As stated above, Kespa revealed the average salary for progamers in order to correct the misleading report from Korea Creative Content Agency.
This excludes prizes, winning incentives and streaming incomes; considering this, the actual average income of SC2 progamers will be about $50K for a year.
Wow, after all these years. Does anyone know if there's a minimum salary for the practice partners? I assume there's some massive wage disparity between stars and scrubs.
So only the top teams (no MVP or SBENU, let alone Prime or foreign teams), and not even all of them if there were only 25. Only counted A-teamers I guess. Great transparency, KeSPA...
On December 24 2015 14:58 RoninKenshin wrote: Wow, after all these years. Does anyone know if there's a minimum salary for the practice partners? I assume there's some massive wage disparity between stars and scrubs.
$300 per month, at most.
On December 24 2015 14:58 bduddy wrote: So only the top teams (no MVP or SBENU, let alone Prime or foreign teams), and not even all of them if there were only 25. Only counted A-teamers I guess. Great transparency, KeSPA...
No. If it is 25, it includes everyone in those 5 teams.
so they earn on average like 4 000 $ per month and no one gets more than 8 000$. seems reasonable , bearing in mind that their food/sleeping expenses are covered because they live in teamhouses.
ps : oops my bad, saw the following link and my numbers are off
I'm not sure how far that money goes in Korea, but that seems pretty damn nice for having all expenses paid and all the more because of how young a lot of these guys are.
The sample size really hurts though... that number drops in half at least if they included ALL player's salaries.
On December 24 2015 15:19 J. Corsair wrote: I'm not sure how far that money goes in Korea, but that seems pretty damn nice for having all expenses paid and all the more because of how young a lot of these guys are.
The sample size really hurts though... that number drops in half at least if they included ALL player's salaries.
But they also get Housing, living, travel, and any prize money they win. So while the sample size may be off, the amount of value they're getting is as well.
Considering most of these guys live in a Team House, there's a "pay" vs "total compensation" issue that can get really messy. Because even if a player is going getting 20k USD a year, if their room & board is covered, that really shifts the calculations. Plus that's before prize money and "bonuses".
So this is something to both worry a bit about and, at the same time, to understand it's more complicated than the information everyone is currently presenting.
from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
How much does TL pay you?
Clearly Snute is fishing for a pay rise :p
The top 25 will all be pro league regulars and pretty much the best of the best.
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
you should ask for a raise Snute. You are better than most Koreans
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
How much does TL pay you?
25% comes in a form of TL bias. Or does that only apply to writers? Oh wait, most of them don't get paid in pleb coin, so it must be in 100% bias
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
How much does TL pay you?
25% comes in a form of TL bias. Or does that only apply to writers? Oh wait, most of them don't get paid in pleb coin, so it must be in 100% bias
Cutting the sample down to 25 makes this seem a little fishy, is it all the A-teamers in those teams? Why not additional teams? Do they explain the sampling in the report?
On December 24 2015 18:11 aQuaSC wrote: Now let's pump more money into Korea instead of scene with almost non-existent salaries /s
Yeah cause all A-teamers in the non original KeSPA teams, B-teamers and new comers are retiring because of all the money they're making!
I care about Koreans and their healthy scene is important, but how do these A-teamers going to IEMs taking top spots (they were coming abroad, not these famous B-teamers) are supposed to help lower level scene? Was it about making more room in a team house? "herO, you made that much money on IEMs, how about we switch your salary to some B-teamer in CJ?" I love herO, he's my favorite Korean beside sOs and Zest. And others Maybe KeSPA itself should do something about it, not making it happen at the expense of foreigners who are without any real money support but themselves in most cases.
They are making pretty good money with government behind their backs, and when Blizzard gives more money into scene without Koreans pretty well paid to play this game full-time it's considered "welfare", I thought "welfare" is something that you not fight for but just take every month for nothing, Korean salary to me seems to be more of a "welfare" (even though neither of these things is not and it's laughable and pathetic to consider any of them to be that) than foreign prize pool. Now let me count who can possibly be that well paid among non-Koreans...
I'm just trying to make a point, not ridiculing anything but I just can't help to put it this way, not another. I believe that skill disparity between Koreans and foreigners would be lower if some foreigners were able to make that much money. That would not be the reason, but it would certainly help
EDIT: of course, sample size is pretty small, but I think that even it if took B-teamers into consideration it still would be light-years away as a whole from support foreign scene has.
