These folks aren’t limiting themselves to just 6.5 seconds anymore. Nope! Periscope has been offering live streamers and their viewers an altogether different experience where live interaction is at the core. Here are Periscope’s finest, who are offering millions of viewers a candid conversation, a peep into their lives and more.
Super Evil Megacorp’s Kristian Segerstrale has a big mission: for core gamers to begin to consider their touchscreen devices as their primary gaming platforms. “We ourselves grew up with PC gaming as a thing we did all night long with friends,” says Segerstrale. “We feel like the touchscreen generation deserves that gaming experience.”
Ultimately, for Super Evil Megacorp, the device the game is played on is really besides the point. “We are paranoid about control. As gamers ourselves, we don’t even want to think about what device we’re playing on … We don’t really care about fundamentally what device we’re playing on.”
This kind of experience on mobile, as Kristian puts it, ” where you’re battling your opponent, not the device” has been a key focus for the company as they continue to shift perceptions of mobile as merely a casual gaming device. Responsiveness has been a key factor that Super Evil Megacorp has improved upon, building a sub-30 millisecond control input into Vainglory‘s engine.
“The overall sense of responsiveness of the game has been a really important part of what we’re creating.” Segerstrale hopes this will create a gaming experience that will be worthy of core gamers’ attentions and win them over to the mobile experience.
“What’s important to us is our players, and empowering our players to create content and share that content with others.”
As the popularity of online game streaming and tournaments continues to grow, so do the number of shows dedicated to capturing the action, personalities, and spirit behind eSports competition. One such show is Legends of Gaming, produced by Endemol Beyond USA in partnership with popular food chain Pizza Hut.
We reported on Legends of Gaming earlier this year, which is a spin-off from a popular U.K. series of the same name, hosted by the popular streamer Toby “Tobuscus” Turner. The video above provides a taste of what viewers can expect. The show will feature top YouTube and eSport personalities as they compete in various games that include FIFA 16 and Counter-Strike.
To get a better idea of what Pizza Hut’s involvement with the show, [a]listdaily sat down with David Daniels, director of Media and Partnerships for the company.
“For one, we grew up as gaming grew up,” said Daniels, discussing why the company was getting involved with gaming. “There s been a connection between our brand and gaming for a long time. The experience has slightly changed, but the enjoyment you get from it has remained the same.
“In terms of why we re interested in it, we know gaming is as popular as ever, and we know that gamers love pizza. It s a great pairing. So, we felt to be involved in a truly organic, non-intrusive way was an opportunity to grow affinity about this audience.”
There’s a lot of potential when reaching out to this audience, according to Daniels. “Gaming is booming, so much so that is has outgrown music and movies in total revenue. From the casual player to the series gamer, we like the ability to provide great experiences along with our great pizzas to this audience.”
As for what part Pizza Hut plays in Legends of Gaming, Daniels explained, “We worked directly with Endemol to figure out an experience that was natural, not forced. Where we landed was an experience that was much like the one most gamers have at home enjoying pizza while others play a game or talking about the game in between turns playing. It s a reminder to the audience that this is where pizza fits in with gaming.”
This experience includes audience engagement and passing out pizza. “We will be giving away free pizzas to viewers of the show, conducting Twitter chats with fans/gamers and looking for other ways to activate throughout the season,” said Daniels.
Daniels wouldn’t divulge exact how many Pizza Hut lovers they hoped to reach, but says, “I can tell you that some of our most loyal customers would classify themselves as gamers, which to us is very exciting.”
If the show is a success, Pizza Hut could more closely tie its brand with gaming culture. “We will find the best ways to authentically make a connection in this space,” said Daniels.
As for general strategy behind the show, Daniels kept it simple. “Pizza is best served with a group of friends and a great game, and we believe Legends of Gaming hits that target.”
The first episodes are available for viewing on Smasher’s YouTube channel now, with plenty more to come. Time to order a pizza to and get watching.
Theme parks are fun, but very pricey. Just ask anyone who has visited Disney World lately. However, Landmark Entertainment may drastically cut ticket and travel prices by creating a new virtual experience that people can visit from the comfort of their homes.
A report from Variety details how The Landmark Entertainment Group intends to create a Virtual’s World’s Fair, expected to launch in 2017, which will allow millions of consumers to enjoy entertainment, shop and take part in other activities using virtual reality headsets. “It’s the world coming together to celebrate the world,” said Landmark president and CEO Tony Christopher.
