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Saw this interview on my Youtube feed, thought TL may as interested in how sponsorship and team management work in eSports as I am.
Roll Call is a new talk show by ESFIWorld. It is essentially the SOTG of Call of Duty. The first two episodes were rather irrelevant to the StarCraft community. However, this episode they invited SirScoots, Sundance, KeyHunt of Check Six and LordJerith of vVv Gaming.
The four guests discussed extensively about a wide range of issues in the eSports sponsorship and business operation. Although nominally a CoD show, they spent time relating it with StarCraft 2 and overall eSports marketability. I felt most of what's said were quite applicable to StarCraft 2 as well.
Here are some timestamps of interesting segments
0:03:30 CoD vs SC2
0:16:30 Value of a player and Youtube
0:23:30 SirScoots on how he scouts players
0:33:00 Sundance on finding sponsorship
0:37:45 How Social Media affect player value
0:44:20 x6.KeyHunt talks about the work put in by Day9, Husky, and HDStarCraft
0:47:00 How roster instability disenchant marketers from sponsoring the team
0:49:30 The need for content and Infrastructure to grow viewership
0:58:30 Sundance feels some people needs to stop streaming and start create content
1:04:00 vVv.LordJerith and SirScoots on evaluating new competitive titles and picking up new teams
1:17:00 The need for creative content outside the game, "will you watch your own work?"
1:23:00 "I'll never allow a team in EG with another name." - SirScoots
1:29:30 What eSports needs to do to catch up with traditional sports
Roll Call airs Monday nights 8:30pm EST on http://www.twitch.tv/esfiworld .
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Wow this looks awesome. Definitely going to watch the whole thing, will post my thoughts when done!
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Why in the hell did you have to link me to this right after I took 2 sleeping pills???? Now I'm sitting here falling asleep in my chair trying to stay up but it's so interesting I don't want to go to sleep yet.
Love ESFI's shit, this is a great lineup for a call like this.
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I only watched the end of it (wanted to know exactly what Scoots meant by the second to last timestamp snippet). Pretty good show! I'll make to watch the whole thing later. Will be good to hear some more opinions from the greater industry.
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Are these downloadable as podcasts? I need something to listen to on the commute.
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Good question, I'll check with Brent for you.
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It's an absolutely fantastic show. I watched it live, and it's definitely worth it.
For those curious about the last thing, it references Quantic Gaming, specifically Quantic-Leverage. The more things Leverage win, the more they build their own brand, giving themselves leverage (Scoots actually used that pun in the show) if and when they decide to leave Quantic. Scoots's feeling is that that's a bad situation for a business to be in, and thus EG requires teams to drop any team names they have. EG will promote the absolute crap out of their players individually, and out of teams under the EG brand, and that should be good enough. Other teams may be in other situations. Quantic seems to be an exception because they have multiple teams per game; it looks like they have 2 CoD teams and 2 Battlefield 3 teams, so I can understand a little bit there why they let teams keep their names.
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i am constantly amazed by this episode
the answers that everyone are giving (half way through atm) are picture perfect.
also scoots should have a fan club.
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Damn, I was already up too late and then I spent another hour and a half awake because this was so interesting lol
quite informative to hear how there are so many marketing components to being a pro gamer.
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Ok! i missed this completely. :[
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On January 24 2012 18:57 SirRobin wrote:
Damn, I was already up too late and then I spent another hour and a half awake because this was so interesting lol
this ^
also really good info for anyone looking to get sponsored
if i had another year of free time id dedicate my time to twitter and making quality youtube content to get some fans behind me to try to do something serious with this game.
edit:
awesome lol, signed up
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great episode. answers a ton of questions.
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just halfway in but the vvv manager saying that players on his team shall not have a split personal and a gaming facebook is a super hilarious statement... especially as you can just have 5000(?) friends on a personal page opposed to unlimited fans on a fanpage.
How many professionals in other sports/entertainment industries use their private facebook to communicate with their fans?
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Just finished watching it all. CoD stuff isn't very interesting but the whole section of players selling themselves to teams was fascinating.
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quite interesting, thanks for the link 
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Very interesting video, even if it is CoD-focused.
Cute host, well run podcast, good topics and guests.
Well done.
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Well organized discussion with some of the best minds in e-sports. Very educational!
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Lots of interesting topics, especially the reason why starcraft is such a big esport compared to the other popular games.
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+ Show Spoiler +0:23:30 SirScoots on how he scouts players
0:33:00 Sundance on finding sponsorship
0:37:45 How Social Media affect player value
This entire segment is awesome. Its not to say that the rest isn't but this segment stood out to me big time. I'm not exactly finished with the video yet so if it gets better than this is an awesome show.
