying to hype their products.
some of the money just comes from the players, Correct me if im wrong but technically the starcraft 2 competitors at MLG are essentially paying 5 grand. 70*272 is 19040 and there is only 14000 in prize money. which is roughly 18 dollars per person to compete that doesnt go back to the prize pool, kind of like a poker tournament except we dont list our entry fee as 52+18. Now i honestly dont know how sponsors factor into a tournament like this or how the code A spots and stuff are financed as well nor the spectator fees. But there is operating costs. It would be cool if someone had any further information on that.
But my point is that its community demand for an event like that, is essentially where the core of the money is coming from for an event like that.
all the progamers and tournaments etc sacrifice 20 virgins to satan each month in turn for endless amounts of money and eternal glory. or they have sponsors. its actually amazing how much money companies are willing to spend just to get their product known, and through tournaments and streaming etc they can reach a specific clientele who all share the same interests. (gaming/computers in this case)
On May 30 2011 02:59 FenneK wrote: Some huge companies are interested in eSports. Correct me if I'm wrong, but i think Coca-Cola ponsored a Korean team, which is fucking incredible.
On May 30 2011 02:09 VTPerfect wrote: as glamorous as it sounds you can't just cast 2 days and do nothing. to get that kind of revenue you have to be very popular, and popularity can drop quickly if your not constantly practicing and doing well in events.
This. I'm glad there's that many e-sports fan out there because sc2 is really an awesome game and it would of been very sad if it had the support of broodwar money wise XD
On May 30 2011 00:56 Welmu wrote: Its like asking where models get their money from. >_> Simple answer, sponsors.
Also Divorces? ^^
To the op, I've talked to some of the businesses that sponsor tournaments. They are mostly computer based companies, and the owner enjoys seeing eSports grow.
I don't think there's allot of money SC though. We just notice the top tournaments, GSL-ST-NASL. All other tournaments offer pretty small rewards, because it's mostly smaller companies sponsoring.
I also don't think I've heard of anyone paying $300/hour for coaching, unless they're in love with idra and just want to talk with him.
Actually, it's not as much money as you said. You have no idea how hard it is to make money in gaming.
The reason Idra wants $300/hr is because he doesn't want to spend too much time coaching. It doesn't mean people are willing to pay $300/hr. Plus, announcing $300/hr will increase the importance of your name.
TLO's streaming is a charity, which means most of the money don't come from ads. There's no way you can make $2000 from ads in 2 days.
Ads from streaming and VODs give little, In order to support yourself this way, you need to steam like Destiny, which means a lot of hours everyday, and a lot of viewers.
Monthly small-medium tournaments add up to $5000 max. Big tournaments, aside from GSL, none has paid over $50,000. NASL is four-month long and still a long way from payday. IPL is still in qualification after qualification after qualification.
You have no idea about sponsoring. Sponsors usually only pay travel and accommodation, PC equipments or company products. That's it. Salary is tiny.
So, there's actually little money outside of Korea compared to popular belief.
If you look at the recent TL tournament winning update, which is at a really good period and includes payout from TSL, you will notice there's not much money and TSL prize pool is the majority of the money from that period.
I went to bestbuy to purchase a new keyboard. Razor or steeleseries were in their gaming section. Steeleseries had a "sponsoring EG" and another team on the back of the box. So I choose them. Advertising at work and it works well.
On May 30 2011 03:17 TDN wrote: The reason Idra wants $300/hr is because he doesn't want to spend too much time coaching. It doesn't mean people are willing to pay $300/hr. Plus, announcing $300/hr will increase the importance of your name.
True, but coaching is very profitable for progamers. Incontrol mentioned on SOTG he gets around 10-20hr per week most of the time, and that turns into $500-1000, i belive his rates are 50$/hr, not too sure.
On May 30 2011 03:17 TDN wrote: TLO's streaming is a charity, which means most of the money don't come from ads. There's no way you can make $2000 from ads in 2 days.
That is incorrect, all of the $2487.97 comes from Justin.tv streaming and not from the individual donations to msf. Please read the post 24 hr marathon interview.
On May 30 2011 03:17 TDN wrote: Monthly small-medium tournaments add up to $5000 max. Big tournaments, aside from GSL, none has paid over $50,000. NASL is four-month long and still a long way from payday. IPL is still in qualification after qualification after qualification.
This is also incorrect, if your check the Tournament Roundup articles, there usaully around 40k-50k of prize every 2 weeks. Tournament Roundup does not even include some of the lesser known smaller tournaments.
