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SC2 falls out of Top 100 $ - Page 2

Forum Index > SC2 General
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fishjie
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
United States1519 Posts
November 22 2019 22:26 GMT
#21
im surprised sc2 was still even in the top 100. ever since gglord winfestor patch killed wings of liberty it was all over downward spiral. even without LOL. all the viewers who stopped watching never came back. back then during the golden age it was so good. MLG, NASL, IPL, IEM, GSL, Dreamhack WOW!

gsl is on life support, same faces every time. the game is in its twilight, will enjoy watching the tournaments while they still last
Creager
Profile Joined February 2011
Germany1923 Posts
November 22 2019 22:27 GMT
#22
I agree with a lot of people stating the amount of earnings doesn't translate to the popularity of the game, there's much more to consider - payouts for team-oriented games vs. 1v1 games, overall esports infrastructure and of course the amount of competition one will face when deciding on playing a certain game.

Also comparing esports to real sports still is a very tricky thing to do given the fundamentally different nature of the 'products'.
... einmal mit Profis spielen!
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland26612 Posts
November 22 2019 22:48 GMT
#23
Some games have absurdly top-heavy prize pools, or offer big money publicity pushing tournaments early in a game’s lifespan.

Would be difficult to really draw boundaries and compare accurately across individual games and team games too, but I think it would be interesting data to know what an average-decent mid tier pro earns between games.

While SC2 does rely increasingly on Blizzard funding tournaments, we are seeing a beautiful event run by dedicated third parties and passion in HSC right now, so I don’t overly worry about flashy prize pools. Although the prize pool was boosted by a fan in HSC’s case.

'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland26612 Posts
November 22 2019 22:51 GMT
#24
There are plenty of these games that don’t have sensible outside investment, there’s a good article on (I believe) Kotaku I read about the eSports bubble.

Either the game’s publishers themselves are throwing money at a title to push the eSports aspect themselves, or investors are throwing money at bad investments in the hope that one of them makes it big and pays back the losses many times over.

'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
MinixTheNerd
Profile Joined July 2019
200 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-11-22 22:59:34
November 22 2019 22:58 GMT
#25
It's unfortunate but there simply isn't as much money invested in SC2 these days. While this might not have a direct effect on viewership, it will have long term impacts on both quality and the sustainability of the professional player base. The only words I can offer to the people who have chosen to commit their time and passion to this game is this.."please have a backup plan... don't put all your hopes on Blizzard's mercy... they are legally obligated to act in the interest of their investors first and will undercut SC2 if things go south for their other franchises."
Grumbels
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Netherlands7031 Posts
November 22 2019 23:31 GMT
#26
On November 23 2019 07:48 Wombat_NI wrote:
Some games have absurdly top-heavy prize pools, or offer big money publicity pushing tournaments early in a game’s lifespan.

Would be difficult to really draw boundaries and compare accurately across individual games and team games too, but I think it would be interesting data to know what an average-decent mid tier pro earns between games.

While SC2 does rely increasingly on Blizzard funding tournaments, we are seeing a beautiful event run by dedicated third parties and passion in HSC right now, so I don’t overly worry about flashy prize pools. Although the prize pool was boosted by a fan in HSC’s case.


SC2 has always relied a lot on Blizzard for increasing the prize money. It would surprise me if they didn't provide a large portion of the funding for GOMTV back in the day. I'm not saying there is no independent love for Starcraft or for e-sports, but the size of the professional scene is largely dependent on the whims of the marketing departments of the developer. The only alternative would have been solely events such as HSC with fan donations and small sponsors, but they could never compete with professionally organized and funded premier events with 250k prize pools.
Well, now I tell you, I never seen good come o' goodness yet. Him as strikes first is my fancy; dead men don't bite; them's my views--amen, so be it.
DrDevice
Profile Joined December 2010
Canada132 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-11-23 01:12:23
November 23 2019 01:09 GMT
#27
On November 23 2019 05:46 Cpt.beefy wrote:

I appreciate your view but....
I'm not sure if you are familiar with...
Money makes the world go round. ( i mean what? )
people watch tennis and not table tennis.(gahh? huh?)

All trolly comments, in fact every reply to every comment on this post, is deflective and dismissive.
...
None of that sounds "trolly" at all to me. It sounds extremely polite. I think this is just a misunderstanding.

