- Joined
- Apr 23, 2015
- Messages
- 356
Something I want to just make sure people are aware of when it comes to the talk of esports.
The game has the makings and the potential but there's a bit of of a contrast between the expectations and the reality of something big like nintendo going into esports as a new business endeavor.
The problem isnt a matter of when they do it, it's not a matter of how, it's literally a matter of "if".
https://compete.kotaku.com/nintendo-responds-to-smash-bros-pros-callout-wants-to-1796177733
This link brings you to an interview with Reggie fils-aime where he responds to a callout that Hungrybox, a Pro Melee player, made towards nintendo for not elevating the competitive community's status from grassroots to pro. Understandably the issue has led to some confusion as to whether or not nintendo actually supports the scene or not despite the efforts attempted.
One of the biggest things to take away from this is one simply underlying thing that reggie himself admits about their view on something like an esports league,
"Nintendo just doesn’t want to do a league. Fils-Aime said as much to me when describing the company’s philosophy about competitive gaming: “It’s community-oriented. It’s enabling the community to drive it forward. We have relationships, obviously, with entities like Evo and Battlefly. We want to do this much more at a grassroots level than others’ visions around leagues and big up-front payments and things of that nature.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
So to essentially answer the question of "is (any nintendo game here) going to be esports?", the answer is no.
You can see various examples of main Esports titles (Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, CS:GO, etc.) and see how much of a different kind of business that is in comparison to grassroots competitive. It's not just a matter of hosting tournaments or having some sponsors or a prize pool/pot. There is a ludicris amount of money and investment that goes on in that particular part of the industry alone that grassroots scenes like ours and even smash alone arent able to do without the company.
To add to this the numbers just arent in our favor, western splatoon competitively is incredibly small in comparison to Japan, and even there things like esports as we know it arent much of a thing (If I remember correctly) because of a specific law detailing a cash prize gap that would essentially scare off sponsors. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Trends/Legal-barrier-hobbles-esports-in-game-crazy-Japan?page=1
"The prize money in Japan is pocket change by comparison. That is because of the act against unjustifiable premiums and misleading representations, which puts a 100,000 yen ($895) cap on cash prizes for events deemed to be aimed at selling a specific product."
"This essentially stifles any sort of business opportunities" in this area, as said in the article.
Money is absolutely necessary in this business, it doesnt matter how much you want something to happen if it doesnt have the financial capabilities and if the company has no interest there is no chance of it happening period. As much as I wouldnt want to sound like a spoil sport, it's simply how things are.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A little tid-bit about competitive and just final opinions
Playing turf war to learn the basics is great and all, but turf war has nothing to do with the competitive scene nor is it even used. While someone may have positive results the point of the game is simply the fact that it is a team game not a "Me and the other three" game. Unless those turf war accolades are reflected in ranked in all 4 modes and you are able to keep that satus consistently in all 4 modes while also placing in the higher percentile in league mode and in online/LAN events then what you get in solo-queue turf or solo ranked essentially means nothing to teams who are currently performing at mid to top level.
turf war is where people should start off if they want to have a base platform to train on before they hit ranked, there is so much more than getting 3000 points in a turf war match and some set number of splats/kills that you have to accomplish if you truly want to be in the upper echelon of players who arent so focused on those 2 small statistics. each player has a role on the team, you cant train yourself to fit every role in a single game and focus on irrelevant statistics like turf points and kills unless your job is to be a support who takes control of the area for the team or someone who does nothing but simply get picks/kills. The objective is the single most important statistic in all ranked modes, it doesnt care how much ground you covered unless it's a splatzone and if you got the timer down to 0 or a lower number than your opponents. if youre in a team, league mode and scrimming other teams no matter what percentile they are on is incredibly important. aside from that solo-queue is too messed up to be used as a substitute for league or scrims but it's the only other option so nothing you can do about that.
and thats just in light of Rank X which is supposed to come out in april, so that'll be fun.
