• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 07:55
CET 13:55
KST 21:55
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
RSL Revival - 2025 Season Finals Preview8RSL Season 3 - Playoffs Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups C & D Preview0RSL Season 3 - RO16 Groups A & B Preview2TL.net Map Contest #21: Winners12
Community News
Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets3$21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7)15Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns7[BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 103SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-1825
StarCraft 2
General
SC2 All-Star Invitational: Jan 17-18 Weekly Cups (Jan 5-11): Clem wins big offline, Trigger upsets When will we find out if there are more tournament SC2 Spotted on the EWC 2026 list? Weekly Cups (Dec 29-Jan 4): Protoss rolls, 2v2 returns
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament SC2 AI Tournament 2026 $21,000 Rongyi Cup Season 3 announced (Jan 22-Feb 7) $25,000 Streamerzone StarCraft Pro Series announced WardiTV Winter Cup
Strategy
Simple Questions Simple Answers
Custom Maps
Map Editor closed ?
External Content
Mutation # 508 Violent Night Mutation # 507 Well Trained Mutation # 506 Warp Zone Mutation # 505 Rise From Ashes
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion [ASL21] Potential Map Candidates A cwal.gg Extension - Easily keep track of anyone Potential ASL qualifier breakthroughs? BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [BSL21] Grand Finals - Sunday 21:00 CET [BSL21] Non-Korean Championship - Starts Jan 10 SLON Grand Finals – Season 2
Strategy
Game Theory for Starcraft Simple Questions, Simple Answers Current Meta [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Beyond All Reason Nintendo Switch Thread Awesome Games Done Quick 2026! Mechabellum Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread Trading/Investing Thread
Fan Clubs
White-Ra Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List TL+ Announced
Blogs
My 2025 Magic: The Gathering…
DARKING
Physical Exercise (HIIT) Bef…
TrAiDoS
Life Update and thoughts.
FuDDx
How do archons sleep?
8882
James Bond movies ranking - pa…
Topin
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1624 users

MLG raises $11.3m in additional funding - Page 7

Forum Index > SC2 General
349 CommentsPost a Reply
Prev 1 5 6 7 8 9 18 Next All
gnatinator
Profile Joined June 2009
Canada169 Posts
March 13 2012 21:51 GMT
#121
Taking on even more VC money. = Not a good thing to hear.

It means MLG will be giving up more control to outside investors for short-term cash.

This isn't the first time. MLG is stuck in an endless circle of dependence on Venture Capitalist money. The layoffs and handling of the PPV is because of MLG's dependence on VC's. MLG will continue to liquidate community goodwill, because they aren't in control anymore.
LANPartyList.com supports Team Liquid -- Find LAN Parties world wide!
Sufinsil
Profile Joined January 2011
United States760 Posts
March 13 2012 21:51 GMT
#122
Updated post with link to a good perspective on the extent of the success of the PPV event and what the additional funding means.
babybell
Profile Joined June 2011
776 Posts
March 13 2012 21:51 GMT
#123
On March 14 2012 06:40 divito wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 14 2012 06:29 Abrafred wrote:
Can anyone explain why in most online tournaments the prize pools for LoL and SC2 are comparable. Shouldn't these reflect the viewership for the two games. Don't get me wrong, I haven't even played League of Legends and I love Starcraft. It makes me wonder, though, that why tournament organizers would invest comparable sums for two games whose average viewer counts are so different (most times I happen to check LoL streams of the same tournament average around 3 times more). Why isn't it rational for tournament organizers to focus all their attention on LoL right now?

Lots of reasons; Riot is pretty much very involved in that community and supporting it. And the structure behind the community is vastly different. LoL doesn't have a lot of structure that an SC2/BW community has.

The other reason is based on the flavour-of-the-month issue. Compared to SC2 (and BW if you'd like), what RTS choices are there?

Now, what about MOBA choices?

