Quote:
Originally Posted by Gospy
I can't honestly see that being the case. It would take a ton of money to "blow away" the GSL payouts. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I can't wrap my mind around that. I mean why would a potential sponsor or group of sponsors spend that much money?
One, they don't need to. MLG has shown that. Spend just enough to make it lucrative for desired pros to play. (See disparity between Halo and SC). In other words, if you can spend 50k and get all of the best NA Players to show, why spend 60k? Sponsors want to see Player A, Player B, etc. Spend the minimum to get them.
Two, pro gaming just isn't that popular here. Not as a spectator sport and the depth of talent just doesn't exist either.
I'm not saying it can't grow but it hasn't yet.
The game has sold 4.5 MILLION copies. Watching SC2 online, especially in NA, is wildly popular. People who play SC2 are very likely to gamble. Sony (although they may be exclusive) and their competitors are likely very interested to sponsor it.
This other company called Blizzard will also probably throw lots of $$ at it.
GSL payouts really aren't that high. It wouldn't take much to make it more lucrative to play here.
Look at how well G4 has done. Look at how much ****** women's basketball they have on TV that barely anyone watches but companies still endorse, throw money at and televise. Yes, I realize that there's a caveat there that it makes a company look good with equality, but this would open it up to a brand new demographic.
Now I'm not saying it will be on TV (although I think it will be in the future, at least on some PPV or G4 or something), but making a webcast profitable really can't be that hard. Freaking Dynasty averages 3k viewers on his channel these days. Day9 gets 10-15k. Husky pulls 200+k an upload. There's a lot of $$ sitting out there.
If HuskyStarcraft can make 6 figures (and he definitely does make at least 100k), then why can't a NA league offer at least 100-200k/yr in prizes? Think about how much bigger than Husky they could be (and Husky is about as big as it gets "mainstream" when it comes to games).