So apparently this guy named Michael A. Winchester has founded an official professional gaming league here in the U.S.A. called the "Worldwide Federation of Gaming". He says its going to be like the NFL.
Here is a video of an interview done at e3:
After watching that video, I have concluded that dude is just looking for a capitalistic venture into ESPORTS*BOOM* hoping to make some money with pretty much no experience in the industry.
Anyways, here is their website: http://wwfog.com/ (If your up for a laugh go to "search members" and check out some of the people part of this)
Apparently this is backed by Twin Galaxies and over 200 pro gamers. Notable names include Justin Wong and ifc.Yipes as well as Empire Arcadia founder Triforce Gamemaster. + Show Spoiler [Picture of Triforce Gamemaster] +
Anyways, after poking around on their website I found that you can pay 10 dollars for a yearly membership to access their forum and give feedback and stuff as well as a chance to get "drafted" onto a pro team. Sounds like some serious bullshit to me.
Dj Wheat's show Live on 3 covered some of this nonsense also. They talked about how this is some complete bullshit and have no idea what their doing. Segment starts at 39:30
Honestly, I think this thing is just going to epic fail into oblivion once it starts (if it even does that). This whole thing sounds shady, and came from a guy that no one has even heard of prior to this whole thing. Also, the fact that when you google "worldwide federation of gaming" their official website doesn't show up makes it even more shady. I just hope that nothing happens with this that will prevent *real* U.S.A. progaming endeavors in the future.
On July 08 2009 14:13 Kennigit wrote: I look at that guy talking and all i can think of is Ted Owen from GGL...God they are going to make quadrillions of Ansadi dollars
After watching that King of Kong documentary, Twin Galaxies makes me giggle.
Kennigit, can we make our own Master of the Universe Super-duper Series of World Video Games? You can be Dictator for Life and I'll be Executive of All That is Important. We can charge 10 bucks for people to read another part of TL and be drafted onto our "proteam".
this guy has a very poor understanding of what makes esports business models successful
without a single game to hold everything together, you can't hold fan interest. starcraft worked, a multi-gaming league with teams made of gamers from all genres will fail.
On July 08 2009 14:29 MK wrote: lol Justin Wong... all I can remember is Daigo killed him (1) and he never learns so he've been killed once again (2) :/
Actually Justin Wong himself went to japan and beat Daigo something like 10-4 with boxer vs daigo's ryu, if he could have switched to boxer during the gamestop tournament he would have but he couldn't due to rules. This could be a rumor though. None the less Daigo is the best fighting game player of all time.
Anyways, It's going to be hard to support so many games but it's good to see people trying to make e-sports something in America. It's only a matter of time before it takes off in my eyes. (as in the release of SC2 probably lol)
On July 08 2009 14:34 MK wrote: oh, and have you ever heard about bringit ? seems to be in the same trend of "eSport firms"
Right now there are two people on the bringit forums, with an all-time high of... 16. It doesn't seem to be making a lot of buzz. The guy who posted after the article you linked to basically outlined why the costs of running online betting outweigh the the profit growth.
I totally agree with Steve though. It has to start with a single game, and a single platform. There is too much to cover if you go for all platforms and 30 games. It becomes very difficult to market without a large staff and budget.
its funny that he thinks people will pay money to play in ranking tournaments for a chance to be 'drafted'. these teams are gonna suck so hard it's ridiculous & as soon as people like justin wong figure out that he has to be at a certain venue for this retarded league rather than at a major sf4 tournament winning a shitload of cash, he'll drop out, and so will everyone else.
no foresight, no idea what they're doing. i bet the leagues will be run like shit, too
They've talked about this a bit on Live On Three (DjWheat's show) and have come to the conclusion that his guy isn't real. He is actually a fictional person.
On July 08 2009 14:34 MK wrote: oh, and have you ever heard about bringit ? seems to be in the same trend of "eSport firms"
Right now there are two people on the bringit forums, with an all-time high of... 16. It doesn't seem to be making a lot of buzz. The guy who posted after the article you linked to basically outlined why the costs of running online betting outweigh the the profit growth.
I totally agree with Steve though. It has to start with a single game, and a single platform. There is too much to cover if you go for all platforms and 30 games. It becomes very difficult to market without a large staff and budget.
it becomes a gimmick basically
"gaming" is not the draw. the idea of people playing video games is not what makes esports possible, it's the games and the players themselves. they have their own playerbase and fans, esports has to start there or it fails 100% of the time
I wonder what would happen if someone created a business and only took advice from TL and followed everything that was said to him by the regulars here.
Creating a global eSport league is like creating a Sport league with FIFA+NBA+NHL+NFL+...etc.
I wonder what would happen if someone created a business and only took advice from TL and followed everything that was said to him by the regulars here.
hmm, it would be KESPA ? :p
seriously, just wondering : don't you guys think that eSport could be an industry ? I mean, could it be like NBA or FIFA or whatever big classic sport leagues ?
EPT![[image loading]](http://wwfog.com/API/UploadedImages/137_1.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://wwfog.com/API/UploadedImages/140_1.jpg)
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