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juicyjames
United States3815 Posts
A version of this article appeared in print on November 29, 2012, on page B5 of the New York edition with the headline: Video Gaming on the Pro Tour, for Glory but Little Gold.
When Sean Plott was 15, he and his older brother, Nick, begged their mother to fly them from Kansas to Los Angeles for a video game tournament. For Cara LaForge, their single mother, who was struggling to start a new business, the expense was steep. Her sons passionately insisted they could win, so she conceded. But there was a catch: “If you don’t win, you’re going to pay me back,” she recalled. They didn’t win. Ms. LaForge didn’t make her sons pay her back, but in a way, they have. Eleven years later, she is the business manager at Sean Plott’s company Day[9]TV, which broadcasts daily videos online geared toward gamers. The two brothers are celebrity personalities in the world of StarCraft II, a popular strategic game. Sean Plott was featured on Forbes’s 30 under 30 list in 2011. Video games have evolved from an eight-bit hobby to a $24 billion industry in 2011, according to the NPD Group, a research firm. As more people play games, more of them compete in structured competitive tournaments, complete with fans, sponsors and lucrative contracts. It’s a long and tough slog, as Ms. LaForge’s story suggests.
Read the rest at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/technology/personaltech/video-gaming-on-the-pro-tour-for-glory-but-little-gold.html
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Hah, that's cute. Was not aware of the fact that she was the manager.
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Wish the article was more focused on a particular interesting element in our scene rather than trying to cover it's entirety.
If I was someone who didn't know about the scene at all, none of this would make me particularly intrigued and hungry to read and learn more about eSports.
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the top prize in Starcraft II is $25,000 I want one article to be published on a news site without some sort of misleading or incorrect information in it lol...
Interesting article otherwise, I actually thought the number of people who can play sc2 for a living in the USwould have been lower than they said lol...
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On November 29 2012 10:15 Ettick wrote:I want one article to be published on a news site without some sort of misinformation in it lol... Interesting article otherwise, I actually thought the number of people who can play sc2 for a living in the USwould have been lower than they said lol...
The $25,000 is referring to MLG. And their number isn't about just sc2. Sundance says about 40 people can make a living off playing video games, not just sc2.
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I felt like the article was pretty spot on. Very good journalism and exposure.
It could have been a bit more optimistic, but I think it's about right for a times piece.
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This actually is informative and gives numbers that the community has never gotten official confirmation of lol.
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On November 29 2012 10:23 jmbthirteen wrote:Show nested quote +On November 29 2012 10:15 Ettick wrote:the top prize in Starcraft II is $25,000 I want one article to be published on a news site without some sort of misinformation in it lol... Interesting article otherwise, I actually thought the number of people who can play sc2 for a living in the USwould have been lower than they said lol... The $25,000 is referring to MLG. And their number isn't about just sc2. Sundance says about 40 people can make a living off playing video games, not just sc2.
that's pretty bad :[
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I watched him play at NYC's Samsung center back in...I want to say '05 at some sort of a WCG qualifier (Some sort of regional thing...don't exactly remember the details).
Spoke to him briefly after his tournament (He beat Artosis, but ultimately lost to Nony). He was a major nerd back then (Still is, but just a really cool nerd now).
I then witnessed his explosive growth in the recent years. Pretty incredible story.
Edit:
On a somewhat unrelated side note - I remember Artosis used to number his hotkeys Ctrl+1234567890 for his command center. He did this keyboard swipe thing.
Day9 had a significant higher apm than Artosis and Nony. Back then that was the cool thing to just spam useless actions and switch screens 50 times per second. Oh wait I think it's still considered pretty cool nowadays..?
Okay. I am just blabbing on...
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On November 29 2012 10:23 jmbthirteen wrote:Show nested quote +On November 29 2012 10:15 Ettick wrote:the top prize in Starcraft II is $25,000 I want one article to be published on a news site without some sort of misinformation in it lol... Interesting article otherwise, I actually thought the number of people who can play sc2 for a living in the USwould have been lower than they said lol... The $25,000 is referring to MLG. And their number isn't about just sc2. Sundance says about 40 people can make a living off playing video games, not just sc2.
Ah, I see now. Thanks for clarifying lol...
Still seems a little misleading at least
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Oh man... One can only imagine the faces of the Plott brothers when they lost ;____;
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Nice broad article, but not the most insightful piece of journalism.
As a side comment: were they talking about hazelynut?
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These articles may not always highlight the positive points of Starcraft 2 accurately, but at least we received that much-needed publicity....
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On November 29 2012 11:02 khaydarin9 wrote:
Nice broad article, but not the most insightful piece of journalism.
As a side comment: were they talking about hazelynut?
Yes Mona Zhang is her
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Never knew she wanted money from 15 year olds who wanted to win a video game tournament
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On November 29 2012 10:50 KH1031 wrote:
I watched him play at NYC's Samsung center back in...I want to say '05 at some sort of a WCG qualifier (Some sort of regional thing...don't exactly remember the details).
Spoke to him briefly after his tournament (He beat Artosis, but ultimately lost to Nony). He was a major nerd back then (Still is, but just a really cool nerd now).
I then witnessed his explosive growth in the recent years. Pretty incredible story.
Edit:
On a somewhat unrelated side note - I remember Artosis used to number his hotkeys Ctrl+1234567890 for his command center. He did this keyboard swipe thing.
Day9 had a significant higher apm than Artosis and Nony. Back then that was the cool thing to just spam useless actions and switch screens 50 times per second. Oh wait I think it's still considered pretty cool nowadays..?
Okay. I am just blabbing on...
Actually bw required way more APM than sc2, it wasn't even spam then. I'd say 300 in sc2 is spamming though...
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Ah this is a very broad brushstroke of the scene, but this is also a good primer article I would forward around for people to figure out what esports can be about.
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I like this article. It isn't "HOLY SHITBALLS GUYZ ARE MAKING MILLIONS IN GAMEZ!!!!11!1!" but it also isn't "HOLY SHITBALLS GUYZ ARE WASTING THEIR LIVES IN GAMEZ!!!!11!1". Very nice piece.
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It's a nice article, not condemning or over-hyping anything. Pleasure to see eSports framed as a growing industry and business, with some decent analogies to other minor sports.
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EPT
