[sixcube]

Hi all!

I am new to the forums, but have been part of Singapore e-Sports scene back in the old days since WCG started. I have organised and hosted many gaming events both online and offline, and have been looking at the potential of Starcraft 2 as the new e-Sports scene for both South-East Asia and the APAC regions.

I am currently overseas with a company who wants to run some grassroot tournaments and events with good cash prizes for the SEA community especially, and would also like to know the motivations for you guys to participate in it. Ideally it would also give me a better understanding to how we can build up the SC2 community in Asia as well.

I have a list of questions that would assist me in my planning, and would like to know the responses about it. I thank all in advance for looking at the thread, and if you can answer it with your most honest responses, I gladly appreciate the effort to do so.

1) If I were to run a series of leagues with good cash prizes weekly and monthly in a seasonal format, would the prize money constantly motivate you to participate in it?
2) What would you like to have more of, online leagues or offline events?
3) From a technical viewpoint, what are the ideal implementations you would like to have in such competitions? (from things like streaming, latency)
4) Would you considered subscribing towards premium content produced (HD quality)at a low cost such as shows and live casting?
5) Would you like to be a part of this community building process? (from being game referees, casters, tournament admins etc.)

I gladly praise the efforts of what nirvana has done for the sc2 SEA community lately, and would also wish to assist him in doing so if I have the capability as well but I would like to see the ideal tournaments/games/competitions you guys hope to see, when it is organised.

Once again, I thank everyone for reading this thread once you open it and read it till this very point.

thank you

[progrezzion]

1.Yes
2.Offline
3.Online stream
4.Yes i will consider
5.Yes if i have the time

On a side note it would be ideal to collaborate with other ppl with similar ideas such as HDpheonix? Combining resources can help to create something bigger.

[HuT]

Sounds like you've got some solid ideas for the SEA scene. If you need any help, I personally would be interested in helping as I want to pursue a career in promoting e-sports.

[NvPinder]

big offline events with enough money to warrent top players traveling is the one thing this scene is missing atm imo, everything else is like, perfect.

[sixcube]

Good to hear that. Thanks progrezzion, HuT and JPmoney. As the planning stage continues, we would take it into consideration to facilitate the community building too.

@JPmoney I would probably take it into the perspective that no matter what the prize money is, a player must also actively promote him/herself to sponsors to get enough money to travel constantly. My experience taught me that managing a team of professional gamers especially was never to rely on the grand prize, or the way the glamour of the korean e-Sports circuit have. It is the constant sponsorship of teams that help to facilitate a better growth of the community, as well as to sustain an ambition of gaming as a career.. of course, during the process of running those leagues/tournaments, I am hoping to assist players who wish to be sponsored, get connected to the right people.

[Restless_]

1. Yes, I believe most players would be consistently motivated to participate whenever there is a decent prize pool.
2. Both would be fine, but when LAN is implemented, more offline events are certainly welcome. I'd suggest something that balances both online and offline.
3. Online streaming definitely.
4. If it's really cost effective for me, then I might consider buying the HD content.
5. I could lend some help if I have the time, but since I'm enlisting soon, I doubt so lol. And some part of me still prefer to be the competitor right now :P.

[nirvAnA]

Its nice you have contacts with sponsors. If you could hook sc2sea up it would be cool, we could run week tournies and stuff in exchange for maybe displaying the sponsor's image somewhere. Or of course you could run them if you like, we are actually quite short staffed atm. Maybe PM me your msn and we can talk about it? Lately i have been talking to a few big name sponsors but its tough because they either hesitate to get involved because of some sponsor politics or just want to sponsor too little to make it worthwhile as prizes. I feel the community is already here and is quite big, what we need now are regular stable events with nice prizes to make it grow bigger and turn into this often heard mythical term called "eSports".

1) Yoz's weekly $25 first only payout prizes already gets considerable attention. With a prize pool of say $100 there will be alot more interest. Look at Dogsi's monthly events! Pretty big turnouts. Also maybe have smaller prizes like $10 for non-diamonds to encourage them and discourage the diamond players from playing in them. If you want something of the highest level think back to the WD PSI tourney with $5k worth of prizes and the absolute best of SEA competing.

2) Offline for me.
3) Streaming. Latency is dependent on the users location/connection isnt it?
4) Yea if it has high quality production. Like the oGs house tour produced by that german company, that was awesome stuff ill pay to see
5) Yeap, i have been

[Mezza]

1) If I were to run a series of leagues with good cash prizes weekly and monthly in a seasonal format, would the prize money constantly motivate you to participate in it?

it'll be an incentive but it won't be my only motivation to play, but i'd imagine there would be people who would be motivated by the prize money

2) What would you like to have more of, online leagues or offline events?

online events as feeders, turning into offline events for finals and spectacular spectacles for all to watch. online also to promote the local/regional scene. offline may be too far out of reach for most players, the point is to get the community involved.

3) From a technical viewpoint, what are the ideal implementations you would like to have in such competitions? (from things like streaming, latency)

streaming/vods. those are absolutely essential to 1. archive the event, 2. pull in sponsorship money to sustain the scene.