This virtual space will offer many different forms entertainment, including 3D projection, surround sound and special effects. It’s certainly territory that Landmark is familiar with, as it’s created attractions for theme parks such as Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man and Terminator 2 3D. Being that it will be a digital environment, a Virtual World’s Fair would not be constrained by real world matters like physics, geography or real estate.
The fair will have appeal for visitors of all ages.”Dataland” will be where smaller children can try things out, while “Passportal” transports users to faraway lands. Special events such as concerts will also be featured. “We want to be seen as a project that is meaningful,” said Christopher.
On a related note, the company revealed plans for a virtual theme park earlier this year, with plans to launch a L.I.V.E. Centre in China in 2018, followed by 20 to 30 locations that could bring in five million visitors a year.
“With virtual reality, we can put you in the African savanna or fly you into outer space,” said Landmark CEO Tony Christopher, speaking with Fortune Magazine about the experience. “This completely changes the idea of an old-fashioned museum by allowing kids to experience prehistoric dinosaurs or legendary creatures as we develop new experiences that keep them coming back for more. We’ll combine education and entertainment into one destination that’s always evolving.”
To help promote The Virtual World’s Fair as it develops, Landmark Entertainment intends to launch a smaller experience, called the Pavilion of Me, in about a year. It will offer the ability to listen to music, enjoy videos and shop in a virtual reality setting. A freemium model will be available, so that users can customize certain parts of the experience at no charge.
The biggest question is whether or not these virtual exhibitions and theme parks will gain many visitors. Consumer virtual reality headsets won’t release until next year, and we don’t know how quickly they’ll take off. Linden Lab, makers of the virtual world Second Life, is also working on a similar idea with Project Sansar.
But we’re sure that there will be plenty of room in the virtual world for multiple experiences. At least you won’t have to wait on long lines.
Ever since YouTube Gaming launched earlier this year, it has been making great strides for video game livestreaming content like “Let’s Play” videos. Now we get a glimpse of how successful the service has been.
YouTube recently updated its blog page to discuss streaming numbers, and they’re quite impressive. The site estimates that gamers view more than 144 billion minutes of video per month, between posted videos and live streams on YouTube. “To put it into perspective, that’s like watching Let’s Play’s for more than 270,000 years straight 24 hours a day or beating Final Fantasy VII 1,900,000 times a day!” the post reads.
The company also highlights a number of improvements to the YouTube Gaming service.
Firstly, it introduced a better focus on mobile capture, thus empowering streams of “every shape and size,” including players of popular mobile games like Boom Beach or Hearthstone. “You can now record and live stream mobile gameplay on-the-go directly from Android devices using Mobile Capture on YouTube Gaming,” the post reads. “You don’t need any additional hardware or software just tap Go Live (or your avatar on a phone) in the YouTube Gaming app, turn on your selfie cam and record your commentary with your phone’s microphone.”
The company also discusses sponsorship potential. A new beta program is in place to help assist with Fan Funding and Sponsorships, which offer perks such as a live chat badge and the ability to create exclusive chat sessions for a small monthly fee. YouTube intends to expand the list of beta channels as time goes on.
Other features that are being introduced include better search capabilities to find relevant livestreams, bookmarking videos for later, a redesigned watching page with improved performance, better search navigation for iOS devices and importing existing subscriptions through the Settings menu.
It sounds great, but YouTube Gaming still has a ways to go before it can catch up with its chief rival, Twitch. The livestreaming service continues to draw in a vast community of gamers (100 million monthly and rising), and works with big-name partners such as Old Spice. On top of that, the company recently hosted its first successful TwitchCon, bringing in both game companies and streamers to appeal to its vast community. Twitch has over 1.7 million broadcasters, with 12,000 that are making a decent living by working within its partnership program.
Now that YouTube is facing fierce competition from Facebook, we’ll have to keep a close eye on how quickly the livestreaming sector develops.
Although product placement is still common, like the Samsung and Verizon Wireless products in Jurassic World, that doesn’t mean it’s the go-to tool across all mediums.
A new article in the Wall Street Journal indicates that product placement has seen a drop-off as far as prime time television is concerned. The report indicates, per numbers provided by Nielsen, that product placement appearances during the new broadcast season’s debut week saw a decline, down 45% to 104, compared to 2014’s premiere week.
This isn’t a recent decline, either. Last year’s broadcasts also saw a decrease in product placements, with just under 4,500 for the entire broadcast TV season a 3% drop from the previous year, and a 20% decrease from the 2012-2013 season.
