I am writing on behalf of SEAcraftTV. SEAcraftTV is an oceania based e-sports broadcasting and production group, specializing in Starcraft 2 content. Our flagship broadcast, SEAcraft Weekly, is a Starcraft 2 tournament which is the largest weekly tournament of its kind in the South-East Asian region. We also run SEAcraft Melee, which is a SEA only tournament for up-and-coming talents in our region.
However due to some financial difficulties, I myself may not be able to contribute the $70 a week contribution that I have set myself. I am therefore reaching out to the community to ask for help. I was hoping that I would be able to get through this on my own, but with changes to my financial status, and Rent, Food and other things that have priority at the moment, I no longer have the comfort of being able to support SEAcraftTV. Therefore I am reaching out to the community.
SEAcraft Weekly has been running continually since May 2014, with a prize pool of $100, with the introduction of SEAcraft Melee which has a prize pool of $70. SEAcraftTV gives away almost $680 per month. We run both international and SEA only competitions changing the format each week. Our goal in this regards is both to foster growth in the South-East Asian Starcraft Scene as well as giving the chance for SEA players to prove their mettle against the best in the world. To date SEAcraftTV has given away over $3000 in prize money to its competitors.
The SEAcraft Weekly tournament also boasts an incredible participant list from local talents such as Exile 5's PiG, mYi'Blysk and IPT'EnDerr to international household names such as Startale'Life, Samsung Khan's Solar and Axiom'Heart. We have also had a chance to showcase some rising stars in the SEA and Chinese starcraft scenes.
SEAcraftTV would like to continue our success in this region, as well as globally. SEAcraftTV aims to become one of the largest and most well respected content provider in the SEA scene with links to an international audience.
As of now SEAcraft Weekly has been funded by myself and the generous weekly donations by Leigh 'Maynarde' Mandalov, SEAcraft Melee is funded by myself and Brandon 'Ronso' McGrath.
The question is, what can be offer our sponsors in return for their support? Since its inception, SEAcraft Weekly has had an average concurrent viewership of 157 per Weekly. We can offer to run advertisements for your product during the ad break of our tournament, as well as place your logo up on the stream at various times during the live-stream of the tournament.
Below is the average concurrent viewers for August, September, November of 2014 and January 2015
As you can see from the graphs on the next page, we on average are getting between 150-200 viewers for SEAcraft Weekly and we have reached over 300 on a few occasions. Our current aim is to make SEAcraft Weekly friendly, not only to competitors, but also to audience and to increase participation in both groups.
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I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this doucment and look forward to future discussions about the future of SEAcraft Weekly and SEAcraftTV.
yours sincerely,
William Hebblewhite.
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twitter PhilosopherSC2
Every zerg who goes SH must die ~ Nemesis
Last edited by Philosopher; Tue, 3rd-Feb-2015 at 9:57 AM.
Really appreciate all the work you do for the SEA scene and community, Philo!!! You one of the big helpers around here and has definitely boosted the scene back up again. Hope you get the needed help you get coz you sure deserve it (and the other dudes helping). Can't wait for more stuff from SEAcraft It has done well
it's amazing how much you contribute to the community not just financially didn't realize it was this much. I'd love to help too but I'm tied up team expenses... anyone that can should.
Ever think of doing bimonthly instead? temporarily until someone steps up?
Going to be tough considering how many people here are students without significant amounts of steady income. Who are the sponsors of SEAcraft? Is it funded entirely out of your pocket/donations of others?
I know that the rest of the community loves SEAcraft and the talent that gets put on show each week. I'm possibly going to be in a better financial position in the future but I can't guarantee anything at this stage. I guess a lot of people will say that, but at the end of the day, you've got to eat and keep a roof over your head. If that means cutting down the prize money, or number of tournaments per month, so be it I say.
Maynarde donates $50 per week to SEAcraft Weekly...and Ronso pays the bulk of SEAcraft Melee with $50...I make up the rest, totallying $70 per week. No other sponsors.
The problem is that given my current financial status, I can no longer contribute anything to SEAcraftTV (am able to pay out this week). Even putting in $50 a month at the moment is no longer viable until I get back some employment, even affording transportation to and from University is getting to be a struggle lol. This is why I'm asking for community help..I'm currently looking for some employment (Uni contractually obligated to only work ~14hrs a week), and the possibility of moving to a cheaper residence. Don't want to see SEAcraft end because I feel we're actually starting to make some good strides...and opening up to more people, but I gotta live lol.
