On August 08 2013 23:04 dreamseller wrote: here we have a clear indicator that results mean very little for sponsorship viability in sc2. teams and players should take note, you need to bring more than results to the table for marketability.
This! I hope more people read this!
Something EG realized ages ago. Some koreans seem to think 'Hey, I won a big tournament! Sponsors, you can now throw money at me!!'
Well this is kind of a touchy topic. In an ideal world (from my POV) the people who perform the best should get rewarded the most, which is obviously not the case and doesn't even need to be discussed anymore. However, I always felt that the Korean audience was a little bit "closer" to this, where they mostly value performance + professionalism/manners, while the Western audience is a bit farther away from this in that sense and puts more value into other things.
I don't think LG-IM did anything wrong the way they presented themselves. They delivered results and their players always seemed very professional and well-behaved. I think in Korea those two factors are still weighing the most, don't they? Unlike, as you mentioned, an organization like EG where they give their sponsors exposure mainly from the personality side with some results sprinkled in here and there.
It's not surprising that those pros who were with SC2 since the beginning would expect the scene to work like that, wasn't it that way in BW as well? where only the best players would become popular? Even korean LoL still works that way from what I heard in the interview Chobra did with Grilled, there's sadly not enough interest towards SC2 in Korea to sustain all those big sponsorship deals, IM's LoL squads are terrible so not even they can save the team.
Yes, I certainly feel that the Korean audience still values the same things as they used to in BW, but I'm also just assuming this based on interviews as the one you mentioned. I guess it's a matter of target audience for LG-IM, since I would expect that to be WAY more Westerner heavy than for BW/LoL players/teams, which changes up the "success-formula" a little bit, so to speak.
On August 09 2013 02:06 Aeceus wrote: Sounds like IM's fault. You always assume the contract is over unless told otherwise.
Or you know, they were told otherwise:
LG and IM discussed about the contract extension around the extension on October, 2012. LG offered a new contract on the November, and virtually both agreed, so it looked like they agreed the extension. IM went on for activities for LG, including being interviewed for LG's blog. It was also confirmed that the contract was offered by LG, and the both side looked through it.
I remember seeing so many comments about IM having crazy sponsorship money in the past, now it looks like (fromm the comments) that without LG , IM is unsustainable? The coach has been having to use his own money as well as money from sub sponsors and has incurred some debts, that leaves me to beleive its unsustainable.
If the supposedly best off non kespa korean team is unsustainable how long can any of these teams expect to last. I understand SC2 sponsorship has probably decreased substantially in the past year or so, so its worrying.
OP should translate the official statement of KeSPA's president. It's pretty awesome and encouraging. The OP's article is a little confusing since it doesn't specify when the KeSPA made the announcement.
To be honest the situation looks reversed to what IM claims to me, it looks as if IM was leaching off of LG's name to keep up appearances not the other way around. Especially because the coach was paying money out of his own pocket, to keep up "appearances".
If he had been up front right away and said LG is no longer sponsoring IM from the begining and then was covering it out of his own pocket it would have been commendable, but this just looks like they where trying to keep up appearances and still be the big team with big sponsorship money (which isnt even true because apparently their other sponsorships dont even cover their expenses lol). Honestly I think IM probably gained more in terms of sustaining their image then LG did from the months of having their name there. Clearly LG did not see much of an ROI(if any) on this anyways otherwise they would have kept up the sponsorship, so thats my view on the matter.
The problem is, that these korean teams cant just put the sponsors name on their shirts and put it in their team tag and think that LG will get some sort of ROI, you have to do plugs and PR and be using LG products where the public can see it(EG has done a great job of doing this with kingston), this might be a failure of both parties, but like I said if LG was seeing an ROI they wouldnt be dropping IM in the first place.
Honestly though the sc scene has shrunk not grown in the past few years it doesnt have a much sway in terms of public perception of sponsors or anything, a few people can act outraged about it but i doubt anything will come out of it in terms of LG seeing any sort of negative effects from this. Their might be 50,000 people who know about this total. Most wont care, out of those who care how many actually buy LG products anyways(very few probably) and how many would stop buying LG products because of this (even fewer).
Whoa, so if I'm reading this right, LG never paid IM and now KeSPa is backing IM? Damn, never thought I'd see the two sides supporting each other :D On another note, doesn't Incredible Miracle have so many other sponsors?
Korean Esports is just one big joke. Players being forced to play 10 hours a day without getting paid and living in cramped conditions and some teams even take a cut out of their prize money. Team owners that think that results will magically solve your financial problems. In the end they are just wasting their time and I have no idea why so many kids wants to be "pro-gamers" in Korea.