The reason for this Many think that new advertising platforms, such as influencer advertising, are leading the way. “There are so many more options available for advertising now and every year it grows,” said Chad Dreas, managing director of media analytics for Nielsen.
Another factor to consider is keeping advertisers in the fray. Andy Donchin, chief investment officer for Amplify US, notes that it’s a “big commitment” in terms of keeping them around. “There is an out of pocket premium” that advertisers need to pay, and it doesn’t always make sense.
Companies also seek better integration of products into shows, not just a TV character grabbing a product secondarily as they continue acting. That said, there are examples of when product placement still works, but with less subtlety. The video above demonstrates how Stephen Colbert incorporated Sabra roasted red pepper hummus into his debut episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. The talk show host also gave Oreos a nod during a Donald Trump segment.
Some companies, like Cigna Corp. health insurance, are still involved with this form of advertising, which can be seen in various ABC programs. This includes some audience members from Jimmy Kimmel Live having a double do their jobs so they can get medical check-ups. Stephen Cassell, global branding officer at Cigna, explains that this integration “amplifies the commercial message.”
Dreas also added that product integrations “add value and increase the effectiveness” of ads, although there is still that question of other methods, and how they can work with advertisers.
This includes the growing power of influencer marketing. A recent study showed that 60% of marketers planned on increasing the budget allocated to it. With it, a number of other advertising methods could prove effective without obvious plugs. These include word of mouth across social media platforms, which have better ROI (which range anywhere from $2 to $6.50 per dollar spent, depending on the program) and utilize data to a better effect.
“Influencer campaigns are so much more accountable than traditional vehicles like broadcast or outdoor billboards. Ultimately, those figures are estimates based off industry standards,” says Steven Lai, talent group director for ION. “But digital content like influencer campaigns can be granularly tracked from impressions/views to clicks to purchase. Setting up campaigns properly, we can track every action a user takes as they progress through the purchase funnel and optimize in real time.”
Dennis “Thresh” Fong has parlayed his success in the early days of eSports with Quake and Doom into a serial entrepreneurial career focused on gaming, community and eSports. His latest venture as founder and CEO of Raptr is Plays.tv, which has over 1.5 million monthly active users. The social gameplay video recorder has been integrated into World of Tanks, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Fong explains why this technology is important for the eSports ecosystem and explains his expansion plans in this exclusive interview.
Plays.tv is a platform with two main components. It’s a desktop client that does capturing and sharing of gameplay and works with any game. It auto records all gameplay and also can record a webcam and mic as well, which is great for streamers. It’s unique because it’s smart. When you install it, it’s lightweight and automatically knows when to record and stop. It’s like the Replay concept except it works with any game. You simply hit a hotkey to bookmark a moment and when you exit you can edit, stitch, and share gameplay clips.
We started with League of Legends. And now we’re adding CS:GO. We have a Highlights feature which reads the live game data of what’s happening in-game and automatically creates highlights. Every kill, death assist, baron fight, or dragon fight is recorded. We know the second you’re doing damage to the second you killed the guy, so there’s no wasted footage and no editing required. We get the exact moments you want to save.
It’s used by most of the top pro teams for both analysis in reviewing their own play from a learning tool perspective, and also to share their best and most memorable moments. In short time, we’re doing the same thing for CS:GO. Every death and kill and bomb plant and diffuse is auto-bookmarked and the highlights are saved.
We saw with League where these pros spend 12 to 14 hours a day practicing in scrimmages against other teams or playing on their own. They live, breathe, and practically eat playing the game they’re professionals at. They don’t have the patience or the time to capture and share videos. Imagine recording a four-hour scrimmage and having to remember where in the video you had five kills. Even for a one-hour video it would be hard. You’d have to rewatch it. That’s why most people don’t share videos.
With League we’ve seen smart recording divide a four-hour clip into seven different games. And we read the live game data and divide it with that data. Click on one of those matches and every key moment is already booked for you. You can find that Ace and sharing it and takes 10 to 15 seconds.
The pros use it because it’s drop-dead simple and it becomes part of their workflow. It’s enabled them to help build their own brand outside of streaming or Twitter. It’s a new social platform to build a new fan base and keep fans engaged.
The most popular League team is TSM and within a day of us introducing the tool to the team, two players had clips on the front page of Reddit and they had over 100,000 views. In this way, the pros have control over engaging with the fans, rather than having someone else monetizing off of that.