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twitter PhilosopherSC2
Every zerg who goes SH must die ~ Nemesis
Last edited by Philosopher; Tue, 3rd-Feb-2015 at 11:15 AM.
Maybe reduce to either each event happening every other week (e.g. one week seacraft weekly the next week melee) or 1 out of the 2 events only but still weekly (e.g. only seacraft weekly but every week) for now? Then Maynarde's and Ronso's contributions can be combined to a singular event which will make it affordable until the finances can be sorted out?
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player in
"and we'll invest more on Bots, as our first Trial bot, the 'NemBotElie' was a huge success, organising tournaments and being part of the Council of mGG. But there are a few bugs in which the bot cannot go past the skill level of a Platinum Protoss." - PaRAnorMaL
Philosopher, we had a quick conversation about it before and it is good to bring it to everybody's attention. SeaCraft Weeklies are "public property", everybody likes it and reaches its ultimate goal: assist rising stars to get their career up and running.
Of course we will find a solution for it, but until we come to how much can be spent on each tournament, try to answer the 2 important questions people already asked:
- Can the prize pool be smaller? Will it negatively impact in any way?
- Can the tournament be every 2 weeks, or 3, or monthly? Negative impacts?
I don't understand a thing about tournaments except watching them, but I feel comfortable to give a couple of suggestions. Does SeaCraft TV make something out of this large effort? No? Maybe make some cool merchandise from the brand, like t-shirts or whatever aussies and fans would like to consume? Are there any other tournaments that are exclusively sponsored privately, because I haven't heard of any other?
Rest assured that SeaCraftTV will not be over, it just needs some adjustments and maybe it has come the time to transition it from passion to work, in the sense that it must bring something to the table (it probably does and I just don't know). I will assist, just need to think how to fit it into my "esports budget".
Having this open conversation is very good, people might have great ideas but no opportunity to show them.
Philosopher, we had a quick conversation about it before and it is good to bring it to everybody's attention. SeaCraft Weeklies are "public property", everybody likes it and reaches its ultimate goal: assist rising stars to get their career up and running.
Of course we will find a solution for it, but until we come to how much can be spent on each tournament, try to answer the 2 important questions people already asked:
- Can the prize pool be smaller? Will it negatively impact in any way?
- Can the tournament be every 2 weeks, or 3, or monthly? Negative impacts?
I don't understand a thing about tournaments except watching them, but I feel comfortable to give a couple of suggestions. Does SeaCraft TV make something out of this large effort? No? Maybe make some cool merchandise from the brand, like t-shirts or whatever aussies and fans would like to consume? Are there any other tournaments that are exclusively sponsored privately, because I haven't heard of any other?
Rest assured that SeaCraftTV will not be over, it just needs some adjustments and maybe it has come the time to transition it from passion to work, in the sense that it must bring something to the table (it probably does and I just don't know). I will assist, just need to think how to fit it into my "esports budget".
Having this open conversation is very good, people might have great ideas but no opportunity to show them.
Can the prize pool be smaller? Will it negatively impact in any way?
Means can't be hosted on Teamliquid from which a large number of our viewers come. Less prize pool means less incentive for some players to play. Less OSC points available.
Can the tournament be every 2 weeks, or 3, or monthly? Negative impacts?
Too inconsistent, not able to build on consistent viewership. SC2SEA falls back into the problem of having very little in terms of weekly tournaments and scene starts to die again.
Does SeaCraft TV make something out of this large effort? No? Maybe make some cool merchandise from the brand, like t-shirts or whatever aussies and fans would like to consume? Are there any other tournaments that are exclusively sponsored privately, because I haven't heard of any other?
Get no return on investment but that was a guarantee from the beginning. Can't produce merchandise, don't have the money to run the tournament, let alone buy merchandise to sell. Can't get sponsors because viewership is inadequate for sponsors to get anything from it.
Eddie and FluX have kindly, kindly donated some money to keep the tournaments running for a little. We can have 8 more Melee events with the continuning support of Eddie and Ronso, and a couple more SEAcraft Weekly events because of FluX.
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twitter PhilosopherSC2
Every zerg who goes SH must die ~ Nemesis
Last edited by Philosopher; Wed, 4th-Feb-2015 at 10:28 AM.
