I've been hearing discussions (privately and online), podcasts, and seeing a lot of forum posts in the last couple of months addressing 'the scene'. There's a lot of misinformation floating around, and also a lot of people that have limited perspective because they didn't follow the development of other competitive scenes. So I wanted to lay my response out here to a lot of common talking points:
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1) The NRS scene is a young scene.
We often forget this. We're used to having to fight for parity with games like Street Fighter because we share the same events. But the lore, legacy, and history of Capcom's scene (which eventually became 'The Fighting Game Community') was built up over two decades.
You will not equal the notoriety, viewership, or corporate interest of a mature scene unless you *build*. It took years for them to get there, if you simply show up and expect to be treated equally, you'll stay in the same place and have to be happy with your second or third-tier status.
Street Fighter players spent two decades playing for peanuts because they simply loved their community, to get to the point where they now have a CPT that supports some people. We are piggybacking on the people that built for them.
2) Most truly strong esports scenes built their following before the corporate sponsorship stepped in.
League of Legends had a burgeoning competitive scene long before LCS. Overwatch had a community-run series of monthly events and occasional bigger tournies before Blizzard stepped in and created the OWL. Counter-Strike went through numerous dark years without much corporate sponsorship, and built their own hype and viewership until they reached the point where Valve supports them today.
What's the common factor? None of these communities will wait for the big corporate overlords to support them. They create their own hype, and they would have done it regardless. And various companies took note and followed suit.
Smash Melee lost MLG and essentially had zero interest from anyone outside their scene several years ago. What did they do? Made a documentary, keep the torch burning, continued to build their own events outside of both esports and the FGC. Now they have thousands of players at tournaments.
3) Most esports sponsors and teams do not expect to make money from either winnings or views.
The vast majority of true esports teams are backed by venture capital. They are playing the long game. They expect to not make much money in the short term, in exchange for building a franchise that is worth millions in merchandising, advertising, broadcast rights, and content in the future.
There are many people calling themselves 'sponsors' and 'teams' that are essentially just a lone person with some money to blow on the scene. Most of these guys burn out in the short term and they are not actually esports organizations. If you're not playing the long game, you're not true esports infrasctructure.
No true esports organization depends on the players making money from winnings to survive.
4) If we want what other scenes have, we need to build it
I cannot stress this enough. Ask yourself the following questions:
Popular series and blogs like Cross Counter, Assist Me!, Ultrachen, Melee it on Me, etc. have been instrumental in welcoming people into other scenes.
5) But DBFZ
DBFZ's scene was built from existing scenes. They are piggybacking off of the existing anime scene, the Capcom scene, etc. It's great that this game is succesful, but this is not a model for any other game to follow.
6) Personality sells
It's important to remember that playing the game isn't everything. A lot of the biggest streamers for top Twitch games aren't their best players -- they're the people that can relate to a fanbase, connect with them and keep them entertained. No one is paying these guys simply because they're good; somebody like Seagull is a draw because people love to watch him whether he's competing or not.
If we want a marketable scene, we need more marketable personalities. NOT just good players. Period.
7) Every scene has toxicity
I don't care which game you pick. League, Counter-Strike, Fortnite, Overwatch, any major game. You will see and hear players saying horrible things to each other. And most of the chatter on social media, forums and reddit is much worse than what you'll see in the FGC.
It is what it is. If toxicity kept games from becoming big, none of these games would be big. The repeated talking point that the toxicity is what kills viewers, sales and sponsorship is patently false. They build in spite of it.
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1) The NRS scene is a young scene.
We often forget this. We're used to having to fight for parity with games like Street Fighter because we share the same events. But the lore, legacy, and history of Capcom's scene (which eventually became 'The Fighting Game Community') was built up over two decades.
You will not equal the notoriety, viewership, or corporate interest of a mature scene unless you *build*. It took years for them to get there, if you simply show up and expect to be treated equally, you'll stay in the same place and have to be happy with your second or third-tier status.
Street Fighter players spent two decades playing for peanuts because they simply loved their community, to get to the point where they now have a CPT that supports some people. We are piggybacking on the people that built for them.
2) Most truly strong esports scenes built their following before the corporate sponsorship stepped in.
League of Legends had a burgeoning competitive scene long before LCS. Overwatch had a community-run series of monthly events and occasional bigger tournies before Blizzard stepped in and created the OWL. Counter-Strike went through numerous dark years without much corporate sponsorship, and built their own hype and viewership until they reached the point where Valve supports them today.
What's the common factor? None of these communities will wait for the big corporate overlords to support them. They create their own hype, and they would have done it regardless. And various companies took note and followed suit.
Smash Melee lost MLG and essentially had zero interest from anyone outside their scene several years ago. What did they do? Made a documentary, keep the torch burning, continued to build their own events outside of both esports and the FGC. Now they have thousands of players at tournaments.
3) Most esports sponsors and teams do not expect to make money from either winnings or views.
The vast majority of true esports teams are backed by venture capital. They are playing the long game. They expect to not make much money in the short term, in exchange for building a franchise that is worth millions in merchandising, advertising, broadcast rights, and content in the future.
There are many people calling themselves 'sponsors' and 'teams' that are essentially just a lone person with some money to blow on the scene. Most of these guys burn out in the short term and they are not actually esports organizations. If you're not playing the long game, you're not true esports infrasctructure.
No true esports organization depends on the players making money from winnings to survive.
4) If we want what other scenes have, we need to build it
I cannot stress this enough. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Other than playing, what are we doing to encourage more viewers to watch our events?
- How are we getting the word out to the general public about our tournaments?
- If we want hundreds more entrants, how are we encouraging those people to join and stay in our scene?
Popular series and blogs like Cross Counter, Assist Me!, Ultrachen, Melee it on Me, etc. have been instrumental in welcoming people into other scenes.
5) But DBFZ
DBFZ's scene was built from existing scenes. They are piggybacking off of the existing anime scene, the Capcom scene, etc. It's great that this game is succesful, but this is not a model for any other game to follow.
6) Personality sells
It's important to remember that playing the game isn't everything. A lot of the biggest streamers for top Twitch games aren't their best players -- they're the people that can relate to a fanbase, connect with them and keep them entertained. No one is paying these guys simply because they're good; somebody like Seagull is a draw because people love to watch him whether he's competing or not.
If we want a marketable scene, we need more marketable personalities. NOT just good players. Period.
7) Every scene has toxicity
I don't care which game you pick. League, Counter-Strike, Fortnite, Overwatch, any major game. You will see and hear players saying horrible things to each other. And most of the chatter on social media, forums and reddit is much worse than what you'll see in the FGC.
It is what it is. If toxicity kept games from becoming big, none of these games would be big. The repeated talking point that the toxicity is what kills viewers, sales and sponsorship is patently false. They build in spite of it.
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