I think this sounds "trolly" to you because you are reading the overly formal politeness of his posts as if it was sarcastic. I don't think it is. I think you're just talking to someone whose first language is not English.
FreakyDroid
Profile Joined July 2012
Macedonia2616 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-11-23 02:14:50
November 23 2019 02:13 GMT
#28
I think prize pools have a direct correlation with viewer numbers, or in the case of Dota, LoL, Fortnite and CSGO its more about how much money the game generates to enable such prize pools, which in turn depends on the viewers and players playing the game so its kind of the same thing.

LoL has 20 times more players than Dota, yet the premiere events of Dota have pretty much the same viewer numbers as those of LoL. LoL is more played but less spectated game by their respective playerbases. Ofc outliers are TI and LoL worlds, but thats for a different discussion. So each has their own thing going on for them. CSGO is kind of the same as Dota, the playerbase isnt huge, but lots of people watch tournaments and the viewer numbers rival those of Dota and LoL. It wasnt always like this though, CS:GO became a huge spectator sport only recently, despite it being an old game.

So the way I see it, the prizepool depends on two things: playerbase and eyeballs watching tournaments. SC2 has neither of that going on for it, the playerbase is tiny compared to the big ones and the viewer numbers arent spectacular. This years Blizzcon/WCS had something like 80k peak viewers, which is half of last year's. I dont know the reason for the dip in viewers, but I can speak from my point of view: its just boring to watch after a certain time. I can watch SC2 consecutively for 2-3 months and then I stop for a year or sometimes even more. I know many will object to what I say and thats fine, but its not particularly fun to watch for a prolonged time, at least for me. And I dont think you need that much intellect to understand the game, I think these kind of comments come from people who cant tell the difference between high ceiling of mechanical skill and actual complexity of a game - not the same thing.

Unless there's a sudden resurgence in interest in RTS gams coming soon, I dont see SC2 increasing its playerbase, however by more frequent game design changes it might become more attractive for viewers. Note that I said game design changes, not balance - to me those are two different things. Design comes first, which means the game must be fun to play and watch first and foremost .That's why Dota and LoL are number one esports, they have never been balanced, they arent balanced now and they never will be. But they are fun to pay and watch, that's the trick.
Smile, tomorrow will be worse
LTCM
Profile Joined May 2017
174 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-11-23 02:47:56
November 23 2019 02:46 GMT
#29
Back to the real problem. Not a single protoss was listed in the opening post. Toss has gotten stomped on for the last four years and was the lagging race of bw as well.

The last time a protoss player was in the top three of earnings for the year.....2015. Lol.
Byun is a convicted match-fixer.
brickrd
Profile Blog Joined March 2014
United States4894 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-11-23 02:59:37
November 23 2019 02:59 GMT
#30
On November 23 2019 10:09 DrDevice wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 23 2019 05:46 Cpt.beefy wrote:

I appreciate your view but....
I'm not sure if you are familiar with...
Money makes the world go round. ( i mean what? )
people watch tennis and not table tennis.(gahh? huh?)

All trolly comments, in fact every reply to every comment on this post, is deflective and dismissive.
...
None of that sounds "trolly" at all to me. It sounds extremely polite. I think this is just a misunderstanding.

I think this sounds "trolly" to you because you are reading the overly formal politeness of his posts as if it was sarcastic. I don't think it is. I think you're just talking to someone whose first language is not English.

even if he's a native English speaker there's still nothing wrong with being polite, lmao what the fuck is that guy talking about? is this what the internet is now? being nice is literally trolling?

i think some people need to spend less time on SC2 ladder where 90% of communication is encouraging suicide and threatening people's families. sometimes civility is just civility
TL+ Member
Tastyyyy
Profile Joined July 2018
Portugal95 Posts
November 23 2019 03:11 GMT
#31
The fact that there isn't a Starcraft player in the top 100 of prize money isn't a bad indicator at all. There are some factors that affect this and that disprove this.

1st- Starcraft is not (for the most part) a team game, which means prize money earnings affect much more the individuals life then if he has to split it with a team. Which happens with LoL, that has low prize pools for being the "biggest title" and players have to share between each other (which includes substitutes that played in the tournament, which isn't accounted for in esportsearnings for the most part) and with the team, thats why they aren't the top earners.

2nd- If Serral and Maru had been as dominant as they were in previous years, or if one of them would'e won the global finals, there would be Starcraft players in the top 100 prize money earnings. Fortunately, this means this competition is fierce and that there are many skilled players, which is more entertaining than having always the same people winning.

3rd - Dota 2 and Fortnite are 2 esports that have only 1 reason to have such huge prize pools. They have them so they stay RELEVANT as esports. Dota 2 player base is diminishing and also their viewership on twitch (at least the english streams viewership), they might be huge in China, but their competitor (LoL) is bigger, which means they boost the prize pools and stay relevant because everyone is drawn in to the money. Fortnite, likewise is what I like to call a shitty esport, and their viewership is very low too, so they boost the prize pools and BAM, relevant!