Philosopher, first of all, praise to you, Ronso, Maynarde, and everybody else who puts personal recources on a project they know the return is not guaranteed.
I took note of some suggestions to be evaluated, if you let me:
- Help from Crowdfunding for the most popular event, Weeklies or Melee. Keep private sponsoring for the other one until a new source of $$$ steps in;
- Are the japanese players in teams? If so, maybe try to establish a partnership with them, also disclosing in local media? Work in partnership with team managers from out of AU/NZ, if not being done already? Players and fanbase are the most valuable assets, but a good relationship with those in charge is important for growth;
- Arthur and Spear are known players in Korea. Do they spread the word about SeaCraftTV's tournaments in their Twitters? I'm asking due to ignorance, I really don't know;
- Maybe think of a live show by skype conference with players in evidence, winners of tournaments, OSC casters, team principals, to discuss miscellaneous subjects like: what is your preparation method before tournaments; are there strategies that you like and dislike; are you willing to make a living from progaming; how do you see the SC2 scene from 2010 and 2015; what are your expectations from LotV; discuss korean tournaments; discuss the european and american scenes; how do you see Life's accomplishments compared to those who preceded him, like MVP and Nestea; do a technical/unbiased discussion about balance; draw a panorama with SC2 and its competitors like CS:GO, LoL, Heroes of the Storm.
As you can see, these ideas will cost no money, but will cost a lot of time and planning. They will also not bring immediate resources but they will build audience, which in turn will bring resources.
Though SeaCraftTV has a loyal fanbase, it is now obvious that it needs to reach additional audiences to grow the numbers, and then finally be more attractive to new sponsors. It fully accomplishes what it is supposed to, fun and players support, but right now it needs more than just injection of resources, the well will eventually run dry again if it's not self-sufficient.
Please let me know if you disagree with something. I wrote stuff with limited knowledge on SeaCraftTV, so excuse my mistakes.
Philosopher, first of all, praise to you, Ronso, Maynarde, and everybody else who puts personal recources on a project they know the return is not guaranteed.
I took note of some suggestions to be evaluated, if you let me:
- Help from Crowdfunding for the most popular event, Weeklies or Melee. Keep private sponsoring for the other one until a new source of $$$ steps in;
- Are the japanese players in teams? If so, maybe try to establish a partnership with them, also disclosing in local media? Work in partnership with team managers from out of AU/NZ, if not being done already? Players and fanbase are the most valuable assets, but a good relationship with those in charge is important for growth;
- Arthur and Spear are known players in Korea. Do they spread the word about SeaCraftTV's tournaments in their Twitters? I'm asking due to ignorance, I really don't know;
- Maybe think of a live show by skype conference with players in evidence, winners of tournaments, OSC casters, team principals, to discuss miscellaneous subjects like: what is your preparation method before tournaments; are there strategies that you like and dislike; are you willing to make a living from progaming; how do you see the SC2 scene from 2010 and 2015; what are your expectations from LotV; discuss korean tournaments; discuss the european and american scenes; how do you see Life's accomplishments compared to those who preceded him, like MVP and Nestea; do a technical/unbiased discussion about balance; draw a panorama with SC2 and its competitors like CS:GO, LoL, Heroes of the Storm.
As you can see, these ideas will cost no money, but will cost a lot of time and planning. They will also not bring immediate resources but they will build audience, which in turn will bring resources.
Though SeaCraftTV has a loyal fanbase, it is now obvious that it needs to reach additional audiences to grow the numbers, and then finally be more attractive to new sponsors. It fully accomplishes what it is supposed to, fun and players support, but right now it needs more than just injection of resources, the well will eventually run dry again if it's not self-sufficient.
Please let me know if you disagree with something. I wrote stuff with limited knowledge on SeaCraftTV, so excuse my mistakes.
Thanks again for all the suggestions Saulo, I've noted down my replies.
