BIGR Gaming #2 - FGC, Influencer Riots & Women in Esports
Welcome to week #2! Including a guest submission from Dimitri Vallette.
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EVO Smashes Records but Maintains Comparatively Low Prize Pool
Pinnacle fighting games event EVO 2023 peaked at over 442K CCV (during StreetFighter 6), held 9,182 unique player competitors, and supplied a huge crowd. Liquipedia tells us that the top 4 games only featured $25K prize pools with $10K for first place, except the top-performer SF6 which reached $70K.
Chris’ Thoughts:
It’s no secret that publishers make the world go round when it comes to esports prize pools. Riot foots the bill for League of Legends, Valve contributes multiple 7-figures to its yearly calendar of CS:GO and Dota events and the fighting games publishers don’t follow that same trend.
I’ve asked the question a few times - Where is the money? Here’s what others have told me:
EVO’s CCV & viewership numbers compare 1-to-1 with multiple tier-1 esports events that feature $250K - $2M prize pools, so something isn’t quite happening for FGC.
What do you think the answer is??
Influencer Meetup = Riot in NYC
Mega influencer Kai Cenat hosted a giveaway in New York City recently that saw over 100 riot police deployed in order to shut it down. The unplanned event was denounced by the authorities and eventually Kai himself in content.
Kai is now facing multiple charges, including inciting a riot,
Chris’ Thoughts:
FaZe Clan hosted a meetup during the Fortnite World Cup that resulted in a 16-block long line to meet & greet them at a sporting goods store, which was shut down by police. Mr. Beast’s shopping center meetup saw thousands of rabid fans show up for a chance to see the man. Neither of these events turned into a “riot.”
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Whatever your view on the charges & how the event was planned (some have strong opinions!) it goes to show that mega stars in the digital realm can pull huge physical crowds.
We’ve seen dozens of makeup & mainstream influencer tours; I wonder when they’ll start coming to gaming. Will we see NICKMERCS tour the EU? Would Mr. Beast head to Australia?
With proper planning (and the police not deploying their riot divisions), there’s some big money to be made here.
Guest: GIRLGAMER Elevating Esports
The GIRLGAMER Esports Festival unveiled its schedule for an impressive five events throughout 2023. Their World Circuit will commence this month in Asia, followed by MENA, Africa, North America, & concludes with LATAM just before Christmas. Europe is absent.
Dimitri’s Thoughts:
In the midst of challenging times for esports, it's inspiring to witness the dedicated individuals at GIRLGAMER persistently championing and honoring women's competitiveness within this industry.
While men have historically dominated the spotlight in both traditional sports and esports, the Macau-based organization has consistently demonstrated through their events that there's a thriving interest in women's esports participation, and this interest is steadily expanding.
Their success in partnering with non-endemic personal care brands like Johnson & Johnson's Carefree, L'Occitane, and Benefit Cosmetics comes as no surprise, affirming their commitment to advancing women's presence in the gaming world.
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1 年Thanks for the mention ????
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1 年Thanks for the updates on, The BIGR Weekly.
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1 年Great insights to the industry Chris - although that's not really a surprise! On that FGC story/situation, there was an interview with Aiden from The Yard by Karat Financial's Eric Wei where they dove into why brands aren't as active in the FGC space, and point 3 seems to be the most relevant. The TOs don't want the publishers taking over the scene and running events their way, this is what separates the FGC from say Riot Games' Valorant & League of Legends. Now that does bring with it its own issues - such as being much harder to generate prize pools, especially if they want to avoid advertising-based deals. Definitely recommend anyone interested in checking out the interview for the full context of the conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tL3Rj36ftQ&t=3751s