4th - The truth is, players get money from teams, tournaments and streaming and its very viable, right now, to be a starcraft 2 pro player. Of course the prize pools would be bigger if the esport was bigger, but please, be my guest and go check the prize pools of the global final from 2010, 2011, 2012, etc. You'll see those were the "glory days" of starcraft and the prizes were much smaller, so...by your definition...the game is actully doing better now??

This means nothing.
sudete
Profile Joined December 2012
Singapore3054 Posts
November 23 2019 03:18 GMT
#32
Isn't the title a bit misleading, while we're at it? Top 100 player earnings is very different from total earnings on a game-to-game comparison. And I reckon the latter is as important if not more important than the former
Year of MaxPax
TheOneAboveU
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Germany3367 Posts
November 23 2019 08:47 GMT
#33
Meh, whatever. With those bloated prize pools (Epic throwing cash at Fortnite "esport" lul, compendium in Dota etc.), and SC2 being a 1v1 competition, that's no surprise honestly. Pools have just gotten exponentially bigger in the last years, so it's obvious SC2 would fall off in comparison. Top SC2 players still make good bank.
Moderatoralias TripleM | @TL_TripleM | Big Dark Energy!
WeakOwl
Profile Joined December 2018
25 Posts
November 23 2019 08:52 GMT
#34
Im almost certain sc2 has been dead since 2014 or so.
NoS-Craig
Profile Joined July 2011
Australia3130 Posts
November 23 2019 09:00 GMT
#35
Why do you bother posting on TL if you think sc2 is daed? I just don't get people who do this.
Artosis loves Starcraft
Noonius
Profile Joined April 2012
Estonia17413 Posts
November 23 2019 10:28 GMT
#36
well, you play dota and win International and BAM, you'll have 5 guys right away who have earned more money than any sc2 player will ever earn. Probably same with LOL Worlds. Hell even a single fucking Fortnite tournament top3 will make more than any sc2 player probably ever makes.
Terran forever | Maru hater forever
GreasedUpDeafGuy
Profile Joined August 2018
United States398 Posts
November 23 2019 11:58 GMT
#37
On November 23 2019 05:00 Cpt.beefy wrote:
This is a totally irrelevant statistic "too the scene". Nobody watches an esport for the amount of money the players make and NOBODY plays a game for 12 hours a day because they want a big house. Starcraft is not about money for me. It's about those Best of 7's, game 7, 30 minutes in with noone in the lead!
Drama and passion.


My guy, how wrong you are
Cant catch me. You're wasting your time
Dave4
Profile Joined August 2018
494 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-11-23 12:29:09
November 23 2019 12:27 GMT
#38
On November 23 2019 11:59 brickrd wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 23 2019 10:09 DrDevice wrote:
On November 23 2019 05:46 Cpt.beefy wrote:

I appreciate your view but....
I'm not sure if you are familiar with...
Money makes the world go round. ( i mean what? )
people watch tennis and not table tennis.(gahh? huh?)

All trolly comments, in fact every reply to every comment on this post, is deflective and dismissive.
...
None of that sounds "trolly" at all to me. It sounds extremely polite. I think this is just a misunderstanding.

I think this sounds "trolly" to you because you are reading the overly formal politeness of his posts as if it was sarcastic. I don't think it is. I think you're just talking to someone whose first language is not English.

even if he's a native English speaker there's still nothing wrong with being polite, lmao what the fuck is that guy talking about? is this what the internet is now? being nice is literally trolling?

i think some people need to spend less time on SC2 ladder where 90% of communication is encouraging suicide and threatening people's families. sometimes civility is just civility

Thanks, yes I speak Australian, we are just nice people. I don't know why the hate, I think he just doesn't like being disagreed with.
Dave4
Profile Joined August 2018
494 Posts
November 23 2019 12:31 GMT
#39
I think it has been misinterpreted - as mentioned my main point is that few new players are likely to enter the scene because the carrot is much bigger elsewhere.
Tastyyyy
Profile Joined July 2018
Portugal95 Posts
November 23 2019 12:36 GMT
#40
There are, specially in Europe, lots of new players entering the scene and trying to extablish themselves as pro players. There are even 15 and 14 year old grand masters, 14 year old dudes that are master 1 and only started playing on f2p.

Even in korea there are two or three 15 year olds in grandmaster.
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