Eventually it will be ad-driven through sponsorships. As of now it’s ad-free. Our goal is to enable the users and creators to share in that revenue as well like the YouTube or Twitch model.
We built the best recording and sharing technology in the world. There’s no service or app that does these key features. Tournament organizers and eSports organizations recognized that as well. Our partnerships with ESL and Wargaming allows them to install and run the Plays.tv client in all of the competition machines. It’s the first time either of them has done anything like that.
When you look at any eSports competition in the world — even Valve and Riot and ESL large-scale ones — they’re all lacking point-of-view video. When you watch League and CS:GO it’s from an observer view. We believe there’s a better experience to be had. The first step was to have an app to run on every tournament machine. Spectator is an externally connected account that watches the game. It’s not on the tournament machines because of the impact it has on the PC. But our tech has no impact on the actual machine. Then we can record the point-of-view from every player’s perspective. When you play league as a Jungler — you watch because you want to learn. You’d want to watch the game completely from the Jungler perspective.
This is not live-streaming. We have a Web experience where you can watch the regular broadcast view and you can switch to any players point-of-view. This is available after the official match has streamed. We have 11 videos after the match that we need to upload them to make available. We’ve done it at a few ESL events and people can switch and watch from anyone’s perspective rather than be controlled by a cameraman. The cameraman can only do so much, so he misses some things.
Wargaming went live at the North American Finals event Oct. 3. We did IEM at Gamescom and Shenzhen, and we’ll be at SAP Centre in San Jose for IEM Nov. 21-22 for the first CS:GO event and the first League event after Worlds.
World of Tanks gets 60 million monthly active viewers. CS:GO will eclipse League in the next few years. CS:GO is on an insane growth curve now. Having the top two eSports is a pretty big deal for us. Our goal is to cover all of the major eSports. You can bet Dota 2 will be following soon.
Fans are watching events live and then watching the multi-view on Plays.tv. Our site is a different take on video and eSports and gaming. It’s a follow model like Twitter or Instagram. It’s centered around gaming clubs. It’s less about sitting down for hours and more about watching key moments that are shared. It’s a more social take on gaming video that’s different than Youtube or Twitch.
A lot of Plays.tv users will say, “That’s a Plays.tv moment” during a match the same way people Instagram things. You see the world in a different light because you’re looking for moments that are Instagram-worthy. It makes you appreciate those moments more. Now those moments from games can be captured and shared and relived.
It’s an integrated experience where maybe half the people are famous pros and the other people are friends and people you met on Plays.tv. There’s a lot of fun and engaging interaction. If something crazy happens in Skyrim like when kill your first dragon, there’s an experience and interaction built around that now that previously didn’t exist. The moments you share to Plays.tv are the moments why you play games in the first place. You want to relive beating the boss or the glitch, and you want to relive them with the community. It’s not like sharing with YouTube and it going into the ether.
ESports have come a long way over the past few years, and with an increasing number of leagues dedicated to specific games like Call of Duty. Now, ArenaNet wants to take the popular Guild Wars 2 to a new level.
ArenaNet announced a partnership with the Electronic Sports League to create the ESL Guild Wars 2 Pro League, which includes two seven-week seasons of tournaments, with qualifiers starting November 14th, and $400,000 (broken down to $200,000 per season) in prizes. This is a huge bounty compared to most eSports tournaments.
Part of the reason Guild Wars 2 is such an eSports darling stems from ArenaNet’s decision to make the game free-to-play this past August, garnering a bigger audience as a result. “Since the base game has gone free, we’ve seen a huge influx of audiences from countries like Brazil, Poland, Russia, Spain, and Turkey,” said John Corpening, competitive game director for the game.
The structure for the tournament is broken down above, going from the Open Qualifier to the World Championship. “From a business perspective, [the pro league] is important to us because playtime is increased if we can make players excited about playing PVP (player vs. player),” said Steve Fowler, head of global marketing at ArenaNet.
The average player that doesn’t engage in PVP takes part in approximately 722 minutes (12 hours) of action per week. With PVP, that number increases to “744 minutes per week,” said Fowler. That’s a lot of time to practice for a big prize.
PVP has a huge part in the Guild Wars 2 competitions, and a player only has to get to level two to access it, so it’s wide open for everyone to jump in and compete, according to ArenaNet. The tournament will support both amateur and professional teams alike, so everyone has the opportunity to win.