On August 09 2013 02:21 astray71 wrote: Whoa, so if I'm reading this right, LG never paid IM and now KeSPa is backing IM? Damn, never thought I'd see the two sides supporting each other :D On another note, doesn't Incredible Miracle have so many other sponsors?
Thats what i thought, ive seen so many posts in the past year or 2 about how rich of a team IM is (this is just perception of other posters on the site). and how they are the most well sponsored korean team etc.
If the coach is having to pay out of his own pocket without LG this is clearly untrue, and i cant imagine how any South korean team could hope to sustain themselves going into the future. Sc2 isnt in its heyday anymore, and unfortunately i dont see an upwards swing in viewership or sponsorship money coming any time soon, maybe a small blip when the next expansion comes out but nothing major.
On August 09 2013 02:27 Bowzar wrote: Korean Esports is just one big joke. Players being forced to play 10 hours a day without getting paid and living in cramped conditions and some teams even take a cut out of their prize money. Team owners that think that results will magically solve your financial problems. In the end they are just wasting their time and I have no idea why so many kids wants to be "pro-gamers" in Korea.
Being a Korean esports competitor actually sounds like a really raw deal, all things considered. Bad pay unless you are in the "1%", insane hours, no job security and no future prospects :/
On August 09 2013 02:27 Bowzar wrote: Korean Esports is just one big joke. Players being forced to play 10 hours a day without getting paid and living in cramped conditions and some teams even take a cut out of their prize money. Team owners that think that results will magically solve your financial problems. In the end they are just wasting their time and I have no idea why so many kids wants to be "pro-gamers" in Korea.
Because not everything is like you said? Lets talk about SKT, KT, WJS, STARTALE, AXIOM, they dont look like you described. And about practicing, if you think about a athlete practicing hard physical activity for 6~8hrs a day, its about the same thing, if its not worst.
On August 09 2013 02:43 Fischbacher wrote: Being a Korean esports competitor actually sounds like a really raw deal, all things considered. Bad pay unless you are in the "1%", insane hours, no job security and no future prospects :/
If you think about it, every sport is this way. Only the top 1% or less gets a good payment.
Whatever the result of this, in the end IM will not have a big sponsor anymore and will be screwed going into the future At least they got some cash by winning the GSTL. That should have some use.
On August 09 2013 02:27 Bowzar wrote: Korean Esports is just one big joke. Players being forced to play 10 hours a day without getting paid and living in cramped conditions and some teams even take a cut out of their prize money. Team owners that think that results will magically solve your financial problems. In the end they are just wasting their time and I have no idea why so many kids wants to be "pro-gamers" in Korea.
Being a Korean esports competitor actually sounds like a really raw deal, all things considered. Bad pay unless you are in the "1%", insane hours, no job security and no future prospects :/
This makes non-Koreans bitching about "not having opportunities" even more fun.
On August 09 2013 02:27 Bowzar wrote: Korean Esports is just one big joke. Players being forced to play 10 hours a day without getting paid and living in cramped conditions and some teams even take a cut out of their prize money. Team owners that think that results will magically solve your financial problems. In the end they are just wasting their time and I have no idea why so many kids wants to be "pro-gamers" in Korea.
Being a Korean esports competitor actually sounds like a really raw deal, all things considered. Bad pay unless you are in the "1%", insane hours, no job security and no future prospects :/
Not to mention being disowned by your own family if you fail. Almost all pro-gamers say that their parents were against them being pro-gamers until they earned some money. What happens to the players that didnt earn enough money and just ended up wasting their time?
On August 09 2013 02:06 Aeceus wrote: Sounds like IM's fault. You always assume the contract is over unless told otherwise.
Or you know, they were told otherwise:
LG and IM discussed about the contract extension around the extension on October, 2012. LG offered a new contract on the November, and virtually both agreed, so it looked like they agreed the extension. IM went on for activities for LG, including being interviewed for LG's blog. It was also confirmed that the contract was offered by LG, and the both side looked through it.
Maybe you should read the OP
"Virtually both agreed" is probably the key phrase. I hope at least both parties signed the contract, for their sake, and that there aren't any "get out of it for free" clauses.
On August 09 2013 02:37 Nirel wrote: Does that mean we're definitely going to IM in the next proleague?
No it means an organisation of Korean government that is meant to protect Korean e-sport teams from thing like this, is actually doing its job.
Mmm, perhaps. Either they're (finally) actually doing their job, or they see some sort of gain out of it. There were many situations in which they didn't help "protect" teams from things like this.
EPT
