RSL Revival patreon money discussion thread - Page 2

On July 11 2025 23:30 dysenterymd wrote:
150k a year is a lot, but since RSL was announced in April, only a fraction of that income will have actually been disbursed. In terms of non-prize pool expenses, there are:

(1) Studio costs (rent, all kinds of equipment, etc)
(2) Some kind of compensation to the people involved in planning, setting up invitations, casting, etc - this is probably hundreds upon hundreds of hours already
(3) Paying for graphics, etc

I also doubt the companies Tasteless is advertising has a huge advertising budget, I'd be surprised if the sponsorship is more than a few thousand. I'd actually be shocked if the organizers haven't had to pay out of pocket some to get RSL set up. I imagine they'll be made whole if the 150k a year gets paid out, but even that's not guaranteed - if they put out a bad product that could dry up.

Serral not playing because of the prize pool wouldn't surprise me - he rarely plays smaller tournaments, and as a top contender to win EWC probably sees hiding prep and squeezing in more practice time as far more sensible than playing RSL (no doubt that's the decision Maru made too, I imagine he got an invite.) That's not the same as a moral stand over spending decisions.

That being said, I do have some criticisms of how RSL is being run. The scene has plenty of medium size online tournaments - I feel RSL would add more to the scene if it just committed to being offline, even if that means only a single tournament a year. Not going to get mad at anyone making an honest effort to give us more tournaments though.

On July 11 2025 22:52 WombaT wrote:

The Serral rumour is ludicrous.

Unlike most here, I’ve done live LANs, with audiences and on-site casters (one of which is me), observers (also me), DJ during downtime (also me), bit of crowd interaction. Oh and a big chunk of tech setup and testing often with our own gear either fully or partly. My multitasking ain’t quite up to it, but ‘good enough’, but in the past has necessitated big 10-12 hour stints trying to keep things running and entertaining until the end of day’s play and beer time kicks in. My co-caster keeps up with the bracket, chooses what matches we’re gonna cast and has to frequently swap to the players’ room to keep things smooth there. So I’ve got a little insight although not into a full pro level production.

We don’t have to worry about venue hiring, as we do it out of Ireland’s largest (and by far best) anime and gaming/general nerd convention. Would highly recommend on goes if they’re in the neighbourhood when Q-Con is going! But it’s only as good as it is because it’s entirely staffed by volunteers

Anyway, there’s a good reason that, to my knowledge only our SC group consistently, does offline events full stop, at least once annually much less with casters and a bit of pageantry. I think it adds enough value and fun to be worth doing, but it’s a ton of work, and work you have to do for free.

The convention we’ve long been attached to puts on a good prize pool for the level of competition we’re at, it’s better than most pro weeklies.

That would just evaporate if we paid minimum wage to a few of us. The absolute bare minimum of me doing multiple jobs, co-caster doing a few too, and one person doing the boring job of keeping the door and checking tickets, would still give us a negative prize pool.

On July 11 2025 23:45 Optimus Prime2 wrote:

wanna bet money on Serral's statement been ludicrous? i can take your bet no problem

On July 11 2025 23:55 HooTie wrote:
I don't post much, but it seems weird to be upset over something like this. If people choose to donate, then that is their prerogative. People are giving money and getting high-quality SC2. How the money is distributed is left in the hands of the people who run it. If I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth, I won't donate. I do donate because I like watching high-level SC2. If I feel that what I am donating to doesn't produce the level of entertainment I want, I will stop. What is the problem?

On July 12 2025 00:06 WombaT wrote:

What statement? He hasn’t made one.

If the claim is that he declined because he didn’t see the prize pool as sufficient to show some of his hands with EWC, I’d have no disagreement with that being plausible.

Your OP implies that he declined because he had issues with how the tournament is organised and how they’re spending their Patreon money.

If I’m reading you wrong there then that’s my bad

On July 12 2025 00:09 Optimus Prime2 wrote:


Problem is shady business, which is running under big words of sc2 saving, reviving etc, in reality just trying to get rich with donations of people, who really love this game. After time community will realise , what is happening, both players and supporters (viewers) , but it will take just more time. Which could be saved if you would have just good look/review on sitation right now, what is happening.