If I'm an investor, I want something that doesn't have competition and that isn't likely to disappear. The BW (and you could even include WC3 and older RTS games) and SC2 communities have longevity and structure where newer MOBA games have smaller amounts of both.


What does it matter if Riot is behind the LoL community, if it continues supporting it what difference does it make in practice?
And why are the long term effects of focusing on a game as a tournament organizer so important? I don't understand how damaging it would be for MLG to raise the publicizing, prize pool and stream quality for LoL and once Dota 2 goes into full swing, drop it entirely.
divito
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Canada1213 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-03-14 00:22:46
March 13 2012 22:29 GMT
#124
On March 14 2012 06:51 Abrafred wrote:
What does it matter if Riot is behind the LoL community, if it continues supporting it what difference does it make in practice?

Depends. Primarily, it's not necessarily a bad thing; I probably shouldn't have made it sound as such. It would take a lot to explain either way.

On March 14 2012 06:51 Abrafred wrote:
And why are the long term effects of focusing on a game as a tournament organizer so important?

Because my, or anyone's, company places value in the money used for sponsorship or investment and what we can get in return. As a brand, we want to form a long-term bond with the fans and our potential customers. When I was writing articles and news for eSports, I had the chance to speak with a lot of companies and their marketing, PR and a few other departments (depending on their size).

And every single one of them had a fundamental reason as to why they weren't in eSports; the turnover was too high. Now what does that mean? Essentially, "turnover being too high" meant that games supported by organizations changed too frequently, they thought the demographic was unstable (though recent trends and research show this being eliminated or at least being alleviated), and they had little faith in some of the organizations and people that were running the show.

Now, as an eSports supporter, I obviously thought there were some issues with a few pieces of their reasoning, but from a business perspective, I completely understood their rationale and can't fault them at all; it would not have been sound business decisions to get involved. It's something that a lot of companies do monitor, especially nowadays with the aspects of Youtube and "going viral."

But there are plenty of hurdles we still have if we want to attract bigger companies, money and bigger exposure. But there are also those that like the niche-like aspect that eSports or competitive gaming occupies.
Skype: divito7
Oberyn
Profile Joined December 2011
United Kingdom508 Posts
March 13 2012 22:30 GMT
#125
Great news
Oberyn was ever the viper. Deadly, dangerous, unpredictable. No man dared tread on him.
funbooth
Profile Joined March 2012
10 Posts
March 13 2012 22:34 GMT
#126
Now if only they offered a free stream too I wouldn't feel bad about supporting them. I would be paying 50$ per event if they were offering a free option for people, no free stream is a giant pet peeve of mine, not everyone has the means to take part in PPV.
RageBot
Profile Joined November 2010
Israel1530 Posts
March 13 2012 22:40 GMT
#127
On March 14 2012 07:34 funbooth wrote:
Now if only they offered a free stream too I wouldn't feel bad about supporting them. I would be paying 50$ per event if they were offering a free option for people, no free stream is a giant pet peeve of mine, not everyone has the means to take part in PPV.


They offer a free stream for the winter championship.
funbooth
Profile Joined March 2012
10 Posts
March 13 2012 22:42 GMT
#128
On March 14 2012 07:40 RageBot wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 14 2012 07:34 funbooth wrote:
Now if only they offered a free stream too I wouldn't feel bad about supporting them. I would be paying 50$ per event if they were offering a free option for people, no free stream is a giant pet peeve of mine, not everyone has the means to take part in PPV.


They offer a free stream for the winter championship.


I was reffering to the arena that just happened, I haven't been following Sc2 much since then sadly.
Hnnngg
Profile Joined June 2011
United States1101 Posts
March 13 2012 22:44 GMT
#129
On March 14 2012 07:42 funbooth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 14 2012 07:40 RageBot wrote:
On March 14 2012 07:34 funbooth wrote:
Now if only they offered a free stream too I wouldn't feel bad about supporting them. I would be paying 50$ per event if they were offering a free option for people, no free stream is a giant pet peeve of mine, not everyone has the means to take part in PPV.