On May 30 2011 03:17 TDN wrote: You have no idea about sponsoring. Sponsors usually only pay travel and accommodation, PC equipments or company products. That's it. Salary is tiny.
True, but you have no idea about sponsoring either, nor the contracts of the players.
So please do a little research before spilling out false information.
I did the math on it: TLO's stream brought in money at a rate of 13 cents per person-hour, meaning for each hour that someone watch the stream, justin.tv gave TLO 13 cents (they released the number of person-hours watched and the total amount brought in by the stream)
In the end that's not actually a crazy amount, and certainly see how that could be profitable
On the issue of sponsorships, i can actually say that i bought something as a result of an esports sponsorship. I didn't even know that steelseries existed until they sponsored dreamhack, but i was in the market for a headset at the time, and checked them out after i saw their sponsorship. I ended up really liking what i saw, and i bought a siberia v2 (which i love). So yeah, sponsorships really can lead to buisness
On May 30 2011 03:32 Iamportal wrote: Couple things:
I did the math on it: TLO's stream brought in money at a rate of 13 cents per person-hour, meaning for each hour that someone watch the stream, justin.tv gave TLO 13 cents (they released the number of person-hours watched and the total amount brought in by the stream)
In the end that's not actually a crazy amount, and certainly see how that could be profitable
On the issue of sponsorships, i can actually say that i bought something as a result of an esports sponsorship. I didn't even know that steelseries existed until they sponsored dreamhack, but i was in the market for a headset at the time, and checked them out after i saw their sponsorship. I ended up really liking what i saw, and i bought a siberia v2 (which i love). So yeah, sponsorships really can lead to buisness
I think your calculations mite be bit wrong, TLO averaged 100$ per hour, the viewership hovered around 15k, 0.67 cents per person per hour. This does corresponds with the rumored rate of 0.2 cent per ad.
On May 30 2011 03:32 Iamportal wrote: Couple things:
I did the math on it: TLO's stream brought in money at a rate of 13 cents per person-hour, meaning for each hour that someone watch the stream, justin.tv gave TLO 13 cents (they released the number of person-hours watched and the total amount brought in by the stream)
In the end that's not actually a crazy amount, and certainly see how that could be profitable
On the issue of sponsorships, i can actually say that i bought something as a result of an esports sponsorship. I didn't even know that steelseries existed until they sponsored dreamhack, but i was in the market for a headset at the time, and checked them out after i saw their sponsorship. I ended up really liking what i saw, and i bought a siberia v2 (which i love). So yeah, sponsorships really can lead to buisness
You can't count it like that. Some ads from justin.tv pay more than other, you can't do a flat rate yet, they might change it but for now, some ads pay more than other ads and you don't get to choose which ads the viewer is viewing.
Imagine an ad on TV.That AD costs hundreds of thousands of dollars,and it reaches a huge amount of audience.The % of people using that product,or have something in common,and actually interested in that product,is extremely low compared to the total audience.
The amount of money spent is proportional to the pool you want to reach.
Sponsors like razer instead,optimized this procedure,by placing ads,that will most effectively reach their real buyers:gamers will buy gaming gears.That's why they reduced their audience in the specific,paying a very smaller amount of money.T be practical,imagine a razer headphone set.An ad on TV will cost several times the cost of an ad on a stream:the TV ad will reach a way bigger amount of audience,and most of the cases,people that don't care about cool headsets;in the second case,they will hit in the spot their costumers,with a smaller amount of money.
THat's how it works,and that's why i think so many companies like razer put money in sc.
I know there are a lot of younger people here that might not know much about advertising cost and so so I'll take a few examples.
I live in an around 200k people size town in Europe. There is a local daily newspaper that cost about $2 to buy, let's say it averages 100k readers a day. A 2x2 inch ad cost about $700. Cheapest possible full page is over $7000.
Or if we look at tv advertising. How much is 30 seconds for something with 2 million viewers? Exact cost depends on many things but the per viewer cost is many many many times(multiply by 10 and then some to get a somewhat realistic lowest possible figure) more than what people streaming get per viewer.
I am astonished to see how much money is thrown around at starcraft 2.
From my perspective I have a completely different view. It seems like there is very little money spent on sc2 at the moment. I would be surprised if there are more than 200 professional players making a decent living, all esports included, in the whole western world.
You might not like it, but as you can see with just the thousands of people always logged in on TL, you shouldn't be surprised.
Wherever people go, money goes. Simple as that.
Edit:
I may have answered slightly off, so I edit.
