News Crows buy professional eSports team - Update: SOLD

[Geoffa32]

much like they still sell plenty of coke and pies at the footy, that legacy will live on in the amateur scene don't worry

EDIT: don't know why anyone would eat Doritos while gaming though, that s**t gets all over your fingers and messes up your mouse and keyboard.

Corn chips should only be eaten as part of Nachos IMO.

The chip basically being an edible short term (plate to mouth) vessel for the good stuff ie sour cream, guacamole, been mix and meat.

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[Niximus]

much like they still sell plenty of coke and pies at the footy, that legacy will live on in the amateur scene don't worry

I have some GTA with mates booked for tonight. I'll be heading home and pouring myself some CC or Cap'n

I should post pics of my Crows coloured Karuma and Insurgent.

 

[DD#23]

I have some GTA with mates booked for tonight. I'll be heading home and pouring myself some CC or Cap'n

I should post pics of my Crows coloured Karuma and Insurgent.

are they all coming around?

I miss the days when the internet was s**t and you had to lug your computer around someone's house for LAN nights.

 

[baldandbroke]

are they all coming around?

I miss the days when the internet was s**t and you had to lug your computer around someone's house for LAN nights.

I was always that idiot that was patient enough to setup the LAN between different machines and usually spent the whole night getting someone's old system to recognise the network so they could play Quakeworld locally !!

 

[spexau]

are they all coming around?

I miss the days when the internet was s**t and you had to lug your computer around someone's house for LAN nights.

LAN parties are amazing fun

 

[Niximus]

are they all coming around?

I miss the days when the internet was s**t and you had to lug your computer around someone's house for LAN nights.

Nah, this will be all online, with voice chat through Discord.

We still do LANs from time to time, but it's a lot less frequent unfortunately.

 

[Niximus]

LAN parties are amazing fun

Used to love regular LANs in highschool. Half a dozen PCs set up on various surfaces, network cables going everywhere.

Even consoles were good for it. We have 4 Xboxes hooked up for Halo a few times.

 

[DD#23]

I was always that idiot that was patient enough to setup the LAN between different machines and usually spent the whole night getting someone's old system to recognise the network so they could play Quakeworld locally !!

we actually got friendly with the IT guy in High School so that we could borrow a 12 port switch for the weekends, those were the days.

Nah, this will be all online, with voice chat through Discord.

We still do LANs from time to time, but it's a lot less frequent unfortunately.

yeah, don't get me wrong its still good of course but just not the same is it.

the convenience makes it worth it though.

 

[Niximus]

I was always that idiot that was patient enough to setup the LAN between different machines and usually spent the whole night getting someone's old system to recognise the network so they could play Quakeworld locally !!

There was always the one who still couldn't connect to the game when everyone else was ready and you'd waste so much time fixing it.

Or the guy who hadn't made sure they were up to date with patches, and if nobody had a copy you'd have to wait while they downloaded it.

 

[spexau]

There was always the one who still couldn't connect to the game when everyone else was ready and you'd waste so much time fixing it.

Or the guy who hadn't made sure they were up to date with patches, and if nobody had a copy you'd have to wait while they downloaded it.

When Steam came around and you didn't go into "Offline Mode" before shutting your PC down to take to the LAN and then you were stuffed.

 

[1970crow]

well firstly its not all online, they actually play live tournaments and draw large live crowds as well as streaming online.

and again its like the tennis analogy, while there are massive prize pools up for grabs the teams have their own sponsors bringing in revenue too. To frame why a bit for you, I'd wager that 90% of the audience of these eSports (which runs into the hundreds of millions) build their own PC's from parts. The best players have their own brands attached to motherboards, mouses and keyboards, much like Roger Federer's "RF" brand with Nike.

I'm pretty sure the sponsorship aspect is what the AFC are aiming for, not sweeping tournaments chasing winnings - which might happen with support but not something you'd bank on.

as for the neckbeard stereotyping that's why I posted this from a tournament in Sydney:


same sort of lads that go to the footy, they just grew up with video games instead.

I basically checked out once it became difficult to find one of these



So do we now own these guys, I note their new website is coming soon, I wonder what happened to the old one. So do any sponsors they previously had now pay us for them to wear their gear. Or will they be wearing our gear.

