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 The future of E-SportsBy: Cameron "fams" Carson Posted 2009-04-21 21:31:16 CDTE-Sports future has never been more questionable than it is today. Events aredeclaring liquidation, organizations going bankrupt and professional players retiring. There is no denying that we are in a dark time financially and emotionally when itcomes to our small niche industry that we have grown to know and love. Howeverthe question remains, what is going to happen to E-Sports?Predicting the future of E-Sports is as likely as picking the next 7 winning lotterytickets, however we can depict a general idea of where we will stand in the next fewyears provided the industry applies at least some preventive measures to ensure itssurvival. If it doesn’t we could be looking at either a total demise of E-Sports or anew era of parking-lot LAN parties; QuakeCon #1 anyone?With the economic crisis on our hands the pressure has increased to find alternativerevenue sources, more clever marketing techniques, and more efficient ways of doing –well- everything. Instead of hiring a person to do one thing, companies andorganizations are looking to hire a person to cover multiple jobs. Companies andorganizations are also downsizing their staff and having the ones that remain takeon extra work loads, all in the name of cutting costs.In E-Sports however, most staff positions are filled via eager volunteers who want toget their own slice of the ever increasing E-Sports pie. This creates a uniqueopportunity for E-Sports to actually increase its form during the recession. Withmany people being laid-off of their regular 9-5 jobs, people now have quite a bitmore time to focus on their hobbies; so why not join an organization as a volunteerand help make that organization into something more, possibly even your newincome source? It also looks very nice on your resume.In a recent interview with Marcus Graham, Alex Garfield of EG spoke about trying tokeep sponsorships and that during times of economic woe E-Sports is the first thingto go from the marketing budget. Companies still see E-Sports as ‘experimentalmarketing’ and are still very unsure of the marketing value our niche industry offers. This creates a problem and an opportunity for E-Sports. First off is the problem,companies are taking a step back seeing that despite the opportunities available,most organizations are unable to capitalize on them so they are leaving, and takingtheir money with them.
 
However, opportunities arise as well; E-Sports has been given a growth period,however at an inconvenient price. E-Sports as an industry offers a surprisingamount of revenue sources, but considering the current size and demographic, theydon’t reel in as much profit as the mainstream sports do, so most people discountthem and solely seek out sponsorship monies and leave the rest to fate. If teamsand organizations used this downtime to develop and study the E-Sports marketand its demographic and buying power, E-Sports could just pull out of this recessionokay.If teams or organizations did proper research into their local markets, as well asinternational markets, and pushed a few of the more stable revenue sources thathave yet to blow up and become something big, E-Sports could even advance. Forinstance, if a team organization with multiple disciplines such as, Wc3, SC, WoW andCS were to offer merchandise, if not branded at least ‘E-Sports edition’ peripherals.As well teams could try and partner up with a betting platform and offer specialrates for signing up or special odds for their matches only.Events, teams and sponsors are calling it quits weekly it seems, all with their ownreasons; leaving a very large gap to be filled by current companies andorganizations. This gap creates opportunities for newcomers to capitalize on thecurrent demand of the marketplace. People are so concerned about making moneyright from the get-go, but when you look at the very short history of E-Sports andthe people involved, very few were making money straight from the starting point,most grew to what they are today due to their persistence and stubbornness not togive up. It seems however that no one wishes to put in that smart, hard work tobecome the next ESWC or MYM.It seems people think that because ESNation/MYM, ESWC, wNv and countless othershave had problems economically that E-Sports is dying or that it is impossible tomake a stable career with it. But why not learn from their mistakes? Why not fill thegaps and strive in a time that allows for it (in certain ways of course), that way youcan help build onto the platform that is E-Sports and help it grow into a larger nichethan it currently is.With so many options at E-Sports’ finger tips it’s a wonder how we keep settingourselves back instead of pushing ahead full force. If people took a few steps in theright direction, and others followed suite; E-Sports could pull out ahead for once.
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