AWC viewership is at an all time low. People don’t really care about it. I think that I’ve got an idea for a new seasonal esports mode that people will actually care about watching, and will drive a lot of engagement and revenue for blizzard.
Invitational solo shuffle tournaments.
At distinct points in the season (or at the end of the season), select the top x% of each spec from the ladder, narrow it down to unique accounts, and issue invitations for the solo shuffle tournament. Every spec is represented. You only get to play one spec.
Broadcast the tournament in a multicast format where viewers can drill down and watch individual matches as they transpire in the tournament. Allow viewers to gamble on the outcomes of games and the entire tournament with real money. Award a portion of the prize pool per match and at the end of the tournament to the players. Award per win would be based on how much was gambled on that match/set and what the players money line was for that match/set.
IMO, this removes the most boring aspect of the AWC. People don’t care about watching the best two teams play the same best comps for 10 minute dampfest games. Presumably, all of the pros make the tournament each time, but you’ve also got plenty of space for really good unknown players on the ladder (obviously not speaking for myself) to get a chance to make it to the tournament. You’d then be watching and rooting for players as individuals rather than teams. You’re also introducing the same elements of randomness that solo shuffle brings to make matches more interesting to watch.
Lastly, engagement and money. Since this is now real gambling, you’re instantly driving a lot of engagement from gamers across the world who don’t even care about warcraft, but like gambling. Viewership and ad revenue increases simply because of the number of casinos playing the matches in the background in their sports gambling centers. Next, the gambling revenue. The influx of the new revenue source instantly builds from the engagement and adds an additional layer of revenue that blizzard can take from the whole thing, and also use to make prize pools bigger to further promote engagement.
It’s a win-win for everyone, imo.
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Unless you are already heavily into arena, I don’t think anyone has any idea what is happening aside from HP going up or down. It’s far too complicated for a “casual” viewer.
I think SS eSports could be interesting, but the complexity of watching arena is still there.
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I don’t think the average wow player cares even the slightest bit about arena tournaments. Hell I don’t think even most pvpers care about it. There’s probably a dozen different reasons you can point to but watching wow arena simply isn’t very enjoyable to spectate nor is there a large audience for it.
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Did you just say real gambling lol
I would totally watch Bigdam on live television tho! Bigdam!
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Solo shuffle tournament was fun to watch, less structured more chaotic.
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Yes, real money gambling. Multiple gambling companies already have the apis and infrastructure set up to seamlessly integrate it. Blizzard wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel in terms of identity verification and gambling rules and regulations.
More people engage with stuff when they can gamble on it. Put winnings in front of players and you have more motivation to participate. Lots and lots of people have a favorite lesser known/non awc competitor that they’d love to watch in a tournament setting like that. Think about the awc regulars sometimes having to slog through unfavorable solo shuffle lobbies without comms. I think it would be wildly popular.
That sounds really degenerate lol.
They can have awc exclusive twitch drops. That’ll get people watching.
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Interesting idea.
I think Blitz would also make for interesting tournaments with the gambling thing as well. It’s ‘easier’ to understand what’s going on too.
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You can gamble on almost everything any more. I don’t see how adding gambling into esports is any more degenerate than anything else that you can gamble on. Not taking advantage of the wide open market is just throwing money away for no reason imo.
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No one is going to gamble on WoW man. With that being said, just because you can do something it doesn’t mean you should. Gambling in general is very degenerate.
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I completely disagree. Dog racing is an entire gaming industry that gets hundreds of millions of dollars per year in wagers. Not saying that WoW would overtake that immediately. But if you can convince people to drive to a place like West Memphis, AR to gamble on dogs chasing a fake rabbit around a dirt track, you could absolutely create a market for gambling on a video game. People are going to find something to gamble on whether you take advantage of the market or not. You might as well accept the free money, from the corporate perspective.
It was never a good product and Arena is a terrible format for Esports. So the decline was innevitable. Even the majority of WoW PvP players don’t watch it.
The answer is simple. Retire Arena as a format. Start innovating and developing formats that are exciting and that have a much higher watchability. Something that NON-WoW players can watch and say that looks amazing maybe I should “try” WoW.
If the Esport can’t be followed by someone who doesn’t play the game then it’s a bad format. This should be obvious but somehow here we are.
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Esports isn’t profitable at all lmao. Even with League they don’t make money. League uses it to bring in new players and they make money off people buying skins and other crap.
Well, their revenue model is also completely different. In the case of riot, the cost of running the tournament is more or less the same corporate bucket as epic games’ fortnite concert in times square.
WoW is still a subscription based (primarily) profit model, and they’re kinda trying to do the same thing with their esports teams, but they all suck because WoW is harder to just pick up and run with than most other games, so I don’t think they are really standing a chance of gaining anything with the spend. This is how and why you need an alternative revenue stream, such as gambling revenue, if you want it to actually be a successful thing that more than a handful of people inside the super niche community of players gaf about.
Epic spends the money turning times square into a fortnite lobby for 30 minutes and it draws attention, and they make that back plus some because they got x + 500 players to join the game and buy the snoop dog skin or whatever. That won’t work for WoW, but the news stories that come out periodically about xyz player from bfe nebraska randomly winning 10 million dollars in a video game tournament that other people gambled on will definitely draw attention.
I am sure the heroine industry makes far more than that, but does that mean Blizz should get into the drug trade?
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The fact that anyone in this thread is against the OP because of gambling is outlandish and needs to wake up.
AWC literally gambles channel points before every match , money would incentivise a far reaching audience and can create another revenue for the prize pool (if they actually commit and don’t use it for CXO salary).
People refuse to let go of the past or some arbitrary notion of what is “good” or “evil”. Right or wrong etc… none of those things are real, they are constructs created to enslave, enfeeble keep you oppressed. Such as time.
Also people like Swole need to get mass reported for disagreeing with everything anyone posts or says just for the sake of being a contrarian.
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Absolute clown-tier suggestions. How much crack do you have to smoke before coming up with something like this? Can we please not let degenerate gambling creep into every corner of the entertainment industry?
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they have been since 2004
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