That's my bit, sorry for the wall of text
Have a nice day
The game has the makings and the potential but there's a bit of of a contrast between the expectations and the reality of something big like nintendo going into esports as a new business endeavor.
The problem isnt a matter of when they do it, it's not a matter of how, it's literally a matter of "if".
https://compete.kotaku.com/nintendo-responds-to-smash-bros-pros-callout-wants-to-1796177733
This link brings you to an interview with Reggie fils-aime where he responds to a callout that Hungrybox, a Pro Melee player, made towards nintendo for not elevating the competitive community's status from grassroots to pro. Understandably the issue has led to some confusion as to whether or not nintendo actually supports the scene or not despite the efforts attempted.
One of the biggest things to take away from this is one simply underlying thing that reggie himself admits about their view on something like an esports league,
"Nintendo just doesn’t want to do a league. Fils-Aime said as much to me when describing the company’s philosophy about competitive gaming: “It’s community-oriented. It’s enabling the community to drive it forward. We have relationships, obviously, with entities like Evo and Battlefly. We want to do this much more at a grassroots level than others’ visions around leagues and big up-front payments and things of that nature.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
So to essentially answer the question of "is (any nintendo game here) going to be esports?", the answer is no.
You can see various examples of main Esports titles (Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, CS:GO, etc.) and see how much of a different kind of business that is in comparison to grassroots competitive. It's not just a matter of hosting tournaments or having some sponsors or a prize pool/pot. There is a ludicris amount of money and investment that goes on in that particular part of the industry alone that grassroots scenes like ours and even smash alone arent able to do without the company.
To add to this the numbers just arent in our favor, western splatoon competitively is incredibly small in comparison to Japan, and even there things like esports as we know it arent much of a thing (If I remember correctly) because of a specific law detailing a cash prize gap that would essentially scare off sponsors. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Trends/Legal-barrier-hobbles-esports-in-game-crazy-Japan?page=1
"The prize money in Japan is pocket change by comparison. That is because of the act against unjustifiable premiums and misleading representations, which puts a 100,000 yen ($895) cap on cash prizes for events deemed to be aimed at selling a specific product."
"This essentially stifles any sort of business opportunities" in this area, as said in the article.
Money is absolutely necessary in this business, it doesnt matter how much you want something to happen if it doesnt have the financial capabilities and if the company has no interest there is no chance of it happening period. As much as I wouldnt want to sound like a spoil sport, it's simply how things are.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A little tid-bit about competitive and just final opinions
Playing turf war to learn the basics is great and all, but turf war has nothing to do with the competitive scene nor is it even used. While someone may have positive results the point of the game is simply the fact that it is a team game not a "Me and the other three" game. Unless those turf war accolades are reflected in ranked in all 4 modes and you are able to keep that satus consistently in all 4 modes while also placing in the higher percentile in league mode and in online/LAN events then what you get in solo-queue turf or solo ranked essentially means nothing to teams who are currently performing at mid to top level.
turf war is where people should start off if they want to have a base platform to train on before they hit ranked, there is so much more than getting 3000 points in a turf war match and some set number of splats/kills that you have to accomplish if you truly want to be in the upper echelon of players who arent so focused on those 2 small statistics. each player has a role on the team, you cant train yourself to fit every role in a single game and focus on irrelevant statistics like turf points and kills unless your job is to be a support who takes control of the area for the team or someone who does nothing but simply get picks/kills. The objective is the single most important statistic in all ranked modes, it doesnt care how much ground you covered unless it's a splatzone and if you got the timer down to 0 or a lower number than your opponents. if youre in a team, league mode and scrimming other teams no matter what percentile they are on is incredibly important. aside from that solo-queue is too messed up to be used as a substitute for league or scrims but it's the only other option so nothing you can do about that.
and thats just in light of Rank X which is supposed to come out in april, so that'll be fun.
That's my bit, sorry for the wall of text
Have a nice day
The game is bigger over there than it is elsewhere though (it'll sell slightly more in the U.S., but we've also got 3x the population), so it wouldn't be that surprising.
