I've been dead set on this idea for a while. Valve has taken steps to support sponsors directly in the game, realizing that team-jerseys only get seen at live events and eSports for the most part still lives on-line. This is what they did
Real sponsor ROI in an online setting. So important. It stimulates sponsor interest in teams rather than just tournaments. Sponsors get real brand recognition and value for money, it's genius quite frankly. But Starcraft 2 doesn't have it.
Until now.
This is going to be debuting on a cast between these two players on Friday on my SC2 Youtube channel. It's purpose is to unintrusively, but clearly show a "virtual team jersey" permanently on the screen without obscuring or interfering with tournament sponsor logos or other parts of the UI. It's designed to function with the menu bar on, which I personally don't view as a big deal at all and overlay directly over the in-game scoreboard. It looks something like this.
Obviously that's just a concept image, so ignore that it's over the wrong races etc.
"But it's not the tournaments responsibility!" you may cry. I disagree heartily. It is the tournament's best interests. The more money goes into the scene the better it is for the tournament, the better it is for us all. Any reasonable step that can be taken to ensure good sponsorship ROI should be taken, regardless of whether it's "your" sponsor. I also firmly believe that while live events are rightfully popular, a healthy and active online tournament scene is REQUIRED for the sustainability of eSports. Money must be available to be won without significant investment or risk. Travelling to an event is a financial burden on a team. The more legitimate online events there are, the more money a team can generate without the large travel and accommodation outlay of travelling to say an MLG, Dreamhack or IPL. By raising the value of online tournaments to team sponsors, you can generate additional interest in the scene, attract new sponsors and encourage existing ones to maintain or upgrade their sponsorships.
And if nobody else decides to do it, well fuck it, SHOUTcraft branded events and casts will.
Last edit: 2012-09-15 01:22:39
Host of I Suck at Starcraft 2 and SHOUTcraft - http://www.youtube.com/totalbiscuit
shindigs United States. September 14 2012 03:46. Posts 4353
At the moment, do you have to edit the scoreboard for each player manually in Photoshop? Any future plans for something like Starboard with sponsor templates?
Great work though, I definitely agree its in everyones interest to make more things like this happen for both teams and sponsors. Obviously there can be conflicts with the tournament sponsors, but I hope in the long run its something that becomes standard.
Exciting developments! I remember seeing a few sponsors in tournament maps in SC2. It was highly unobtrusive, but still delivered the message.
I also wouldn't mind the ads being slightly larger, or possibly an animated billboard style with the player's name. Think like once every 3 minutes, it cycles through each sponsor at a rate of 6 sponsors per 30 second slot. Its an unobtrusive commercial slot that doesn't deplete the action or distract the viewer.
Last edit: 2012-09-14 03:50:08
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
Darthozzan Sweden. September 14 2012 03:46. Posts 128
On September 14 2012 03:46 shindigs wrote: At the moment, do you have to edit the scoreboard for each player manually in Photoshop? Any future plans for something like Starboard with sponsor templates?
Great work though, I definitely agree its in everyones interest to make more things like this happen for both teams and sponsors. Obviously there can be conflicts with the tournament sponsors, but I hope in the long run its something that becomes standard.
We'll be building a library of templates. We're going to redesign the middle bit so that the cut is vertical, that would allow us to create the scoreboard out of "blocks" that could just slot together in Xsplit. It's not really that difficult. There are only so many teams to create templates for, then you just swap the names and races which takes very little time at all.
In theory, a significant addition to Starboard could be done to make this possible, I may have words with the guy who made it see if we can enter into some kind of agreement to create a more advanced version of the program which would include sponsors.
Host of I Suck at Starcraft 2 and SHOUTcraft - http://www.youtube.com/totalbiscuit
Torenhire United States. September 14 2012 03:53. Posts 9434
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Bourne United Kingdom. September 14 2012 03:56. Posts 149
This could be considered stupid, but if you look at all teams. They may have sponsors, but some sponsors will not be offering enough to be considered on the players name in the game. Of course, this is encouraging because teams will get more money, but i can see this getting fiddly when teams are changing what sponsors they want to use and how much space they are getting on the screen. For example for The Team Evil Geniuses, wouldn't raidcall want bigger space than steelseries,for being a title sponsor, i can see this getting very complex on how much space title sponsors and normal sponsors would get. I Could also see a clash of sponsors, MLG are sponsored by DrPepper, wouldnt EG having monster as a competitor clash with why they would offer support to mlg in the first place.
