David Ting - The Man Behind IPL

IPL 4 took place this weekend and promised to bring a "new age of eSports"

I talked to IGN Pro League General Manager David Ting about his vision of IPL4 and eSports in general. We talked about his deeply personal motivation behind founding the IPL, monetization, co-operation and the eSport around StarCraft II as possibly challenging the likes of FIFA and NFL in the future.

If you want to know more about the idea and workings behind IPL and get to know the man behind the scenes. Follow me into a 30minute one on one interview with
+ Show Spoiler +
David Ting
"I believe the traction that we have with eSports, there's really no ceiling
because of the accessibility of it as well as entertainment value of it […]"

Interview by Jojo from SC2News
There are minor sound issues at 01:15. They will only last 30 seconds.

Timestamps:
+ Show Spoiler +
00:30 Personal Background

University
Jobs
Early love for StarCraft
Convincing IGN to build up IPL

01:25 Previous Job and the skills he picked up

For example:
IBM
Yahoo

03:00 Esports is not a job, it's a passion

Back when I was at Yahoo, a life changing event happened, I got into a near death experience on a car accident and at that point I am determined I am not going to budge anymore, you know, life is too short. I have the skills that are required to earn a good living and it's really about doing things that are meaningful and that I enjoy. […] I want to do something that people will remember me by […] and hopefully that's something that is great and that will benefit a lot of people. That's what I have been working towards ever since that accident.

04:00 What do you do at IPL

I am the General Manager so this means I manage all aspects of IGN Pro League, at the beginning I started off […]

What I have been working on is getting the Casino deals done, I think that's a differentiator […]

A lot of leagues are notorious for losing a lot of money […]

06:00 The functional realities of organizing an event like IPL – Tell us about IPL from your perspective.

08:55 Will IPL go back to Atlantic City and a vision for the future of eSports

In partnership with GSL, one of the things we are aiming for is to really start delivering the traditional sports numbers. A lot of the times people say IPL competes with MLG. For me, I said it many times, that's not interesting to me. If I started a business basically to take out existing competitors, that's not the way to run it.

The real thing to look at here as a community is how do we build up the fan base to basically rival the NHL, Major League Soccer here in the United States and eventually the NFL or FIFA, over time. [...]

I believe the traction that we have with eSports, there's really no ceiling because of the accessibility of it as well as entertainment value of it […]

If we can set viewer-ship numbers like the NFL […] then any venue in the world will be open for us to host our event and that's what we are shooting for!

12:00 IPL4 – “A new age of eSports has arrived” What is that new age?

If you are there in person, it is absolutely stunning. [...] It is about bringing the high level of the quality of the venue itself, the high level of quality of production and also treating the players right, as they are stars. Doing everything at the highest possible level of standard.

IPL4 – our goal is to raise the bar […] getting people spoiled.

14:30 Comparing IEM and IPL – Conventions bring in a lot of new viewers, what is IPL doing to bring in viewers that aren't familiar with StarCraft or the eSports scene?

SXSW – The event organizer said “Next year, I'm going to give you the entire hall.”

17:15 Global reach of eSports. Doesn't that require partnerships and co-operation between leagues? IPL/GS(T)L deals for the future

[…] The only one that we had trouble with right now is MLG. [...]

19:25 What kind of role does StarCraft play within the ensemble of games in the IPL? (e.g. regarding the increase in popularity of LoL)

In terms of viewership League of Legends, for us, looks like will surpass StarCraft II. […] I personally love StarCraft II, that's why I started IPL. And I think that Blizzard is doing quite a few things that will help the community like […]

There is a huge opportunity ahead for StarCraft II being like the soccer of eSports. [...]

I know Blizzard is working on improving battle.net and they should set goals to make it easier to use and make it easier for eSports as well because I believe a lot of their growth is going to be dictated by eSports.

21:08 LoL Viewer numbers – Players directly linked to live streams of major events from the game. Is that something for Blizzard to look into?

Absolutely and then on top of it I think that the growth in Asia is something to look at too. That's why we are looking for partners in Asia first […]

It's really about creating a global presence for eSport and making sure that the barrier is gone between different languages as well as different regions in the world. […]

23:00 Streaming feature in game – Co-operation with Blizzard in improving the game for eSports.

24:20 With regard to the interview with Kennigit – Streaming within the twitch.tv/justin.tv box. The possibilities are endless, it's the internet. Is it time to think outside the box?

I am looking at the big ones. Google has Youtube, they are working on Youtube live. For example, we have guests from Youtube live at IPL4. I am trying to get them really interested in eSports. There are guests from Microsoft. Microsoft is building what is called the cloud. The cloud is very very vague in definition but part of the cloud is video transcoding, encoding as well as distribution. For me it's about spreading the love to the enterprises.

I have a great relationship with Owned and Twitch and they are constantly improving their platforms so we are sitting in a really good spot, being content providers, that the technology is evolving very quickly because there is no one dominant platform yet.

27:52 How will IPL monetize eSports? PPV, Season passes, Freemium, etc. where is IPL heading?

We want to make things simple and affordable. That's basically the doctrine I have, I remember when I was a student and I only had $20 to spend for a whole week. So we want to make it so that more people can access it if they really want it. We will definitely stick with the Freemium model, anybody can get up to 480p for free so it's again more about growing the size of the community versus really trying to monetize them right now.

Our HD plan is really simple. We are not going to charge Pay-Per-View. If you love our stuff, you just pay $5 a month and you can cancel any time. You get to view all IPL content in HD for the entire month.