They offer a free stream for the winter championship.


I was reffering to the arena that just happened, I haven't been following Sc2 much since then sadly.


Well guess what? You can watch the VODs free and everybody who was at the arena is seeded at the winter championship.
archonOOid
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
1983 Posts
March 13 2012 22:52 GMT
#130
if you invest in something you want to see your that your investment pays off. First off it means that they believe MLG will increase their revenue and/or decrease some of their costlier business activities. Lets hope that it's the revenue because the it means that investors believe in the burgeoning market of pro gaming broadcasting.
I'm Quotable (IQ)
WhiteDog
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
France8650 Posts
March 13 2012 23:12 GMT
#131
Reading some posts in here, it feel like MLG's marketing strategy seems kinda hypocrit...
"every time WhiteDog overuses the word "seriously" in a comment I can make an observation on his fragile emotional state." MoltkeWarding
marttorn
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
Norway5211 Posts
March 13 2012 23:15 GMT
#132
When I read this news, I jumped up and started doing a wild series of crotch-thrusts while shouting "ESPORTS" at the top of my lungs.

It's pretty good news, imo.
memes are a dish best served dank
RvB
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Netherlands6261 Posts
March 13 2012 23:30 GMT
#133
On March 14 2012 06:25 Myles wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 14 2012 06:21 ribboo wrote:
On March 14 2012 06:14 Myles wrote:
I think this pretty much settles the MLG Winter Arena profit question. I highly doubt anyone would invest in a company that just flopped it's first PPV tournament.

Was there ever any uncertainty? Sundance even said before the event that they had sold more passes than they had expected. Hard to imagine it being anything but profitably with that statement.

I'm pretty skeptical about any public statement regarding the event. There's every reason in the world for them to put out positive press.

On the other hand, outside investment is about as concrete as it gets bar seeing the actual financial statement that I assume the investors saw.


venture capital is a very risky business though so the investors expect to take big hits and catch it up with a few golden companies that make up for everything. Add to that that there are little real economical experts in the e-sports world and they might just have gotten a totally skewed view of the amount of potential growth and how much MLG can profit from it.

It's good news that there are companies willing to invest sure but people have to be careful in seeing this as just a good thing.
figq
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
12519 Posts
March 13 2012 23:31 GMT
#134
On March 14 2012 06:09 feanor1 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 14 2012 04:42 teacash wrote:
Awesome.

please nobody confuse "Total # of viewers = 240k for one event" with "240k viewers at a given time" though.
Don't forget what the difference is, and immediately assume that MLG gets so many more viewers than stuff like HSC or Dreamhack because "the highest you ever see on viewer # for HSC is 60k" or some junk like that...
A tournament held over multiple days could have 240k unique viewers for one event while never going over 60-80k at any given time. This is a reminder so nobody makes a fool of themselves and goes home thinking that MLG gets 4 times the viewers as every other tourney.. They don't, but they're doing great for themselves and we love to see that

You are confused
Um MLG had 241k concurrent. That means 241k watching simultaneously. I not sure how many uniques. Yes they get 4 times amount of Homestory cup across all their games with the majority being SCII
Still quite important to add that those numbers are for the event as a whole, and so include their other games, not just SC2. They even had LoL, which seems to bring quite a lot more online viewers for now, for some reason.

So I still would be hesitant to conclude that MLG gets significantly more SC2 viewers than any other major event.
If you stand next to my head, you can hear the ocean. - Day[9]
Disengaged
Profile Joined July 2010
United States6994 Posts
March 13 2012 23:34 GMT
#135
On March 14 2012 03:39 Kyir wrote:
Any chance Sundance will stop doomsaying now?