As people have already pointed out in the thread, the sample size sucks and they deliberately cherry-picked their top salaried players and ignored their B-teamers. KeSPA is misrepresenting their numbers.
Make no mistake. Lotta Korean players getting paid very little.
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
edit : though I guess it's pretty good compared to many "real" athletes' salaries.
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
You can't really equate playing StarCraft and flying to and playing in tournaments to regular working hours.
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
You forgot to take free housing, food, coaches and free trips into your quick calculations, and you could support your 12h+ work day with some schedule (I believe that some play that much, but you can't compare sc2 to a regular work, or if you can, how exactly does it compare?).
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
You can't really equate playing StarCraft and flying to and playing in tournaments to regular working hours.
Yeah, on second thought I edited my post. After all, many sportsmen, even ones good enough to get Olympic medals, have salaries way below 3K$/month, and that's when they can afford not to have a job to survive
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
You forgot to take free housing, food, coaches and free trips into your quick calculations, and you could support your 12h+ work day with some schedule (I believe that some play that much, but you can't compare sc2 to a regular work, or if you can, how exactly does it compare?).
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
You can't really equate playing StarCraft and flying to and playing in tournaments to regular working hours.
Yeah, on second thought I edited my post. After all, many sportsmen, even ones good enough to get Olympic medals, have salaries way below 3K$/month, and that's when they can afford not to have a job to survive
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
You forgot to take free housing, food, coaches and free trips into your quick calculations, and you could support your 12h+ work day with some schedule (I believe that some play that much, but you can't compare sc2 to a regular work, or if you can, how exactly does it compare?).
I hope you didn't take my post as an attack on you or anything :s
I believe that Blizzard is trying to emulate a little what was happening in Korea when BW was gaining popularity. Big prizes can draw attention and possible small infrastructure not focused on "making content" or "creating stories", but on playing the game. Good stories are created on their own. And I still hope that foreign scene can be competitive to Korean when it's developed from the bottom, not when it's about picking best local players and boosting them up in Korea like it happened in beginning of SC2 - there were tendencies to do that even with Lilbow for last Blizzcon, or at least it was mentioned, where they initially wanted to use Korean environment to let him practice for it. But in the end he didn't practice at all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
You forgot to take free housing, food, coaches and free trips into your quick calculations, and you could support your 12h+ work day with some schedule (I believe that some play that much, but you can't compare sc2 to a regular work, or if you can, how exactly does it compare?).
See, this is exactly the "foreigner mindset". SC2 absolutely is their job 100%, regardless of how much they like playing it or not, and needs to be treated as such. Coaching and travel is part of that job, it's not some side benefit. Now, food and housing is a benefit, but SC2 teamhouses aren't exactly luxurious. Even in Seoul, somehow I doubt the going rate for a bunk bed is particularly high.
On December 24 2015 16:13 Liquid`Snute wrote: from a non-Korean perspective ~$3000+/month seems to be a crazy strong baseline sc2 salary, especially if it's on top of free housing etc o_o good for the 25 listed in the sample size.
You really think $3000/month for someone who works every single day 12h+/day is good? According to my quick calculations it makes ~8€/hour, which is more than 1.5€/hour less than the minimum wage in France^^
You forgot to take free housing, food, coaches and free trips into your quick calculations, and you could support your 12h+ work day with some schedule (I believe that some play that much, but you can't compare sc2 to a regular work, or if you can, how exactly does it compare?).
See, this is exactly the "foreigner mindset". SC2 absolutely is their job 100%, regardless of how much they like playing it or not, and needs to be treated as such. Coaching and travel is part of that job, it's not some side benefit. Now, food and housing is a benefit, but SC2 teamhouses aren't exactly luxurious. Even in Seoul, somehow I doubt the going rate for a bunk bed is particularly high.
And for foreigners to be considered decent they have to treat it as their job 150%, compete with Koreans and beat them having nothing close to their competitive ladder and practice, if you compare Korean infrastructure and support they are having to what foreigners have then... well. There is a need for infrastructure - there was pretty okay infrastructure in one point in time I think and the skill disparity between two regions wasn't that huge - it's hard for me to believe that anyone can be as good as KeSPA Korean from the "luxury" of their own house. And having nothing like salary they receive. I would like to see average top foreigner salary, I'd love to be wrong about that and have my eyes opened, maybe foreigners don't deserve anything.