4) Would you considered subscribing towards premium content produced (HD quality)at a low cost such as shows and live casting?

yes, i already subscribe to GSL, if there's quality local/regional event, why not

5) Would you like to be a part of this community building process? (from being game referees, casters, tournament admins etc.)

yes! already doing all those things right now, looking for more opportunities to do more of it

others:
i like the idea of concurrent events, to allow diamonds and non diamonds to compete simultaneously with differing prize pools

[Torniquet]

Originally Posted by sixcube

Hi all!
I gladly praise the efforts of what nirvana has done for the sc2 SEA community lately,

Ouch.


2) Both.
3) Online stream and VODs
4) Possibly
5) Yes.

[Unstable]

1) If I were to run a series of leagues with good cash prizes weekly and monthly in a seasonal format, would the prize money constantly motivate you to participate in it?

Depends on what kind of league, there are already alot of different weekly/frotnightly etc events. We already almost have a full weeks schedule so it might be worth sitting down with some of the other event organisers to see if you could help each other out or someting, last thing we need in SEA atm is 2 events at the same time to kill attendance for both. pooling resources for better tournaments = win

2) What would you like to have more of, online leagues or offline events?
Online events will always be more popular, while i do support offline events you will need a much bigger prize pool than online to attract the interest of sponsors to send their own players. you did mention this

Originally Posted by sixcube

@JPmoney I would probably take it into the perspective that no matter what the prize money is, a player must also actively promote him/herself to sponsors to get enough money to travel constantly. My experience taught me that managing a team of professional gamers especially was never to rely on the grand prize, or the way the glamour of the korean e-Sports circuit have. It is the constant sponsorship of teams that help to facilitate a better growth of the community, as well as to sustain an ambition of gaming as a career.. of course, during the process of running those leagues/tournaments, I am hoping to assist players who wish to be sponsored, get connected to the right people.

However this i beleive is the wrong way to look at it, Sponsors sponsor their players so they can get exposure, for EG if AMSI were to send its players from melbourne to SG to attend a lan event, they almost definatly wouldnt do it if the event didnt have a bigger prize pool because they have, flights/accomodation/food etc to account for which could cost them thousands to even do. "My experience taught me that managing a team of professional gamers especially was never to rely on the grand prize,"
Very very very few sponsors, actually sponsor an event because they want to help the community, they say they do, but NO, they do it because it is easy cheap advertising that can help their company. The bigger prize pool, the more attendees, the more attendees the better the event , the better the event the better the exposure, that is how 99.9% of sponsors would look at it !

hmm that sounded kinda harsh but thats just my opinion lol

3) From a technical viewpoint, what are the ideal implementations you would like to have in such competitions? (from things like streaming, latency)
Going in order of importance.
High Priority
- Pick server early on, since you want SEA community then SEA only would be your only option in regards to latency with bnet this is not something you can control.

- All of these are of equal importance, "Rules" "Maps and how they they are chosen" "Event coverage replays/VOD's/livecasting" "smoothly run tournament" the final point both yoz and shocker have done a great job making their regular tournaments run extremely smoothly and it definatly makes the tournaments much more worthy.

- Advertising of the tournament and exposure. sc2sea.com/TL/cybergamer
getting it mentioned on other events like coth, the sea word, sea hwaiting
etc

Med Priority
- Prize pool/prize structure
- Tournament Format, Bo1/Bo3/Bo5 single elim double elim.

Low Priority
- Players in the tournament, if you want to build a community dont place alot of emphasis on whos already playing because the more high end players that are in the tournament a few people dont see the point in playing. this is STUPID i kno but tis the way it is


4) Would you considered subscribing towards premium content produced (HD quality)at a low cost such as shows and live casting?
While i personally do subscribe whenever I can, it is ALOT more expensive than you think to do a dedicated stream, you are much better off just using a high quality streamer thats already available.

5) Would you like to be a part of this community building process? (from being game referees, casters, tournament admins etc.)
Pretty sure I already do all i can so anything else i just wouldnt have time lol i am happy to consult though!

[sixcube]

Hi guys. once again, thanks for all the replies. I've been looking at them once I have the free time to do so.

I will definitely be working with a few of the media outlets to also push the community, as these are already part of the plans I have in mind while representing the overseas company.

Would you guys have anyone in mind to primely represent the SEA SC2 casters, as highly sought recommendations? I have seen some works, and I do see potentially good casters, but I can't be flying day[9] in as and when I liked

Also do let me know what are the most comfortable gaming settings the SEA side would have loved, in terms of match format, whether is it a ladder, double elim, single elim, etc.

Nirvana, I will be pm-ing you soon whenever I have the chance as I am really busy these days, but definitely I can reach the right sponsors who can help in your community tournaments at SC2SEA.

I'm definitely not expecting miracles of repeating what Korea did for Brood War's e-Sports scene, but starting at a good pace would be ideal.

We can build the community as it goes along, and I do see you guys putting in the efforts to ensure that this will go down successfully Please do share with me what you believe will benefit the SEA scene the most, as primarily in your territories as well, whether is it of the Oceania Regions, or the Asian regions. As a businessman, I have done my market research, but I work with the grassroot communities for most of the games I pushed back in the days, so I still would like to know what SC2's potential would be a viable way to promote, increase, and sustain a good growth among the communities that is represented in these regions of the world.