Enough with the serious business . TB i really like what your doing at the moment, dota 2 is definately a step ahead and im glad you're starting to progress forward even if blizzard seem unwilling (busy as always). Looks fairly neat.
marttorn Norway. September 14 2012 03:58. Posts 5028
Very good move, I can only hope that at some point the people at blizzard come to their senses and realize how good it would be for the scene as a whole to allow direct in-game logos.
So far as we can determine, peanut butter has no effect on the rotation of the earth.
On September 14 2012 03:56 Bourne wrote: This could be considered stupid, but if you look at all teams. They may have sponsors, but some sponsors will not be offering enough to be considered on the players name in the game. Of course, this is encouraging because teams will get more money, but i can see this getting fiddly when teams are changing what sponsors they want to use and how much space they are getting on the screen. For example for The Team Evil Geniuses, wouldn't raidcall want bigger space than steelseries,for being a title sponsor, i can see this getting very complex on how much space title sponsors and normal sponsors would get. I Could also see a clash of sponsors, MLG are sponsored by DrPepper, wouldnt EG having monster as a competitor clash with why they would offer support to mlg in the first place.
Enough with the serious business . TB i really like what your doing at the moment, dota 2 is definately a step ahead and im glad you're starting to progress forward even if blizzard seem unwilling (busy as always). Looks fairly neat.
Sponsor clash is a non-issue. These events accept that teams wear jerseys and use equipment from sponsors that may clash with the events sponsors. This is common place in all sports and should not be considered a factor.
Host of I Suck at Starcraft 2 and SHOUTcraft - http://www.youtube.com/totalbiscuit
Are you consulting what to display with teams or just going by what their websites say? Optimally you'd want the teams to have the power to chose what's displayed, same as it is in dota2, thou it's understandable if that it isn't the case this early
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solidbebe Netherlands. September 14 2012 04:09. Posts 3278
It looks like a good place to put some advertisements, and obviously the benefit of having them is pretty big. It reminds me of advertisement 'flags' they put on the map in wc3 games, just like the pringles one in BW. Im not really too bothered by it, but I wonder if it might go too far some day. I dont watch any TV at all because of the ridiculous amount of adds. I guess its kind of a slippery slope argument though, just hope it doesnt ever go that far. Anyways all in all I support this!
I really like this idea, and a model with easy to swap out sponsors would be great. Just wish the menu bar took up less room, because it needs to be on to force the scoreboard down so this fits, but it also would be partially covered if the EG player was on the left. Not a big deal, by any means, but it just makes it look messier.
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TotalBiscuit United Kingdom. September 14 2012 04:40. Posts 3259
On September 14 2012 04:07 Qbek wrote: Are you consulting what to display with teams or just going by what their websites say? Optimally you'd want the teams to have the power to chose what's displayed, same as it is in dota2, thou it's understandable if that it isn't the case this early
I will be doing that yes. For this proof of concept we just picked the top 4 EG sponsors on their list.
Host of I Suck at Starcraft 2 and SHOUTcraft - http://www.youtube.com/totalbiscuit
Shadow_Dog Canada. September 14 2012 04:42. Posts 408
On September 14 2012 04:42 Shadow_Dog wrote: Suggestion: Turn off player hotkeys and put sponsors there in a highlighted box corresponding to the player.
That makes viewers mad, some people want to see hotkey groups
Host of I Suck at Starcraft 2 and SHOUTcraft - http://www.youtube.com/totalbiscuit
s.a.y Croatia. September 14 2012 04:48. Posts 3596
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. TB i really like what your doing at the moment, dota 2 is definately a step ahead and im glad you're starting to progress forward even if blizzard seem unwilling (busy as always). Looks fairly neat.
Evangelist September 14 2012 04:00. Posts 1243