But what do I know, I can only rely on logical (more or less) arguments
how about dota2? it's the game with the largest prize pools so its star players must be earning shit tons of money right? and does anyone know if the average professional career of a sc2 player is longer than that of a MOBA player?
It saddens me that SC2 players get paid way less than LoL players despite the game being much harder and even the "well paid" ones aren't given too much.
As for the practice partners, they are definitively screwed salary wise :x.
On December 24 2015 20:27 Poopi wrote: It saddens me that SC2 players get paid way less than LoL players despite the game being much harder and even the "well paid" ones aren't given too much.
As for the practice partners, they are definitively screwed salary wise :x.
If you compare with sportsmen, that's a normal trend that team sports pay more than individual sports
On December 24 2015 20:16 Tien Vu wrote: how about dota2? it's the game with the largest prize pools so its star players must be earning shit tons of money right? and does anyone know if the average professional career of a sc2 player is longer than that of a MOBA player?
MVP's Dota teams did well with prize money this year though, Phoenix got a combined $951,419.89 between them mostly because of a 7-8th place finish at The International (~$800k). Not exactly a bright future for a Korean Dota player since there are like 15 dudes total who play the game there.
On December 24 2015 20:27 Poopi wrote: It saddens me that SC2 players get paid way less than LoL players despite the game being much harder and even the "well paid" ones aren't given too much.
As for the practice partners, they are definitively screwed salary wise :x.
Now compare the salaries of "real life" professional atheletes. Who do you think gets more money, people who play soccer or people who mountain climb?
For me right now MVP has one smart owner ! They have a great sc2 team , then they get a great dota 2 team , they had league teams if i remeber thath they sold it to Samsung. Now they have 2 teams in HOTS and MVP Black just won WCA , and other events this year and got 200k in prizepool , and the second team 4k . And in november they got a CSGO team too.
So i think they are doing just fine , rly hope for 2016 the sc2 team to get good rezults too :D
Kespa and other teams thath offer house living i think they keep some money , so they can send you and etc.
And by the way guys dont forget thath they have gym , fun games , eating outside as a team so they dont just practice , sleep repeat all day :d
PS: Sorry about my english , if i have big mistakes big sorry <3 love from Romania and Happy Holiday!!!
On December 24 2015 20:16 Tien Vu wrote: how about dota2? it's the game with the largest prize pools so its star players must be earning shit tons of money right? and does anyone know if the average professional career of a sc2 player is longer than that of a MOBA player?
Koreans are pretty bad at dota. I mean really really bad. They do have some flukes sometimes but they get destroyed by random top SEA teams alot who couldn't even normally beat a single game out of the best CN,EU,NA(ofc those top SEA teams upset top teams from time to time too but it's kinda rare)
Though they still earned ton by placing middle of the last The International ( $829,333 that's alot but remember that the first placer got $6,634,661).
This is a cherry picked list as has been pointed out and means basically nothing, the only question I have is did KeSPA do this to make things not seem as bad to justify the top heavy prize pools...or were they forced into it by someone else?
On December 24 2015 20:27 Poopi wrote: It saddens me that SC2 players get paid way less than LoL players despite the game being much harder and even the "well paid" ones aren't given too much.
As for the practice partners, they are definitively screwed salary wise :x.
pro gamers don't get paid because they're talented at video games, they get paid because they entertain people. bigger audience = more entertainment = more money
it's not like being good at a video game or a difficult video game means you deserve money... it's based on whether people enjoy watching you do what you do
On December 25 2015 00:12 showstealer1829 wrote: This is a cherry picked list as has been pointed out and means basically nothing, the only question I have is did KeSPA do this to make things not seem as bad to justify the top heavy prize pools...or were they forced into it by someone else?
Anything more than zero is icing on the cake. Having said that, some of these kids mortgage their future to play a computer game full time. At least with pro sports in AM the kids get a scholarship and free education out of it. Then if they can't make it they have a degree to fall back on.
On December 25 2015 00:33 FireCake wrote: It's hard to feel bad for Korean players about the new WCS when you see that they have a salary 5 to 10 times better than all the European players.
They were given too much opportunities abroad that were in hopes of drawing higher attention of community, but in the end it backfired - both viewer-wise and player-wise, taking away incentives of players without professional support and therefore non-Korean initial big support for the game - and now they feel hurt. It's understandable, but these "opportunities" should be avoided in the first place.
