For the longest time, ESports has been decided off of tournament and wins. In order to get into the top tournaments, you had to be the best or at least compete with them on a high level. This ironically is the aspect that has stopped many investors from putting their money into ESports. Many people did not want to put money behind a team that could potentially miss large tournaments. This is looking to change as more teams and video companies are looking into franchising. What this means is a team would sign up with companies and for an investment to be able to compete at all tournament no matter their performance. Think the NFL or NBA.
This has been what is behind all the new movement in investors into Esports. As reported in June by ESPN Riot has set out a plan for teams to invest 10 million dollars for a guaranteed spot in the major tournaments. On top of the guaranteed spots, the teams would be involved in revenue sharing where the team would share in the money gained from sponsorship and advertising. This was met with some backlash earlier this year when Blizzard tried to do the same thing with Overwatch.(kotaku.com) This could be the price difference and Overwatch has yet to see a high level of success in ESports.
One drawback to this system is we will start seeing the end of challenger leagues. This will mean that groups will no longer all have the chance to join the ranks of teams like Team Liquid or Cloud9. Instead, you would have to be recruited to them to play at the highest levels. The effect on players moral I can only speculate but the hurdle to make it into the franchise is pretty high. Very few people have a few million laying around especially if they are playing Battlefront 2.
There is also the really big question in the air of what happens if one of these games goes under. Games tend to have a life of 1-3 years and then fizzle into the abyss with some exceptions. Counter-Strike, DotA, Starcraft, and LoL have all seemed to pass the test of time for now. This could not be the case in a few years. Every day more games that have a potential for a great ESports scene like Battlerite enters the arena with faster gameplay and more skill based PvP mechanics. Then again these games could fall into the nothingness like Bloodborne.
A better solution is tournaments franchising to teams. Games are so fluid in how long they last that a single competitive scene can explode for a short time and then fizzle out just as fast. If there was a tournament or even an overall league that had several games that were popular at the time being played under their name then franchising would make more sense. They would have the ability to be more flexible and not have to worry about the success or failure of a single company but in the overall popularity of video games. It would be less believable to think that games are going away anytime soon then an individual title.
It's a pretty exciting time in the world of ESports. As someone who wished to play Halo as a professional but grew up without believing there was a world to do it in, I am happy one is being put together. At the same time, the ground seems a to be a little shaky and early failure might lead to a longer period of time for ESports to be legitimized in the mainstream. Let's hope for a better outcome than that.
This has been what is behind all the new movement in investors into Esports. As reported in June by ESPN Riot has set out a plan for teams to invest 10 million dollars for a guaranteed spot in the major tournaments. On top of the guaranteed spots, the teams would be involved in revenue sharing where the team would share in the money gained from sponsorship and advertising. This was met with some backlash earlier this year when Blizzard tried to do the same thing with Overwatch.(kotaku.com) This could be the price difference and Overwatch has yet to see a high level of success in ESports.
One drawback to this system is we will start seeing the end of challenger leagues. This will mean that groups will no longer all have the chance to join the ranks of teams like Team Liquid or Cloud9. Instead, you would have to be recruited to them to play at the highest levels. The effect on players moral I can only speculate but the hurdle to make it into the franchise is pretty high. Very few people have a few million laying around especially if they are playing Battlefront 2.
There is also the really big question in the air of what happens if one of these games goes under. Games tend to have a life of 1-3 years and then fizzle into the abyss with some exceptions. Counter-Strike, DotA, Starcraft, and LoL have all seemed to pass the test of time for now. This could not be the case in a few years. Every day more games that have a potential for a great ESports scene like Battlerite enters the arena with faster gameplay and more skill based PvP mechanics. Then again these games could fall into the nothingness like Bloodborne.
A better solution is tournaments franchising to teams. Games are so fluid in how long they last that a single competitive scene can explode for a short time and then fizzle out just as fast. If there was a tournament or even an overall league that had several games that were popular at the time being played under their name then franchising would make more sense. They would have the ability to be more flexible and not have to worry about the success or failure of a single company but in the overall popularity of video games. It would be less believable to think that games are going away anytime soon then an individual title.
It's a pretty exciting time in the world of ESports. As someone who wished to play Halo as a professional but grew up without believing there was a world to do it in, I am happy one is being put together. At the same time, the ground seems a to be a little shaky and early failure might lead to a longer period of time for ESports to be legitimized in the mainstream. Let's hope for a better outcome than that.
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