Esports are seeing a surge in last few years. With millions dollars of prize money, the esports tournaments are surpassing the influence of the traditional sports. But behind this shining appearance, a lot of esports practitioners are having difficulty to sustain basic living. Many second-tier esports players around the world are having low incomes and lives in small apartments. Semi-pros or other players are having even more difficulties. Many people can’t sustain over a year.
The top-skewed big prize money and the poor livings of many players show a abnormal development of the esports scene. Esports is becoming a festival of the few, but moving away from the great masses of normal players.
‘Operatin Bread’ to support grassroot. We give gamers ‘the bread’ they need.
----NetEase
You may remember that a while ago there was a fundraising event from the Chinese SC2 operator, NetEase. The fundraising event was to raise a multi-million dollar prize pool for a series of tournaments of SC2, Heroes of Kingdoms, Warcraft3, and Dota1. NetEase is a huge internet company and SC2's operator in China. Heroes of Kingdoms is a MOBA game made by NetEase.
Today they revealed it. It is a 5-million-dollar esports plan.
As I have speculated a while ago, the whole thing is indeed mostly about Heroes of Kingdoms.
But the good thing is that there will be a "top SC2 tournament" in the end of the year. Another good news is that 5 million dollars are not the cap. They said they are going to add more in the future.
Their principle is a bottom-up approach that supports the grassroot pros, organizations, and fans. So they call it the The Operation 'Bread'.
Although most of the plans are about Heroes of Kingdoms, they have some good ideas about how to support esports players (with NetEase's richness, yes).
So the plan includes:
1, SC2, Heroes of Kingdoms, War3, and Dota1's top tournaments in the end of the year.
2, Give monthly salary to players based on their ranking in the ladder. (Including SC2, Heroes of Kingdoms, and other NetEase's esports products [unconfirmed]). They use the word "salary" to mean that the money is giving out routinely, like a monthly salary.
3, Self-registered tournament system. Everyone can start a tournament. You only need to have detailed plan, players, and organizers. And then NetEase will give you money to do it. Of course, your plan needs to be approved. The annual amount for this is $1,600,000 dollars. For example, if you have a Ro32 amateur league, NetEase will give you $245 dollars. The amount of money is based on your number of players, level of competition, the smoothness of your tournament organization ability. To do this, you need to use NetEase's decided registration system. They say the system is very easy to use and automatic for creating your own tournament. This will be online in November. (Don't know if it is only Heroes of Kingdoms).
4, More college and PC bang events.
5, Inside Heroes of Kingdoms, higher level players can monetize themselves (within the game). So if you want to play with them, or get coaching from them, you can pay them to do so inside the game.
But cool. When WC3 and Dota eventually stop running altogether I expect it'll just be Dota 2 and SC2 in China. Which is only gonna be good. Apart from the scheduling making it impossible for most westerners to watch.
I am curious what type of game Heroes of Kingdoms is, but the only thing i can find is a MMORTS, which i cannot understand how it would function as an Esport. If it is another game, does anyone have gameplay footage? If, it is that game, how do the tournies work?
On September 04 2013 12:59 Kinky wrote: Hmm.. I wonder if they had any negotiations with Blizzard about this.
considering China kind of exists on it's own island to an extent who knows?
looking at another blizzard game like WoW where basically it runs dis jointly in China from the rest of the world. It wouldn't surprise me if Blizzard is treating SC2 in china differently then elsewhere.
On September 04 2013 13:53 FlyingSteaks wrote: Is Dota 2 that small in China that they're doing a Dota 1 tournament?
It's not NetEase that runs Dota 2 in China, it's nexxon I think. So it would be weird for them sponsor a competitiors moba while also trying to launch their own moba
On September 04 2013 13:53 FlyingSteaks wrote: Is Dota 2 that small in China that they're doing a Dota 1 tournament?
It's not size of the esports scene... it's that Chinese computers (or Chinese computer consumers anyway) are behind the rest of the world. They run WC3 and Dota 1 because they cannot run SC2 and Dota 2 (and to a lesser extent LoL).