Probably not because it makes him money
Soleron
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United Kingdom1324 Posts
March 13 2012 23:36 GMT
#136
On March 14 2012 08:31 figq wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 14 2012 06:09 feanor1 wrote:
On March 14 2012 04:42 teacash wrote:
Awesome.

please nobody confuse "Total # of viewers = 240k for one event" with "240k viewers at a given time" though.
Don't forget what the difference is, and immediately assume that MLG gets so many more viewers than stuff like HSC or Dreamhack because "the highest you ever see on viewer # for HSC is 60k" or some junk like that...
A tournament held over multiple days could have 240k unique viewers for one event while never going over 60-80k at any given time. This is a reminder so nobody makes a fool of themselves and goes home thinking that MLG gets 4 times the viewers as every other tourney.. They don't, but they're doing great for themselves and we love to see that

You are confused
Um MLG had 241k concurrent. That means 241k watching simultaneously. I not sure how many uniques. Yes they get 4 times amount of Homestory cup across all their games with the majority being SCII
Still quite important to add that those numbers are for the event as a whole, and so include their other games, not just SC2. They even had LoL, which seems to bring quite a lot more online viewers for now, for some reason.

So I still would be hesitant to conclude that MLG gets significantly more SC2 viewers than any other major event.


They didn't have LoL, technical problems mean the games were not streamed at all.
Sub40APM
Profile Joined August 2010
6336 Posts
March 13 2012 23:50 GMT
#137
On March 14 2012 05:40 Rimstalker wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 14 2012 04:51 Sub40APM wrote:

VC's will shovel money at anything, as long as you call yourself "Web 2.0" They know that all it takes is one good initial public offering to make it all back and then some.

The real question is, as VC's continue to eat up portions of MLG how much operational control are they going to start to exert onto MLG, because even a dumb VC that primarily destroys its investors capital at it chases the next youtube/facebook/zynga eventually is going to want to see where its money is going.

So to answer your question, if MLG suddenly announces that they have a new Chief Operating Officer or some other VC watchdog who is directly on the staff, its bad news.


This is from personal experience?

Working for a IT Startup in the US that was looking into VC capital, I can only say that in our case, it was very, very difficult, and in the end, the VC company we got the furthest with turned us down because of one board member being not convinced.

How much money did you need? Where were you located? How many Silicon Valley reporters did you get to write positive reviews of your future product, for which you secretly paid them in products/money? How similar is your product to something that IPOed and threw of wads of cash for the first VC in? How many white Americans did you have vs 'other' category? Is your CEO a pure technical expert or is he also a good salesman?

Working in a field that periodically serves the people who run VCs as far as I can tell its a blind crapshoot when VCs make investments but in general there are oceans of dollars desperate for a place to put them into.
figq
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
12519 Posts
March 13 2012 23:50 GMT
#138
On March 14 2012 08:36 Soleron wrote:
Show nested quote +
On March 14 2012 08:31 figq wrote:
On March 14 2012 06:09 feanor1 wrote:
On March 14 2012 04:42 teacash wrote:
Awesome.

please nobody confuse "Total # of viewers = 240k for one event" with "240k viewers at a given time" though.
Don't forget what the difference is, and immediately assume that MLG gets so many more viewers than stuff like HSC or Dreamhack because "the highest you ever see on viewer # for HSC is 60k" or some junk like that...
A tournament held over multiple days could have 240k unique viewers for one event while never going over 60-80k at any given time. This is a reminder so nobody makes a fool of themselves and goes home thinking that MLG gets 4 times the viewers as every other tourney.. They don't, but they're doing great for themselves and we love to see that

You are confused
Um MLG had 241k concurrent. That means 241k watching simultaneously. I not sure how many uniques. Yes they get 4 times amount of Homestory cup across all their games with the majority being SCII
Still quite important to add that those numbers are for the event as a whole, and so include their other games, not just SC2. They even had LoL, which seems to bring quite a lot more online viewers for now, for some reason.

So I still would be hesitant to conclude that MLG gets significantly more SC2 viewers than any other major event.


