TCM-Gaming Console Manager Michael "Emotion" Kent's weekly feature, this week he takes a look at money is Esports from another perspective - those who "benefit" from it.
This feature is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of TCM-Gaming or the opinion of any affiliates or partners within the Esports Entertaiment Network.
So I have been tasked with writing an article each week for TCM, although my writing skills are questionable it is still quite an honour to know I am trusted and have been given the chance to express my sometimes dubious opinion. Many of you probably don't know who I am and therefore I would suggest you firstly read my bio on the roster page here and also familiarise yourself with the website I help run, Decerto.net. There you will find some of my interviews and news posts on the console world.
So anyway back to this article. I wanted to write something about money after reading an article over on Cadred about 'Sugar Daddys'. I don't think it was any secret who Dr. Gonzo was referring to, however I wanted to speak less about the people funding it and more about the people taking it and their mentality.
For the record I am not getting paid for this article. It would be nice to get paid for esport journalism work, however I am realistic in knowing that I haven’t produced enough good work to warrant being paid and I know that in the grand scheme of business this article will only get TCM-Gaming around 3 pence in extra ad revenue. I am writing this for my own experience and more importantly because I enjoy working within the esports community; if I can eventually get a job from it then so be it, however I would want to know that my position was there because I had earned it and not because I had got lucky and received some small status of notoriety.
I am clearly a born winner...
When I first started competitive gaming it was with a huge social 'clan' called ICE Clan UK. The team consisted of around 100 gamers that varied from ages 10 to 50, some barely capable of holding a controller and some who were pretty decent and dedicated players. I first met them in a lobby on Rainbow Six and at the time I was just a public gamer, not really knowing about teams or matches, not knowing about anything other than turning on my Xbox and loading up a match which I would play then leave. These guys let me into ICE without much hesitation, realising I was obviously not much of a weirdo and that I could speak basic English.
I became quite a fanatical member, slowly rising through the invisible ranks that didn’t really exist until became one of the top members of the organisation. I helped with everything from running the 'elite' team of players who played on behalf of the clan to helping organise the paintballing days for our gatherings. At no point was there money involved and at the time console gaming was in its utter infancy and being a top player meant you got recognition and nothing else.
I eventually moved on from the ICE Clan and joined one of the top European teams. Although this sounds impressive, in reality it really wasn’t. It was probably one of the top five teams in a community of about 20 teams. Every game you played mattered and it was all about recognition and respect, again money never came into it. The skill level was high amongst the teams which meant it was hard for any new teams to break in and make a name for themselves, all for a tournament that would be hosted on a website somewhere and offered no prize.
United We Stand – Divided We Fall. Simpler Times
Flash forward to today's community where teams will come and go from organisations because of money and what they are not receiving. Back when I was a player and someone said to me 'I will pay your expenses to go to an event and play for money' then I would have bitten their hand off, not sat and tried to work out what else I would get from the deal.
Since when has it been about the money and not gaming? Realistically most top players - unless you’re into international 1.6 or Halo 3 in the US - would be on a wage less than a Chinese sweat shop worker yet they claim it's all about what is coming in and not about playing and that the game is dead otherwise.
Why the hell would you play a game you didn't like for hours on end a day when you could go out and get a job that would pay 10x more for probably half the effort and stress? It annoys me that esports - and that of console especially - has turned into this big chase for money yet it seems no one appreciates that it has to come from somewhere; it can't just appear from the magic esport money tree.
Gotta love autum in the Esport Garden
Big investors have come into the console scene recently and it has seen a number of EU console teams actually salaried and often instead of being grateful that they are being paid to play a game, they are instead insistent that they are entitled to this like it's almost their god given right and that they have earned it.
There are some big events coming up, particularly the first ECL event as it’s certainly the biggest ever in Europe, and although they have huge prize pots there was a bizarre piece of criticism from certain FIFA players who demanded more than £1,500 for first place. The players said they were too used to winning £5,000 to £10,000 and felt that £1,500 was too little to play for.
ONE THOUSAND AND FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS to play a game on an XBOX and you think that is too little? It completely dumbfounded me. All because he had been spoilt by big tournaments and therefore suggesting because 5-10k was a standard they was used to.
ONLY £1500? BAH
I think esports needs to taken a peg down and look at itself seriously; it’s a rapidly growing industry but speedy growth could impact the development by creating divides between the hardcore community and those who play casually. We need to get back to playing a game because we enjoy and love playing, not because we might make some money out of it.
People also need to start being realistic and stop thinking that this money will always be there, we need to create infrastructure and real community to fall back on before we start complaining that we might only win £100 at a LAN event each if we do come first.
Let's play games because we want to, not because we feel we have to.
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