Help from Crowdfunding for the most popular event, Weeklies or Melee. Keep private sponsoring for the other one until a new source of $$$ steps in;
I've been thinking about this, but besides shoutouts and replay packs I don't know if I can offer anything else. And even with the replay packs, legtimiately people will only want replays of the cream of the crop of players, which would include the games from the International version and only a few games from teh SEA version. They're not gonna want a replay of for example RONSO vs. Slayer because there is no benefit to them having a replay like that. In order to crowdfund you need to give incentives to crowdfund and I don't think I have anything worthwhile to offer. If I could think of incentives, I would definitely set up a small crowdfunding experiment
Are the japanese players in teams? If so, maybe try to establish a partnership with them, also disclosing in local media? Work in partnership with team managers from out of AU/NZ, if not being done already? Players and fanbase are the most valuable assets, but a good relationship with those in charge is important for growth;
Not sure how to reply to this one. I let players and team-coaches know all the time about SEAcraft Weekly. Axiom gets regular updates, as do Startale. European teams and NA teams make it a bit difficult because of timezone, which I don't really have any intention of changing because then it puts our guys at another disadvantage.
Arthur and Spear are known players in Korea. Do they spread the word about SeaCraftTV's tournaments in their Twitters? I'm asking due to ignorance, I really don't know;
They are known, but they aren't well-known if you understand me. I don't think they advertise that much and not sure how much they're advertising would help. I would think we might get a few korean viewers who would then leave because we can't offer a korean language cast.
Maybe think of a live show by skype conference with players in evidence, winners of tournaments, OSC casters, team principals, to discuss miscellaneous subjects like: what is your preparation method before tournaments; are there strategies that you like and dislike; are you willing to make a living from progaming; how do you see the SC2 scene from 2010 and 2015; what are your expectations from LotV; discuss korean tournaments; discuss the european and american scenes; how do you see Life's accomplishments compared to those who preceded him, like MVP and Nestea; do a technical/unbiased discussion about balance; draw a panorama with SC2 and its competitors like CS:GO, LoL, Heroes of the Storm
There is already REMAX and The Late Game for this, as well as other generalized shows. Not sure if another show like this, with unknown people is gonnna help out that much.
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twitter PhilosopherSC2
Every zerg who goes SH must die ~ Nemesis
One of the key things for me, as I've both been a spectator and a player at different times first and formost, is it's hard to follow the branding of all our events.
We have the OSC tournaments that run at seemingly "random" times for outsiders to our scene, and we have SEACraft, Hairy Smash, and all the other SEA leagues like SEACL and shit over time.
If we're going to build exposure I'd honestly consider merging everything we broadcast on TL and outside sc2sea under one umbrella, like the OSC.
SEA itself is a derogatory term that is going to turn many viewers away, not giving us a chance.
Once all the quality content is united under one umbrella, viewers of twitch and TL can start to build more familiarity with the scene - hopefully giving us more of a chance.
Also as a sidenote, we did use to have weekly-ish talk shows hosted first by System and then by Kez, but they were honestly terrible and I don't ever want to see them return unless we have better hosts, production value and something we're not ashamed for outsiders to see. Otherwise it becomes an extension of circlejerking from the forums/skype at best.
Deth, I was going to comment about the fractioning of the tournaments and organizations, so I already agree with most of what you wrote and I think myself that, don't know how to say in English, the union makes everybody stronger. It definitely makes it easier for viewers to remember the scene.
I can't comment on the rest because I have just arrived. Will probably write again tomorrow because I have to sleep now. But union is the key and I myself missed great opportunities, personal projects, for not teaming up. It is a mistake I will not commit again.
They aren't fractured. Seacraft Weeklies and Melee are partnered OSC tournaments. They award our points, use our logo, bounties/other rewards, and we help advertise and encourage participation. They use our brand to help grow their own. OSC is the league, Seacraft, Masters Cups, Hairy Bash, etc are the tournament, in the same way WCS is the league, IEM, Dreamhack are individual tournaments.
I know OSC now has a lot of interest globally from players and teams who are keen to play, but like Philo said, we hindered by the times we can run tournaments, which is the biggest issue. For the bigger tournaments, we make the times more neutral/weekends, but for weeklies that doesn't work, needs to be in the evenings ANZ time.These smaller weeklies are vital to support the player base in our own region, but are never likely to get big audiences due to when they are run. They are a passion project, so community support/crowd funding, or local sponsors are the way to go.
I think I didn't express my point clearly enough - I know they're all partnered tournaments and the league is working really well. But if I was on the outside looking in, outside of SEA, I probably wouldn't know this is the case.
All I'm really suggesting is when we put this stuff on TL, use a [OSC] bracket to designate the league and then list what tournament it is, and make the branding clearer. In threads and other communication keep this branding up, and expand it further.
