Vancouver Titans

[Baka]

This is actually really cool. Don't mind those hating on it as you can tell they are people who know literally nothing about it and are responding in a dated old school manner. Most people don't realize many of these games got better viewership than many hockey games get and it sustained all season. The leagues first season exceeded expectation and they were able to triple the team buy in price to 60 million per team. Making the teams city based really gave a good foundation for the market. I personally don't think it will appeal to an old school crowd but its set up to thrive with people under 30 particularly early 20s and teens. 

 

I watched a lot of OWL in season 1 as I am from Philadelphia and it really grew on me. It also found its spot in the city. The banners on the stadiums included the Fusion's logo and local bars would host viewing parties for the games same as any other sport. The Championship at Barclay's center sold out almost instantly and they packed out the Xfinity center for the viewing here in Philly. The only real difference compared to other sports is the crowd was overall younger. Of course a lot of that hype came from the team doing well.

 

As for Vancouver's team I am interested in seeing how they do though I am unsure how good they are. My guess would be middle to lower seed playoff team. Signing the entire RunAway squad sounds good on paper but keep in mind last season Seoul Dynasty signed the entire Lunatic Hai squad who were the best South Korean contenders team and people thought they would easy win run the league but they fell apart and missed the playoffs entirely they were the biggest disappointment of season 1. London who won it signed a bunch of players from 2 different teams and found a mix of them worked well on the other side though. South Korea contenders is also taking a backseat to North America Contenders as well because NA has all the OWL contenders teams in it and many of those teams like Fusion University just sign a lot of the best talent that isn't eligible for OWL yet. For example WhoRU and Alarm who are both regarded as better than most OWL players but are underaged. Vancouver is also bringing back players like Hooreg for example who played for London last year and really didn't play that great before being released by the team and signing with RunAways. You could make a strong case that they could have signed better individuals from a variety of teams as many higher touted DPS players were available around contenders. 

 

Ether way it certainly wont be as bad as Shanghai's 1st season I am excited to see the new teams and which ones surprise. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

4 hours ago, Baka said:

as you can tell they are people who know literally nothing about it and are responding in a dated old school manner.

Dang....you know you're old when people accuse you of this.

[Baka]

On 12/25/2018 at 10:47 PM, NewbieCanuckFan said:

Dang....you know you're old when people accuse you of this.

The first part of what you quoted is really the relevant part. Most people who gave an opinion in this thread were people who were triggered at the very idea of video games being associated as sports. Yet not a single person who was triggered knew a thing about the game and how it follows the exact same format as a sport. Their is a reason one is called sport and the other is called Esport. The fundamental approach to it is exactly the same. Their is a reason the ultra athlete at your local gym can't just walk into pro sports league.

[MikeyBoy44]

So the new trend is to watch someone else play video games? Wow.

[Violator]

7 hours ago, MikeyBoy44 said:

So the new trend is to watch someone else play video games? Wow.

Not really its been happening in south korea for years.Starcraft has been hugely popular just hasnt been as big in north america.Halo competitons used to be pretty huge

 

[GLASSJAW]

On 12/25/2018 at 3:33 PM, Baka said:

This is actually really cool. Don't mind those hating on it as you can tell they are people who know literally nothing about it and are responding in a dated old school manner. Most people don't realize many of these games got better viewership than many hockey games get and it sustained all season. The leagues first season exceeded expectation and they were able to triple the team buy in price to 60 million per team. Making the teams city based really gave a good foundation for the market. I personally don't think it will appeal to an old school crowd but its set up to thrive with people under 30 particularly early 20s and teens. 

I would honestly be surprised if the Vancouver Canucks are even a thing in 50 years. Not only are most pro sports teams not very popular outside of their immediate jurisdiction, but the very medium they rely so heavily on for their money (cable TV) is dying so quickly that I'm wondering how pro sports will sustain their current level of outrageous costs of operation once the advertisement revenue dries up

 

I think it's kind of curious how the NFL started airing games on twitch recently - not exactly surprisingly though, since ESPN has been on the brink of bankruptcy for a few years now. Only a matter of time before it goes under, and the NFL and co. will have to find a new way to target an audience. I highly doubt streaming on twitch brought in any new fans, mind you 

 

I get why someone wouldn't like "e-sports" or whatever, it's a total cultural thing. But it's going nowhere but up, whereas traditional sports are going nowhere but down (except the NBA and a couple of soccer leagues, which are anomalies in that they show global/cultural growth, even today)

 

I'm above your listed demographic (in my 30s), but I grew up playing games competitively in the early days, so I'm definitely not new to this. But even with that said, I can EASILY say I had more fun at the Dota 2 International in Vancouver last summer than I've ever had at a traditional sporting event - it's just such a different culture, and a significantly better one, at that, for my money. Less about boozy aggressive men shouting at 20 year old athletes, and more about a community, in a weird way.

