All about the money!

With financial backing from DirecTV and Pepsi (Mountain Dew is part of Pepsi Co?) you'd think that they'd recieve more money.

I'm at work right now so I'll read the rest later.

Looks VERY interesting though =D

They over exceeded their 3 year 50 million dollar budget in what, 2 seasons? None of the production quality looked like it was in the 7 figure ballpark let alone the 8, but the CGS managed to make their dollars spent look valueless. Agreed with mahmood on just about everything in the article, it was a reality show not a gaming league. Anyone signed to it must have had a great time and the salaries seemed great but the business model was so beyond obserd, that I have no idea how the sponsors actually got suckered into investing. The fact that their viewer numbers were less then most big HLTV matches, really sealed the deal on their fate.

As far as their stupid quote, they are completely right. THEIR idea was completely ahead of its time because their idea was to showcase esports as a game show, which its not ready for ( lets face it, America isn't really ready to embrace PC esports the same way as it does consoles and may never be) . Esports hasn't pushed through to mainstream yet and the money would've went to much better use for securing a foundation, growing community's, and getting as much possible interest from people for the games and league before putting on their shitacular episodes, which cost them a fortune...but hey, what do I know.

Esports hasn't pushed through to mainstream yet

i don't think it ever will, aside from starcraft and korea.

The fact that their viewer numbers were less then most big HLTV matches, really sealed the deal on their fate.

HLTV is global, can be accessed anywhere in any country, and watch it on virtually any system with a 32mb video card.

CGS is exclusive to the USA, and parts of Europe, and ONLY available on DirectTV (Not on Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Charter, etc).

You can't expect something as difficult to watch like CGS to have big spectator numbers. It would have to be put on a big network broadcaster during prime time to even have a chance.

wasn't cgs also on g4?

Yes, but I think they started that deal later in the second season. I could be wrong though.

no you're right, it was only in the 2nd season =)

I always knew this was a huge fucking joke.

i heard it was something to do with new CEO making bad decisions and generally being clueless :)

people said that about andy and scott. heard that the new ceo questioned every single investment and understood pretty quick which mistakes were made in the past.

ps: can´t wait for scott to sink the next ship he is about to board! cpl again?

pretty hard to keep incompetence up to esports, even CPL colossus died in its own blood

The main problem is the American market. We just dont care. You cant sell this to North Americans. The thought process is that everyone plays games... so they must love competitive gaming.

NOPE. Think about it. We all run... do any of us watch and follow Marathons? Not a fucking chance. This has to be marketed to pro gaming enthusiasts like the ESRs and the GotFrags, we can't be targetting the random regulars.

Theres no revenue streams. The three MAJOR sources of revenue in professional sports are ticket sales, merchandise, and television rights.

They owned the telelvision rights, so there was no profit there...
They weren't selling tickets, so there was no profit there...
They didn't sell any merchandise until season 2, at which point they didn't do it correctly, so there was no profit there...

You need profit for a league to run. Leagues like the CPL, WSVG, and now CGS have failed for so many reasons and it all has to do with this side of the ocean. Americans dont care, they arent willing to pay to be involved in gaming.

The only way this industry is going to survive is with a major turnaround in philosophy... the current way its headed is not good.

Lessons to be learned:

Stay away from North America. The market isn't willing to be involved like the Asians and the Europeans.
Stay away from casual fans. You can't sell pro gaming to casual gamers, just like you can't sell marathon running to casual runners.
Stay away from television. If people wanted to watch gaming, then these leagues would survive. When pro gaming is ready for television, then television will come to us.

When pro gaming is ready for television, then television will come to us.

Well said.

"This has to be marketed to pro gaming enthusiasts like the ESRs and the GotFrags, we can't be targetting the random regulars."

Well no shit... it's your crowd who've been trying to appeal to Joe Public which is why 'Esports' has fallen on its arse.

"When pro gaming is ready for television, then television will come to us."
Like what?

"They owned the telelvision rights, so there was no profit there... "

If you're saying that CGS owned the TV rights, so they don't make profit there, that's just a dumb statement.

Did you see their books? Unless you did, how do you know how much money they're making? If they own the TV rights, then guess what, they own the rights to the advertisements during the game. Put some ads inside the game (ala ql), and you have a revenue stream.

So really not sure what you're talking about. You can argue that they did everything poorly, but not that because they owned the TV rights they didn't make money. If that were true then the YES network wouldn't exist.

Did you watch the show?

1) Television rights means television stations paying the league to be able to broadcast so the station can make money. Real leagues make most of their cash (NFL especially) on selling the rights to television.

2) 99% of commercials during the broadcast of CGS shows were for other DirectTV programs. No revenue there.

Of course I didn't.

"1) Television rights means television stations paying the league to be able to broadcast so the station can make money. Real leagues make most of their cash (NFL especially) on selling the rights to television."

Shit, you better tell billionaire Ted Turner that he has to sell TBS so that he can get them to pay to broadcast Braves games. Or multi-milllionaire (billionaire?) Hal Steinbrenner to sell the YES network so that he can get paid for the television rights.

You seriously can't be that stupid.

"2) 99% of commercials during the broadcast of CGS shows were for other DirectTV programs. No revenue there. "

Uh, if they're programs ON direct tv that PAY to be on direct tv, then I fail to see your point here.