For advertisements, the companies barely lose any money. By showing so many people, if there is a chance 1 of them will buy that product in their lifetime, it will be worth it because there is also a chance that person will buy more of those products and tell their friends about it.
Advertisements play huge roles in consumers' lives, it is really amazing. Even though it may seem no one will buy the products, it affects them at the subconscious level.
companies that i became aware of when i first got into starcraft:
Razer, steelseries, sappire littleapp factory nerdstomper, jinx, ABC-mart, Shinbank, FXO, Dr Pepper (its not a common drink in my country had to seek it out)
you may not enjoy the game but tons of people do.... and there is not that much money floating around. Maybe the Nesteas and mvps get a lot but they are the best in the world and they live in Korea where starcraft has been a 'sport' for 10 years, the other pros who live off starcraft are definitely not making a ton of money they probably end up with not that much moar than minimum wage. Also the TLO example is not a good point, he got moar viewers because it was a special event for charity, no player stream averages 17k viewers only large tournaments get those numbers on a regular basis, so that is not a good example.
So mainly there is not that much money, and if you dont enjoy playing and/or watching the game then obviously you wouldnt understand why the money is there...
I'm certain the average 9 to 5 office job pays more than 10€. Hell, I'm making more than that as a summer intern.
Also this.
On May 30 2011 01:03 Primadog wrote: This is kind of like looking at a national track and field event and find it increduous that a hundred people around the world are paid to 'just run'.
On May 30 2011 07:11 Divine-Sneaker wrote: Less than 10 euro an hour for most regular jobs? Not really sure where you got that figure, but I'm not buying it.
All depends on the country ofc. My first summer job years ago payed 27$/hour.
When a progamer quits playing competitively at a relatively later year (I dunno, around 28). Do they have any money leftover to actually consider it a retirement savings or do they now have to consider picking up a real job?
I can't imagine such a feeling. Playing a game for a good part of your life, reeling in a decent fortune and then when you finally quit the whole thing, you have to go back to a real job.
On May 30 2011 07:21 Torte de Lini wrote: I got an interesting question.
When a progamer quits playing competitively at a relatively later year (I dunno, around 28). Do they have any money leftover to actually consider it a retirement savings or do they now have to consider picking up a real job?
I can't imagine such a feeling. Playing a game for a good part of your life, reeling in a decent fortune and then when you finally quit the whole thing, you have to go back to a real job.
Can someone enlighten me on the whole thing?
Why do you think alot of these progamers starts commentating and doing other stuff then just playing the game? Alot of them will try to get other jobs in gaming when they stop being active progamers.
On May 30 2011 07:21 Torte de Lini wrote: I got an interesting question.
When a progamer quits playing competitively at a relatively later year (I dunno, around 28). Do they have any money leftover to actually consider it a retirement savings or do they now have to consider picking up a real job?
I can't imagine such a feeling. Playing a game for a good part of your life, reeling in a decent fortune and then when you finally quit the whole thing, you have to go back to a real job.
Can someone enlighten me on the whole thing?
Most of the these pros are young, I doubt most of them thinking that far ahead. They are just enjoying the ride.
Episode 3 from "Rematch" focus on how progamers and organizations profit on the e-sports environment. If anyones interested, it also includes interviews with HuK, IdrA, MorroW, SjoW and a long interview with WhiteRa
Hope it helps a bit on clearing up some of the doubts on this thread.
On May 30 2011 00:51 Rushingwolf wrote: Being in university at the moment ....
... i think the money thrown at it, is totally out of proportion.
Take an economics class next semester. You'll discover that in market economies the income of an entire scene isn't determined by what you think it should be. If gamers can give value to sponsors, viewers, and teams, then they deserve payment to reflect that.
The other point being made (progamers shouldn't play because they'd make more money at a normal job) is equally rediculous. An engaging job, fame, autonomy, desire for mastery are all reasons why people would take less money for harder-to-monetize benefits.
Deciding the correct "proportion" of income for a scene and telling people to only use money as a factor for picking a job are arrogant, ignorant arguments. That said, the quantity of people that want to become progamers should detract all but the most determined and talented people from trying to make a career out of it.
Vast majority of the "$1.6 Million" has come from Blizzard itself. The money they funnel into GOMTV as the main sponsor so that SC2 would become a more accepted E-Sport right off the bat.
Not many progamers get paid well, it's only the for the very few. Also I ask myself this question often: would you want to live the life of a progamer? I certainly wouldn't.
EPT
.![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/images2/9/95/RichMineralField.png)