Building a league not only presents a chance for eSports to shine on yet another stage, but it also opens up promotion for Guild Wars 2’s existing community, as a new expansion for Guild Wars 2, titled Heart of Thorns, is set to release on October 23rd.
Speaking exclusively with [a]listdaily, Fowler added, “We are extremely excited about our new partnership with ESL on Guild Wars 2 Pro Leagues. It is the natural evolution of the relationship we have built with them supporting Guild Wars 2 competitive community over the last 15 months. The league is a direct response to supporting the fastest growing part of Guild Wars 2, PvP, and happens to come at a time when Guild Wars 2 is experiencing massive new interest in anticipation of the release of our first expansion, Heart of Thorns, and the recently released Play for Free version of the core game.”
The overwhelming use of emojis in social media is undeniable, and the variety includes everything from happy faces or the “smiley poop.” Now it appears as though the popularity of emojis may overtake common words.
A pair of reports from eMarketer helps gives some solid evidence. The first one, titled “Who Needs Words When You Have Emojis ” discusses how half of the comments on Instagram are made up on emojis and how they’re increasingly used in captions.
Based on numbers provided by AYTM Market Research, 48.9 percent of adult users on the Internet in the U.S. have used some form of emoji, either in social media or in text messages.
The chart breaks down the frequency of emoji use across social media and messages. 22.7 percent indicate that they use them only sometimes, while 14 percent state they used them often. However, the poll does not include teens, who are a prime demographic for emoji use.
Emojis also take brand interaction a long way. A poll conducted by Iconosquare last year indicates that “publishing content and using hashtags provided by brands” was one unique and effective way for Instagram users to interact with contests on the Facebook-owned social platform.
Estimates show that from the 77.6 million people in the U.S.will access Instagram across all devices, showing a a year-over-year growth of 20.9%. That audience may grow to 111.6 million by 2019, with four in ten web users and a third of the population using the site and emojis as an expressive tool.
Emojis are more commonly used by U.S. users both online and through mobile devices. The top reason “They help me more accurately express what I am thinking,” say 70% of responses. The second most-cited reason is “It makes it easy for other people to understand me” at 64.7 percent, and “They help create a more personal connection with the other person” in third with under 50 percent.
Brands have taken note, and have been increasingly open to including emojis as a form of communication. Brands like GE, Goldman Sachs and Chevy are just a few notables. Chevy even went as far to center a campaign, #ChevyGoesEmoji, around them this summer, bringing in Norm MacDonald on board for a series of Emoji Academy videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch v=_ks1gQKdtgA
Emogi, a communications company, conducted a study that indicates around nine in ten U.S. Internet users use Emojis in one form or another. Out of that group, seven of these ten said they use them to better expression their thoughts, while 65 percent believe that people better understand them.
So brands’ enthusiasm for emojis is almost certainly valid. Just make sure if you’re playing, you’re playing it cool.
Major League Gaming (MLG) CEO and co-founder Sundance DiGiovanni has been a leader in eSports since launching MLG in 2002 with Mike Sepso. In the early days of MLG, DiGiovanni explored traditional television outlets like USA Networks and he even served as a gaming and eSports correspondent for ESPN2 s Cold Pizza. These days, DiGiovanni is overseeing MLG s rapid expansion for 2016 and beyond. But first there s the 2015 World Finals in New Orleans Oct. 16-18 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
MLG has partnered with the city of New Orleans for the eSports league s 100th event, which features over $500,000 in cash prizes for the best Dota 2 and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare teams. Over its existence, MLG has had 50,000 live competitors play at its live events. The league has had 45 million online matches and has 10 million players registered on MLG.tv. And MLG has given out $13.5 million in prize money to date without any fan or publisher support.
DiGiovanni talks about the World Finals and the changes that need to be made within the eSports ecosystem for continued success in this exclusive interview.
Why did you choose New Orleans for the World Finals this year?
It s an iconic city that I personally am very fond of. When we did some research on branching out, the mayor s office and the city wooed us pretty heavily. They made some strong arguments and provided a lot of support for eSports. I have some personal attachment to the city with friends from the area. We ve never been there before. And after years of trying to get it on the schedule, the timing was finally right.
What impact do you feel broadcast TV like TBS will have on eSports?
The Turner effort is going to be a really interesting entrance into the space. We re working with WME/IMG to help support that. We think they re being very respectful of the space with CS:GO in this first initiative. My hope is that they ll do it right. They have great people attached to it both on the Turner side and IMG is very passionate about it. It s not just shoehorning an event into a shorter TV format. It s coming at it with a bigger plan for digital and TV. Every indicator to me is that this is going to be done very well.