On December 25 2015 00:33 FireCake wrote: It's hard to feel bad for Korean players about the new WCS when you see that they have a salary 5 to 10 times better than all the European players.
Sample size: 25
And yeah, some people make about 40k USD and so ban koreans, and only koreans, from international tournaments.
Oh, I thought we were talking about SC2 because of where this thread was.
I assume Breaker is being sarcastic? Making over 2 million dollars each year just from streaming is impossible, right?
Edit: I just Googled some Twitch salaries and stats and yeah it's sarcasm lol.
Hard to say honestly, he definitely didn't say anything about 2 million but 200 thousand, and Faker doesn't stream on Twitch but on Azubu. No idea what the differences are unfortunately
Oh, I thought we were talking about SC2 because of where this thread was.
I assume Breaker is being sarcastic? Making over 2 million dollars each year just from streaming is impossible, right?
Edit: I just Googled some Twitch salaries and stats and yeah it's sarcasm lol.
Hard to say honestly, he definitely didn't say anything about 2 million but 200 thousand, and Faker doesn't stream on Twitch but on Azubu. No idea what the differences are unfortunately
200 thousand/month makes for 2.4k*k a year so it's more than 2 millions.
Oh, I thought we were talking about SC2 because of where this thread was.
I assume Breaker is being sarcastic? Making over 2 million dollars each year just from streaming is impossible, right?
Edit: I just Googled some Twitch salaries and stats and yeah it's sarcasm lol.
Hard to say honestly, he definitely didn't say anything about 2 million but 200 thousand, and Faker doesn't stream on Twitch but on Azubu. No idea what the differences are unfortunately
200 thousand/month makes for 2.4k*k a year so it's more than 2 millions.
Ah sorry, re-read that now, you're right, it can't be true :s
Oh, I thought we were talking about SC2 because of where this thread was.
I assume Breaker is being sarcastic? Making over 2 million dollars each year just from streaming is impossible, right?
Edit: I just Googled some Twitch salaries and stats and yeah it's sarcasm lol.
Hard to say honestly, he definitely didn't say anything about 2 million but 200 thousand, and Faker doesn't stream on Twitch but on Azubu. No idea what the differences are unfortunately
200 thousand/month makes for 2.4k*k a year so it's more than 2 millions.
Ah sorry, re-read that now, you're right, it can't be true :s
fwiw I think $100-200K total over a full year of streaming might be possible if he's really really popular, since LoL is a big scene, but I know nothing about LoL in general. But this OP is about SC2 I presume (not to mention salaries and not made up guesses about streaming from other games...), so I'm not sure if Breaker's comment is relevant at all.
Oh, I thought we were talking about SC2 because of where this thread was.
I assume Breaker is being sarcastic? Making over 2 million dollars each year just from streaming is impossible, right?
Edit: I just Googled some Twitch salaries and stats and yeah it's sarcasm lol.
Hard to say honestly, he definitely didn't say anything about 2 million but 200 thousand, and Faker doesn't stream on Twitch but on Azubu. No idea what the differences are unfortunately
200 thousand/month makes for 2.4k*k a year so it's more than 2 millions.
Ah sorry, re-read that now, you're right, it can't be true :s
fwiw I think $100-200K total over a full year of streaming might be possible if he's really really popular, since LoL is a big scene, but I know nothing about LoL in general. But this OP is about SC2 I presume (not to mention salaries and not made up guesses about streaming from other games...), so I'm not sure if Breaker's comment is relevant at all.
I agree the scenario you mention is possible, but anyway, the salary KeSPA pros receive is a base salary and stream income is a bonus over that sum, so I'd stop discussing streaming whatsoever. Nowadays some foreigner pros have to rely on streaming to sustain themselves, which in my opinion can hurt their commitment to practice.
I'd like to see foreign player-base average salary Can be top 5 players, not 25.
Oh, I thought we were talking about SC2 because of where this thread was.
I assume Breaker is being sarcastic? Making over 2 million dollars each year just from streaming is impossible, right?
Edit: I just Googled some Twitch salaries and stats and yeah it's sarcasm lol.
Hard to say honestly, he definitely didn't say anything about 2 million but 200 thousand, and Faker doesn't stream on Twitch but on Azubu. No idea what the differences are unfortunately
200 thousand/month makes for 2.4k*k a year so it's more than 2 millions.