On September 04 2013 13:53 FlyingSteaks wrote: Is Dota 2 that small in China that they're doing a Dota 1 tournament?
It's not size of the esports scene... it's that Chinese computers (or Chinese computer consumers anyway) are behind the rest of the world. They run WC3 and Dota 1 because they cannot run SC2 and Dota 2 (and to a lesser extent LoL).
China accounts for more than half of IE6 usage worldwide.
That's because many popular browsers developed by Chinese IT companies, they are usually based on IE. And Chinese youngsters use those a lot, they are customized to their needs, but chrome/Firefox don't. And Chinese are much more nerdy than Europeans/Americans, they know much more about computer than average Americans. They pay very close attention to hardware performance. Pc isn't expensive anyway.
On September 04 2013 13:53 FlyingSteaks wrote: Is Dota 2 that small in China that they're doing a Dota 1 tournament?
It's not NetEase that runs Dota 2 in China, it's nexxon I think. So it would be weird for them sponsor a competitiors moba while also trying to launch their own moba
Nexon runs Dota2 in Korea, PerfectWorld runs Dota2 in China
On September 04 2013 13:53 FlyingSteaks wrote: Is Dota 2 that small in China that they're doing a Dota 1 tournament?
Because Dota2 will be a direct competition with Heroes of Kingdom, which is a MOBA game that Netease is developing (basically the same as LoL, except with Chinese historical figures). Of course Netease is not stupid enough to put a prize pool for their competitors. It's also why LoL is not in the list, despite being the biggest game in China right now.
this is so awesome... seems almost to good to be true, how long is this going to last? how does netease expect a source of income from this? Its a LOT of money to spend without expecting it to pay off.
On September 04 2013 18:54 NEEDZMOAR wrote: this is so awesome... seems almost to good to be true, how long is this going to last? how does netease expect a source of income from this? Its a LOT of money to spend without expecting it to pay off.
China is a huge market. If they can draw more players to SC2 (and other games), they will make something out of it.
On September 04 2013 12:41 larse wrote: 3, Self-registered tournament system. Everyone can start a tournament. You only need to have detailed plan, players, and organizers. And then NetEase will give you money to do it. Of course, your plan needs to be approved. The annual amount for this is $1,600,000 dollars. For example, if you have a Ro32 amateur league, NetEase will give you $245 dollars.
This is probably also a request from Blizzard since they are partnered with NetEase and want them to give sc2 a serious try there on the domestic market.
Chinese know they can compete with Europe in DotA 2, so they will run tournament in DotA 1? cool and also Warcraft 3? seriously? what is next, championchip in Prince of Persia?
On September 04 2013 22:06 c0ldfusion wrote: Wait, Dota and WC3 are listed as separate games... are we gonna actually get a frozen throne tournament? wow
What did you expect in China? WC3 is still too popular/loved there.
On September 04 2013 22:06 c0ldfusion wrote: Wait, Dota and WC3 are listed as separate games... are we gonna actually get a frozen throne tournament? wow
frozen throne tourneys are common in china. its was always bigger than broodwar, and still much bigger than sc2.
On September 04 2013 21:53 amiGo_O wrote: Chinese know they can compete with Europe in DotA 2, so they will run tournament in DotA 1? cool and also Warcraft 3? seriously? what is next, championchip in Prince of Persia?
You have no idea how popular WC3 and Dota1 is over there do you . There's literally stil millions playing them
On September 04 2013 13:53 FlyingSteaks wrote: Is Dota 2 that small in China that they're doing a Dota 1 tournament?
Because Dota2 will be a direct competition with Heroes of Kingdom, which is a MOBA game that Netease is developing (basically the same as LoL, except with Chinese historical figures). Of course Netease is not stupid enough to put a prize pool for their competitors. It's also why LoL is not in the list, despite being the biggest game in China right now.
what about dota 1? isn't that a direct competitor as well?
On September 04 2013 21:57 KalWarkov wrote: wc3, dota1 and sc2
who better than grubby to represent
Don't think Grubby played dota1....