How has MLG s involvement With ESPN on the X-Games evolved?
TV can be complimentary to eSports, but what we do is so global. Our audience started with a digital experience that s accessible anywhere you are. We have 200 countries tuning in to events on MLG.tv. What we try to do with ESPN and other future TV partners is create a complimentary TV experience that s something special that has a higher quality and more polished broadcast that s more traditional to what Fox Sports or ESPN does. But you can t cut off your international fans. It needs to feed into that global audience. So you need to create a slick TV broadcast and push that out to digital outlets as well. Those two things together give a tremendous experience to the viewer at home.
TV is extremely complicated and it s not an end-all, be-all. As more people move away from subscriptions and cable providers, maybe we can help some of those broadcasters create an experience for viewers. Our goal is always to put on a show that is tailored to our audience and offer great competition. What we do translates to TV very well, but it doesn t rely on TV.
What role do you see sports arenas playing for MLG moving forward?
Stadium shows are a lot of fun. The challenge is that our experience is a little different and stadiums create challenges in hosting an event. There will be a couple of MLG stadium events next year. But we will also have open events where it s more in line with what we ve seen historically with big stages for the games as well as experiences for the fans and brands. Those experiences take up more square footage than what s available in a lot of stadiums. When we look at basketball arenas, it creates a whole other set of problems, but also opportunities. We ll balance it out with the style of events we ve done and grow our audience to give fans an opportunity to have an event in a stadium with 15,000 fans. We ve never done it to that scale before. We re going to have to find a balance there. You ll see us with a calendar of events next year far larger than we ve ever attempted. We ve done 11 events before, but we re doing far more next year.
What are your thoughts on drug testing in eSports?
It s a tricky question. I don t want to see people get an unfair advantage, but we live in a world where Adderall prescriptions are easy to get. The challenge is if you have a league and a structure where there s an attached paycheck and a guarantee, you re going to have to go on a case by case testing of players and validating whether they have prescriptions. One thing I m concerned about is that I m afraid some players who don t have Adderall are going to go out and get a prescription. We have to be concerned about the health and safety of our players, but there is a lot of grey area around the topic. I m not sure if any one policy is going to fix everything. I hope it s more than just posturing to players coming out to saying they were on something. The number one thing we can do is educating and teaching players — and aspiring players — about the risks associated with abusing prescriptions for a competitive advantage.
What are your thoughts on betting and Fantasy eSports, especially with FanDuel and DraftKings now in the mix?
There are a lot of challenges there. Anything that gets to scale, you e going to see wagering. We ve had discussions with all of those companies, and with proper involvement and proper awareness it can be a great interaction with community. I don t want to see companies try to make a quick buck and not try to respect the space. Everyone s trying to grow the business. My hope that this doesn t become a distraction or a negative, and that the players in the wagering and fantasy sports space add to the opportunities for the players and fans. So far, in my conversations, I feel pretty god about their initial approach. I don t think it s going anywhere. You can t put your head in the sand. You have to be proactive and have these companies not be predatory and instead open up more opportunities for people to enjoy eSports.
What changes do you think need to be made to the current eSports ecosystem to prevent match throwing like we ve seen in Korea with StarCraft II?
The history of eSports is one-off events and players having to travel 40 to 50 weeks a year chasing paychecks. We need more league structure like Turner or our Call of Duty league. We need things in place where players know it s not about making a quick buck, but there s long-term livelihood and throwing a match would be a death blow to be a pro in the league. We need things like a structured league with guaranteed player salaries and a cohesive schedule with international travel for us to get to a place where a player isn t drawn to make $5,000 to $10,000 by influencing a match unfairly. And we need rules in place that prevent players from sharing information or participating in that. It s something that s going to take time. Traditional sports have had to struggle through this and we ll have to struggle through. We need more structure and more predictable schedules, and vigilance all around.
The issue of some players in Korea cheating comes out of not having structure and security. It s important for players to know that if they play well, they have job security. And even if they don t, they have a contract with some terms they can rely on.
What role will MLG have in the new Call of Duty World League?
We have some plans for COD moving forward. We ll be able to talk about it in the coming weeks. We re excited about the global structure Activision is taking. It s another indicator of what we ve done for last two years has worked well. We re going to go bigger.
