There’s major news afoot and the silence is deafening. For those of you that haven’t heard: MLG “acquired” the best, biggest eSports site, LANDodger. Wait, no. That was just a pipe dream I had.
They did acquire that eSports site, but it's GotFrag. And where are the news pieces? It’s not even on Amped yet, and the story’s already more than a day old. You would think that the biggest eSports news site being acquired by a major gaming league would get more coverage than your local CAL-O match. Maybe the problem is there wasn’t enough compensation. MLG acquired GotFrag, but what did we get in return? Cash considerations? Salary cap relief? A first round draft pick – Greg Oden!?
(Probably not, although if Greg Oden wants to forsake the NBA draft to start a LANDodger basketball team, I’d like to state, on the record, that I’d be happy to have him. I believe his going rate is about 3,000,000 CS lessons – the equivalent of his rookie salary. Call me, Greg. Or force a trade to the Bulls – either one is good.)
No request is too extreme
When you dream upon a pipe
As dreamers do.
Alright, Greg Oden is a pipe dream too, but there are a few things I’m sure we’re getting in return: console coverage, console coverage, and Halo – played on the console – coverage. It’s not necessarily a bad thing; I don’t have anything against console gaming. A flick shot in Halo isn’t any less exciting than a flick shot in Counter-Strike. And if you ever get a chance to see their broadcasts on USA, tune in. They’re well edited and the commentary is good, which is more than I can say about some other professional broadcasts.
(Excuse me while I mentally glare at my most hated MLB and NBA announcers.)
The acquisition is a really interesting development for a couple reasons, one of which I’m really excited about, and the other I’m concerned about. Happy news first: it’s a huge move for the MLG, and I think we have to admit there are three major leagues fighting for dominance in eSports. Who has the best product and the best medium for it? Which league has the biggest inherent fanbase, and which the biggest potential fanbase? I have no idea, but here’s the way I see it:
MLG has the console market, which is huge even though PC gamers don’t pay as much attention to it. Really, the most prevalent game on TV is Madden Football – and obviously that’s a console game. We don’t tend to think of it as a competitive game, but the fanbase is huge, both because of console gamers and football fans. Before the CGS was offering guaranteed salaries, MLG players and teams were already signed. Throw that in with their broadcasting deal with USA, the biggest eSports website, and you have a league to be reckoned with.
The WSVG has (arguably): the most popular video game ever (WoW), the hottest title on the hottest console (Guitar Hero 2, Nintendo Wii), and the most successful deathmatch title in competitive history (Quake). It's hard to gauge all of those things, but I think we all agree they're at least in the discussion for those categories. And they’ve got the only broadcast deal with a non-cable channel: CBS.
Then, of course, we have the CGS, and I think we know what they bring to the table: DirecTV and Counter-Strike. Their other games get overlooked, but we shouldn’t discount them. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and they could draw in some soccer fans with Fifa ’07. Can’t forget the racing crowd, either, and they’ve got that covered with Project Gotham Racing. And two words: guaranteed salaries. Still a huge selling point, even if MLG was there first.
What a mess! It’s like Risk, eSports edition: the battle for e-world domination! (Which means the CPL is Antarctica, I believe.) I have no idea who’s going to come out on top, and, more importantly, with what games. If the CGS doesn’t cut it, one of the other leagues would be crazy not to pick up CS. Ditto for the WSVG and WoW, or MLG and Halo. Even Miss Cleo thinks the future is cloudy
All that’s great, and I’m genuinely excited to see what happens with the three leagues. But there’s another aspect to the story: what happens to GotFrag? Their letter to the community, at least the “what this means for GotFrag” portion, basically said four things:
1) We’re getting more backing and access to MLG events
2) We’re adding more console coverage, but we’ll still be dedicated to PC gaming.
3) Our standards and content won’t change that much.
4) MORE. And BETTER.
The first two are pretty obvious. Even Mr. Magoo could see those coming. The fourth one seems to be the talking point, as seen in the title, “Letter to the Community: More and Better”. The third statement? I’m calling shenanigans, because there’s a pretty big conflict of interest.
Let’s look at things in a different way. It’s the start of a normal day. You wake up, collect fresh eggs from your chicken coop, make an omelet, have your cleaning robot, Rosie, take care of the dirty dishes – the usual. After putting on your silk robe and alligator-skin slippers (yes, you eat breakfast in the nude to show off your finely tuned abs), you hop on the internet and check out ESPN.com. And you find out it’s been bought by … oh, I dunno … Major League Soccer. On the front-page is a notice about the news, and a letter claiming nothing is going to change except there’s going to be a disclaimer about the ownership in all MLS articles.
I don’t know about you guys, but I wouldn’t be putting much stock in their objective analysis on things like the David Beckham contract, disclaimer or not.
Another quick example: MLG and the WSVG both finish up major events on the same day. The final results come in within minutes of each other. Who gets the massive headline graphic, and who gets the top link on the news section? Again, I don’t think we’re going to be blindsided by which one they’d choose.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that GotFrag is being up front about a possible bias. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the fact that the bias is there, or pretend it won’t ever show up. It’s one thing for a media outlet to have a partnership with an organization. Both of them benefit from the extra coverage and exposure – it’s a major part of journalism. It’s another situation entirely when a league is cutting the checks for a media outlet. We call those sites MLB.com.
Would GotFrag intentionally lie to the readership? No, I think only the Bush administration does that. Will I stop reading or enjoying their content? Absolutely not. I’m still going to do both of those, just like usual. So in that sense, not a lot will change. But let’s go into this with our eyes open. It’s naïve to think their coverage and commentary is going to be the same as it was before the MLG acquired them. I’ll be keeping the salt grains ready for whenever I’m reading their articles, even if Pepsi tastes horrible with salt in it. And I'll double the dosage when the news could have some kind of impact on the MLG – directly (their events) or indirectly (CGS news, etc).
That’s the bad part of the effect this will have on GotFrag, and as you can see I took the third point very seriously. But we can’t just ignore the last point: it’s entirely possible their coverage will expand and get better from having the financial backing of the MLG. Really, I’d be surprised if it didn’t. I don’t know what they have planned, but they have more resources now than they did before. Maybe they’ll be able to pay their writers. Maybe they’ll be able to cover even more international events than they already do, or send more writers and staff. Maybe they’ll develop a new, even better Gamesense. Who knows, but when you consider how big the MLG is, it’s not hard to see this having a positive effect on GotFrag as a whole. Any possible bias could turn out to be well worth the price.
Everything’s a trade-off. And you can bet that if the MLG came calling for me, I wouldn’t hang up the phone based on a possible conflict of interest. It would weigh into the decision, sure, but there’s a great chance I’d end up doing the same thing GotFrag did. I can’t blame for the decision, and this post isn’t meant to be a flame towards them at all. They’ve done more for the advancement of eSports than 99.9% of the community, including myself, and I can’t thank them enough for all their hard work and dedication. But I don’t think it’s right to let the conflict of interest pass by the wayside while we consider all the good things about the move, even if there will be plenty of positive things about the acquisition. So I’m going to take that disclaimer to heart, even while I continue to read and enjoy the site. And I think you should, too.
