In referring to one of my blog entries someone made the comment: it’s easy to criticize someone, I don’t see you doing any better. He was totally right. I’ve never been in the position that could make or break a league; I’ve only offered advice from the outside. However, with all the bashing I’ve done on leagues in the past few weeks I figured I’d offer up my commandments for a successful league/tournament.

It’s about the games stupid

The number one thing about the perfect league is that it is about the games first and foremost. A big problem I saw with the CGS was that it was a reality show that featured gaming. This really stood out in the second season with some of the crap CGS pulled. Televising only half of a CSS match and brazenly hawking Mountain Dew on the show were just symptoms of the bigger contagion. They wanted to fit gaming into their neat little TV package instead of wrapping their TV show around the games as they existed.

The thing the early CPLs had going for them was the focus was solely on CS and Quake. It was about the games and the stars playing them. Looking at the World Tour for instance and you see that was a brash publicity stunt trying to get “mainstream” recognition. It was no longer about the game, it was about giving away as much money as they could and getting their finals on MTV.

When WSVG went to Fight Night, Quake 4, WoW, and Guitar Hero it was about their perceived audience and not the games. Granted both Quake and WoW were solid choices, the other titles left much to be desired. Can Guitar Hero be a successful competitive game? I think so, but only if it is about the game. A glorified air guitar contest might bring temporary spectators but it’s a gimmick.

Keepin’ it real

This leads me to the second point, you have to keep it real. I’m not channeling some 90’s urban slang, I mean that honestly. It has to be a real competition. You cannot manufacture sport. How fake did that look when sWooZie lost his DOA4 match for coL but closed the point gap for them to win? Everyone went crazy … while I was sitting there dumbstruck saying “yea but you still got your ass kicked.” That’s manufactured excitement and that sucks the life out of a league.

One thing MLG is big on is being authentic. That phrase was repeated in every company meeting I attended while I worked there. It shows. The way MLG does things may be strange to the PC world but they have remained true to their core audience. ESL is very much the same way. They do things their own way and kept their leagues true to their founding vision. This is unlike other leagues that chased after dollars instead of protecting their legitimacy in the eyes of their core audience.

This extends beyond just game format. The eSports audience, despite the constant trolling, is actually pretty perceptive when it comes to bullshit. It’s about game selection, how the game is shown, and how the stage is dressed. At an ESL or MLG event there is a nice stage, but the heart of the beast are banks of computers or xboxes where people are battling it out … not some bullshit who wants to be a millionaire light and smoke show. They play games that their fans and spectators want to play, not which titles sold the most copies at Gamestop this quarter.

Skateboarding is about the skaters and the tricks they do, not the course, not the lighting, not the location, and not the hype. Sure those things help sell the event, but they aren’t the event. You take those things away from the CPL World Tour, the WSVG, and the CGS and you have events that wouldn’t rank with High School LAN parties.

Build it and they will come

The last thing that makes a league incredible is a feeder system. The CPL had it in CAL until they let the league go to shit, MLG has it in Gamebattles, and ESL has it built directly into their events. I don’t think there is a right way or a wrong way to do it; you just have to have it. Players need to know they have a chance at playing against the big boys. By not having an online feeder system, events essentially wall them off from the public consciousness and only come to mind when the event is close. While this might work for an event like WCG, it kills most other leagues. It is especially damaging for leagues that are hard to get into like the CGS.

Now granted even with all of these things a league could still tank. The survival of a league is up to the business acumen of the people running it. However, even the smartest business people cannot save a cheesy league that isolates itself from the very fans it needs to survive.