Ah sorry, re-read that now, you're right, it can't be true :s
fwiw I think $100-200K total over a full year of streaming might be possible if he's really really popular, since LoL is a big scene, but I know nothing about LoL in general. But this OP is about SC2 I presume (not to mention salaries and not made up guesses about streaming from other games...), so I'm not sure if Breaker's comment is relevant at all.
I agree the scenario you mention is possible, but anyway, the salary KeSPA pros receive is a base salary and stream income is a bonus over that sum, so I'd stop discussing streaming whatsoever. Nowadays some foreigner pros have to rely on streaming to sustain themselves, which in my opinion can hurt their commitment to practice.
I'd like to see foreign player-base average salary Can be top 5 players, not 25.
Streaming, prize pools and incentives don't add much:
"Additionally, when taking into consideration the amount of income from the players’ respective streaming activities, performance bonuses, and prize money which have already been provided by the association to the players for 2015, the average salary for KeSPA registered corporation founded professional eSports players is estimated to be $68,189 for League of Legends and over $42,604 for StarCraft II players."
This data comes from 40 players from the 8 KeSPA-registered corporation founded professional teams that have finalized their official contracts as of right now, December 2015 (KT, Samsung, SKT, CJ, Jin Air, NaJin, Longzhu, Tigers) and 25 players from 5 StarCraft II teams (KT, Samsung, SKT, CJ, Jin Air)
at the moment we have only 5 teams for proleague, i don't think this is a good signal
This is better then I tough honestly, of course the fact that they left out a lot of the player probably alter the result, since I guess Kespa cut at the bottom and not at the top, but still if you leave in a team house it is not that bad.
After a quick google search it seems like average salaries in Korea is around 22 000 of course programmer work more hours then the usual person but it seems to be a pretty good job.
On December 25 2015 03:33 Nakajin wrote: This is better then I tough honestly, of course the fact that they left out a lot of the player probably alter the result, since I guess Kespa cut at the bottom and not at the top, but still if you leave in a team house it is not that bad.
After a quick google search it seems like average salaries in Korea is around 22 000 of course programmer work more hours then the usual person but it seems to be a pretty good job.
Someone know the cost of life in Korea?
When I was living there in 2010, the cost of living wasn't very high. When you see that Korean pro gamers make more than the average annual income in South Korea, and factor in they don't have to pay for rent... they make a lot of money.
On December 24 2015 20:16 Tien Vu wrote: how about dota2? it's the game with the largest prize pools so its star players must be earning shit tons of money right? and does anyone know if the average professional career of a sc2 player is longer than that of a MOBA player?
Koreans are pretty bad at dota. I mean really really bad. They do have some flukes sometimes but they get destroyed by random top SEA teams alot who couldn't even normally beat a single game out of the best CN,EU,NA(ofc those top SEA teams upset top teams from time to time too but it's kinda rare)
Though they still earned ton by placing middle of the last The International ( $829,333 that's alot but remember that the first placer got $6,634,661).
This hasn't been true since early 2014, Korean Dota is easily the best in SEA and had 2 teams in The International this year despite having like 25 people in the country who play it.
On December 24 2015 20:16 Tien Vu wrote: how about dota2? it's the game with the largest prize pools so its star players must be earning shit tons of money right? and does anyone know if the average professional career of a sc2 player is longer than that of a MOBA player?
Koreans are pretty bad at dota. I mean really really bad. They do have some flukes sometimes but they get destroyed by random top SEA teams alot who couldn't even normally beat a single game out of the best CN,EU,NA(ofc those top SEA teams upset top teams from time to time too but it's kinda rare)
Though they still earned ton by placing middle of the last The International ( $829,333 that's alot but remember that the first placer got $6,634,661).
This hasn't been true since early 2014, Korean Dota is easily the best in SEA and had 2 teams in The International this year despite having like 25 people in the country who play it.
The Korean infrastructure shone through this year. But props to MVP for putting together the only possible teams in the entire scene.
Though the hilarious part about being a SC2 & Dota2 fan is that Alex Garfield has managed to put collect 2 TI winning teams. The guy knows how to run Western Pro-teams.