 

[DD#23]

I basically checked out once it became difficult to find one of these

View attachment 372205

So do we now own these guys, I note their new website is coming soon, I wonder what happened to the old one. So do any sponsors they previously had now pay us for them to wear their gear. Or will they be wearing our gear.

yeah, we own them. Not sure if that ties in with the new website or if its just a coincidence.

I expect we'll be keeping their existing sponsors or working to replace them with bigger deals. It seems very unlikely that we'll be re-branding them, we want to piggyback on what they've already built and push it forward and expand.

this is not like Port's China play in that we don't care about and don't need to draw new fans to football to make a success of it.

 

[Geoffa32]

yeah, we own them. Not sure if that ties in with the new website or if its just a coincidence.

I expect we'll be keeping their existing sponsors or working to replace them with bigger deals. It seems very unlikely that we'll be re-branding them, we want to piggyback on what they've already built and push it forward and expand.

this is not like Port's China play in that we don't care about and don't need to draw new fans to football to make a success of it.

Bottom point is key.

We have bought a team that is already reasonably well known in a growing local (Aussie) market but can potentially be part of quite big market in Asia and the US.

Not trying to grow our core business in a very young almost non existent market in the hope of future rewards.

Work smarter not harder.

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[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

much like they still sell plenty of coke and pies at the footy, that legacy will live on in the amateur scene don't worry

EDIT: don't know why anyone would eat Doritos while gaming though, that s**t gets all over your fingers and messes up your mouse and keyboard.

Surely they have groupies who drop them in, like feeding grapes to Roman emperors

 

[Twist_of_Lemon]

Good old LAN weekends. Where Friday night was setup, show off your new wicked fast cd burner + share your legal Linux distros, then Saturday and Sunday were all about the games (Unreal Tournament in our case <3).

Used to have a LAN party for NYE for a good 8 years straight. Miss those days. Online, as convenient as it is, has never held a candle to those LAN parties.

 

[Niximus]

Good old LAN weekends. Where Friday night was setup, show off your new wicked fast cd burner + share your legal Linux distros, then Saturday and Sunday were all about the games (Unreal Tournament in our case <3).

Used to have a LAN party for NYE for a good 8 years straight. Miss those days. Online, as convenient as it is, has never held a candle to those LAN parties.

It's not the same, but it is a similar feeling. I'm psyched to go home tonight and run through some missions with my mates for a few hours.

One thing with our old LANs is that we were usually competing against each other, which was tons of fun, but the games I tend towards now have my and my friends teamed against strangers.

 

[1970crow]

Good old LAN weekends. Where Friday night was setup, show off your new wicked fast cd burner + share your legal Linux distros, then Saturday and Sunday were all about the games (Unreal Tournament in our case <3).

Used to have a LAN party for NYE for a good 8 years straight. Miss those days. Online, as convenient as it is, has never held a candle to those LAN parties.

LameAss Nerds?

 

[Crow54]

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread, but are women involved in these games or just men? And I'm afraid I'm like Rowey and can't get my head around it being a sport. I guess I'm just a dinosaur.

 

[Scorpus]

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread, but are women involved in these games or just men? And I'm afraid I'm like Rowey and can't get my head around it being a sport. I guess I'm just a dinosaur.

There are some female pro-gamers in the same teams/leagues as the men, but not many

 

[Niximus]

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread, but are women involved in these games or just men? And I'm afraid I'm like Rowey and can't get my head around it being a sport. I guess I'm just a dinosaur.

What are the defining features of a sport?

 

[1970crow]

Let's say you could buy a NBA team.

How does that make you revenue?

Well - prizemoney. Sponsorships. Merchandise. Memberships. Direct advertising. Broadcast percentages. Venue-based sales. Plus what you earn by the asset appreciating (and eventually possibly sold).

There are equivalents for all of those things in the asset they bought. EXCEPT what we've actually bought is an ABA team, like the San Antonio Spurs, because eSports is still in its infancy. The upside could be fantastic.

I would be happy for the Crows brand to be across suite of teams - AFL, AFLW, SANFL, eSports. Netball. t20. Bring it on ...