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On January 24 2012 19:09 TBO wrote:
just halfway in but the vvv manager saying that players on his team shall not have a split personal and a gaming facebook is a super hilarious statement... especially as you can just have 5000(?) friends on a personal page opposed to unlimited fans on a fanpage.
How many professionals in other sports/entertainment industries use their private facebook to communicate with their fans?
Yeah. I mean twitter is fine, as I don't think anyone really puts THAT much private shit on their twitter account. But facebook can have some stuff that you'd rather not have the rabid TMZ community see.
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United Kingdom10823 Posts
That was a great discussion to listen to, especially how Emily got these e-sports heralds to discuss such important issues, not only for CoD, but for a lot of other games. I hope that any future pros hear this and take it into consideration before they start applying
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On January 24 2012 20:39 Odal wrote:Show nested quote +On January 24 2012 19:09 TBO wrote:
just halfway in but the vvv manager saying that players on his team shall not have a split personal and a gaming facebook is a super hilarious statement... especially as you can just have 5000(?) friends on a personal page opposed to unlimited fans on a fanpage.
How many professionals in other sports/entertainment industries use their private facebook to communicate with their fans?
Yeah. I mean twitter is fine, as I don't think anyone really puts THAT much private shit on their twitter account. But facebook can have some stuff that you'd rather not have the rabid TMZ community see.
Well firstly he states the reason for why this is so very clearly.
Plus, you can regulate who gets to see what on facebook 
Really good show =)
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if you like esports, LISTEN TO THIS. so good
definitely should be featured imo
<3 scoots :D
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I also echo the same sentiments that this is definitely a must-watch for people interested in behind-the-scenes and business-related aspects of esports. Sir Scoots, Sundance, and the rest of the hosts really gave some amazing insight.
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On January 24 2012 20:05 Angelbelow wrote:+ Show Spoiler +0:23:30 SirScoots on how he scouts players
0:33:00 Sundance on finding sponsorship
0:37:45 How Social Media affect player value This entire segment is awesome. Its not to say that the rest isn't but this segment stood out to me big time. I'm not exactly finished with the video yet so if it gets better than this is an awesome show.
Agreed, really interesting to hear Scoots and Sundance, they always have something interesting to say.
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Thank you especially for the time stamps, will be listening later when I have time. This seems really interesting and I respect the opinions of those speaking enough to want to hear this. Thank you for this Primadog.
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On January 25 2012 02:47 Synwave wrote:
Thank you especially for the time stamps, will be listening later when I have time. This seems really interesting and I respect the opinions of those speaking enough to want to hear this. Thank you for this Primadog.
I got nothing to do with it, just lucked on ESFI on youtube. All the thanks go to ESFI, Brent, Emily, and the guests for taking the questions seriously.
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Why hasn't this got more replies? A really in depth interview, you can tell SirScoots especially has a strong handle on marketing issues. Was very interesting to hear him divide up the things that create value in players.
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Canada1637 Posts
This was a really interesting episode. Learned a lot about the CoD community by watching this too >____________> lol
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Very nice podcast, was interesting to listen to.
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Good stuff, thanks for link
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thank you ESFI and participating guests! it was a pleasure to enjoy that episode
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Very good cast, very informative. Although I personally think its a bit sad that so much weight is put on social media, I find it extremly dull. I wish teams and players did more real pr events that include some orginality or creativity.
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I actually found the host's little closing remarks to be absurd. Out of that whole discussion, she sums it up with 'it's not out of range to think that new teams will be offering CoD sponsorships!"
No, miss. No. That's not what was said at all.
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On January 25 2012 03:24 Trowa127 wrote:
Why hasn't this got more replies? A really in depth interview, you can tell SirScoots especially has a strong handle on marketing issues. Was very interesting to hear him divide up the things that create value in players.
Long video. Has nothing to do with Coach Lee or other drama :p
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On January 25 2012 05:41 Mohdoo wrote:Show nested quote +On January 25 2012 03:24 Trowa127 wrote:
Why hasn't this got more replies? A really in depth interview, you can tell SirScoots especially has a strong handle on marketing issues. Was very interesting to hear him divide up the things that create value in players. Long video. Has nothing to do with Coach Lee or other drama :p
True. Posts with actual non-drama content don't seem to go down well on Teamliquid these days 
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My god this was an awesome interview. It is really interesting to hear what the guys who actually KNOW esports have to say. It also makes me understand why certain players still are on certain teams, I thought that being successful at the game was a lot more important. It does makes me wonder why EG went ahead and got Puma and JYP though.
Anyways, thanks ESFI!