Not all of Seoul has the same type of rent. For example, I lived a year in Gangnam and my rent was around 2,000$ month, and then I moved to near Sinchon (near where the TechnoMart is) and my rent went down to about 500$ / month. This was always living by myself.
I was looking for apartments in NYC and unless you want to go very far out, you're still looking at least $1,000 / month
edit: My $500/month apt was down the road from IM's house ->
On December 24 2015 20:16 Tien Vu wrote: how about dota2? it's the game with the largest prize pools so its star players must be earning shit tons of money right? and does anyone know if the average professional career of a sc2 player is longer than that of a MOBA player?
Koreans are pretty bad at dota. I mean really really bad. They do have some flukes sometimes but they get destroyed by random top SEA teams alot who couldn't even normally beat a single game out of the best CN,EU,NA(ofc those top SEA teams upset top teams from time to time too but it's kinda rare)
Though they still earned ton by placing middle of the last The International ( $829,333 that's alot but remember that the first placer got $6,634,661).
This hasn't been true since early 2014, Korean Dota is easily the best in SEA and had 2 teams in The International this year despite having like 25 people in the country who play it.
Yeah i'm not sure about them being the best. They've always been destroyed by rave before(though if i think about it rave can be considered as part of the korean scene so i guess that's true for at least 2014)
they are not the best on SEA for a while now .. Mineski and Fnatic is the best atm
On December 24 2015 20:16 Tien Vu wrote: how about dota2? it's the game with the largest prize pools so its star players must be earning shit tons of money right? and does anyone know if the average professional career of a sc2 player is longer than that of a MOBA player?
Koreans are pretty bad at dota. I mean really really bad. They do have some flukes sometimes but they get destroyed by random top SEA teams alot who couldn't even normally beat a single game out of the best CN,EU,NA(ofc those top SEA teams upset top teams from time to time too but it's kinda rare)
Though they still earned ton by placing middle of the last The International ( $829,333 that's alot but remember that the first placer got $6,634,661).
This hasn't been true since early 2014, Korean Dota is easily the best in SEA and had 2 teams in The International this year despite having like 25 people in the country who play it.
The Korean infrastructure shone through this year. But props to MVP for putting together the only possible teams in the entire scene.
Though the hilarious part about being a SC2 & Dota2 fan is that Alex Garfield has managed to put collect 2 TI winning teams. The guy knows how to run Western Pro-teams.
Those TI winners aren't handpicked by alex garfield. Those two rosters already formed a long time before they got picked up by alex garfield.
Everything that happens inside the team from who stays on the team and who leaves are decided by the team members. The org involvement just makes stuff like travelling, taking care of the players food, plans/schedule sponsorships etc but gameplay and team chemistry are all on the team.
On December 24 2015 15:05 BreAKerTV wrote: Faker easily gets 200k USD a month, if not from playing for SKT, definitely for streaming.
Yeah I'm sure he makes a lot more than some average KeSPA players do, but where did you get that "$200k a month" from? Just curious.
When you have 50k people watching and you're getting .50c an add or even less than that, after like 5-10 adds it adds up real fast, hell even .01c an add up gets up there pretty fast
On December 24 2015 20:27 Poopi wrote: It saddens me that SC2 players get paid way less than LoL players despite the game being much harder and even the "well paid" ones aren't given too much.
As for the practice partners, they are definitively screwed salary wise :x.
If you compare with sportsmen, that's a normal trend that team sports pay more than individual sports
Not exactly, some of the top earning sportsmen are golfers and race car drivers. I am bad with my phone and can't link evidence at the moment.
Lol at people saying this is actually great. They are cherry picking the players. And even that it's only the average, so you know the top heavy guys are dragging it up.
Basically it's not a great way to make a living unless you are a top dog.
Without stating what kind of average we are speaking of, it is impossible for us to know about what the 'average' person, i.e. what most of the Kespa players are making. If 45k is the median, than most progamers on the Kespa teams are doing quite well. If it is the mean on the other hand, there could easily be some players taking a majority of the salary Kespa is bragging about. I hope it is the median, but I just wanted to point out that this number could be quite misleading. One of the most basic ways to 'lie with statistics.'
However, I am glad that at least a few people are doing pretty well (career level salary well) for themselves in SC 2 esports in Kespa. I very much hope we are talking about the median, as that seems much more sustainable. SC2 tournaments are so top heavy already, if other money coming in is arranged similarly then it seems like we will have less of an incentive for people to become progamers.