Then again I really don't give a shit and haven't seen it. However the fact remains that nothing you've said precludes them from making (assloads) of money.

You don't understand. In fact, I don't understand what the hell you're saying because it really doesn't make much sense.

Teams do not sell the broadcast rights to their games, the LEAGUE does. Especially in a league like the CGS, where every team was owned by the league anyways.

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/nfl..._contract/
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?sl...;type=lgns
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=2516348
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2002-01-22-nba.htm

Understand?

Fail at everything in life.

http://web.yesnetwork.com/about/index.jsp

There are more than just the YES network as I said, but I'm not convinced you even know what you're talking about. So good day.

Why does this link have anything to do with anything?

YES is still going to pay for the rights to broadcast sports games.

And playoffs or not, broadcasts rights are broadcast rights. Anything about the playoffs exclude it from being a sports game that needs to be broadcast on television?

Keep being an ignorant American please, its really making you look smart.

YES isn't going to pay shit. YES is owned by the Yankees. Any "payment" will be just moving money from the left hand into the right, nothing more. The money comes from advertisers paying for commercials on YES, not from the TV rights.

No TV rights for the playoffs do matter, you just can't see that it's not for the regular season, which is what I'm talking about. The regular season rights are owned by the teams, which then go out and make networks to capitalize on as much revenue as possible.

Keep talking about shit you know nothing of. It makes you look smart.

The rights to MLB games are not owned by the Yankees. They are owned by MLB. Thus, YES has to pay the MLB to broadcast the games. There are two sides two a game, the Yankees and their opponents. Do you think they're going to get the broadcast rights for free because they are affiliated with 50% of the competitors? Nope. They need to pay MLB, not the Yankees.

I'm not gonna argue this anymore because you don't understand the business of sports.

As a sports management major, I do.

End of discussion.

That's a real major? That must be really tough!

Seriously I hope you pass, because based on what you've said you'd do a shitty job.

hoens is a fucking idiot, don't waste your time trying

haha I just read the first 3 paragraphs of your baseball thing. If you could read, you'd note that that was for the PLAYOFFS. Link fail. Epically.

Also, the programs that were being advertised during CGS broadcasts were for programs produced by DirecTV.

They paid to create the show.
They paid to place the advertisement there.
They paid to create the station, because its all airing on a station exclusive to DirecTV.

I fail to see where you fail to see my point.

The internet is global. I don't know how many times I have to say it... pro-gaming belongs on the internet. I've been talking about this for like 5 fucking years now and time keeps proving me right. Why then do pro-gaming organizations continue insisting on failed models? They're worse than the Bush administration.

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." - Doesnot Matter

LMAO@USA

Europe does it better.

"In season two, CGS continued the PR stunts with a VIP party including Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian (who were undoubtedly paid to show off their bling and huge ass, respectively), and expanded from 10 to 16 franchises, absorbing new salary, travel, and website costs in the process."

This was put on by DirecTV and had nothing to do with CGS and didnt cost them a dime to host either.

I love how so many experts pop up after a league dies.

so now we know. it was the bunnies.

How is the GGL still around?

seriously. you never hear anything coming out of the ggl these days

'cause the whores and homosexuals were bringing AIDS, syphilis and gonorrhea to the entire organisation

people just need to get over this esports crap. it will truely become viable when the market is there for it (starcraft@korea) so stop trying to shove it down people's throats

whats with the fat bunny in the middle

I heard she could spell half the word "mooh" with her boobs

the middle one is happy cuz her tits are biggest

omg, lol.. shes not fat when u see the full picture but her enormous tits make it seem so in the little one :P

I was too busy looking at her tits to think of her weight problems tbh :D

wonder if she gets backache

probably :( one boob looks like it weighs more than me :(

envy talking there!

heheh busted ;)

More like, busty. =)

id hit fat bunny

Go figure, I thought she was the cutest of the 3.
:F

I don't know. What's with the jealous catty commentator?

oh gee, and here i was thinking that playmates were supposed to be moulded from hollywood ideals... oops!

I was thinking more of the porn ideal, and she fits that perfectly (large [probably fake] breasts, small everything-else). She's just as thin as the other two.

The one in the middle looks least like a porn star. Also, those don't look fake, though the women to her right and left do appear to be packing the "fools gold".

i think the tits are real too

she is fat

for a bunny

and im jeleous

oh! i dont have a fat gf

but ofc i do have a gf and she is awesome





























































ps: I GOT A GF AWESOMENEZZ COOL

atm im getting oboy and a hotdog from my gf

in södertälje

sweden

drunk much?

love u

fatten up ur girlfriend. It's the obvious answer. I'm working on just such a project myself, and we've got a lot of food-oriented holidays coming up to help me along with that.

typical fucking bucket muncher

Purri is the first one to explain his love on ES :D

/Hazter

i blame master & his faggot spinning kicks & trash trash talk

If gigantic fun-bags are wrong, I don't want to be right

Poor games, poor format, annoying franchise idea, irritating egocentric (mostly) GMs, awful reality tv style show.

Heck the only reason I had any interested at all was because of Red being on it, and livia being on it :P