The Ugly

We've had the Good and the Bad, now it's time Stuart "TosspoT" Saw to gives us the Ugly.

In the article he explores the long term ramifcations of the CGS shutting down in his virgin column here on Cadred. This is the final part of a three part series, you can find the previous two below and vote on your favorite in the poll at the bottom of the article.

Links: Part One: The Bad
Links: Part Two: The Good

Money

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First and foremost, eSports is about money. Money makes the eSports world go round and a big chunk of change just went missing. In the UK alone in 2008 the CGS brought in $1.2 million which is more than all UK based prize purses in eSports put together. That figure is generated through 10 players on $30k salaries per team and two teams ($600k), 2 general managers on $50k ($100k) and the $500k won by Birmingham Salvo which doesn’t include the prize money from the CGS combine or the MVP awards. Put that on a global scale and you’re looking at another 12 franchises of 10 players and 1 GM and the figure rises; $4.2 million that just got sucked out of eSports pockets. Not to mention the writing and coverage staff that were all paid and the figure rises further, in the 2 years the CGS operated it gave away almost $10 million.

Photo: Max Silver \ Cadred

I’m not here to debate whether that’s good or bad, we did that in two articles already. However when ten million dollars goes away its effects are widespread. Suddenly several hundred people find themselves unemployed, people who sacrificed a great deal to follow their dream of being a professional gamer are now left with a bitter taste in their mouth. Western eSports just went from being an approximately $15 million prize purse industry to perhaps a $5 million prize purse at best. The pie of opportunity just got a lot smaller.

 

R.I.P America

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Secondly North American eSports is at its knees. A country that was once the land of opportunity for budding pro-gamers is now left with just two organizations catering to a huge field. The home of CPL, WSVG, GGL and more now has MLG and CEVO and MLG doesn’t cater to what we here on Cadred might consider eSports. Now the Counter Strike players, whether they’re going to play Source or 1.6 have just the CEVO online season to look forward to, in years gone by we’d be just 3 weeks shy of CPL winter in Dallas. However even if there was an event in Dallas, how would the players get there?

The North American clan scene also finds itself in peril. Top brands 3D & Complexity have been sold off to the CGS and whether they will be recovered is debatable. Those sides could afford to salary their Counter-Strike teams and then had several other divisions as well, right now they’re dead and buried pending whether their former owners can re-purchase them. In their wake Pandemic and Gravitas have grown, but not to the same stature both teams do have the ability to send teams around the globe; however Gravitas’ attention appears more global focused and Pandemic have seen success in World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. The biggest growth has been found by Canadians, EG who now appear to have some real financial muscle. The reality is the North American CS scene has been ripped apart and must rebuild some form of infrastructure that was torn apart by the CGS.

European Effect?

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If America is in tatters, then Europe… isn’t. In the two years of the CGS, the ESL has grown at a record pace now offering $750k in one of their tournaments alone. The infrastructure of Europe appears to be much stronger with prize purses generally appearing sustainable and a number of regional budgets from which to pull them from. Most of the G7 teams have seen their budgets increased and their user bases and followings rise also. SK posted record web traffic in October, Fnatic have new sponsors and MYM are funded to the rafters. Beneath the G7 there are a number smaller organizations on a sounder financial footing and games outside of CS such as Call of Duty have found prize purses easier to come by.

The Extreme Masters is just one of the successful events to come out of Europe. Image courtesy of ESL

Image

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The most hypothetical ramification is of what the image of The CGS did for eSports. Whether the glitzy entertainment based show was what people want shown as eSports, because for many this isn’t what they played. They played CS 1.6 with MR15 and a money system and nobody was screaming and shouting at the opponents and nobody was cheering them on in the background with inflatable boom sticks. Actually…they did, cast your eyes back to WCG just a few weeks ago and the CGS method of displaying eSports was evident, just done the Korean producers way. That way was more subtle and had an air of Korean dignity that DoA4 players throwing money into the crowd didn’t, DoA4 a game that without CGS was just a button bashing haven.

I don’t buy into this argument; the Koreans have proven with their Starcraft that the glitz and the glamour puts out the exact same message the CGS was trying to do, it just doesn’t use sports/realism titles to demonstrate what eSports is. Considering that CGS was going out on entertainment channels rather than sports, it did a good job of ticking both boxes.

So...

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The CGS is gone, it gave out $10 million, it took North American eSports under its bosoms and it collapsed with them and it put out an image of eSports that some didn’t like. In summary, that’s quite an achievement in just 2 years!

Photo: Max Silver \ Cadred