ESPORTS: How Far Off the Mark Was the CGS (Championship Gaming Series)?

[Juggs]

Poker seems to have left as quickly as it came, and it was only really popular in my opinion because of the personalities, and the fact that anyone can learn to play Hold'Em with a deck of cards and some spare change.

Not to get off-topic, but poker is still very big. The reason there's not many shows outside of WSOP anymore is because black friday (when America became nazi's and banned online poker) scared away almost anything to do with poker. More specifically, most of the shows were sponsored by or created by owners of those poker sites.

But the main reason poker is so popular is because on any given day, a complete scrub can beat a pro. Even if they do everything wrong, they can still win... and potentially win A LOT of money. And Poker is incredibly easy to understand and learn, to the point where it's enjoyable to watch even if you've only played it once or twice. The fact that there's a huge amount of luck draws in people like moths to a flame. It's a skill game but with the right amount of luck, you could become a millionaire in a single tournament.

This is why I was advocating more randomness and luck factors in fighters. As a competitor I absolutely hate that idea, but it would get more people into the game. Fighters are one of the MOST skilled based games, and they're also one of the least played and least popular because of this, imo. I realize what the games need to be, which is why I've really stopped playing fighters.

 

[FrothyOmen]

Not to get off-topic, but poker is still very big. The reason there's not many shows outside of WSOP anymore is because black friday (when America became nazi's and banned online poker) scared away almost anything to do with poker. More specifically, most of the shows were sponsored by or created by owners of those poker sites.

But the main reason poker is so popular is because on any given day, a complete scrub can beat a pro. Even if they do everything wrong, they can still win... and potentially win A LOT of money. And Poker is incredibly easy to understand and learn, to the point where it's enjoyable to watch even if you've only played it once or twice. The fact that there's a huge amount of luck draws in people like moths to a flame. It's a skill game but with the right amount of luck, you could become a millionaire in a single tournament.

This is why I was advocating more randomness and luck factors in fighters. As a competitor I absolutely hate that idea, but it would get more people into the game. Fighters are one of the MOST skilled based games, and they're also one of the least played and least popular because of this, imo. I realize what the games need to be, which is why I've really stopped playing fighters.

Well, I'm not saying Poker isn't big anymore. What I meant was that it's not in the limelight, most people just don't give any cares about it lol. The ones that do are silently playing 10+ hands simultaneously online in silence right now; they don't have the big presence they used to on TV. Somehow, Bowling of all things actually has a bigger presence...

 

[RiBBz22]

Well, I'm not saying Poker isn't big anymore. What I meant was that it's not in the limelight, most people just don't give any cares about it lol. The ones that do are silently playing 10+ hands simultaneously online in silence right now; they don't have the big presence they used to on TV. Somehow, Bowling of all things actually has a bigger presence...

Yeah I agree that Poker is not anywhere near as mainstream anymore even though it hasn't lost much popularity. When people get tired of watching you on TV regardless what it is you are GONNNNNNNNNNEEE

 

[CrimsonShadow]

I think the dedicated audience of people of all ages means that video games are in a very different situation from poker. I don't see this going away any time soon, and it will likely only continue to get bigger from here.

 

[Juggs]

I think the dedicated audience of people of all ages means that video games are in a very different situation from poker. I don't see this going away any time soon, and it will likely only continue to get bigger from here.

Im confused, pokers audience is like 16-100 lol

 

[iShinnok03]

I don't think fighting games will be bigger than they are now.

 

[Peckapowa]

atleast it had counter-strike, i was so pissed when all the other games stole the spotlight. I was huge into css and played against those same guys on occasion who made it to cgs. i want to vomit when i see games like cod being played competitively. counter-strike and quake and ut and painkiller will always have my heart. fucking shooters are meant to be played on a pc and counter-strike had loads of depth. i fucking spent hours spraying at walls trying to perfect my manipulation of the recoil tendencies so i could spray from long range. fucking flickshotting kids at warpspeed and landing 3-4 one deags or some crayz bs lucky headshot. calling and developing strats in which we had 3 different options developed from it and we would coordinate our shit every day. noone was better at rushing b, taking banana, or steamrolling t side on russka and nuke. If only babs held outside and didn't tk me in that playoff match... i miss babs... fucking trolling the cal and esea forums and hearing people yell angrily on sourcetv. going incognito with brand new steam ids a whole season with everyone callin our asses cheaters only for make the semifinals and my pc bluescreen. cheeseburglar420 4 life