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Only 300+ people seen that video so far, sad. This is a must watch for anyone who has even for a second thought about becoming a Pro player in SC2 (or just esports)
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Great stuff. Isnt Live on Three kinda similar to this? If so, I need to watch Lo3 more often!
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This was exceptionally good content, no bs from sundance or the team owners about what's required to get on their radar as a player or a team, with another heroic call for more content creation from the non-sc2 side of e-sports.
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watch the whole thing definitely cool and nice insight
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Wow that was fantastic, thanks for posting!
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You heard it guys. It's not about playing well, it's about retweeting sponsors' links and praising their products.
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I may be biased but why would someone play a lesser quality game like CoD when they could play a very good quality game. CoD is full of imbalance/glitches/bugs and also the developer charges you for everything. The sad thing is I know people who think that getting 4 maps for $10 is a "good deal ".
If it was me doing this I would build my esports community on a decent game.
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They host was not doing the best job handing off questions in the beginning, luckily everyone involved in the interview was very experienced and eventually stopped stepping on each other's toes. Great podcast, makes me feel sad for those trying to get Call of Duty to be an actual esport.
I like the enthusiasm, and it's a reminder that other people are hot on the heals of SC2 and that we need to keep pushing the limits and the outreach from our community.
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On January 25 2012 05:25 Kireak wrote:
Very good cast, very informative. Although I personally think its a bit sad that so much weight is put on social media, I find it extremly dull. I wish teams and players did more real pr events that include some orginality or creativity.
It depends though how you see it. They did stress the importance of original content and hard work in another segment of the show. It was originally addressed to generic content creators, but that would ultimately include themselves. As much as a single caster / show host / artist has to think about putting out interesting products, teams are not only hosts of players but salesmen of a certain product: their team brand and the brand of their sponsors. The measure of creativity is universally applicable and team identities have to be developed and curated accordingly. That is why a lot of them are either affiliated to community shows or hosting ones themselves, or individual players like Grubby looking for other ways to present themselves.
In that regard, for all things online, social media impact is one of the few currently (though sometimes still poorly) measurable indicators of brand reach. It is a mere additional survey type for a specific demographic. I don't think they emphasize this aspect for the purpose of content creation but as a means of communication and feedback. A well-attended follower base means more precise evaluation and ability to real-time adjustment of any project you pursuit.
Still, it should be taken with a grain of salt, since many companies have had their hits and misses with viral marketing. It is much more important what you make of your numbers. But to get there, growth- in any area whatsoever can rarely be a bad thing.
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Very interesting stuff, I didn't know anything about the CoD community before this.
I knew there was some "SC2 envy" in the Halo community purely because of MLG, but I wasn't aware it extended to other games.
Like many of the hosts mentioned, I don't think it's fair to compare 1v1 RTS like Starcraft to team games like most FPS/MOBA. It's just soooo much more difficult to obs, organize, and fund team based games. If you're going to compare CoD to SC2, you should compare it to SC2's 2v2+ scene, not its 1v1 scene. And if you do that, I think the Halo/CoD folks almost always come out on top. For all of SC2's success, we still struggle to have enough support to run true team tournaments like GSTL outside of Korea. (Online clanwars are not true team tournaments imo)
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On January 25 2012 06:08 Titorelli wrote:
Great stuff. Isnt Live on Three kinda similar to this? If so, I need to watch Lo3 more often!
Yeah, this was basically a CoD-themed version of Live on Three. No djwheat though, so 20% less sexy, even with a female host.
Most Live on Three episodes are Starcraft2-themed, although they do a good job making certain that other games get the spotlight too. Well, FPS and Fighting Games that is. They haven't covered much MOBA games except to say that it's amazing how big they are getting, and "is it going to continue or crash and burn"
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Damn! Thanks a lot for bringing that to light. Great Episode!
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This was incredibly informative - its wonderful to see another e-sports community talking and modeling itself after the success of 10+ years of hard work of the original SC1 community.
I for one have been a fan of Call of Duty for a long time as a casual player and hope they have the same level of success as Starcraft one day.
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On January 25 2012 08:03 kNightLite wrote:Show nested quote +On January 25 2012 06:08 Titorelli wrote:
Great stuff. Isnt Live on Three kinda similar to this? If so, I need to watch Lo3 more often! Yeah, this was basically a CoD-themed version of Live on Three. No djwheat though, so 20% less sexy, even with a female host. Most Live on Three episodes are Starcraft2-themed, although they do a good job making certain that other games get the spotlight too. Well, FPS and Fighting Games that is. They haven't covered much MOBA games except to say that it's amazing how big they are getting, and "is it going to continue or crash and burn"
Heh I just finished watching lo3 ep 100. It is fucking awesome! If you people dont know lo3 already, go watch it right now!
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EPT
. He is a baller :D