I am sure he gave it a shot, as deed as it was in WC3. With his micro skills, Grubby would be pretty dope at Dota 2 as well. I think he would have a blast with a character like Puck or Storm Spirit. I don't think he would be a professional level player, but it would be fun to watch.
On September 04 2013 13:53 FlyingSteaks wrote: Is Dota 2 that small in China that they're doing a Dota 1 tournament?
Because Dota2 will be a direct competition with Heroes of Kingdom, which is a MOBA game that Netease is developing (basically the same as LoL, except with Chinese historical figures). Of course Netease is not stupid enough to put a prize pool for their competitors. It's also why LoL is not in the list, despite being the biggest game in China right now.
what about dota 1? isn't that a direct competitor as well?
Dota 1 is just a thing that exists and they can't really ignore it. They are hoping their Heroes of Kingdom(needs a "the" in there) will be the next big thing. But Dota 1 is still a big draw.
I love how it has a picture of grubby...does he have anything to do with this? I don't think so. This sounds cool. I probably will never watch it because well the time difference just doesn't work for me lol. But it seems like there idea is actually how esports should go in the west.
If all of this actually is 100% legit and done correctly the Chinese scene would grow incredibly well. Their plan is awesome and just whats needed. Blizzard should take notes!
On September 04 2013 12:54 Noocta wrote: The more time goes by, the more sc2 is actually becoming the successor of warcraft 3 instead of broodwar's.
How do you mean it?
Europe and China are the scene growing and doing the best. ( well, China is recent ) + old wc3 pros seems to like it more / be better at the game than old Broodwar pros.
I just see a lot of the old wc3 developments in what is happening to sc2 these days.
Awesome news, more growth in any region, but especially China, is big, big news, hopefully their first year goes well and they get more incentives and more sponsors to continue with this venture and grow the scene even more.
On September 04 2013 13:53 FlyingSteaks wrote: Is Dota 2 that small in China that they're doing a Dota 1 tournament?
Because Dota2 will be a direct competition with Heroes of Kingdom, which is a MOBA game that Netease is developing (basically the same as LoL, except with Chinese historical figures). Of course Netease is not stupid enough to put a prize pool for their competitors. It's also why LoL is not in the list, despite being the biggest game in China right now.
what about dota 1? isn't that a direct competitor as well?
dota1 is a dying game, it's not gonna gain anymore fanbase. On the other hand, dota1's fanbase is what Netease wants for its moba game Heroes of Kingdom.
As a result of this, NetEase sponsored Starcraft II competition of WCG China Finals and ECL 2013, boosting the overall prize pool of both event to more than 110K CNY (appox. 19K USD).
Damn I just saw this and looked at the Op date, it sounded like it could fill the gap for things like competitive WC3 which lack an outlet with the likely cessation of WCG
Was reading the comments of the Original Chinese post, they said that this thing didn't come out until November 2013, which was pretty late.. I couldn't even find anything about this anymore on 163's esports site.. RIP
On February 06 2014 11:55 lhr0909 wrote: Was reading the comments of the Original Chinese post, they said that this thing didn't come out until November 2013, which was pretty late.. I couldn't even find anything about this anymore on 163's esports site.. RIP
There have been several tounaments sponsored by this plan already. its just chinese domestic tourneys so people here dont talk about them.
On February 06 2014 11:55 lhr0909 wrote: Was reading the comments of the Original Chinese post, they said that this thing didn't come out until November 2013, which was pretty late.. I couldn't even find anything about this anymore on 163's esports site.. RIP
There have been several tounaments sponsored by this plan already. its just chinese domestic tourneys so people here dont talk about them.
Could you give some information on what went on in the domestic tourneys? They should at least be in Liquipedia and Aligulac I guess.
EPT![[image loading]](http://img1.cache.netease.com/game/esports/daily/es820a01.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img1.cache.netease.com/game/esports/daily/es94a13.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YfSpIqV.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iolfYYj.png)
. There's literally stil millions playing them
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/C2aHv99.jpg)