all i wanted to watch in cgs was css and they broughty shitty doa in and forza and noone cared, and it made our(cs community, which was divided anyways... between 1.6 and source 2 great games) matches less important probably doa players felt the same way too. shooters are the most marketable game to the mainstream along with starcraft because their is enough of a niche of nerds who worship that perfect qass game and a whole country. it should be counter-strike, or quake, probalby quake. not fucking call of shitty and slighltyaboveaverageinferiortothepc experience console-built dumbed down halo. actually halo is pretty good, but pcs are the way to go for shooters. i guess league of legends i #2 right now and its huge, however it slike watching paint dry to the average person. shooters have excitement and easilly understable skillshots.

 

[Peckapowa]

Ah, the CGS. At the time of its inception (and its eventual rapid demise) it was the pinnacle of e-sports organization and production. Although other operations and leagues had garnered varying degrees of support from corporate backers, the CGS was the first time in the "modern gaming era" (think Counter-Strike, rather than Super Mario Bros) that US e-sports received the full level of professional production typically reserved for traditional spectator sporting ventures (the slick sets and TV motion graphics, dedicated studios with audience, professional-style announcers, in-depth player profiles, competitor/team salaries, franchise-style team setup).

Explore: Championship Gaming Series on Wikipedia

For those of you who missed the CGS while it was around, it was one of the first landmarks that signaled that something much bigger and better might be just around the corner for our passion. And then.. It all fell apart. Likely too much money spent on the lavish provisions, and not enough earned in return; as quickly as it came, it was gone. In its wake, it left questions about the viability of this model; would it ever work? Was it possible to convert something from a hobby in arcades, living rooms and bedrooms across the world, into a legitimate top-level TV-style draw?

As you can probably see, the CGS helped pave the way for a number of organizations that are now doing similar things with games like Starcrat II, LoL, CoD and DotA. But given that this is a fighting game forum, my question is tailored to all of you who specifically care about the fighting game genre:

Is this a model that can work for fighting games? Is it possible for our beloved genre of choice to eventually stand on its own as a marquee attraction, complete with all the bells and whistles? Or is it something we'll never be able to attain, for various reasons? While we've been in the shadow of other games at events like MLG and Dreamhack, fighting games have not yet separated themselves to stand alone as a spectator sport. Most of our events are community-driven and community-attended.

Do we have it in us? Or is this level of production something that will never work for a fighting-game based event?

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts on the matter; so let me know what you think.

Also for anyone who participated in the CGS, like @Perfect Legend, it'd be great to get your thoughts as well.


Fun Note: I hadn't realized that Swoozie (from the DOA video) is the same Swoozie who is now a multi-million-viewed top Youtube personality who gives relationship advice (see: https://www.youtube.com/user/swoozie06) until I went back and watched this vid.

i remember thinking when they signed it. their would be only 10000-20000 in a sourcetv, how many people had directv and who would even go to watch it. It was not feasible in my mind how anyone would watch it enough to garnish financial support. the multiple games was a horrible idea. it should have just been counter-strike, or starcraft. starcraft is amazing too watch.

their presentation was awful, only till late into their lifespan did they develop the killcam and show meaningful kills. Djwheat knew absolutely nothing about the game and i wanted to punch him. the first season they didn't even follow in first person mode. All the good stuff, the good frags, they would miss until the second season. It was poor execution. by the second season their presentation was much better and we got kill cams and an informed broadcaster but it was too late. 1.6 tournaments liek cpl were much more entertaining to watch with the proper streamer, because they were strategic and we got to see good highlights. they picked the less popular game and didn't present it.

 

[BlackxxxMamba]

CGS was one of those things that did SOOOOOO many things wrong, but it was still better than anything we have now.

Imma keep it short. Like Bill said, we never got our FULL salaries for both seasons. The players were pretty much on the bottom of the totem poll. Shout Casters, General Managers, Writers, etc, got paid more than the players. It was a lot of corruption and politics, but they did take care of us with housing, weekly stipend, transportation, etc. There was a lot of room for improvement and the league really could have took off if it stuck around longer.

Just to give an idea of some of the corruption, here is an old article from one of the employees of CGS confessing to everything. Long ass read, but worth it:
http://www.complexitygaming.com/news/1704/