The challenge is on us to create engaging content so people will want to pay for an entire year.

Just to address the Winter Arena a little bit, I know Sundance said the sky is falling if people don't support Pay-Per-View [...]

31:20 Shout-outs

I am just one of the fans, I am just privileged to be in a position which could influence a company like IGN to do the right things for the community.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated either here or on twitter/facebook/youtube!
@sc2channel
facebook.com/SC2News
youtube.com/SC2News

Most importantly, If you like the interview, let David know on twitter
@dting888

Last edit: 2012-04-10 04:34:43

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

DvKRazoR Austria. April 07 2012 01:49. Posts 1

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I hope you make more so good and vey interestening videos.

Last edit: 2012-04-07 01:49:18

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 02:03. Posts 2999

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On April 07 2012 01:49 DvKRazoR wrote:
I hope you make more so good and vey interestening videos.

Thank you for your kind words! I am happy to be the choice for your first post on TL. I can tick that one off now.

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

jinorazi Korea (South). April 07 2012 02:06. Posts 4011

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Such hype...id be comparing its high level of standards to ogn

age: 84 - location: california - sex: 잘함

Ares[Effort]

DEMACIA. April 07 2012 02:09. Posts 6106

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Fantastic interview JOJO, David Ting is awesome!

gold coin

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 02:30. Posts 2999

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On April 07 2012 02:09 Ares[Effort] wrote:
Fantastic interview JOJO, David Ting is awesome!

Thank you Ares! David Ting was a great interview partner and I really enjoyed it. It was very personal and insightful.

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 03:22. Posts 2999

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Fixed some typo's and added David Ting's twitter (at the bottom of the OP).

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

CaptainAmerica United States. April 07 2012 04:13. Posts 89

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Like my boy Micky D once said: I'm loving it.

Give Credit Where It's Due

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 04:38. Posts 2999

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On April 07 2012 04:13 CaptainAmerica wrote:
Like my boy Micky D once said: I'm loving it.

I had to google Mickey D to make sure it means Mc Donalds... wasn't sure. Thought it might have been some insider reference that I am not getting.

So, now that I know, thanks for the kind words! David Ting is very passionate about what he is doing so I it really was easy on my part.

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 12:19. Posts 2999

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On April 07 2012 02:06 jinorazi wrote:
Such hype...id be comparing its high level of standards to ogn

I am looking forward to Day 2 and 3. Day 1 was definitely incredible. I am interested in seeing the integration of the GSTL finals into the event.

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

GenesisX Canada. April 07 2012 12:33. Posts 3982

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thanks for doing this!
I'm always surprised as to how you get so many famous people on your show lol

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ninjamyst United States. April 07 2012 12:35. Posts 1557

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On April 07 2012 12:19 JOJOsc2news wrote:

Show nested quote +

I am looking forward to Day 2 and 3. Day 1 was definitely incredible. I am interested in seeing the integration of the GSTL finals into the event.

incredible from what point of view? there been many issues with stream throughout the day...

Slardar Canada. April 07 2012 12:37. Posts 4468

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Thanks JoJo! Bringing some real insight into the heart of IPL.

@Slardarxt - Masters Zerg & Playing Dota since RoC.

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 13:43. Posts 2999

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On April 07 2012 12:35 ninjamyst wrote:

Show nested quote +

incredible from what point of view? there been many issues with stream throughout the day...

I agree, there were technical hick-ups and they weren't always minor.
I am looking forward to Day 2 and 3 because I hope to see more of what was missing for me today. I hope to get more of a feel of the venue and the crowd. The content I got to see today was very engaging and entertaining despite the hick-ups. Great stories were told today. I thought today was incredible entertainment.
You don't think so?

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 13:46. Posts 2999

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On April 07 2012 12:33 GenesisX wrote:
thanks for doing this!
I'm always surprised as to how you get so many famous people on your show lol

Me too

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

CPTBadAss United States. April 07 2012 13:48. Posts 593

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You totally reeled me in with your interview with Kennigit. Thanks doing this interview Jojo

I'll keep on struggling, 'cause that's the measure of a man | "That was the plan: To give him some hope, and then crush him" -Stephano

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 20:58. Posts 2999

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On April 07 2012 12:37 Slardar wrote:
Thanks JoJo! Bringing some real insight into the heart of IPL.

Thank you for your feedback and that's exactly what I was hoping for.

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

MentalGNT Denmark. April 07 2012 21:30. Posts 1047

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Your interviews are always great.

I really love that you put these timestamps in. It makes it a lot easier to navigate the interview. I don't know why everyone doesn't do that

You die so that others may cheer.

KAmaKAsa Finland. April 07 2012 21:31. Posts 209

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On April 07 2012 12:35 ninjamyst wrote:

Show nested quote +

incredible from what point of view? there been many issues with stream throughout the day...

also they didnt stream tons of great matches in the open bracket...

JOJOsc2news April 07 2012 21:36. Posts 2999

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On April 07 2012 21:30 MentalGNT wrote:
Your interviews are always great.

I really love that you put these timestamps in. It makes it a lot easier to navigate the interview. I don't know why everyone doesn't do that

It's tedious. I'm glad you like it! (Will add the timestamps to the Youtube video as well. There you can actually jump right to the desired section

)

✉ Tweets @sc2channel ⌦ Blog: http://www.teamliquid.net/blog/JOJO ⌫ "Arbiterssss... build more arbiterssss." Click 'Profile' for awesome shiro art!

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