They didn't have LoL, technical problems mean the games were not streamed at all.
Didn't know about that, but still probably the LoL fans were refreshing streams hoping it would be fixed or something. The shooters also bring non-negligible numbers.

And just as a side argument, suppose MLG was bringing significantly more SC2 viewers than any other SC2 event - why would that be? Are there really that many people who would watch MLG and not watch other SC2 events? Why would they do that? Hm.
If you stand next to my head, you can hear the ocean. - Day[9]
CPTBadAss
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
United States594 Posts
March 13 2012 23:51 GMT
#139
Hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about. I'm gonna keep supporting MLG by going to Columbus ^_^.
I'll keep on struggling, 'cause that's the measure of a man | "That was the plan: To give him some hope, and then crush him" -Stephano
Gingerninja
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United Kingdom1339 Posts
March 14 2012 00:02 GMT
#140
Be good if someone was to put that kind of money into a governing body, or somehow allowed us as a community more freedom over the games themselves (ie not patching the day before an event....) Esports is still like the wild west, money being made and lost all over the place without a solid stable foundation to control it.

It's cool they have this investment, and I hope they use it wisely and look at a long term investment in something that can grow and provide year on year profits, rather than something to milk while it's fresh and then dump when something newer and shinier appears.
戦いの中に答えはある
Prev 1 5 6 7 8 9 18 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
WardiTV Invitational
12:00
Group C
Shameless vs GuMihoLIVE!
Shameless vs YoungYakov
Creator vs YoungYakov
Creator vs GuMiho
GuMiho vs YoungYakov
WardiTV620
TKL 89
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Lowko216
TKL 89
StarCraft: Brood War
Horang2 1665
Shuttle 1583
Soma 575
Mini 528
BeSt 462
ZerO 421
Light 336
Snow 322
Hyun 298
hero 252
[ Show more ]
Last 221
Hyuk 210
Mong 192
Rush 149
Zeus 148
Barracks 75
Mind 54
Aegong 51
Sea.KH 51
Free 46
soO 44
JYJ 35
GoRush 29
HiyA 27
Yoon 16
Bale 14
scan(afreeca) 13
JulyZerg 11
Noble 11
Terrorterran 3
Dota 2
XcaliburYe144
ODPixel64
Counter-Strike
olofmeister1534
fl0m1439
x6flipin512
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King124
Other Games
singsing1896
Gorgc1249
B2W.Neo901
Pyrionflax291
crisheroes258
Sick155
XaKoH 97
ZerO(Twitch)13
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• HappyZerGling 89
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 1407
• WagamamaTV388
League of Legends
• Jankos2182
• Stunt683
• TFBlade663
Upcoming Events
The PondCast
21h 5m
OSC
23h 5m
Jumy vs sebesdes
Nicoract vs GgMaChine
ReBellioN vs MaNa
Lemon vs TriGGeR
Gerald vs Cure
Creator vs SHIN
OSC
1d 23h
All Star Teams
2 days
INnoVation vs soO
Serral vs herO
Cure vs Solar
sOs vs Scarlett
Classic vs Clem
Reynor vs Maru
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
All Star Teams
3 days
MMA vs DongRaeGu
Rogue vs Oliveira
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
OSC
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Wardi Open
4 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-01-13
Big Gabe Cup #3
NA Kuram Kup

Ongoing

C-Race Season 1
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL 21 Non-Korean Championship
CSL 2025 WINTER (S19)
OSC Championship Season 13
Underdog Cup #3
BLAST Bounty Winter Qual
eXTREMESLAND 2025
SL Budapest Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 8
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025

Upcoming

Escore Tournament S1: W4
Acropolis #4
IPSL Spring 2026
Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2026
HSC XXVIII
Rongyi Cup S3
SC2 All-Star Inv. 2025
Nations Cup 2026
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League Season 23
ESL Pro League Season 23
PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
IEM Kraków 2026
BLAST Bounty Winter 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.