This seems a bit simplistic and you've not actually identified how it translates.

prizemoney - the prizemoney for winning an AFL premiership is next to SFA, I doubt it would even come close to covering wage costs.
Sponsorships - explain the sponsorship opportunities, obviously apparel is an opportunity, but how else do sponsors get bang for buck?
Merchandise - are there actual followers of these teams, do they currently have merchandise that their fans are buying?
Memberships - not sure what this could be. Why would you be a member of an esports team, what do you get. I'd presume the subscriptions would all end up in the league owners pockets. How does this work and why would it work.
Direct advertising - again, how would this work, i'd expect any advertising revenue would be from the league/event owner. I suppose there'd be some value in the banner ads on our team's website when that's up and running. And on their t-shirts, but where else is the cash coming from.
Venue based sales - really don't understand this at all. Do the players get a share of the venue income? How do you know this?

I can absolutely see how the business model stacks up for the organisers, I'm not sure how it translates into profit generation for owning a team. It's obviously huge, but whether the revenue model bears any resemblance to bricks and mortar sports hasn't been explained in any meaningful way.

 

[Crow54]

What are the defining features of a sport?

From Google:
"An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment."

I'll concede the skill and entertainment part. I'm not sure about the physical exertion, though. To me it's more like a game. They are called gamers, after all.

I've seen the comparison with shooting, which is considered a sport, but the "game" tag is very strongly influencing my thoughts.

 

[Scorpus]

This seems a bit simplistic and you've not actually identified how it translates.

prizemoney - the prizemoney for winning an AFL premiership is next to SFA, I doubt it would even come close to covering wage costs.
Sponsorships - explain the sponsorship opportunities, obviously apparel is an opportunity, but how else do sponsors get bang for buck?
Merchandise - are there actual followers of these teams, do they currently have merchandise that their fans are buying?
Memberships - not sure what this could be. Why would you be a member of an esports team, what do you get. I'd presume the subscriptions would all end up in the league owners pockets. How does this work and why would it work.
Direct advertising - again, how would this work, i'd expect any advertising revenue would be from the league/event owner. I suppose there'd be some value in the banner ads on our team's website when that's up and running. And on their t-shirts, but where else is the cash coming from.
Venue based sales - really don't understand this at all. Do the players get a share of the venue income? How do you know this?

I can absolutely see how the business model stacks up for the organisers, I'm not sure how it translates into profit generation for owning a team. It's obviously huge, but whether the revenue model bears any resemblance to bricks and mortar sports hasn't been explained in any meaningful way.

I'll explain a few of these.

Memberships don't really exist and merchandise is limited at best. Venue sales would likely go to the event organizers with a small amount to the teams, though I'm not sure.

Prize money is enormous at many of these competitions. Can be eight figures. It's a significant factor.

Sponsorships and advertising are massive. Companies want their products being used by Pro gamers. Everything from PC hardware to keyboards, mice, displays, chairs, headphones can all be sponsored. The company gets direct exposure on the video stream because you can see the gear being used. Branding is also large and prominent across the stadium. It's like having a constant ad. The companies can also say their products are used by professional team Legacy (or whatever) which has a huge impact. And it's not just bullshit like "AFL player uses Swisse", you can actually see the gamers use the products and then see them recommended in the stores as well. This is a significant aspect.

The thing about esports you don't get with AFL is a certain level of purchasing is required to actually play yourself. Gamers watch the elite players then go and play on their own PCs, which they need to build, and buy peripherals for. A company saying "your favorite esports team is powered by our hardware" has a large influence. The level of spending tends to be higher than some schmuck kicking a footy on the weekend, so the sponsorships can be highly targeted, very relevant and highly influential

 

[Niximus]

From Google:
"An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment."

I'll concede the skill and entertainment part. I'm not sure about the physical exertion, though. To me it's more like a game. They are called gamers, after all.

I've seen the comparison with shooting, which is considered a sport, but the "game" tag is very strongly influencing my thoughts.

Add to shooting, snooker, darts, chess.

Car racing is a similar scenario. A human giving input to a machine to achieve a desired outcome. Requiring fast reflexes, and good hand eye coordination.

Greyhound racing is considered a sport and has no human exertion so if we can have that done by a non-person be that animal or machine is it really a defining attribute of sport?

 

[Geoffa32]

Add to shooting, snooker, darts, chess.

Car racing is a similar scenario. A human giving input to a machine to achieve a desired outcome. Requiring fast reflexes, and good hand eye coordination.

Greyhound racing is considered a sport and has no human exertion so if we can have that done by a non-person be that animal or machine is it really a defining attribute of sport?

Motorsport at the top level is very physical.

Agree with the rest though.

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