On July 12 2025 02:21 HooTie wrote:


To me, it is doing exactly what it's advertised to do. People need to get paid to do this. It sounds like you are under the impression that this is just a fly-by-night tournament run by a clan like I used to do for the Team Gosu Bounty Brawl. It is A LOT of work, and it was funded by mostly me, but my clan put in a large chunk of their own hard earned money. We made a total of $-2,000.00 (yeah we lost every dime we put in PLUS our time). We did it because we love the game and we wanted to do something special, but it is 100% unsustainable. This is what sustainability looks like. People who are part of the project are being paid to do the work that they do. If you think Tasteless is disingenuous, fine, that's your opinion, but I think coming to one of the few spaces that exist for our now niche game, and just making wild negative accusations about something that is actually GOOD for the game, is doing no one any favors.

Also, who thinks someone is "getting rich" off of any amount of money that has been spoken about so far? Making a living? MAYBE, but to say anyone is "getting rich" off of this is just insane, and makes it seem like you are just being a tad sour, and out of touch with reality. The numbers being tossed around seem big to some people sure, but realistically in today's world, it's peanuts.

I've been meaning to say this, but I haven't had an account for a while. I made a new one because this has been burning in my mind.

I feel like Tasteless and Co. at RSL are going the UFC route. Insane money for the production company and Dana White, but very slim payouts for the players (for the UFC, about 20% of the actual revenue only goes to fighters). All the other major sports leagues pay 50% of the revenue to players.

I get that RSL is a new venture and the effort is going to be a money sink for a while. However, the scale of the rewards just doesn't make any sense. The REAL talent is the players. The REAL reason why we are watching SC2 still in 2025 is because the players are able to play the game in a way that is worth watching. Once everyone retires, we will stop watching. There won't be any RSL. We won't want to watch gold league players duking it out on the ladder. It's just not worth our time.

The goal should be 50/50 split between players and production. Currently, the players have < 8% of the actual pot that the crowd is funding. $12,000/mo and 3 tournaments for a total prize pool of $10,918.22. That's actually WORSE than the UFC. Again, I understand this is a new venture so there's going to be a lot of initial costs for production. But even at $20,000/month, you're looking at $240,000/year revenue and $29,116 total payout for the players. I'm not including the $1,000 for a map making contest as a payout for players because it isn't. At the $20,000/mo goal, the payout for players is 12.13% of the crowdfunded amount. Dogshit.

What's going on is exploitative and predatory. RSL is taking advantage of players who need to get paid, and an eager and hungry audience willing to shell out money for games.

And PLEASE stop using KRW to try to inflate your dogshit prize pool. Yes, we get that you all think we're stupid. How much of your money is being paid from Patreon in KRW? So why advertise the prize pool in KRW to the people you're taking money from?

Alright, I gotta stop because I'm getting more and more disrespectful. Seriously, though, for anyone paying into RSL, just remember that the players are getting <10% of what you're putting into. $10/mo? not even $1/mo for the players. I highly advise RSL to be more transparent about their finances or for everyone to stop funding this money scheme for the RSL company.

Great games from the players. Everyone is bringing it, as expected. Just give them a percentage that they are worth.

On July 12 2025 04:56 jinjin5000 wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/1lv6b4d/rsl_revival_hows_it_going_so_far/n24aztn/

this guy makes far better point than OP and still on topic


Honestly, I think its reasonable that fraction of total pool is prizepool to prioritize production/legitimacy of the tournament so it's not another online cup #134234, but it is bit too much as of now compared to amount of community funding it's been shown.
Hopefully its growing pains

On July 12 2025 05:03 RogerChillingworth wrote:
People who still want to support SC2 with their money is their business, and I would never expect anyone to cast or organize something for free. But this patreon shit does seem manipulative to me, and has gotten totally out of control. The rhetoric of “saving a game” does a good job of tenderizing people for their cash.

Tasteless does the same thing in StarCraft 1. His slogan is “keep the memory of Brood War alive”. More like keep the career of Tasteless alive. Alive and soaring.
The ASL patreon makes 11K per month in the off-season. I switched to Korean commentary years ago and haven't looked back.

I think Tasteless should prove he cares enough about something to do it for a lot less money. Or do something else. He just comes across as a guy in a suit with metal eyes, instead of the funny dufus he was like 15 years ago. The last thing you want is that slimy feeling with someone you once thought was cool. Who knows though, maybe Tasteless was always a secret asshole. Probably.
There's my wild accusation of the day. Call it a hunch.

To anyone who does support these patreons: see if Tasteless, Artosis, State—whoever else—will still cast with a smaller budget first. If they refuse to cast a game on a much smaller budget, or refuse to give a larger chunk of the money to the prize pool they're casting, it should tell you something about their character and whether you should maybe pull back on the funding. You've probably earned your money and should spend it more intelligently.

I hope I get banned.