Just small changes that are actually really easy to implement and could have a positive impact on viewership.. all marketing really - nothing really has to change with the administration and creation of the events/tournies because I think that everyone's actually doing a phenomenal job right now in that regard.
It's all a bit off-topic for this thread, but I kinda agree with most of deth's points. It's not easy to tell at a glance which tournaments are part of OSC and which aren't (it's pretty much all the weekly stuff in SEA at least atm).
It's also not easy to keep up to date with the points/rankings. They're kind of a small thing on the sidebar here or you have to go find the link to a google doc (which I can't even look at from work cause apparently that shit is dangerous for data security :/).
Would be cool to have an actual OSC portal with the rankings on it and a list of partnered tournaments and when they are running to make it easier for viewers/players to find events to watch to keep up with the whole circuit.
Also with the points list, maybe make a real separate page about it, formatted nicely, rather than link an Excel spreadsheet.
It does not have to be updated dynamically, just has to be done say maybe once every 2-3 days, and only list the top 10.
I also like the little teaser box on the right. I know a few people who regularly check WCS points standings. OCS points standings would get more awareness with such a thing, and I personally would highlight it a bit more from our PSISTORM.com page.
The SEACraftTV team do incredible work in creating these opportunities for players, as well as the community as a whole. I have to say it will be hard moving forward when there seems to be a shortfall of funding in the scene as a whole.
A lot of people have raised some really solid points as to the short term and long term options for SEACraftTV as a whole. I think a good short term option would be to reduce the number of tournaments, just for the pure and simple reason of the continuity of the tournament (even if this means that the lull for tournaments within SEA is short term). But moving forward the alternative funding options are important to consider, especially in light of the fact that you, like a large majority of the scene, are a student and obviously that comes with a limited budget as Billy has kindly raised.
Continuous Content:
Quote:
Originally Posted by deth
Also as a sidenote, we did use to have weekly-ish talk shows hosted first by System and then by Kez, but they were honestly terrible and I don't ever want to see them return unless we have better hosts, production value and something we're not ashamed for outsiders to see.
A good point to consider, if you potentially reduced the number of tournaments, could the time between series be used in order to produce more free to produce content? Surely even half an hour - an hour segments could be used in order to attract viewership.
Brand Recognition:
I know that there is a Twitter, but what of other social media? What else could be used to get the SEACraftTV brand out there? And subsequently, what else could be shown to help show potential sponsors what avenues are out there for marketing opportunities?
Looking over some of the names of the participants in these weeklies, we can really bring in the right viewership providing that people are informed and have easy access to follow these weeklies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by |Erasmus|
Would be cool to have an actual OSC portal with the rankings on it and a list of partnered tournaments and when they are running to make it easier for viewers/players to find events to watch to keep up with the whole circuit.
This would be a sick idea, I know from personal experience, since I am sporadic in my visits to SC2SEA of late, a portal would make life so much easier to follow the series. It's a good way in order to allow casual followers (yes, as Spook would say at the moment I am a dirty casual T_T) good accessibility to keep track of their favourite players and the community at large.
Networking:
I think a few people have raise this idea, but realistically who do we know (collectively) that can help raise some support, via simple gestures such as social media etc, for the awareness of SEACraftTV?
Just a few points that came to me as I read through the OP/comments, I've overlapped a lot with what others have previously said, but I do hope things go well - it would truly be a shame not to be able to see the SEACraft weeklies and melee tournaments in the near future TT
Spartaz, I agree with your points and will comment from bottom to top:
- Speaking of awareness of SCTV, I can easily add a banner, a big announcement, whatever, to my homepage. Just keep in mind that my brand is new and I am in the process of building my viewership from eSports, but I can readily assist.
- Brand recognition and content, I also believe some free time to create content, talk shows, highlights of the month, would be beneficial. For newcomers, if they watch the highlights of the month (maybe a 5-10 min video), it might get them to watch more frequently. This also creates opportunities for players to show themselves, talk to people. In EU, for example, people are aware of the PIMP squad (Pig Iaguz Moonglade Petraeus), but where are the rising stars? People need to see them.
- I will send some minerals to Philosopher later this month. I'm working on photographic project and will spend a few days in Amsterdam (originally Germany to watch WCS and meet PiG, but I won't make it in time), which is consuming my resources of the month.
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