 

I'm curious about whether making teams city-based will make a good foundation for a market though. What reason do I have for liking this team? It just seems like corporate overhead, branding. The real selling point for e-sports, imo, is the individuality - the ability to differentiate players/playstyles/personalities. This is something most pro sports teams cannot do at all. I will always like a good twitch personality before I like some corporate branding which is meant to appeal to me just because of geography

[Baka]

4 hours ago, GLASSJAW said:

I would honestly be surprised if the Vancouver Canucks are even a thing in 50 years. Not only are most pro sports teams not very popular outside of their immediate jurisdiction, but the very medium they rely so heavily on for their money (cable TV) is dying so quickly that I'm wondering how pro sports will sustain their current level of outrageous costs of operation once the advertisement revenue dries up

 

I think it's kind of curious how the NFL started airing games on twitch recently - not exactly surprisingly though, since ESPN has been on the brink of bankruptcy for a few years now. Only a matter of time before it goes under, and the NFL and co. will have to find a new way to target an audience. I highly doubt streaming on twitch brought in any new fans, mind you 

 

I get why someone wouldn't like "e-sports" or whatever, it's a total cultural thing. But it's going nowhere but up, whereas traditional sports are going nowhere but down (except the NBA and a couple of soccer leagues, which are anomalies in that they show global/cultural growth, even today)

 

I'm above your listed demographic (in my 30s), but I grew up playing games competitively in the early days, so I'm definitely not new to this. But even with that said, I can EASILY say I had more fun at the Dota 2 International in Vancouver last summer than I've ever had at a traditional sporting event - it's just such a different culture, and a significantly better one, at that, for my money. Less about boozy aggressive men shouting at 20 year old athletes, and more about a community, in a weird way.

 

I'm curious about whether making teams city-based will make a good foundation for a market though. What reason do I have for liking this team? It just seems like corporate overhead, branding. The real selling point for e-sports, imo, is the individuality - the ability to differentiate players/playstyles/personalities. This is something most pro sports teams cannot do at all. I will always like a good twitch personality before I like some corporate branding which is meant to appeal to me just because of geography

I actually think making the teams city based was extremely smart marketing. I mentioned this before but the Fusion owned by Comcast get marketing as a team through the major Philly sports scene. The Flyers who share their colors with the team place the Fusion logo along the rink space and their was a banner hanging on the Wells Fargo center by I-95 that printed the Fusion logo with the other Philly major sports teams by it. 

 

They also have viewing parties at Xfinity live which is the large sports bar complex by the stadiums in Philadelphia that is the hot spot for Philly sports outside of the stadium. 

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

The city brand lets them really market the product to a large amount of people beyond just gamers and those who support a team because of it's overlap. I had a friend who loves all Philly sports and only rooted for them after I mentioned watching because I said the game was Philly vs Boston which has it's own passion between the cities. If I take her the game was FaZe clan vs Cloud9 we both know she wouldn't have cared even slightly lol.

 

In addition I don't think it harms individuality in a the sport. The players are all heavily marketed, they earn reputations among the league for example I will use Philly again. Philly's off tank became the standard reference for huge Dva bomb kills often referenced as Poko bombs even in games he was not in. Neptuno became known as the the most dangerous battle Mercy in the game for his kills on the heavy support based character. Fragi literally became a crowd favorite despite being known for feeding and being too reckless because his style was so unique. 

 

Twitch is also ultra interactive unlike your main sports all these players play on Twitch where people can interact with them as they play or do whatever they want. You can also play they game yourself on ladder and run into these players in casual modes or if you get high enough rank or simply by subscribing to their channels and playing in their pick up game lobbies for subs they host occasionally. I think the city base only helps players brands. 

 

I also mentioned this was well before. While it doesn't top all NHL games Overwatch was getting around 180k viewers for its games on twitch which is more than most regular hockey games and even higher than some of the lower tier Stanley cup finals hockey games in past years. While more people don't know about it than hockey teams it's still showing a strong crowd.

 

As for the Vancouver Titans being a thing in 50 years that would be shocking lol. The market works much differently and it would be crazy if OW kept a market that long. One thing about videogames is how long they control the market. Games can stick with a pro scene for over a decade but people will shift to better made games as they come out as do many pro players. But I do expect the market to only grow and city based teams to become more and more common for stretches. 

 

 

I feel community and teamwork are more stressed in games because everyone is limited/balanced to the same kids to complete an objective. Regular sports while having the same fundamental objectives and kits to achieve them have the variable of everyone playing having a different balance to their kit and ability to maximize their objectives based on their physical ability. At the pro level it floats into coaching with how to handle what your players strengths and weaknesses to stop various superior talents but at lower tiers its often just being at the mercy of those who are more physically gifted. With games you can just focus on playing strategy with a balanced scale to plan.

[Baer.]

Vancouver will be playing their inaugural game tonight at 4:30 versus Shanghai

[westcoastsniper]

Vancouver Titans with the dominant inaugural game. 4-0

[ForzaTikare]

Titans starting the season well

[Shekky]

yeah they have been pretty dominate so far they had a close call in there second game but managed to come out with the win

[ForzaTikare]

Still undefeated through 5, sixth game today at 3:30 pm PST

[Baer.]

Titans absolutely dominated season 2, going undefeated and placing top in the league. Very fun team to watch.

 

Playoffs start Thursday. Vancouver likely plays Boston Uprising in the first round.

[ForzaTikare]

And Titans win stage 1 of season 2 after an amazing final, trailing 1-0,2-1 and 3-2 in the best of 7 they finished out on the last map (Rialto) dominating the San Francisco Shock and blew away the fastest finish record in the League finishing in only 3,33.. (earlier record was 4,30) 

[Where's Wellwood]

They have one loss now right?

[Ossi Vaananen]

Pretty good team, but this GOATS meta is unwatchable. 

[JRSJ]

Grand finals boys.