There was a bunch of unused space in the area next to the arcade and dealers room on the other side of the divider, how come they didn't just setup a bunch of tables there?
It is interesting to see a new sport go through the same processes and phases as more established sports. The idea that a player could think that a tournament organizer wanted a team to lose on purpose shows just how immature the esport is, despite this not even being the real reason the coach wanted the team to lose.
This problem isn't going to go away either, because the nature of esports means that professional level play will only continue while the specific video game or technology is popular. That means there's a limited time for a player to get into the sport to make money, and there is no guarantee that the income will continue.
With football or soccer or other team sports, you know going in how long your career will last, and can look at the thousands of other professional players who have taken that path in the decades before. With League of Legends? Who are you going to look up? Who do you use as a role model in terms of building a sustainable career for the next 15 to 20 years of active playing?
One other point:
There are individual sports or games where players take out loans to make it to tournaments. Poker is the obvious one, and for a talented player the return on investment can be pretty good. Tennis is another, and there are many stories of the parents of young players mortgaging their house or selling a business to put money towards coaching and travel expenses for their kids. Once a tennis player makes it into the top 150, and stays there, they can be assured a decent enough living by being paid to participate in tournaments, but a money investment is required at the start, especially if you come from a country without a decent sports funding body.
Ice Hockey is another one. Even if you live in Canada, you still need to have enough money to buy proper equipment to play. To make it worse, as you are a kid growing up you constantly need to buy larger equipment to fit your growing body. If you can't afford it yourself, you will need quite a large amount of skill to get someone to sponsor you.
Pretty much any sport with expensive equipment. Gamers need PCs. Golfers need clubs. Biking needs a bike, helmet, and more. Tennis is actually relatively light in this regard. Bowling is perhaps even lighter, just shoes and a ball, but a good bowling ball isn't necessarily cheap.
Running, jumping, and soccer are the sports you can play when you have no moneys.
MAGFest - I'll settle for a compromise that puts tabletop in a different room from table flipping for charity, at least. But I did enjoy having those rooms upstairs.
Running, jumping, and soccer are the sports you can play when you have no moneys.
Which is why they are popular all over the world. The problem with tennis (and maybe golf?) is that if you are from India, you have a total of two professional-level tournaments in your country per year. It's a global sport, which means all players fly all over. A hockey team in Canada can rely on nearby venues and tournaments, and the team itself will pay for the travel anyway.
I was really surprise that you guys didn't connect the Unity engine discussion with Hearthstone being made with the very engine that is cross-platform and apparently moves to iPad quickly.
You imply a level of research that they are famous for not putting into shows. Not that there is a problem with that, but they make it a point to joke about it.
Comments
It is interesting to see a new sport go through the same processes and phases as more established sports. The idea that a player could think that a tournament organizer wanted a team to lose on purpose shows just how immature the esport is, despite this not even being the real reason the coach wanted the team to lose.
This problem isn't going to go away either, because the nature of esports means that professional level play will only continue while the specific video game or technology is popular. That means there's a limited time for a player to get into the sport to make money, and there is no guarantee that the income will continue.
With football or soccer or other team sports, you know going in how long your career will last, and can look at the thousands of other professional players who have taken that path in the decades before. With League of Legends? Who are you going to look up? Who do you use as a role model in terms of building a sustainable career for the next 15 to 20 years of active playing?
One other point:
There are individual sports or games where players take out loans to make it to tournaments. Poker is the obvious one, and for a talented player the return on investment can be pretty good. Tennis is another, and there are many stories of the parents of young players mortgaging their house or selling a business to put money towards coaching and travel expenses for their kids. Once a tennis player makes it into the top 150, and stays there, they can be assured a decent enough living by being paid to participate in tournaments, but a money investment is required at the start, especially if you come from a country without a decent sports funding body.
Pretty much any sport with expensive equipment. Gamers need PCs. Golfers need clubs. Biking needs a bike, helmet, and more. Tennis is actually relatively light in this regard. Bowling is perhaps even lighter, just shoes and a ball, but a good bowling ball isn't necessarily cheap.
Running, jumping, and soccer are the sports you can play when you have no moneys.